Brian Eno and Bette A.
The Weather Station
Sandro Veronesi
Kamel Daoud
Derya
Abel Ghekiere
Antjie Krog
Eduardo Halfon
Before Dengue Boy’s fearsome needle stood a delicious meat sorbet, nothing more and nothing less than a throbbing chunk of succulent blood sausage. Carried along by the vertigo of this new and unrestrainable urge, a sudden revelation crossed Dengue Boy’s hairy antenna, clearer and more lucid than ever, despite the cacophony all around him: I’m a girl, not a boy, he reasoned somewhat incongruently.
Michel Nieva Dengue Boy
Budgie The Absence - Memoirs of a Banshee Drummer
15:00 - 23:00 ARENBERG ANTWERP
Crossing Border is the Netherlands’ leading international literature and music festival.
The 4th Antwerp edition takes place on 9 November 2025 at Arenberg.
The festival’s mission is to connect and inspire through imaginative storytelling and artistic expression. It brings together acclaimed international authors for exclusive appearances, introduces exciting new literary
voices and showcases alternative music acts in intimate, unexpected live settings.
This year’s programme features over 30 writers and artists with many exclusive events and special projects created uniquely for Crossing Border.
The Other World Bookshop is located in the foyer of Arenberg.
Books by all featured authors will be available for purchase, and authors will sign books after their appearances.
Amirtha Kidambi’s Elder Ones pushes the boundaries of free jazz, composition and electronic forms, with the raw riotous energy of “spiritual punk”, comprised of vocalist, composer and keyboardist Amirtha Kidambi, saxophonists Matt Nelson and Alfredo Colon, bassist Lester St. Louis, and drummer Jason Nazary. The ensemble’s instrumentation undergirded by the drone of the Indian pump organ harmonium forms an intricate landscape for Kidambi’s voice to traverse; she battles against its mountainous heights before sliding speedily
down its slopes. Truly making an instrument of her vocal chords, Kidambi’s syllabic, frenzied, and powerful utterances weave into the alluring, hypnotic, and confronting jazz melodies of the ensemble.
Dealing with issues such as power, capitalism, colonialism, white supremacy, and fascism, Amirtha Kidambi's Elder Ones are not shy to confront and resist systems of oppression and control through their music. As such, a sense of ancestral energy pulses through their performances; it feels as though
they are not alone on the stage, but are rather carried along by an old knowledge buried deep within the music.
The subversive spirit and sense of collectiveness cultivated during mass demonstrations across New York City in the wake of the tragic murder of George Floyd serves as the driving force behind their forthcoming album New Monuments.
Kidambi describes the title as a metaphor for tearing down old colonial monuments, paving the way for the rebuilding of new symbols.
Thomas Azier is a Dutch composer, producer, singer and performer. With Power To The People Who Don’t Want It, he revisits his own musical compositions through a minimalist approach, morphing synth, sax, and his voice into a cinematic piece. Showing us the hidden features of their personalities, the former tracks become an atmospheric score that challenges us to recognize the original versions. Like an astronaut stepping foot on unknown grounds, Thomas Azier takes us on this new creative exploration, reminding us of the synths we loved from Tangerine Dream, Angelo Badalamenti, or Brian Eno. It sounds as if Azier is trying to shine a light on the bareness of his melodies, allowing their fragility to come through and the words to come forward.
In the vibrant Cairo of the 1980s, young doctor Tarek takes over his father’s medical practice. His demanding job and daily family life leave no room for personal growth. That changes when he meets Ali, a boy from an impoverished neighborhood. Their love puts Tarek’s life in such danger that he is forced to flee to Montreal. During his years of exile, he remains deeply connected to his homeland and the changes taking place there. He has left his family behind in Cairo, and without his knowledge, his departure and his homosexuality have left deep marks on their lives.
What I Know About You (translated into Dutch by Joris Vermeulen) is a remarkable and beautifully written novel about a family overwhelmed by secrets. The story unfolds against the backdrop of Egypt’s recent turbulent history. Éric Chacour (Montreal, 1983) was born to Egyptian parents and has lived in both France and Canada. What I Know About You is his debut novel and a major bestseller in both countries. The book has won multiple literary awards and is being translated into many European languages.
SUNDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2025
15:00 - 23:00 ARENBERG
What Art Does examines the function of fictional worlds – such as pop songs, detective novels, soap operas, shoe tassels and the hidden language of haircuts – and suggests a new theory of art. It is a chance to understand
Brian Eno's first new book in twenty-nine years, written in collaboration with Dutch artist and novelist Bette Adriaanse.
Brian Eno is an artist. He was born in Suffolk and studied art at Ipswich and Winchester art colleges. After art school, he joined the band Roxy Music and over the next five decades, he continued to make music with others including Talking Heads, Devo, U2, Laurie Anderson, James, David Byrne, Coldplay, David Bowie, Grace Jones, Jon Hassell, Harold Budd and Fred Again.
Brian’s visual art has been shown internationally in over 200 venues. He is involved in activist work, such as the climate charity Earth Percent and HardArt, both of which he co-founded, and Stop The War coalition. Brian often lectures, trying to answer the question: What does art do?
Tash Aw grew up in Kuala Lumpur and now lives in France. He has written several novels, two of which were nominated for the Man Booker Prize. His most recent books are We, the Survivors and Strangers on a Pier. During Crossing Border, he will discuss his latest novel The South (translated into Dutch by Paul van der Lecq).
Young Jay travels with his family to the estate in the south of Malaysia that his late grandfather left behind. The orchards have fallen into disrepair and the fields have dried up, yet his father sends him out to work the land, together with Chuan, the overseer’s son. In the stifling heat, love blossoms between Jay and Chuan, but the legacy of the estate weighs heavily on the entire family. Jay’s mother, Sui Ching, is forced to confront what she has sacrificed for her husband and children. The South is a testament to Tash Aw’s mastery, unfolding as an intimate novel about love, legacy and regret in a rapidly changing world.
how art is made by all of us. How it creates communities, opens our worlds, and can transform us. Curious and playful, richly illustrated, full of ideas and life, it is an inspiring call to imagine a different future.
Bette A. is an artist, born in Amsterdam. As a child she liked to write plays and her primary school teachers allowed her to practise them in the gymnasium. She studied Image and Language at the Rietveld Art Academy of Amsterdam. After doing a Master in Creative Writing at Oxford University, she started writing in both English and Dutch and published her novels Rus Like Everyone Else (written by Bette in both English and Dutch: Post voor Rus Ordelman) and What’s Mine (Wat Van Mij Is). Aside from writing novels, Bette creates short stories and drawings and teaches in art schools. In 2019, Bette co-founded TRQSE –a network of artists and scientists who work together on social projects. Through this network, Bette met Brian. They started collaborating on social projects and talking about art. Their conversations led to working together on What Art Does, assembling the ideas Brian has developed during his working life and turning them into a book.
Abel Ghekiere is a Belgian multiinstrumentalist with a sound that comes from merging minimalist jazz, traditional folk and field recordings. The inspiration for his intuitive, stripped-down form of songwriting comes from the likes of Nils Økland, Sufjan Stevens and Caroline. His second album In de verte, dit uitzicht is a celebration of beauty and sudden bursts of euphoria
and melancholy, hidden in the distinctive soft and fragile sound of Ghekiere's music.
Working with voice samples and field recordings, voice and improvisation take centre stage.
Sounds from outside are subtly interwoven with instruments, while conversations and memories act as threads running through the compositions. The music was recorded very
nomadically, in different places, with different people. Most of the parts were written and played by Abel Ghekiere himself, but with guest contributions by Vitja Pauwels, Nicolas Rombauts, Leo Adamov, & Jan De Vroede, the record breaks open into a soft sound palette. Live, he plays accompanied by Tobias Volckaert (sax), Orlan Ghekiere (drums) and Hendrike Scharmann (violin).
The Chronicles is our residency programme for young Dutch and international writers and translators. Luckily for us, this residency involves a lot of work: during the project, the authors will write several stories in their mother tongue, including Dutch, Bulgarian, Spanish
and Czech this year. Next, the translators will take over and will translate the texts into Dutch, Italian and French, resulting in a total of fifty stories. Multilingual at its core, the project ensures that a close-knit group is formed in which the artists can exchange ideas, while at the same
Paul Gorman
Paul Gorman is a writer, curator and cultural commentator. His books include Totally Wired: The Rise & Fall Of The Music Press, The Look: Adventures in Rock & Pop Fashion, Straight with Boy George and Nine Lives with Goldie. At Crossing Border, he will talk about his new book Granny Takes a Trip.
Granny Takes A Trip was more than just a shop and a fashion brand; it was the original rock and roll clothes boutique, the template for all that followed. What started as an odd retail venture/art installation in a depressed part of London known as World's End, became an international byword for glam decadence in Manhattan and Hollywood, combining flamboyant style and all manner of countercultural activity to attract everyone from Pattie Boyd, Marianne Faithfull and Anita Pallenberg to Elton John, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Mick Jagger, Rod Stewart, The Beatles, and Lou Reed.
Beautifully illustrated with archival images of the shop and the clothes themselves, this book concludes with a never-seen-before 48-page tour through the Rolling Stones' wild wardrobe of sartorial delights tailored and sold in the shop.
Jordan Thomas (US) is an anthropologist and former Los Padres hotshot wildland firefighter. His work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and The Drift. In his first book When It All Burns (translated into Dutch by Hans Kloos), he recounts a single, brutal sixmonth fire season with the Los
The young Algerian woman Aube did not live through the war of independence – but she is not allowed to forget it. The civil war of the 1990s, which she did experience, she is expected to forget. Yet the trauma of that war is etched into her body, damaged vocal cords have left her unable to speak. She can only tell her story to her unborn daughter. But can you give life when yours was nearly taken away? In a country where laws exist to punish anyone who speaks of the civil war, Aube decides to return to her native village – where it all began, and where the dead might finally give her an answer.
Kamel Daoud (Algeria) is a journalist for Le Quotidien d’Oran, one of Algeria’s leading Frenchlanguage newspapers. His articles are published worldwide, including in Le Monde and The New York Times. Houris (translated into Dutch by Jan Pieter van der Sterre and Reintje Ghoos) is his most recent novel and won the prestigious French Prix Goncourt in 2024.
and
New York and teaches Latin American literature at NYU. Dengue Boy is his first novel to be translated into English (by Rahul Bery). Dengue Boy draws on manga, body horror, and gaucho-punk science fiction to tell a delirious, frenetic, singular story about the ravages of capitalism and what hope might exist, if any, for revenge and rebirth. After the last Antarctic icecaps melt, landscapes are radically transformed and diseases mutate and spread with unprecedented speed. Then, there’s “virofinance” exchange – a market for corporations to profit from pandemics and global suffering. It’s in this grim near future of 2272, where words such as “winter” and “cold” have no meaning, the Dengue Child grows.
Padres Hotshots – the special forces of America’s firefighters. Thomas viscerally renders his crew’s attempts to battle flames that are often too destructive to contain. He uncovers the cultural history of megafires, revealing how humanity’s symbiotic relationship with wildfire became a war – and what can be done to change it back.
Thomas weaves ecology and the history of Indigenous peoples’ oppression, federal forestry, and the growth of the fire industrial complex into a riveting narrative about a new phase in the climate crisis. It’s an immersive story of community in the most perilous of circumstances, told with humor, humility, and affection.
After serving as Dichter des Vaderlands of Belgium (a role akin to a national Poet Laureate), Els Moors (1976) finally presents a new collection titled Voer voor struikrovers. Like a tumbleweed driven by destiny, she writes with minimal poetic convention and maximal musical force. A promise of great things to come.
Yasmin Zaher is a Palestinian journalist and writer born in Jerusalem. Her first novel The Coin is the account of a young woman’s unraveling as she teaches at a New York City middle school, gets caught up in a scheme reselling Birkin bags, and strives to gain control over her body and mind. Her ideal self and the ideal life remain just out of reach: her inheritance is inaccessible, her homeland exists only in her memory, and her attempt to thrive in America seems doomed from the start. In an attempt to regain control, she becomes preoccupied with purity, cleanliness, and self-image, all while drawing her students into her obsessions. In an unforgettable denouement, her childhood memories converge with her material and existential statelessness, and the narrator unravels spectacularly.
Michel Nieva (Argentina) was born in 1988. He has published several novels, poetry collections
essays, lives in
At its heart lies Border Crossing, an installation by
Mohadjerin as Cebil a stimulating video and sound work that merges imagery, photography, and animation with audio, creating a poetic, cosmic universe.
Rotkat and VONK & Zonen invite Vieze Meisje to take the stage alongside kindred spirits. Expect playful music, sharp spoken word, and evocative performances by critical connector Maxime
SUNDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2025
15:00 - 23:00 ARENBERG
Garcia Diaz thorough Dadaist Sad Banana and uncompromising eclecticist Vieze Meisje
Closing the evening, Rotkat brings in Antwerp band De Kloe, known for their high-energy live shows
packed with driving riffs and pulsing drums: “When five entirely different bands seem to be playing at the same time, and it magically works.”
A tiny glimpse of what they have in store for you:
De Kloe
Somewhere between pure improv, organised chaos, minimal composition, astonishment and a dose of DIY aesthetics lies the world of Cebil
It’s a poetic & cosmic universe, exploring “discreet music” whilst wandering on the edges of the Cat People soundtrack and Brian Eno’s more experimental output, carried by visuals into a living installation of sorts.
Jan De Vroede weaves homemade instruments, old tape loops, broken synths, dusty beat boxes and the occasional doom guitar squall into a tapestry that nestles itself firmly around the solitary voice of Mashid Mohadjerin, whose captivating parlando dictates attention to both the visuals and the topics of social injustice, resilience and resistance that are prominently
there in her solo visual art.
Unpredictability is embedded in the duo’s diverse output – roles are swapped, improv takes over, no two sets are ever the same. The visuals are videocollages combining moving image, photo and animation, allowing various interpretations. The duo takes you on a journey through movement, transition and unexpected compositions.
In his moving new novel In het wit, Roderik Six (1979) follows young women as they struggle with timeless dilemmas.
With stylistic precision, Six sketches a tender portrait of people poised at the fragile threshold between life and death.
In het wit is an intimate novel that delicately engages with pressing themes such as dementia and motherhood.
Vieze Meisje is the musical incarnation of performance artist Maya Mertens. In 2019, she founded the Vieze Cirkel, a cult that guarantees exclusivity for everyone and creates random bonds in a world endlessly spinning in circles. That same year, she met producer Azertyklavierwerke.
In October 2025, they will release their debut album CUT COPY GUT on Rotkat Records.
Exclusively for Crossing Border, they’re leaving the computer at home and going back to basics: Piano & A Microphone 2025.
Maxime Garcia Diaz (1993) studied Cultural Analysis at the University of Amsterdam. In 2019, she won the Dutch Poetry Slam Championship and was selected for deBuren’s Paris residency. She made her debut with the poetry collection Het is warm in de hivemind (2021), published by De Bezige Bij, which was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize.
In October, her new poetry collections will be published: Het netwerk moet gebouwd worden / The Network Must Be Built (in Dutch and English).
Sad Banana tries to see the world through the eyes of a banana. Through inconsistent musings, they craft an existential fruit salad in musical form –
Dada-Punk-Rap. Sad B performs in three languages and blends genres that shift from Dadaist punk to sharp, juicy rap verses to French chanson. Their shows feature a DIY banana organ and deconstructed drums. Lyrics swinging between grandiose declarations and panic attacks, vulnerability and kitsch, politics and pastiche. Sad! Sad Banana nurtures this bittersweet melancholy across words, music, and visuals.
Antjie Krog is one of South Africa’s most celebrated authors. At the age of seventeen, she made her debut with the poetry collection Daughter of Jephthah, the beginning of a versatile and much-awarded body of work. Her perspective on and portrayal of South Africa and femininity resonates with audiences around the world.
At the festival, Antjie Krog will discuss her debut novel Blood’s Inner Rhyme (translated into Dutch by Robert Dorsman). It tells the story of the relationship between mother and daughter and is believed to be Krog’s most personal and at the same time most universal book to date.
More deeply than ever, Krog feels connected to the woman who gave her life, and to her roots. Nevertheless, mother and daughter, both writers, sometimes seem as different as night and day.
In touching exchanges of letters, the two challenge each other to understand one another’s circumstances and worlds.
And so it becomes clear that the history of their motherland may well be the most defining factor in their lives.
Lotte Dodion (1987) is a poet, performer, and poetry evangelist. Even when she is not writing or on stage, she brings poetry and a sense of wonder into the fabric of everyday life.
A decade after her debut collection Kanonnenvlees, she returned this summer with Verzachtende omstandigheden, a book that places hope at its heart. And isn’t that precisely what we all need in these times?
Sad-
For Crossing Border 2025, Cebil, Rotkat and VONK & Zonen take over Bar Lokal with a unique programme.
Jan De Vroede & Mashid
SUNDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2025
15:00 - 23:00
Sandro Veronesi (Italy) became a beloved literary figure and bestselling author worldwide with novels such as The Force of the Past, Quiet Chaos and The Hummingbird. Over the years, he has won several major awards. He is one of only two writers to have won the Premio Strega, Italy’s most prestigious literary prize, twice.
Zwarte september tells the story of twelve-year-old Gigio Bellandi during the summer of 1972, on the northwestern coast of Tuscany. He discovers music, books, and love, but his innocence is brutally shattered by a tragic event. Around Gigio, victims and perpetrators blend into unforgettable Veronesi characters: his father, the water rat; his mother, the lioness; his brave little sister; and the two most crucial figures in his sudden coming-of-age: his mysterious uncle Giotti, and Astel Raimondi, the girl with braids “black as black onyx”, who leaves the indelible mark of love on him. Half a century later, Gigio reflects on his life. In Black September, Sandro Veronesi captures, like only he can, the power and loss of love, and the human capacity to overcome grief and move forward. But Zwarte september is also a novel about the evocative power of words (mouflon mouflon mouflon mouflon mouflon) and the seductive, life-saving force of language. Zwarte september is Sandro Veronesi at the height of his powers. The book has been translated into Dutch by Welmoet Hillen.
A brotherly collection, a soft punch to the gut. No sentimentality. No polished phrases. Just raw beauty: love, loss, humor, and a flood of images, drifting between post-punk and poetry. With Bambi & The Big Fuck-Up, the Staes brothers open up a piece of their souls. Through paper, pixels and QR codes. Jef Staes (1967–2024) is no longer with us. As a curator, he was the one who first brought the festival to its Belgian home at Arenberg. This collection, promised to each other by Piet, Jef, and Filip in 2024, now returns there for its launch.
Born in Hamburg, Germany to Turkish parents, Derya Yıldırım grew up influenced by her family’s Anatolian background and the myriads of cultures in the city. Derya’s musical roots started at home playing folk music with family members. Her father pushed her to learn various instruments, beginning with the bağlama, a seven stringed Turkish lute. Then she picked up the guitar, piano, and saxophone.
Although she is a multi-instrumentalist, Derya always felt drawn to the sound of the bağlama – “there’s just something very magical about it”. With her band Grup Şimşek’s forthcoming album Yarın Yoksa, which translates to “If There’s No Tomorrow”, Derya continues her journey revitalizing Anatolian folk music and instrumentation by infusing timeless melodies with a modern psychedelic flair.
Ten years ago, while participating in a community theater project, Derya met French musicians Graham Mushnik and Antonin Voyant from Catapulte Records and formed the band Grup Şimşek with Helen Wells, a drummer from Cape Town, South Africa joining in 2021. While the band is truly international, they eschew the term ‘world music’, preferring instead ‘outernational’ which they say suggests a sound that’s more inclusive or
In We, the kindling, her debut novel, the author weaves together the lives of three women in their late twenties: Miriam, Helen, and Maggie, who all carry the physical and emotional weight of their teenage years, when they were trained as child soldiers in Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army.
In lyrical yet unflinching prose, Otoniya J. Okot Bitek brings together their past and present: the rhythm of life before the war, the circumstances of their abduction, and the perilous journey home. Refusing to sensationalize cruelty and tragedy, the novel highlights strength, courage, and the unbreakable bonds between those who survive instead. Translation into Dutch: Robert Dorsman.
Out of thin air, at the beginning of 2023, De Toegift suddenly emerges. Starting in Zeeland, the melancholic sounds of their debut album blow across the mainland of the Netherlands and Belgium with gale force winds. From the very first notes, the band is praised in the press; according to 3voor12, De Toegift delivered the best show at Noorderslag 2023, and their debut album received a five-star review in Trouw.
With distinctive lyrics and a fresh blend of indie, folk, and jazz, De Toegift is a welcome addition to the current wave of Dutch-language artists.
Now joined by a violinist and flutist, De Toegift continues to experiment, which is also evident on their remix EP De vormen voelen vreemd, for which the band collaborated with artists such as Lucky Fonz III and gladde paling.
“beyond borders.” DY&GS embody what defines Anatolian folk music – “You need a groove and a melody, and everything around it is free.” It’s this ethos that guides the band’s songwriting and the way they take on Anatolian folk standards. “I believe the melodies shouldn't be changed because we are responsible to preserve music in the correct way. Our versions respect the roots. It’s the same lyrics and melody, but it has a different soul maybe.” While it’s easy to think of folk music as a music of the past, she insists it’s just as important today. “Some of these poems were written hundreds of years ago but they’re still relevant. This music is so important because it remains the voice of the people, the minority, and the oppressed.”
After self-producing multiple albums, they signed with New York’s Big Crown Records in 2024 and teamed up with Grammy winning producer Leon Michels (El Michels Affair) for Yarın Yoksa. The new album embodies their balance of preservation and innovation across nine original compositions and three traditional folk songs. It is a record that will enchant any listener regardless of language barrier with Derya’s passion and authenticity front and center and music too moving to deny. Yarın Yoksa is sure to captivate the hearts and minds of all those who hear it, and just wait till you experience them playing it live ...
In 2025, Toronto-based Tamara Lindeman and her project The Weather Station returned with a new album, Humanhood. It was written during one of the most difficult periods of Lindeman’s life and rendered with a rock band with improvisational chops just as she began to recover by reckoning with a complicated truth: Sometimes, life simply tries to dismantle us, no matter how good everything may seem, and we must accept that in order to survive.
Working through this crisis, Lindeman wrote from within the confusion of the experience to create the songs that would ultimately become Humanhood, a narrative album that, listened to front to back, transcribes the journey from dissociation back towards connection.
And as it turns out, Humanhood might just be the most arresting album Lindeman has ever made as The Weather Station.
Otoniya J. Okot Bitek (Canada/Uganda) is a writer mostly known for her award-winning poetry. She teaches Black Creativity at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
