To the main content To the footer

Passa Porta Festival 2019

Internationaal Literatuurhuis Brussel
Sat 30.03.2019 - Sun 31.03.2019
30.03.2019
-
31.03.2019

Passa Porta Festival submerges Brussels in international literature. You’ll be treated to over 70 conversations, debates and readings by and with authors, thinkers, poets, slammers, musicians, ... from here and abroad. Passa Porta Festival teases with food for thought and conquers with emotions. With amongst others Jonathan Coe, Jenny Erpenbeck, Rachida Lamrabet and Ali Smith.

In KVS you can enjoy:

Feminism and the battle against everyday racism
Saturday 30 March | 15:00 – 16:00 | Interview
Reni Eddo-Lodge's book Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race triggered countless reactions. Together with Melat G. Nigussie (Belgium) and Lauren Bastide (France), she will talk about structural racism, in Europe and in Belgium, and the tools their generation have at their disposal to advance, together, the anti-racist and feminist cause.

Reading the City
Saturday 30 March | 20:00 – 21:30 | Debate 
2007 was a milestone in the history of humankind: for the first time, more people lived in cities than in the country. Cities are increasingly important for the world’s economy, ecology and health. The British-Canadian journalist Doug Saunders (author of Arrival City), Brussels-Capital Region architect Kristiaan Borret and specialist on Brussels Véronique Lamquin (Le Soir) exchange thoughts on the major challenges for city life in the future, with a special emphasis on Brussels. Moderator is Karel Verhoeven (De Standaard).

A Stranger in the Village
Sunday 31 March | 16:30 – 17:30 | Interview - lecture 
The Belgian-Moroccan writer Rachida Lamrabet invites four younger colleagues and throws themes such as xenophobia, (de) colonialist thinking and dealing with "strangers" in the group.

Jonathan Coe
Sunday 31 March | 16:30 - 17:30 | Interview
In Middle England, the first great Brexit novel, leading author Jonathan Coe describes a country in crisis, populated by familiar characters from The Rotters’ Club and The Closed Circle. He picks holes in the sentiment around Brexit with great precision and with typically British stiff upper lip-humour. Journalist and writer Annelies Beck will be in conversation with Coe.

David Vann
Sunday 31 March | 13:30 - 14:30 | Interview, Lecture
Family, weapons, violence, tragedy, crystal-clear prose – and fish too. These are the ingredients of a typical David Vann novel. In his latest book too, Halibut on the Moon (forthcoming), all these ingredients recur to a greater or lesser extent. Vann lifts the lid on what he’s been cooking. Yoann Blanc reads fragments from his work.