1. Rotterdam Late Night
Thursday 8 June, 20:00, festival heart
Live talk show Rotterdam Late Night presents a special edition in the floating festival heart. Ernest van der Kwast talks to architect Marco Vermeulen, who designed this special venue, and pays tribute to the man who ensures that the city on the Maas stays dry when water levels rise: Marco van Haandel, flood response coordinator at the City of Rotterdam.
2. Lecture by Matthew Desmond: ‘The Politics of Poverty’
Friday 9 June, 20:00, De Dépendance
In response to ‘Poverty, by America’, his New York Times number one bestseller, author Matthew Desmond casts a new light on the discussion about poverty, with a provocative and convincing argument about why this persists in the western world: because the rest of us benefit from it. Desmond is a professor of sociology at Princeton University and principal investigator of The Eviction Lab, where his research focuses on poverty, city life, housing insecurity, public policy and racial inequality – urgent themes in the Netherlands too. Venue: De Dépendance, the platform for urban culture.
3. Zonnetrap Excursion
Friday 23 June, 13:30
A must-see for everybody who attended AFFR’s Brutalist Legacies film programme last year, and for fans of Brutalism in general: the Zonnetrap opens its doors to the public for one time only, specially for RA Month ’23 – a unique opportunity to visit the ‘Dutch Barbican’. The tour is organized by Netwerk Post 65, sign up via email: Post65Rotterdam@gmail.com
4. Water Night with Shrishtee Bajpai
Friday 30 June, 19:30, Nieuwe Instituut
The Nieuwe Instituut and IABR have invited Indian researcher and activist Shrishtee Bajpai to discuss water-related problems around the world, and how these lead to a loss of biodiversity and greater social inequality. Baipal is involved in the Rights of Rivers movement, which campaigns for the rights of rivers. Water as Contested Space – because who does water belong to, and who is the river?
5. Floating festival heart
open 1 – 30 June (closed Mondays)
The floating festival heart is the place where everything comes together during RA Month ’23, and it can also be visited separately from the events. A route with a viewpoint over the Maashaven and the city connects three floating containers that house a space for urban sports, a green park and the exhibition ‘Liquid City’. In a few years, the Nelson Mandela Park will be located here, so the festival heart acts as kind of a test location: how do you create city on and with water?
