Project
War and Peace: How are we going to remember the future is a project initiated by Loesje International, that aims to meet with organizations that are involved in the pedagogy of remembrance as well as actors in peace and human rights education.
Loesje offers creative writing workshops, focusing on topics such as: Censorship and freedom of speech, The duty of remembrance, borders, how to achieve world peace and refugees.
The aim of the project can be summarised as: Remembering and reflecting on past and current wars in order to gain and obtain peace.
If you would like to learn more or for possible cooperation please write to us at warandpeace@loesje.org
What is the future of War and Peace? We see this project continuing into 2020, the year that will commemorate 75 years since the end of WWII. We will continue to offer workshops in this theme and hope to keep conversation on the topic alive and vigerous.
What happened thus far...
The project started in April 2017. By then Loesje International had given several workshops to school childeren visiting House Across Borders in Lommel (Belgium)and the employees of Youth Meeting Centre Ysselsteyn. Both organizations want to connect the past and the present to promote a culture of peace and nonviolence.
On the 4th of May Loesje held an open workshop as part of Rembrance of the Death. This ceremony is held annually in the Netherlands and it commemorates all civilians and members of the armed forces of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who have died in wars or peacekeeping missions since the beginning of the Second World War. After the writing workshop the attendees visited the ceremony in Arnhem. The day after the Rembrance of the Death Loesje went to Wageningen for Liberation Day, celebrated each year on May the 5th to mark the end of the occupation by Nazi Germany during World War II. Loesje gave several writing workshops at the Liberation Festival, that was organized by Wageningen 45 and in the same month Loesje gave a lot of workshops to the employees and volunteers of PAX.
Peace week
Every year our friends at PAX for Peace organise a National Peace week, a week comprised of various events and workshops which aim to start dialogue about the topic 'Peace'. PAX is a not-for-profit, non-governmental peace organisation that aim to bring about peace, reconciliation and justice in the world. Together with people in conflict areas and concerned citizens worldwide, PAX works to build just and peaceful societies across the globe. Together with their partners ICAN (International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons), who have just been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their role in achieving the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, they hosted Peace Week 2017.
Loesje International took part; leading and participating in workshops in various locations in the Netherlands. She made a stop at Youth meeting centre Ysselsteyn to write with German school children, who had a week long program for their stay in the Netherlands; all based around the the topics of war and peace. She also made stops in Haarlem; creating texts with the members of Apostilisch Genootschap, and at a Symposium: Power of Peace in Education - held in the Museon in The Hague, where Loesje wrote with educators and their children.
The week ended with the festival Manifeest. The festival was an amalgamation of art, music, workshops and talks to celebrate the close of the week. Loesje was there again to give a workshop for members of the public/attendees of the festival, the group wrote for an hour and created some interesting texts.
Since the peaceweek Loesje wrote new texts with the employees of the Liberation Museum 1940-1945 in Groesbeek and the visitors of the Liberation festival in Wageningen and at the moment she looks forward to next peace week in September.
After all the creative writing sessions Loesje will bundle the posters into a book that will reflect on past wars and those that are happening right now. The posters will of course be spread in classic Loesje fashion on the streets and through social media, so that the posters created during the project will reach as many people as possible, who can in turn reflect on these texts and ask questions.
"How do I want to remember the future?"
Featured: War and Peace poster series
Photos on this page where taken by Stefan Heijdendael
Partners for this project: PAX for peace, Wageningen 45, the National Liberation Museum 1944-1945, De Vrije Ruimte (democratic eduction 4-18 years) JMC Ysselsteyn, House Across Borders Lommel and Apostolisch Genootschap Haarlem.
