Festival Crossing Border
Music & Literatur

If you are, just like us, longing for a get-together with people who love music and literature, here’s something to look forward to: Crossing Border in The Hague. A three-day festival, on the 4th, 5th and 6th of November with a mouth-watering program of artists and authors that are on your want-to-meet-list. 

For instance: Douglas Stuart, who will talk about his Booker Prize winning debut Shuggie Bain, the feminist post-punk band Big Joanie, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie about his memoir Tenement Kid and Stuart A. Staples (Tindersticks) who will play an acoustic set with solo work and Tindersticks songs. 
On top of that we invited James BKS with his idiosyncratic cross between hip-hop, African percussion and pop melodies and the border-crossing Neue Grafik Ensemble, forged during nightly jam sessions in London.Anne Soldaat is back with the beautiful new album 'Facts & Fears' and New York folk musician Cassandra Jenkins conjures up magical worlds with her second solo album 'Phenomenal Nature'.

Also coming to Crossing Border: musician and composer Warren Ellis (Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Grinderman)! He will be interviewed at Korzo Theater. During the lockdown he kept himself busy writing, which resulted in a remarkable debut: Nina Simone’s Gum. A story about a piece of gum that became an icon and a meditation on the meanings we bestow on objects and experiences.

Word artist Manu van Kersbergen joins us, together with the Utrecht-based collective Multibeat. Manu ft. Multibeat shares the stage with three prolific spoken word artists: Suehaylee, who narrates vulnerable, musical stories in which she searches for truth, Guus van der Steen (known from a.o. hip hop collective KernKoppen), and the Palestinian, hip hop inspired Stryder.

And then there’s this special event: Colson Whitehead at the Koninklijke Schouwburg. 
On Friday afternoon, November 5, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author Colson Whitehead (The Underground Railroad, The Nickel Boys) will discuss his new book Harlem Shuffle. This sparkling novel tells the story of the robberies, racketeering and scams in 1960s Harlem.

At Crossing Border artists and authors will be performing live.
We advise you strongly to take that train to The Hague (it’s leaving every ten minutes from Amsterdam CS), to join us and enjoy some good music and literature together.

Check crossingborder.nl to get your tickets and for all the ins and outs.

All confirmed names for Crossing Border 2021:

Thursday 4 November
Literature: Warren Ellis

Friday 5 November
Literature: Colson Whitehead (special event), Jesús Carrasco, Agustín Fernández Mallo, Eva van Manen, Hassan Blasim, Alejandro Zambra, Joost van Bellen, Maxime Garcia Diaz, Stephanie Phillips, Lisa Weeda, Stryder, Suehaylee, Guus van der Steen 
Music: Sophie Hunger, Theon Cross, ME REX, Cassandra Jenkins, Big Joanie, James BKS, Adrian Crowley, Eva van Manen, Manu ft. Multibeat, Chibi Ichigo 

Saturday 6 November
Literature: Claire Keegan, Willy Vlautin, Bobby Gillespie (Primal Scream), Sasja Filipenko, Richard Powers, Claire Vaye Watkins, Mohamedou Ould Slahi, Jamal Mahjoub, Benzokarim, Gershwin Bonevacia, Auke Hulst, European Literature Prize: Saša Stanišić, Annemarie Vlaming, The Chronicles: Olivia Wenzel, Natasha Brown, Marta Barone, Tobi Lakmaker, Jens Meijen, Pajtim Statovci
Day programme: Douglas Stuart, Maxim Osipov, Tamsin Calidas, Lale Gül, Lies Gallez, Sholeh Rezazadeh, Helena Hoogenkamp, Amara van der Elst, Neusa Gomes, Edna Azulay, Levina van Winden
Music: Froukje, CMAT, Stuart A. Staples (Tindersticks), Billie Marten, Ghostpoet, Anthony Joseph, Neue Grafik Ensemble, Anne Soldaat

Crossing Border
Hofkwartier, The Hague
4, 5 & 6 November 2021
www.crossingborder.nl