Keti Koti at MaMA: Sonic healing with AfroOankali
This session is part of Theater Rotterdam’s Keti Koti programme, the annual commemoration and celebration of the abolition of slavery, and takes place in MaMA’s showroom.
On Saturday 27 June, Camille Sapara Barton (AfroOankali) presents a session featuring an ambient and downtempo DJ set, interwoven with guided embodiment practices, excerpts from their own writing and live singing. Themes such as grief, memory, imagination and hope are central to the session.
You are free to participate in whatever way feels comfortable to you. You can listen, move, write, lie down or rest.
Performer and poet Dean Bowen will open the session.
Feel free to bring a journal, or something to draw or write with. If you wish, you can also bring fidget toys, a cushion or a yoga mat. Beanbags and rugs will be available.
Camille Sapara Barton is a writer, embodiment practitioner, DJ and dancer. Their movement practice explores the interplay between bodies, words and vibration by weaving dance, clowning, somatics and sonics. Their work aims to deepen ancestral communication technologies and grow imagination gardens. Camille is the author of Tending Grief: Embodied Rituals for Holding Our Sorrow and Growing Cultures of Care in Community (2024)
Practical information
🗓️ Saturday, June 27th, 11:30 to 13:30
📍 MaMA, Witte de Withstraat 29-31, Rotterdam
🎟️ General admission >> Pay what you can
This program takes place during the exhibition What follows the heartbreak. You can visit the exhibition until July 19, 2026. Our opening hours are from Wednesday to Sunday from 14:00 to 19:00 and every first Friday of the month from 14:00 to 21:00.
Keti Koti is observed on 1 July and commemorates the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies in 1863. The name comes from Sranantongo and means “the chains are broken.” It is a day of remembrance, reflection, and celebration, marked by ceremonies, cultural events, music, food, and discussions about the history and legacy of slavery, particularly in Suriname and the Caribbean parts of the former Dutch Kingdom.
Keti Koti has become an increasingly important national moment for honoring freedom, recognizing the impact of slavery, and celebrating Afro-Surinamese and Afro-Caribbean heritage.
