Surfing the waves at Open Stage Sessions in Café Bosch!
The last Open Stage Session before the summer break was like the sea. At 7:30 p.m., the audience and performers flowed into the venue. Two hours later, they ebbed away just as swiftly. In between, everyone rode the dancing waves together!
Open Stage Sessions is an accessible open mic night for people from Arnhem, both longtime locals and newcomers. It is organized by Café Bosch, CONNECT, Buddy to Buddy, and Verre Binding. The host of this summery edition is musician Vincent MacDonald. Together with “the amazing percussionist” Joseph, he opens the evening with one of Joseph’s favorite songs: You Can’t Always Get What You Want.
The audience is still a little shy. Although several members of CONNECT’s choir—who performed with Naaz at Down The Rabbit Hole (!)—are in the room, the sing-along doesn’t quite take off yet.
Roaring Blues
When Mathijs steps onto the stage and launches into a Johnny Cash song, something starts to shift in the room. The roaring blues jolts everyone awake, and now you can really see that the audience is getting into it. As soon as the song is over, Mathijs shyly slips back into the sea of people.
He recently moved to Arnhem to explore his roots. He’s from New Zealand, but his mother is Dutch. ‘This is so cool! It was my first open mic. I thought I’d just drop by and maybe meet some new people. And then suddenly I’m up on stage, singing and playing!’
Embrace this moment, and hold it as tightly as you can.
Kamer, participant in the Wintertuin Schrijfwerkplaats Workshop
Embrace the Moment
By now, the stage has everyone’s full attention, and the audience falls completely silent as Kamer and Sevdi step forward to read their work. They are both part of the Wintertuin Schrijfwerkplaats Workshop at Rozet.
Writer and poet Kamer has been living in the Netherlands for just six months, and these are her first pieces written in a new language. The room is spellbound by the musicality of her words and lets out a collective sigh when she says, ‘Embrace the moment—hold on to it as tightly as you can.’
Sevdi also reads from their own work: an absurdist story about consciousness, identity, and growing up, starring a donkey and a broccoli.
The Dab Master
As the two writers accept compliments after their readings, Hozan and Rinas take the stage and turn the room into a party in no time. The whole audience is clapping, people start dancing spontaneously, and when Omar steps out from behind the bar, the place erupts.
‘He’s the dab master,’ laughs Maaike from Buddy to Buddy.
After a few technical hiccups, it’s Mehman’s turn. Seated at the piano, he first plays a tender Turkish song that is simply heart-melting, followed by a cheerful Ukrainian polka, especially for a Ukrainian mother and daughter who came that evening to dance. Mission accomplished.
Move, Groove, Jump!
The evening ends with a jam session. Wies picks up her bass guitar, and Vincent returns to the stage, leading the audience in a chant: ‘We want to move, we want to groove, we want to jump!’
Walid suddenly leaps forward, seizes the moment, and takes over from Vincent. ‘We want to move, we want to groove, we want to jump!’ When he returns to his spot, he grins and says, ‘I don’t know what happened—I just had water.’ Then he’s off again, surfing the wave of dancing that has now swept through the entire room, carrying everyone along.
I know it sounds funny, but I feel so alive right now
Mathijs
This is possible too
‘This was amazing,’ Wies beams afterwards. ‘Being on stage is familiar territory for me, but I’d never done anything like this before.’
Mathijs is still buzzing with excitement. ‘I know it sounds funny, but I feel so alive right now!’
And what did the audience think? Gerald puts it like this: ‘I know everyone chose to be here tonight, but still—this is possible too. If the whole world were like it is here, there wouldn’t be any wars.’