The next reading in fold #12 on Memory will be led by Fransisca Angela, a photographer and visual artist between Amsterdam and Jakarta. For this reading session she chose an excerpt from Evening Oracle by Brandon Shimoda. The poems in this book were originally handwritten at night, before sleep, by Shimoda, in the beds of friends and strangers in Japan. Fransisca will relate the text to her own work, focussing on topics of grief and collective memory.

“After my grandmother died, it took me six years to start writing about her. Together with two generations of my family members, we created a collective memory about her passing as well as the loss of our Chinese identity that was erased during a dictatorship that spanned three decades in Indonesia. This work resulted in an artist’s book, resembling a journal with memories and histories kept silent for generations. The prose passages in Evening Oracle by Brandon Shimoda are composed of passages from emails and letters to and from friends and family, leading up to his grandparents’ passing. An accumulation of fragments within a specific timeline would help us look at grief and the process of remembering as a collective attempt to relate to one another.”

Brandon Shimoda

Brandon Shimoda is the author of several books of poetry and prose, including two memoirs of Japanese America, THE GRAVE ON THE WALL and THE AFTERLIFE IS LETTING GO (both from City Lights, 2019/2024), and HYDRA MEDUSA (Nightboat Books, 2023). He’s the co-editor, with Brynn Saito, of THE GATE OF MEMORY, an anthology of poetry on Nikkei wartime incarceration, written by descendants of the WWII prisons and camps. EVENING ORACLE was originally handwritten at night before sleep in the beds of friends and strangers in Japan.

Fransisca Angela

Fransisca Angela uses image, text, video, and installation to capture everyday lived experiences. Her work mainly touches upon human stories in relation to place, the in-between, and collective memory. Through personal narratives, she invites people to experience life fragments that allow them to reimagine a new reality, standing in for what has been lost amidst adversity. Central to her practice is creating space for collective consciousness through storytelling, and conversation. She is currently a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam.

Fransisca Angela website

The programme of reading sessions:

30.01.2024 reading with Roberto Uribe Castro
28.11.2024 reading with Lilian Ptáček & Johannes Hugo Stoll
in fold #12 on Memory

31.10.2024 reading with Janneke van der Putten
26.09.2024 reading with Adele Dipasquale
in fold #11 on Voice

30.05.2024 reading with Tom Viaene, Arnout and Michiel De Cleene
26.04.2024 reading with Angela Serino and Maja Bekan
28.03.2024 reading with Curated Suitcase
in fold #10 on Responsibility

22.02.2024 reading with Lotta Petronella
25.01.2024 reading with Eva van Ooijen
30.11.2023 reading with Danae Theodoridou ft. Fontys Akademy of the Arts
in fold #09 on Empowerment

26.10.2023 reading with Barbora Trnková ft. Vašulka Kitchen
28.09.2023 reading with Pam Virada
in fold #08 on Spirit

22.06.2023 reading with Golnar Abbasi
25.05.2023 reading with Charlotte Jarvis
in fold #07 on Solidarity

30.03.2023 reading with Doris Hardeman
23.02.2023 reading with Risk Hazekamp
26.01.2023 reading with Gladys Zeevaarders
in fold #06 on Reimagining

27.10.2022 reading with Anna Zvyagintseva
05.10.2022 reading with Jun Zhang
25.08.2022 reading with Christopher van Ginhoven Rey
in fold #05 on Awakening

02.12.2021 reading with Laura Castro
18.11.2021 reading with Sophia Holst
16.09.2021 reading with Amy Franceschini
in fold #02 on Commons

08.07.2021 reading with Sheng-Wen Lo
17.06.2021 reading with Katarina Jazbec
20.05.2021 reading with Mari Kesi-Korsu
in fold #01 on Empathy