Join Nisrine Mbarki, Lies Gallez, Sinine Nakhle and Wana Udobang for an evening about the act of kissing, hosted and guided by music and stories selected by DJ and writer Rasha Hilwi.

Kissing is a wordless act. It can be noisy, or very quiet, it can happen in public, or in private. It can be a gesture of passion, of tenderness, of kindness, a showcase of love, but maybe of despair, or a simple way of saying we care. We kiss our lovers, our children, our parents, our friends, we kiss strangers, some of us also kiss our pets, as well as objects as part of many rituals we have been passed on to or created ourselves. Kissing is emotional and it can also be political: it isn’t the same everywhere for everyone. Who can kiss? Whom? Where? How? Do we all have the same right to kissing in public? Or even in the privacy of our homes?

For this programme, we have asked poets Nisrine Mbarki, Lies Gallez and Wana Udobang, comics artist and storyteller Sinine Nakhle to write new work to perform on the theme of “Kiss!” The interpretation is left to their imaginations and experiences. Their words will be guided by the music and stories of DJ and writer Rasha Hilwi.

*The performances are in Dutch or English. All readings will be subtitled in both Dutch and English.