As we approach the end of the year, I would like to share some good news with you. In the coming year, The Museum of Black Futures will collaborate with the international platform for contemporary art, Contemporary & (C&).

We live in a time of fake news, gaslighting and deception by government leaders and popular media, but we also wear masks in our daily lives. Why are we so afraid of the truth? And what happens when we create the conditions for honesty and openness? For Radical Space, author Clarice created a work in progress, called Salon Verité - Under the Dragon's Blood Tree. She turned ITA's Bookshop-stage into a space where truth and art meet.

During Lieve Stad 2025, our house, International Theatre Amsterdam, echoed differently. As part of the Lieve Stad festival, ITA welcomed two programs that completely transformed the energy in the building. In one room we had Amber Vineyard bring the house down with Pearl Dive, while Pro Wrestling Holland brought the house down in the other. This was a beautiful reminder that “theatre” lives in the soul and the body.

Since 2024, I have been responsible for programming Lieve Stad on behalf of ITA. For this edition of Lieve Stad, the festival was shaped by a clear thematic focus, The Mental State of the City, and by a collaborative curatorial model. Working with co-curators allowed multiple perspectives to coexist, deepening the program and reflecting the layered realities of the city itself.

Living in 18th-century Amsterdam, Sjako was a notorious thief who, after his death, gained a Robin Hood-like status.