The revenge of the Vondelpark squat-gig | BRAM wk 12, 2023

How sweet it felt for Ukrainian music artist, Igor Kramarenko (aka Fenoman), this week when he used the squatted property of sanctioned Russian billionaire, Arkadiy Volozj, for a living room concert to raise money for the Ukrainian armed forces. Igor was a recent guest on BRAM RADIO radio station and I was instantly inspired by his creativity and energy so I was glad to be able to join them down at Vossiusstraat 16.

I really wanted to report back from the squat for you all with photos and some #mojo reportage using my smartphone mic, but firstly … I discovered that there’s strictly “NO PHOTOS ALLOWED”. That’s a shame as there were some great murals on the walls, you’ll have to go down to an event and take a look yourselves. Secondly, I forgot my mobile phone. Fine, that meant I could just chill-ax on one of the sofas and enjoy the music. And it was extremely chilled because there’s no heating – we all kept our coats on.

Grisha Chayka, part of the Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy (think Ukraine’s Muse equivalent) also played some of his new acoustic songs and premiered a music video shot on a bombed building in Kharkiv. The following night, Grisha and Okean Elzy were on stage at AFAS LIVE for another fundraiser, and this one I can share footage from …

But back to the Vossiustraat squat.

This was just one of many community events that are hosted there. And despite winning their case against eviction, there’s an appeal from the owner still to come and this will be heard on 12 April at 9:30 am.

Will this space remain “a place of resistance and creation” as the @vossiusstraat16group hopes? Or just another rich person’s occasional-Amsterdam-mansion-by-the-park?

[@CathyCentral]

 

 New podcast eps

On a related note, for our BRAM TALK podcast series, we just published a 20-min edit of our interview with Igor (aka Fenoman) and the call Chris Willis hosted between a young Dutch gamer and an online connection of his in Ukraine. Here are links to the episodes but you can also find them on our website under ‘Podcasts’, in the Podcast tab of our new mobile radio app, or subscribe to BRAM TALK anywhere you get your podcasts.

Our latest On Demand shows!

The full list of On Demand radio shows is available here, including a show about Amsterdam food culture, and the latest 🔥 Streets of Fire with Jesse interviewing 🎙 Leiden-based musician and producer, Deef den Hartoog.

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Wed 29 March, 10:00-11:00, Dam Daily | 🎙 Can we make AI less sexist? Helen Pink from TEDx Amsterdam Women will join Cathy in the studio to talk about a tool they have made to fix this, as well as more about her life and work in Amsterdam.

Thurs 30 March, 16:00-18:00, pop-up Amsterdam @ 🍻 De Figurantenbar | One of the city’s cosiest brown bars hosts a goodbye radio show for long-serving owner, Peter. We’ll hear his stories from over the years and maybe a little sing-along. Who knows. It could get messy. 😆

 Local news

Our latest 2-min Dam Daily ep | City proposals to cut cross-city traffic substantially, and the Ziggodome announces An Evening with President Barack Obama.

BRAM RADIO shares local news on our weekday Dam Daily radio show and in our general playout, but we also publish a ‘2-minute Dam Daily’ of Amsterdam news stories, in a mini-podcast which you can subscribe to on Spotify etc. (Amsterdam news links are also updated regularly on our Pinterest boards, and shared on our website, here.)

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