Journal - The John Adams Institute

Land of the free?

Four Talks on Freedom in collaboration with the KNAW

May 26, 2025, 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

This event is free of charge. Registration is required. Use this link or click on the red button above. “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life, a better world, beyond the horizon.” — Franklin D. Roosevelt “Land of the free, home of the brave.” The …...

Curtis Chin: For Here or To Go?

Everything I learned, I learned in a Chinese restaurant

May 08, 2025, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Join us for an evening of conversation, community, and cuisine as we dive into Curtis Chin’s memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant. Growing up in 1980s Detroit, Curtis Chin came of age in a city struggling with urban decay, segregation, and the exodus of wealth to the suburbs. Amidst this landscape …...

Russell Shorto: Taking Manhattan

The extraordinary events that created New York and shaped America

Apr 03, 2025, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

It is August 1664, and the blue-gray waters of Manhattan’s harbor glisten in the late summer sun. A wind stirs, and the lookout cries, while the citizens of New Amsterdam rush to the waterfront, where white sails are appearing on the horizon. The hulls of four ships come into view, flying the British colors. Commander …...

Tim Walz

Think global, lead local

Feb 18, 2025, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Tim Walz swept onto the national stage in the summer of 2024 as the vice-presidential nominee for the Democratic party. In the wake of Biden’s announcement that he would not seek re-election, and the party closing ranks around Kamala Harris as their new presidential hopeful, the major question became: who will stand beside her and …...

R. Jisung Park: Slow Burn

The hidden costs and opportunities of a warming planet

Mar 24, 2025, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

From the wildfires raging in Los Angeles to sea levels rising rapidly on the Pacific islands, the destruction of mangroves and rainforests, and melting glaciers. It is easy to be overwhelmed by climate change, especially when it is framed as an ongoing crisis of enormous proportions: a looming global disaster. In Slow Burn: The Hidden …...

Part 4. Stalemate

By Kenneth Manusama

January 16, 2025

With our journey through history following America’s false Promise of Equality and the Paradox of Trust in the American system of government complete, where does that leave us after the last presidential election? How do we define this moment history after a contest between an old white man and a younger woman of color in …...

Part 3. The Paradox of Trust in Self-Governance

By Kenneth Manusama

January 13, 2025

On my recent road trip that took me from Alabama to Nashville and Lexington, I also reached one of my primary goals of the trip: a Trump rally in Pennsylvania. While standing in line for three hours, I spoke to other attendees. Behind me stood a mother with her daughter, a first-year college student and …...

Part 2. The Promise of Equality

By Kenneth Manusama

January 9, 2025

Thomas Jefferson’s Promise of Equality in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 created false expectations for most poor and white colonial Americans, enslaved black people, indigenous people, new immigrants and women. Many founding fathers and framers of the Constitution were slaveowners, but only a minority of those slaveowners professed to abhor slavery. In a draft …...

Part 1. A Shining City Upon a Hill

By Kenneth Manusama

January 6, 2025

Famously, when asked after the Constitutional Convention in 1787 what kind of government had been decided upon, Benjamin Franklin responded: “A Republic, if you can keep it.” With those words, Franklin recognized that a republic, a representative democracy, was a perilous undertaking and that its survival was not guaranteed. Abraham Lincoln said it even more …...

Kim Wehle: Pardon Power

Reforming the Sword of Justice

Mar 13, 2025, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

From high-profile clemencies to its utilization as a political weapon, the use and abuse of the presidential pardon has sparked debate about justice and accountability since the founding of the republic. Most recently, the cases of Hunter Biden and those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th 2021 have reignited debates about the system of …...

Part 4. Memories and Meaning of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

By Dario Graziano

December 19, 2024

Nancy Wallach is a member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive board (ALBA)and daughter of Hy Wallach, an American volunteer of Jewish-Polish descent that fought in the Spanish Civil War. The following interview took place on October 17th, 2024. Nancy spoke about her father’s experiences in the war and the legacy of the Abraham Lincoln …...

Part 3. ‘A Closer Look’ at Vaughn Love, an African American in the Spanish Civil War

By Dario Graziano

December 12, 2024

In the rich collections of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives are many stories still waiting to be unveiled or that have received very little to no attention. This blog article, based on my MA thesis research and using sources from the New York University‘s ALB archive, uncovers the unpublished autobiography of Vaughn Love, one of …...

Timothy Snyder: On Freedom

Imagining and Designing a Better America

Jan 24, 2025, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

“Americans are told that we were given freedom by our Founding Fathers, our national character, our capitalist economy. None of this is true. Freedom cannot be given. It is not an inheritance… The moment you believe that freedom is given, it is gone.” After his groundbreaking books On Tyranny and The Road to Unfreedom, historian …...

Part 2. Race, Class and Gender in the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

By Dario Graziano

December 5, 2024

Coming from a country that in the 1930s was already quite multicultural, the Americans who fought in Spain were from a variety of socioeconomic classes and from different (ethnic) backgrounds. Most of them were white working class men with strong communist convictions, but recent studies are drawing attention to the women and African Americans who …...

Part 1. The Spirit of Solidarity: A Closer Look at the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

By Dario Graziano

November 28, 2024

From July 1936 to April 1939, the Spanish Republican government waged a war against the fascist forces led by dictator and general Francisco Franco. Twenty-seven nations quickly signed an alliance pledging non-intervention. The United States adopted a position of non-intervention as well, although unofficially. At the same time, Mussolini and Hitler aided Franco with huge …...

200 Years of American Photography

American Photographers in conversation. In collaboration with the Rijksmuseum

Feb 09, 2025, 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm

Join the Rijksmuseum and the John Adams Institute in welcoming photographers from the United States whose work is on view in the major exhibition on American photography. Their collective works invite us to investigate what America is, not only in the present, but also what it has been in pivotal moments since the invention of …...

Thunderstorms in Art and Literature

By Jan Wim Buisman

November 7, 2024

Benjamin Franklin’s invention of the lightning rod had far-reaching consequences, not only in religious but also in aesthetic terms. Men’s newly gained mastery of celestial fire made it possible to revel and enjoy the incalculable and majestic forces of nature. As lightning was no longer seen as a sign of divine wrath, artists started to …...

Beyond the Water’s Edge: Charting a New Course for America?

Townhall on U.S. Domestic Division & International Influence

Dec 12, 2024, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm

Join the John Adams Institute and Room for Discussion to dive headfirst into the implications of a second Trump administration. Themes like “restoring America’s greatness” and “securing our borders” resonated with voters across the country, bringing with them far-reaching implications both at home and abroad. The electorate is clear: it is time for change. They …...

Demons and Thunder

By Jan Wim Buisman

October 31, 2024

Enlightened Protestants and Catholics both wanted to liberate simple folk from ignorance, fear, and superstition by good instruction. In enlightened eyes, fear of thunderstorms was not only evidence of a wrong understanding of God, but also the chief cause of the origin and spread of all kinds of superstitious ideas and practices. A particular source …...

Religious Reactions to Thunderstorms

By Jan Wim Buisman

October 24, 2024

That God addresses people directly in thunder and lightning was a generally accepted idea in the religious mentality of the sixteenth-, seventeenth- and eighteenth-century West. That notion of the immediate and clearly audible presence of the Almighty could have extreme consequences. In certain circles it came to be regarded as disrespectful to eat, work, or …...

A New Invention: Franklin and the Netherlands

By Jan Wim Buisman

October 17, 2024

Benjamin Franklin visited the Dutch Republic on two occasions. When he and his son William travelled in the Austrian Netherlands and the Dutch Republic in August and September 1761, they made certain to visit the great scholar Petrus van Musschenbroek in Leiden. This professor, whose consequential invention of the Leyden jar in 1746 was mentioned …...

Lightning, Volcanism, and Earthquakes

By Jan Wim Buisman

October 10, 2024

This year, Iceland once again proved itself to be a volcanic island: on February 8, 2024 several volcanoes started to produce huge eruptions. Perhaps the most famous outburst was that of June 8, 1783, when the Laki volcanic fissure erupted. It was the start of an eight-month-long series of violent explosions which threw up such …...

Hate in the Homeland with Cynthia Miller-Idriss

The Fate of Democracy in a Radicalizing World

Oct 15, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“What would it take to ensure that everyone feels at home in the country where they live? Who gets to claim membership in, or ownership of, imagined and real territories? Can homelands help us better understand the rise of the far right and its move from the fringes to the mainstream?” We live in a …...

Wandering Stars with Tommy Orange

Native American Literature and Representation

Sep 26, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“I don’t think stories were made to comfort. I believed what my father told me. Stories do more than comfort. They take you away and bring you back better made.” The John Adams Institute is honored to welcome Native American novelist Tommy Orange back to Amsterdam for his highly anticipated second book, Wandering Stars. Orange …...

Ivo Daalder

On 75 years of NATO and the Transatlantic Bond

Sep 16, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In Washington D.C. this July, NATO celebrated its 75th anniversary. With war raging on its Eastern front since 2022, and a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific, NATO faces immense challenges. But these tribulations – looming conflict, a polluted global information ecosystem, threats posed by terrorism and even climate change – are also opportunities …...

President’s Night 2024

America Votes

Nov 05, 2024, 7:00 pm - 5:00 am

Who will be the president of the United States for the next four years? This question is more relevant than ever in these turbulent geopolitical times. On November 5th, the American people will decide the course of their divided nation in an unstable world. Will Donald Trump get a second chance, or will Kamala Harris …...

When Did It All Begin?

by Jaap Jacobs

May 27, 2024

It seems a simple enough question: when was New York founded? So when and how should we celebrate or commemorate it? As we come to the end of this blog series, Jaap Jacobs takes a look at previous commemorations of Dutch-American friendship. An exploration of what shaped these events leads to the question of how …...

USA Trivia Night

brought to you by the Young Minds Network

Jun 27, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What is General Sherman, and in which national park could you find it? What American football team does Taylor Swift’s latest boyfriend play for? And what was the role of a conductor in the Underground Railroad? Break out your atlases, history books and encyclopedias! It’s time to dust off your knowledge of American music, popular …...

Allende

By Nicola Moscelli

May 9, 2024

“We were eating at Los Compadres, and two guys came in. We could tell they weren’t from here. They looked different. They were kids – 18 to 20 years old. They ordered fifty hamburgers to go. That’s when we figured something was going on, and we decided we’d better get home.” — Guadalupe García, retired …...

What it is Like to Do Journalism in Tijuana

By Nicola Moscelli

May 2, 2024

There is a magazine based in Tijuana that is printed north of the border, in the San Diego area, and then distributed south of the border in the major cities of Baja California. This has nothing to do with printing convenience or quality, but rather with avoiding reprisals from organized crime. Its name is Zeta …...

Recollections and Reconnections: War History as Family History

By Eline Hopperus Buma

May 1, 2024

During the Second World War, a Dutch-Jewish family had to go into hiding to avoid deportation to Germany. When the war was over, they emigrated to the United States. Almost eighty years later, they remain in contact with the Dutch families that helped them survive. Eline Hopperus Buma reveals how the war created a tale …...

The Alamo, Santa Anna and the Chewing Gum

By Nicola Moscelli

April 25, 2024

“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” – John Wayne, American actor In 1836, the Alamo Mission in San Antonio (Texas) was the theater of a furious and tragic battle between Texan rebels and the Mexican regular army in the context of Texas’ secession from Mexico. That battle is remembered in US …...

A Netherworld in Brownsville

By Nicola Moscelli

April 18, 2024

“I was very angry. How can they do that? How is that possible in the United States that they can do this, put up a fence in front of our land, and then keep us in here? You know, lock us in?” — D’Ann Loop, American farmer and land owner beyond the border fence in …...

Lionel Shriver, American Contrarian

On her latest book 'Mania'

May 08, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In her latest novel, Mania, iconoclastic author Lionel Shriver investigates the fallout around the fictional 2011 “Mental Parity Movement” in the United States in an alternative yet all too recognizable near past. Dubbed the “last great Civil Rights fight” by its progenitors, Americans now embrace the sacred, universal truth that there is no such thing …...

Itchy Trigger Fingers in Ambos Nogales

By Nicola Moscelli

April 11, 2024

August 27, 1918 Your name is Zeferino Gil Lamadrid, a well-known Mexican carpenter from Nogales, Sonora. It is about 4 PM on an unbearably hot summer day, and you are finally heading back home from some business on the other side of the border with a bulky package under your arm. For you – and …...

Sight, Sound, Touch, and Taste: Africans Sensing the Dutch in New Netherland

By Lavada Nahon

March 27, 2024

In early New Netherland and New Amsterdam new arrivals, Black and white, tried to recreate the world they had left. As historical sources are scarce and incomplete, historical interpreter and culinary historian Lavada Nahon uses deep empathy and imagination to depict the sensory world of the enslaved. It is easy to put the Africans on …...

American Sonnets for my Past and Future Assassin

Poetics and Politics with Poet Terrance Hayes

May 27, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison, / Part panic closet, in a little room in a house set aflame … I lock your persona in a dream-inducing sleeper hold / While your better selves watch from the bleachers. In 70 poems Terrance Hayes explores the meanings of America, of assassin, …...

Yaël Eisenstat: Democracy’s Cyber Defendant

Polarization, Elections and AI

Apr 23, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In 2018, Yaël Eisenstat joined Facebook as the head of Global Elections Integrity for political ads. Six months later, she left, disappointed and disillusioned, exposing how Facebook profits financially from voter manipulation. In her talk at the John Adams Institute, she will be addressing the outsized and worrisome role that social media and artificial intelligence …...

Hurley and its History: Historical Views Changing over Time

By Bas Blokker

February 20, 2024

Travelling from Washington D.C. to Milwaukee, Dutch journalist Bas Blokker makes a stop-over in Hurley, N.Y., and discovers its Dutch history. His curiousity is piqued and he dives into the past to find the nineteenth-century views of the Dutch colonizers very different from modern ones. During the last five years, I always crossed the Susquehanna …...

Dublin by John Johansen, 1957

By David B. Peterson

February 15, 2024

Designed in 1957 and opened to the public on St. Patrick’s Day 1964, John Johansen’s US Embassy in Dublin was the last of the midcentury modern embassies to be constructed under the State Department’s modernist initiative — and it was almost never built. By the early 1960’s, the embassy program had come under increasing political …...

Jennifer Carlson: Democracy by Bullet?

Merchants of the Right

Mar 28, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Gun sellers aren’t just merchants of guns but are also agents of conservative politics and ideals. That’s because gun sales in America aren’t only an economic exchange, but also a cultural one, with serious implications for society at large. In Merchants of the Right: Gun Sellers and the Crisis of American Democracy, Jennifer Carlson’s warning …...

Oslo & London by Eero Saarinen, 1955 & 1956

By David B. Peterson

February 8, 2024

Eero Saarinen’s involvement in the modernist embassy program is a rare instance of continuity across a significant change of leadership in the Foreign Buildings Office that began under the Eisenhower administration. Saarinen’s design for Oslo exemplifies the International Style minimalism of the program in its early stages. His design for London demonstrates the shift towards …...

Athens by Walter Gropius, 1956

By David B. Peterson

February 1, 2024

As one of the key modernist enemies of the Nazi Party, the selection of Walter Gropius to design the US Embassy in Athens was a pairing of architect with location that was rich with Cold War significance. In 1919, Gropius founded the Bauhaus, which quickly became an epicenter of the modernist movement in Germany’s Zwischenkriegszeit …...

Back to the Wild West with Kenneth Manusama

Rights, Racism and Religion

Mar 05, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

On Super Tuesday, the most important day of the American primaries, the John Adams Institute is doing a deep dive into the weaknesses and instabilities of America’s democratic system. As November’s elections loom, legal, racial, and religious controversies are already stretching the country to a breaking point. Yes, of course there will be plenty of …...

New Delhi by Edward Durell Stone, 1954

By David B. Peterson

January 25, 2024

Edward Durell Stone’s US Embassy in New Delhi was among the most widely celebrated of any of the modernist projects built by the State Department during the Cold War. Frank Lloyd Wright hailed Stone’s design, describing it as “one of the finest buildings of the last 100 years, and the only embassy to do credit …...

The Dutch Republic through Bostonian Eyes

By Sander Rooijakkers

January 23, 2024

In the first quarter of the eighteenth century, two young travelers from Boston made trips to the Dutch Republic. One was from Boston stock, the other a Dutch New Yorker, born in Albany. They visited the same sites and wrote about their experiences, but their views are quite different. In the eighteenth century, countless young …...

The Hague by Marcel Breuer, 1956

By David B. Peterson

January 18, 2024

On March 3, 1945, Allied forces undertook an aerial bombardment of the Nazi-occupied Hague. The bombs missed their strategic military targets, landing instead in the historic heart of the city. The sophisticated Hôtel Paulez, which had stood at the intersection of Lange Voorhout and Korte Voorhout since the 1880s, was completely destroyed in the bombing. …...

Rio de Janeiro and Havana by Harrison & Abramovitz, 1948 and 1950

By David B. Peterson

January 11, 2024

Following the Second World War, the United States embarked on a decades-long building program to construct foreign embassies in 25 countries around the world in an effort to contain the threat to democracy posed by the Soviet Union and communism. After the Soviet Union successfully conducted a nuclear weapons test in 1949, surprising the international …...

A Sabre for Eisenhower: Forging Transatlantic Bonds for the Twentieth Century

Jorrit Steehouder

December 18, 2023

Using a royal gift as a starting point, Jorrit Steehouder shows how ties between the United States and the Netherlands were forged through rituals and symbols, as well as through personal friendships. On October 14th, 1947, a crisp and sunny autumn day, General Dwight D. Eisenhower celebrated his 57th birthday in style. At the Dutch …...

Tiya Miles: All That She Carried

The remarkable history of Ashley’s Sack

Jun 17, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“In a display case in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture sits a rough cotton bag. “Ashley’s Sack” is embroidered with a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and love passed down through the generations.” In South Carolina in the 1850s, an enslaved woman named Rose …...

Thomas Paine’s Radical Plan for Ending Slavery in 1775

By Eli Merritt

November 30, 2023

In my preceding essay, “The ‘Survivalist Interpretation’ of Slavery”–based on the findings of my book Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution–I lay out three paradigms for understanding why the founders of the United States did virtually nothing during the nine years of the American Revolution to put an end to the …...

Wilhelmina Douglas Hawley and the artists’ colony in Rijsoord

by Alexandra van Dongen

November 23, 2023

Stories handed down through the generations have a powerful impact. Alexandra van Dongen was always fascinated by the life of her American great-grandmother, an artist who eventually settled in the Netherlands. But Alexandra’s pursuit deepened when she unearthed her ancestor’s passion for an even earlier ancestor, whose actions in the nineteenth century speak to issues …...

The ‘Survivalist Interpretation’ of Slavery

By Eli Merritt

November 23, 2023

My book Disunion Among Ourselves: The Perilous Politics of the American Revolution tells the story of regional conflict and disunionist crisis in the Continental Congress from 1774, when delegates from the colonies first gathered to protest the deplorable Intolerable Acts, until 1783, when the Treaty of Paris finally secured independence and ended the war. What …...

Franklin Foer

On Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future

Jan 31, 2024, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“On January 20, 2021, standing where two weeks earlier police officers battled right-wing paramilitaries, Joe Biden took his oath of office. Faced with unprecedented crises, he decided not to play defense. Instead, he set out to transform the nation”. From author and The Atlantic staff writer Franklin Foer comes a gripping biography of Joe Biden, …...

How to Avert Disunion and Civil War, According to John Adams

By Eli Merritt

November 16, 2023

Conventional wisdom prescribes that the first eighty-five years of American history took place in phases: Phase 1, white male harmony and heroism during the founding and federalist periods; Phase 2, the growth and spread of slavery and disruption of the founding harmony; and Phase 3, disunion sparking the Civil War, followed by the restoration of …...

Why George Washington became Commander-in-Chief

By Eli Merritt

November 9, 2023

According to more than two centuries of conventional history written about the grandeur and glory of George Washington of Virginia, the Continental Congress of 1775 “unanimously” elected him as commander-in-chief of the new American army for his celebrated qualities of moral steeliness, selflessness in the execution of civic duty, and courage under fire. While this …...

The United States’ First Secession Threat

By Eli Merritt

November 2, 2023

By conventional wisdom, the United States’ first serious threat of secession did not strike until the Nullification Crisis of 1832-1833, when South Carolina menaced disunion over what many Southerners described as the federal government’s “Tariff of Abominations.” They viewed the tariff as both oppressive to the Southern economy of staple export crops––and flatly unconstitutional. In …...

‘I, too, sing America’

By Ted Rosengarten

October 26, 2023

Children’s picture and chapter books make up thirty percent of banned books. In one fell swoop, a school district in Pennsylvania banished fifty books from lower and middle school grades on the grounds that the books’ donor “uses Marxist critical race theory.” A parent demurred, saying he had read some of the books and found …...

Fellow Founding Fathers: Gijsbert Karel van Hogendorp and Thomas Jefferson

By Lauren Lauret

October 25, 2023

The American Revolution had a significant impact on the Dutch Republic. The end of the eighteenth century was marked by a spirited exchange of ideas on liberty, political rights and state-building between the two Republics. But it was not merely ideas which travelled freely. People from both sides of the Atlantic sailed across the ocean …...

Critical Race Theory under Scrutiny

By Ted Rosengarten

October 19, 2023

Not only were African people enslaved, their history has been enslaved as well. Books by Black authors that espouse a Black perspective on history and current events are being ferociously targeted for removal from American schools and libraries. Allied with and even led by governors and legislatures in states that in the past resisted integrating …...

Stamped from the Beginning

Ibram X. Kendi (the book) and Roger Ross Williams (the film)

Nov 13, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“Time and again, racist ideas have not been cooked up from the boiling pot of ignorance and hate. Time and again, powerful and brilliant men and women have produced racist ideas in order to justify the racist policies of their era and redirect the blame onto Black people.” In his book Stamped from the Beginning, …...

“Bring Me the Cotton!”

By Ted Rosengarten

October 12, 2023

Following the American Civil War, landowners in the deep South did not want to pay for what they had always had for free—the labor of the people they had held in slavery. In cotton-growing states like Alabama, hundreds of thousands of freed people agreed to work on the land owned by their former masters in …...

1619 – No Going Back

By Ted Rosengarten

October 5, 2023

We will never know which ancestors of Nate Shaw were kidnapped in Africa and forcibly taken across the Atlantic, and when. But the first episode of enslavement in North America has been widely acknowledged in recent years. It was an English privateer, The White Lion, under a Dutch contract and sailing under a Dutch flag, …...

From ‘All God’s Dangers’ to ‘De kleur van katoen’

By Frans Kooymans

September 28, 2023

In the spring of 1975, while visiting a bookstore in Miami, I found myself drawn to the self-assured look of a Black man on the cover of a book entitled All God’s Dangers. I bought the book and over the next couple of weeks I was struck by the narrator’s unique language and the succession …...

American Mass Culture and the Roaring Twenties in the Netherlands

by Kees Wouters

September 25, 2023

During the 1920s, the Netherlands excelled in dullness, it is said. But Kees Wouters shows how the cobwebs of pillarized society were blown away by a new musical wind from the West: Jazz! Exalted by many, villified by others, Dutch musicians playing American jazz conquered music halls and radiowaves alike and even made the Dutch …...

Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Lonnie G. Bunch III

Living with history: A people’s journey, a nation’s story

Oct 18, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“Museums have a social justice role to play. Cultural institutions need to be as much about today and tomorrow as they are about yesterday. This may just be a time of transformation.” Lonnie G. Bunch III is the 14th Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the highest position of leadership within the world’s largest museum, education, …...

The Origin of ‘All God’s Dangers’

By Frans Kooymans

September 21, 2023

All God’s Dangers, in translation De kleur van katoen, is the autobiography of Nate Shaw, an illiterate Black tenant farmer from Alabama, who grew up in the society of former slaves and slaveholders and reached maturity during the advent of Jim Crow, the segregation laws that held the Deep South in their grip for nearly …...

Miriam Toews

On Film and Literature

Nov 28, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Miriam Toews is the award-winning author of nine books, including Women Talking, which won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay at the 2023 Academy Awards, and All My Puny Sorrows. Known for her light, oftentimes humorous touch, Toews finds moments of brightness and humanity in even the darkest of narratives. Her latest novel, Fight Night, …...

Walter Isaacson on Elon Musk

Innovation and the Demons that Drive it

Nov 24, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Isaacson’s latest inside story is filled with tales of triumph and turmoil, and addresses the question: are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress? Walter Isaacson is the bestselling biographer of the likes of Steve Jobs, Henry Kissinger, and Jennifer Doudna. Throughout his career he has served as …...

Lady Liberty as Muse

By Annejet van der Zijl

August 22, 2023

The United States of America and the Netherlands are a rich source of inspiration to Dutch and American writers. The American journalist Russell Shorto found the origins of American tolerance in the histories of Amsterdam and New Amsterdam. Vice versa, Annejet van der Zijl, a Dutch author, found her muse in the United States, as …...

The Ministry for the Future

Kim Stanley Robinson and the Fight for Planet Earth

Nov 08, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“In the twenty-first century it became clear that the planet was incapable of sustaining everyone alive at Western levels, and at that point the richest pulled away into their fortress mansions and bolted their doors to wait it out until some poorly theorized better time… beyond that, après moi le déluge.” Uniting science and politics, …...

Strangers to Ourselves

Mental Health, Diagnosis & Identity with Rachel Aviv

Sep 18, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“The divide between the psychic hinterlands and a setting we might call normal is permeable, a fact that is both haunting and promising. It’s startling to realize how narrowly we avoid, or miss, living radically different lives.” How do we understand ourselves in periods of crisis and distress? Such moments – familiar to any life …...

Edward Winslow: Anglo-Dutch-American Pilgrim

By Jeremy D. Bangs

June 20, 2023

The early history of the Dutch in America is not confined to the Hudson River and the surrounding areas, but extends deep into New England. In 1620 a group of settlers from Leiden journeyed across the Atlantic to settle in North America. They are often overlooked in surveys of Dutch-American relations, because their history does …...

Eternal City

By Mieke Bleeker

June 15, 2023

Democratic icon, advocate for liberty, equality, freedom of speech and religion, principal author of the Declaration of Independence: as one of the Founding Fathers, Thomas Jefferson seems to be larger than life in the American psyche. So it’s no surprise then, that the memorial for the third president of the United State resembles the Pantheon …...

Temple of Justice

By Mieke Bleeker

June 8, 2023

In 1932, at the laying of the cornerstone of what was to become the US Supreme Court building, Chief Justice Hughes said: “The Republic endures and this is the symbol of its faith.” And faith they had needed, as it took 146 years for the US Supreme Court to have its own building. Up until …...

Belonging to the Ages

By Mieke Bleeker

June 1, 2023

Only six days after the surrender of the Confederate Army which meant an end to the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth assassinated Abraham Lincoln while attending Ford’s Theatre in Washington DC on April 14, 1865. As the news spread, the first reaction of most Americans was disbelief and shock, which turned into grief once Lincoln’s …...

Grandeur for the Greatest

By Mieke Bleeker

May 25, 2023

The Washington Monument is an iconic structure, built to honor the first president of the United States, George Washington. But why is it shaped like an ancient Egyptian obelisk? Although the obelisk was always part of the plan for the monument, the original design by Robert Mill looked very different. It seems to have been …...

Architecture of Power

By Mieke Bleeker

May 18, 2023

“There is but one way for the moderns to become great, and perhaps unequalled … by imitating the ancients.” German historian Johann Winckelmann (1755) No one took this more to heart than Pierre L’Enfant. With Rome in mind, his design for Washington DC contained monumental buildings like the White House and the US Capitol connected …...

Rising from the Ashes: The Afterlife of a Phoenix

by Joske Meerdink

May 17, 2023

During a late evening walk, journalist Joske Meerdink decided to turn right and go across the local graveyard. It lead to an unexpected find that sets off a voyage of discovery, taking Joske across the Atlantic. As she pieced together the story of a group of nineteenth-century Dutch migrants from the village of Winterswijk in …...

Nikole Hannah-Jones: 1619

A New American Origin Story

Jun 28, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“In August of 1619, a ship carrying more than 20 enslaved Africans arrived in the English colony of Virginia. America was not yet America, but this was the moment it began.” Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones has devoted her career to exposing systemic and institutional racism in the United States. Chief among her …...

How to Shape a Capital

By Mieke Bleeker

May 11, 2023

1790, Philadelphia. In the temporary capital of the United States, President George Washington must make an important decision. The War of Independence has been over for several years, and the new Constitution requires the government to establish a federal territory for the nation’s capital. But representatives from the north and the south have been bickering …...

USA Trivia Night

How much do you know about America?

Jun 13, 2023, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Who was the 6th president of the United States? Who performed the halftime show at the Superbowl this year? And when we speak of the Trail of Tears, what precisely are we referring to? Break out your atlases, history books and encyclopedias! Dust off your knowledge of American music, popular culture, history and current events! …...

Matthew Desmond

Poverty, by America

Jun 08, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“Are we—we the secure, the insured, the housed, the college educated, the lucky—connected to all this needless suffering? This is a book about poverty that is not just about the poor. Instead, it’s a book about how some lives are made small so that others may grow.” Pulitzer Prize winning sociologist Matthew Desmond’s work on …...

Jane Addams and Aletta Jacobs at the Women’s Congress in The Hague

By Mineke Bosch

April 18, 2023

Social activism and the struggle for women’s suffrage in the early twentieth century brought together women from countries around the world, including the United States and the Netherlands. Mineke Bosch highlights how shared issues fostered a deep friendship between the American Jane Addams and the Dutch Aletta Jacobs. Berlin, May 1915. Three feminists on an …...

Sojourner Truth

By Jeroen Dewulf

March 21, 2023

How the Enslaved Woman of a Dutch-New York Family Became an Icon of America’s Black Liberation Movement On 31 March 1817 the New York legislature decided that enslavement within its borders had to come to an end. Final emancipation would occur on 4 July 1827. Coincidentally, the date of choice was almost exactly two centuries …...

Competition: Life on the Road

By Doug Hancock

March 16, 2023

There are hundreds of rodeo arenas built on the edges of small towns throughout the midwest. Amongst them even more less formal ranch rodeos where riders prove their ranch skills to their peers. Since its formation in 1976, the INFR (Indian National Finals Rodeo) has provided safe platforms for animals and riders throughout North America …...

Landscape: Loss & Healing

By Doug Hancock

March 9, 2023

Life on the reservations is tough for many and for different reasons. Generational trauma and isolation can mean that making a living is difficult but people do what they can. They are used to finding ways to cope. Donnie Shockey Two Bulls, a veteran marine and ex-police officer, set up a stall to sell jewelry …...

First Nations Relay Racing: All Aboard the Sioux Express

By Doug Hancock

March 2, 2023

First Nations Relay Racing has its own traditions and is a separate special event outside of the usual rodeo circuits. Fast-paced and demanding impeccable horse skills, it is hugely popular on and off reservations. A relay team has four members, a rider, a mugger, a set-up man, and the backholder. Between them they ensure that …...

Immigration, Transformation and Society

Theater & Talk

Apr 24, 2023, 7:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What makes up the immigrant experience? What are its contours, challenges and realities? And what gets lost, altered, or edited in the transition between leaving one’s birth country and arriving in a new one? The John Adams Institute is thrilled to present an evening that weaves arts and academics, traverses national boundaries, and crosses oceans, …...

Pageantry: Miss and lil’ Miss Rodeo Queens

By Doug Hancock

February 23, 2023

Every Pine Ridge rodeo begins with experienced horse women entering the arena proudly bearing the flags of the nations they ride for, the Oglala Lakota Nation and the United States of America. While female bull riders are rare, women do compete fiercely in the challenges that put ranching skills to the test. The 2022 – …...

New York Burning

John Adams & Fulbright event with Jill Lepore

Apr 20, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

New York City, 1741: Fires break out throughout the city. Public and private property is set ablaze, and the ruling elite is nervous. There are whispers of a coup, or worse, an outright rebellion. But the perpetrators of the crimes lurk in the shadows, and so, fueled by the paranoia that accompanies hearsay, the authorities …...

Growing Up Dutch in Iowa

By Valerie Van Kooten

February 19, 2023

What does it mean to be of Dutch extraction in the United States? Pella, situated on the Iowa plains, was the destination of choice for hundreds of Dutch families, led by Hendrick Pieter Scholte, after the Afscheiding (Secession) of 1834 split the Dutch Reformed Church. What is still Dutch and what has changed over time? …...

Three Mile Creek Rodeo School

By Doug Hancock

February 16, 2023

It’s easy to think that rodeos are all about those terrifying, bone-shaking seconds in the arena but there’s a huge amount of preparation that goes into becoming a bull and bronc rider, and there are many other tests of skill on display at rodeos too. Not all of which can be learned ranching. In this …...

Powwow and Rodeo

By Doug Hancock

February 9, 2023

In rural areas, where people can live in isolation much of the time, Agricultural fairs have long been important social opportunities. First Nations communities quickly saw them as one of the few legal ways to gather and preserve cultural expressions, which had been forbidden by settlers. As First Nations communities fought back against oppression and …...

The Dutch-American Perspective

By Russell Shorto

January 18, 2023

The work that historians do influences their lives, especially if they spend a considerable time in a foreign land that they write about. Slowly, their topic of choice becomes an essential part of their identity. Russell Shorto, a renowned writer of narrative history, writes about his own evolution at the intersection of Dutch-American history. This …...

The Adventures of Gerrit Boon and Jan Lincklaen

by Jaap Jacobs

December 15, 2022

The Holland Land Company is known for its role in settling the western part of upstate New York by acquiring land grants and selling off lots to prospective settlers in the early nineteenth century. Yet its activities in the last decade of the eighteenth century were of a different nature, as the stories of …...

“Tell me where it hurts”

By Pia de Jong

December 15, 2022

I must have picked it up just before leaving the US. Maybe that last day when I drove away from my home and, somewhat teary-eyed, waved at my friends standing in the driveway. But there it was when I set foot in Schiphol airport. Hello cough, hello headache, hello lousiness. I went straight to my …...

How Are You?

By Pia de Jong

December 8, 2022

It took me a while to get used to the song and dance of greeting in the USA, that ritual seemingly as superficial as a thin layer of oil on deep water. It often takes the form of a countrywide, four-sentence conversation with carefully scripted words, starting with a standard question, followed by an answer …...

The Naked Truth

By Pia de Jong

December 1, 2022

Being naked in public, Americans are taught at an early age, is a big no-no, even, or maybe especially, at the beach. I was once reprimanded for letting my baby daughter and toddler sons play in their birthday suits on a remote strip at a deserted beach. But lo and behold, a man wearing a …...

Paradise Lost

By Pia de Jong

November 24, 2022

America always held some magic for me. Even as a child, I knew things happened in that vast country on the other side of the ocean. Interesting things somehow reached my small village in the south of the Netherlands: a LIFE magazine picture of a dashing young John F. Kennedy; a movie poster of Rosemary’s …...

Thank You for Your Servitude

With Mark Leibovich

Mar 15, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In his second nonfiction blockbuster Thank You for Your Servitude: Donald Trump’s Washington and the Price of Submission, journalist and political commentator Mark Leibovich sketches the political landscape of Washington during the Trump presidency. Against the backdrop of steak dinners and chants to “drain the swamp”, Leibovich describes the rapid change of the Republican party …...

MATRIX

An Evening with Lauren Groff

Feb 23, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“She rides out of the forest alone. Seventeen years old, in the cold March drizzle, Marie who comes from France.” Rising American literary star Lauren Groff’s most recent novel inhabits the borderlands between myth and history. Set in the early Middle Ages, Matrix is a mystical exploration of the raw power of female creativity in …...

Bret Easton Ellis

The Shards

Jan 30, 2023, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“Many years ago, I realized that a book – a novel – asks itself to be written in the same way we fall in love with someone. The book becomes impossible to resist for the author: there’s nothing you can do about it, and you finally give in and succumb, even if your instincts tell you to run the other way because this could be, in the end, a dangerous game.”...

On the First Dutch Translation of the U.S. Constitution

By Michael Douma

November 21, 2022

There are a few topics that guarantee a historian an audience. Write a decent biography of Abraham Lincoln or James Madison, for example, and you are bound to have readers. Or, write something new and interesting about the Constitution and you might attract some attention. I began studying the Dutch in America over 20 years …...

Goodbye to All That

By Pia de Jong

November 17, 2022

My family and I lived in the United States of America for ten years. I vividly remember the hot summer day we arrived. The taxi driver, an elegant man in his sixties picked us up at Newark Airport. Isn’t it strange the things we notice in the first moment of being somewhere new? The air-conditioning …...

Johnny goes Dutch

by Jaap Jacobs

October 18, 2022

When John Adams arrived in the Dutch Republic as the American envoy, he was accompanied by his two sons. They were both expected to attend school so as to further their education, but finding the right place turned out to be a bit of a problem. Johnny may have only been twelve years old, but …...

Roe v. Wade: Past, Present, and Future

Online Event with Susan Matthews

Dec 15, 2022, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

You can join this online event for free. Click HERE for link to the livestream. On 24 June 2022, the Supreme Court made the shocking decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Responses ranged from despairing to triumphant. For decades, Roe v. Wade had guaranteed the constitutional rights of women to get safe abortions. It was …...

International Bond Sales After the American Civil War

By David K. Thomson

September 29, 2022

In the aftermath of a war that took the lives of 750,000 Americans and wounded more than a million others, there emerged a new chapter for American finance. New York City and investment banking entered a new era following the war and in part foreshadowed the world it would become by the end of the …...

The Most Democratic Bond Issue of the War

By David K. Thomson

September 22, 2022

Following on the wild success of the 5-20 loan drive, the federal government attempted to maintain that success, but without one key person—Jay Cooke. When the question of an exclusive agency for the next major drive (the “10-40” loan, a 5% loan callable in ten years by the government that matured in forty), Jay …...

The Tale of the White Horse: The First Slave Trading Voyage to New Netherland

By Dennis J. Maika

September 18, 2022

The first direct shipment of enslaved Africans arrived in New Amsterdam in 1655. The voyage of the White Horse came in the wake of significant changes in the Dutch Atlantic. In this blog, American historian Dennis Maika outlines how family and business connections shaped the development of a slave-trading center in Manhattan. New Amsterdam’s …...

International Bond Sales During the American Civil War

By David K. Thomson

September 15, 2022

It is a mistake to talk about the American Civil War in a vacuum. While by definition a war that was not against a foreign power, the conflict still proved of great consequence and interest around the world, but especially on the other side of the Atlantic. The power of southern cotton to fuel …...

The Rise of Jay Cooke

By David K. Thomson

September 8, 2022

In October 1862 the federal government found itself in dire straits on virtually every front. Militarily, 1862 had been a year of mixed results. While General Ulysses S. Grant had made some headway in the Western Theater, the more high-profile Eastern Theater saw the armies of the United States government struggling. Despite being within …...

America’s Last Chance?

2022 US Midterm Election Town Hall

Nov 10, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

2024 is a year that looms large on any American calendar. But given the political system in the United States, spectators know that November 2022, will be as important for determining the future fate of America as the next presidential election. Join us on November 10th for a town hall in collaboration with the Rode …...

The Threat of a Thousand Dollar Breakfast

By David K. Thomson

September 1, 2022

Slavery stood at the center of the American experience prior to the Civil War. From the arrival of the first enslaved individuals in colonial Virginia in 1619, the issue of slavery gradually tore the nation apart. In particular, the nineteenth century witnessed increasing hostility between North and South over the “peculiar institution.” The volatile …...

John Romeyn Brodhead’s Hunt for History

by Jaap Jacobs

August 23, 2022

Over the centuries, numerous American visitors to the Netherlands produced travel accounts, filled with their fresh insights and observations as they viewed the familiar from a foreigner’s perspective. John Romeyn Brodhead is no exception, but he was not a regular tourist. He was, or rather became, a man with a mission, hunting for history in …...

Mass Murder on Manhattan

By Mark Meuwese

July 20, 2022

Settler colonialism is not a story of friendly relations throughout. The confrontation with an unfamiliar other creates wariness and suspicion and often leads to violent outbursts in which noncombatants become innocent victims. Manhattan in the seventeenth century was no exception, as the events of 1643 show. In the evening of February 25, 1643, soldiers and …...

Andrea Elliott

Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City

Oct 11, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Dasani Coates, a child with an imagination as soaring as the skyscrapers near her Brooklyn homeless shelter grew up in the shadows of New York’s second “Gilded Age.” Dasani’s story has become emblematic of one of America’s most wicked problems: homelessness. The John Adams Institute is delighted to welcome Pulitzer Prize winner Andrea Elliott, investigative …...

Francis Fukuyama

Liberalism and its Discontents

Oct 03, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

History has not ended. In fact, it is entering yet another phase, where old forms and ideas clash with present realities. The John Adams Institute is excited to welcome Francis Fukuyama back to Amsterdam to discuss his findings in his newest book, Liberalism and Its Discontents. In this rigorous and trim volume, Fukuyama returns to …...

Karen Joy Fowler

Booth

Sep 15, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

April 14th 1865, on the balcony of the Ford Theatre in Washington DC, John Wilkes Booth has just assassinated president Abraham Lincoln. This shocking incident would ring through history and make the Booths the most infamous family in the country. The John Adams Institute is pleased to host author and Man Booker finalist Karen Joy …...

New Amsterdam: What’s in A Name?

by Jaap Jacobs

June 20, 2022

The small colonial town that the Dutch founded in North America was called New Amsterdam. We now know it as New York City. The story of how the name evolved has many twists and turns and is, in fact, a tale of war and peace. New Amsterdam was the talk of the town in 1953, …...

Mayken’s World

By Nicole Maskiell

May 24, 2022

On December 28, 1662, a woman named Mayken van Angola pursued freedom in New Amsterdam. She did not stand alone. Two other women—Susanna and Lucretia—stood with her and together, they petitioned the colonial government for their freedom. It was granted with the caveat that they must clean the Director General Petrus Stuyvesant’s house once a …...

Surviving Injustice

with Mark Godsey & Rickey Jackson

Jun 14, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Rickey Jackson was sentenced to 39 years in prison for crimes he didn’t commit. Innocent, and unjustly convicted of murder and robbery, his is the longest wrongful imprisonment in US history. The John Adams Institute is honored to host Rickey, who will share the lessons he learned about freedom and forgiveness. The sole evidence against …...

Guns & Votes

Carol Anderson

May 30, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

On paper, every American has the right to vote and – thanks to the Second Amendment – to bear arms. But in reality, says Carol Anderson, both these rights are undermined by the racism which is so deeply rooted in American society. And that, in turn, undermines democracy. Anderson is a professor of African-American studies …...

Empty Pedestals

By Brian Rose

April 21, 2022

Not long after I photographed Monument Avenue, the city announced that it was taking down all of the Confederate memorials, and in November of 2020 I returned to Monument Avenue to photograph the empty pedestals. The Jefferson Davis pavilion remained intact, but Vindicatrix was no longer perched on her slender column, Maury and his globe …...

Michael Ignatieff

On Consolation

May 19, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

How do we find solace in modern times? The internationally acclaimed Canadian author and historian Michael Ignatieff will visit the John Adams Institute to discuss just that in his new, bestselling book: On Consolation: Finding Solace in Dark Times. Ignatieff was the rector of the Central European University in Budapest, until he was forced to …...

Bill Browder

Freezing Order

May 13, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The latest massacres in Bucha and Mariupol have shown that Vladimir Putin has no regard for human life – he only cares about power and money. In Putin’s eyes, money is power, and vice versa. That’s why freezing the assets of Russians tied to Putin’s regime is so important. Between 1996 and 2005, American investor …...

The “Patron Saint of New York”

by Jaap Jacobs

April 19, 2022

The bonds that connect the American and Dutch peoples have been commemorated in various ways and at various levels. Dutch-American Friendship Day is a well-established annual event at the governmental level. In New York City, the historical memory of Petrus Stuyvesant has recently become controversial, but in the twentieth century his image was iconic. Two …...

Rumors of War

By Brian Rose

April 14, 2022

A few nights before I arrived in Richmond, protesters set fire to the headquarters of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC), just a few blocks off Monument Avenue. No other organization was more responsible for the placement of Confederate monuments in Richmond and elsewhere in the south than the UDC. Women were the leaders …...
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New Masters on Tour

April 12, 2022

This year's New Masters on Tour features the American pianist Seho Young. Together with Annabel Hauk (cello) and János Palojtay (piano), he will play compositions of Franck, Ives, Grieg, Liszt and Schumann. Both Young and Hauk studied at the New England Conservatorium in Boston. For tickets and dates, click here....
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Pathfinder of the Seas and a Tennis Champion

By Brian Rose

April 7, 2022

The most prominent statues along Monument Avenue depicted Confederate generals on horseback, heroic battlefield leaders, perched on pedestals high above the heads of onlookers. An exception was the memorial to Matthew Fontaine Maury, a naval officer, who was nicknamed Pathfinder of the Seas. He charted the world’s oceans, and his profile of the Atlantic seabed …...
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Goddess of Vindication

By Brian Rose

March 31, 2022

Monument Avenue was built as an extension of the city of Richmond in the late 19th century, and like many such projects, was at heart a real estate venture. But it was also an expression of the city beautiful movement inspired by European architecture, and echoed similar planning schemes like Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia, …...
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Muhammad Ali documentary by Ken Burns

March 30, 2022

NPO is currently screening the the documentary Muhammad Ali by renowned director Ken Burns. The series paints a sweeping portrait of a man whose life intersected with many of modern America’s most profound changes. Every Monday on NPO2 at 10.20pm. Also available on ...
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50 years American Book Center

March 28, 2022

This year, the American Book Center in the Netherlands celebrates 50 years of bookselling. There will be activities throughout the anniversary year. On April 16, ABC will welcome customers to birthday parties in all three ABC stores in Amsterdam, The Hague and Leidschendam. Click here for more information....
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Grand Boulevard of the Lost Cause

By Brian Rose

March 24, 2022

The first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic crested in New York in the spring of 2020 when the eerie calm of the lockdown was broken by the news of the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Protesters flooded into the streets across the country demanding justice under the slogan “Black Lives Matter.” I followed …...
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TV series of the WeWork startup story

March 22, 2022

Apple TV+ presents WeCrashed, a dramatisation of the already fairly dramatic real-life rise and fall of the property rental company WeWork and its udacious founder Adam Neumann. Last year, journalist and author Eliot Brown joined us online to discuss his book The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam...
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JR: Chronicles at Groninger Museum

March 19, 2022

The Groninger Museum, in cooperation with the Brooklyn Museum in New York, will exhibit the work of US based French artist JR. Alongside JR's work, the museum will show graffiti and streetart from New York and Groningen. From 20 November 2021 to Sunday 12 June 2022....
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Loose Ends

By Jan Banning

March 17, 2022

Christina’s life sentence is based on the argument that if she had taken Amber to the hospital in time, her daughter would not have died. Exactly when she should have called in this timely medical attention was never stated. However, to justify the conviction, Amber would have to have incurred the fatal injuries before Christina …...
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Yascha Mounk

The Great Experiment

Apr 10, 2022, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The John Adams institute is delighted to present one of the brightest minds in American political thought today: the refreshingly outspoken German-American political scientist Yascha Mounk. He will join us on April 10th to discuss his new, long-awaited book The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart And How They Can Endure. In his new …...
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Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?

By Jan Banning

March 10, 2022

Three months after Christina’s sentencing, David’s trial started. The forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy was questioned intensively on the injuries of Amber’s pancreas. He described them as ‘a couple of very, very small injuries to the pancreas’, which ‘probably would have healed themselves without medical intervention.’ ‘Serious disfigurement’, which had just got Christina twenty …...
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Plea Bargain

By Jan Banning

March 3, 2022

Amber’s death was big news in Carroll County. It continued to be the subject of animated discussion among the readers of the local Times Georgian for many weeks. Readers – especially female readers – spoke of the unjustifiable death of Amber Boyer (sic) who was allegedly beaten ‘beyond recognition’ by her mother and her mother’s …...
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William Drozdiak

The Future of Europe

Mar 23, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The war between Russia and Ukraine starkly illustrates Europe’s vulnerability in an era of resurgent big-power rivalry. President Emmanuel Macron of France has taken the lead in Europe and has warned that the European Union could find itself trapped, even victimized, by power struggles involving Russia, but also China and the United States. It is …...
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Job opening: program and development coordinator

February 24, 2022

The John Adams is hiring! We are offering a great opportunity for a program and development coordinator, preferably starting in May 2022. Click here for the job description. To apply, please email us at info@john-adams.nl with a short motivation and a resume. Application deadline 18 March....
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Cause of Death

By Jan Banning

February 24, 2022

Amber was born on 29 September 1988. Only a few close friends know who the father was. But since Christina was still married to James Bennett, Amber got his surname. Over the days preceding her death on Tuesday, whenever Amber was alone with David, the girl had suffered bruises, scratches and bumps. On Friday, David …...
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Webinars: Baltimore & Rotterdam: Designing Cities

February 22, 2022

Each week this spring, two design groups, one from Baltimore and one from the Dutch city of Rotterdam pair up to discuss architecture, urban design, and how design and policy can improve the built environment for all residents. Click here for dates and to register....
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Amber’s Death

By Jan Banning

February 17, 2022

Carroll Co., Georgia, USA. Tuesday April 14, 1992 was a balmy spring day just before Easter. Shortly after 12:30 pm, 22-year-old Christina Boyer drove off from her new boyfriend David Herrin’s trailer in his old Chevy Impala. She went to work as a typist in the nearby town of Carrollton, leaving her three-year-old daughter Amber …...
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NAF Webinar: 17th century Dutch women artists

February 15, 2022

In anticipation of a major exhibition on Dutch and Flemish women artists at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C., the Netherland-America Foundation will host a webinar on Dutch women artists of the 17th century on March 3rd, 6m (ET)....
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Book event novel ‘Place’

February 9, 2022

In celebration of Dutch-American Friendship Day on April 19th, author Hannah Huber is holding a book event for the release of her debut novel Place. Join in for an entertaining evening full of comedy, live music, interviews with special guests moderated by Dutch journalist Laila Frank, readings from the book and book signing....
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Exhibition Bryan Schutmaat

February 4, 2022

The photo series 'County Road' by American photographer Bryan Schutmaat were mainly taken in rural Texas during the Covid-19 shutdown. By portraying dirt roads, forests, farmland, meadows, he captured nature's indifference to humanity. County Road is on view at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam from...
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Panel Discussion: Pilgrims From Leiden

January 21, 2022

On 25 Jan. the American Book Center will host a virtual panel discussion about the Pilgrim Fathers. Experts will talk about the light and darkness that these radical separatists brought to the New World, from William Brewster's enlightening library of 400 books, to treaty violations on the part of today's U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs....
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Hanya Yanagihara

To Paradise

Mar 11, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

This year’s most anticipated new novel is without a doubt Hanya Yanagihara’s To Paradise (published in Dutch as Naar het paradijs by Nieuw Amsterdam). And we are thrilled that Hanya Yanagihara is returning to the John Adams for a conversation about her three-part story across three centuries, centered around New York City. To Paradise is …...
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Livestream ‘Biden’s America’

January 11, 2022

On Jan. 17, 8pm, Haagsch College, Maarten van Rossem and Adriaan Andringa will delve into the soul of political America. Can Biden as Healer-in-Chief really bring Americans back together? And how decisive is the Trump factor in this year's important Congressional elections? For more info and tickets, click here....
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TV series about the Pilgrim Fathers

January 6, 2022

The Mayflower set sail for the New World more than 400 years ago carrying a group of English Puritans living in Leiden. They are traditionally seen as the founders of the US. A new documentary examines how that particular part of history of the US is viewed today. In het kielzog van de Mayflower, from 7 Jan 10:05pm NPO 2 (in Dutch)....
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New short story by Jennifer Egan

January 3, 2022

The January edition of The New Yorker features a new short story by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan. What the Forest Remembers has two story lines with, one of them being the backbone of Egan's forthcoming book, The Candy House. She ...
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Wintergasten interviews Colson Whitehead

December 30, 2021

The 3rd episode of VPRO's Wintergasten featured Colson Whitehead, author of Pulitzer Prize winning novels like The Underground Railroad and The Nickel Boys. This year he published Harlem Shuffle. In 2017 the author visited the John Adams to talk about his book The Underground Railroad....
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Foam: A Sidelong Glance

December 20, 2021

The upcoming exhibition A Sidelong Glance by John Edmons (1989, USA) at Foam examines issues of identity and power. From an African-American perspective, his work is a reinterpretation of the past, emphasizing the black human subject and cultural...
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Photo bulletin by Andrea Bruce

December 20, 2021

In a weekly bulletin Down in the County, American photographer Andrea Bruce explores Pamlico County, a largely overlooked, rural area in North Carolina, covering the local community, local events, school board meetings, proms, and church gatherings....
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ITA LIVE: Revolutionary Road

December 8, 2021

Revolutionary Road, a play based on the work by American novelist Richard Yates, returns to ITA on 19 December via ITA Live. It tells the story of Frank and April Wheeler, who are stuck in their bourgeois existence in the suburbs. As they begin to hate their lives more and more, their marriage slowly falls apart....
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Virtual talk Albright and Rice

December 1, 2021

On December 16th, 10AM (CT), The Chicago Council on Global Affairs will host an online talk with former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice. They will discuss their experience as trailblazers in foreign policy and the critical importance of women's...
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Jeff Flake at Nexus Conference

November 18, 2021

Jeff Flake, former US Senator and current Ambassador for the US to Turkey will speak at the upcoming Nexus Conference 'The Revolution of Hope' in Amsterdam. On November 20th, he will contribute to a discussion about the collective cry for radical change echoing around the globe since the outbreak of the corona crisis....
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Documentary: Toni Morrison – Black Matter(s)

November 15, 2021

On Nov 17th, 'Het Uur van de Wolf' will screen the documentary Toni Morrison - Black Matter(s), a portrait of the Pulitzer Prize winning author, and he first black female writer to win the Nobel Prize (1993). In 2009 she visited the John Adams to discuss her book ...
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American documentaries at IDFA

November 9, 2021

The International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) is about to kick off. From November 17 to 28, documentary lovers are invited to theaters throughout Amsterdam. This year, no less than 33 American films are screening throughout the program. Click on the read more button for titles and info....
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George Packer

Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal

Apr 25, 2022, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Acclaimed National Book Award-winning author George Packer returns to the John Adams to discuss his latest book Last Best Hope: America in Crisis and Renewal. In this thought-provoking book about the decline and fall of self-government of the United States, Packer accepts that there’s a new reality for America: “a failed state”. A state that …...
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Book presentation by Michael Persson

November 2, 2021

Former US correspondent Michael Persson will present his book 'De val van Amerika' on November 10, 7pm at De Nieuwe Boekhandel in Amsterdam. The book describes the Trump years and looks to the future of the US. The event will be moderated by Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal (in Dutch)....
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HOVO course on Supreme Court

October 23, 2021

HOVO Brabant presents a 3-day course on the ins and outs of the US Supreme Court, taught by America expert Tanja Groenendijk-De Vos (in Dutch). It will address issues like composition of the court, nominations, decision making, and the influence of the current Supreme Court judges on society....
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DeLaMar West: Broken Winged Bird

October 19, 2021

On Dec. 16, Toneelgroep Maastricht will perform Broken Winged Bird, the story of a black American soldier who fought in World War II. When he returned home, he didn't receive a hero's welcome like his white comrades. Last year, the John Adams published the blog series Black Liberators. Click below to read more....
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The Accessible City

Online event with Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

Nov 16, 2021, 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm

What was it about life in the Netherlands that Canadian couple Chris and Melissa Bruntlett found so attractive? So attractive that they pulled up stakes and left Vancouver to actually move to Delft with their two children? The answer is: quality of life. A big factor that impacts quality of life is how we move …...
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NNI Event: Black Lives in Dutch New York

October 13, 2021

On October 23rd, the New Netherlands Institute will host an online event exploring the Black experience in the Dutch colony of New Netherland. How did Blacks live in New Amsterdam? What was slavery in the colony? When did the first Africans arrive? Click here to register....
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Lecture: Polarization in the US – A New Civil War?

October 11, 2021

On October 13, the Netherlands Atlantic Youth organize a program about polarization in the US. To what extent can we compare polarization today to polarization in the 19^th century? How did the US come together again after the Civil War, and can the current divisions still be healed? Click here to register....
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The Enduring Confidence of James Madison

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

October 6, 2021

Despite being a rather sickly hypochondriac, James Madison outlasted all the other founders, living until June 1836, almost through Andrew Jackson’s second term as president. Through all that time he remained relatively confident in the superiority and durability of America’s constitutional order. He did occasionally harbor some real worries and experience some palpable disappointments, …...
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Cecilia Kang

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook's Battle for Domination

Oct 27, 2021, 8:30 pm - 10:30 pm

For years, fringe ideologues were able to use Facebook undisturbed to promote their extreme ideologies and conspiracies. In An Ugly Truth, published in Dutch as Een smerige waarheid by Atlas Contact, New York Times tech reporters Cecilia Kang and Sheera Frenkel reveal how Facebook’s algorithms sacrificed everything for user engagement and profit, while creating a …...
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History Month: Lecture by James Kennedy

October 4, 2021

On Oct. 19th, American historian James Kennedy will discuss the Dutch work ethic. How have ideas about work shifted in recent decades? What are the differences between the Netherlands and other countries? His lecture 'Why do we work?' (in Dutch) is part of History Month 2021, and will take place at the OBA in Amsterdam....
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The Disillusionment of Thomas Jefferson: Sectionalism

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

September 29, 2021

Thomas Jefferson’s disillusionment was in many respects the most surprising of all. For most of his life he was consistently – one might even say relentlessly – optimistic about America’s future. Even when the Federalists implemented measures that he deemed deeply objectionable during their ascendancy in the 1790s, from Alexander Hamilton’s financial plan to …...
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Webinar on the legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt

September 26, 2021

The Netherland-America Foundation (in New York) and the RIAS will host an online event on “The Legacy of Eleanor Roosevelt” on Friday 15 October 2021. Several speakers will discuss the role that Eleanor Roosevelt played in negotiating and promoting human and women's rights within the UN....
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The Photograph

Documentary & Doc Talk

Oct 03, 2021, 6:45 pm - 8:45 pm

In The Photograph, a single photo unleashes a whirlwind of exceptional stories. About New York and its Black inhabitants, about pride and tradition, about the power of photography, and about director Sherman De Jesus’ grandfather. Sherman De Jesus heads to New York with a seemingly clear goal in mind: to find out the story behind …...
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The Disillusionment of John Adams: Civic Virtue

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

September 22, 2021

The namesake of this institute, John Adams, was unsurpassed among the American founders in the depth of his knowledge about politics, history, and law. No one in that age of remarkably learned political leaders – not even James Madison – read as voraciously or ranged as widely as Adams in contemplating the proper underpinnings …...
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Canopy Theater performs ‘Eleemosynary’

September 21, 2021

Eleemosynary is a play by the American playwright Lee Blessing. The story revolves around three generations of women who share their stories with the audience over the course of seven scenes. Their efforts to be both a parent and a child are shared with the audience directly through narration and dialogue....
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Lecture by Princeton’s Jan-Werner Mueller

September 17, 2021

Everyone knows that democracy is in trouble, but do we know what democracy actually is? As part of the Munich Dialogues on Democracy Speakers Series, a cooperation between The Yale Club of Germany and the Amerikahaus in Munich, Professor at Princeton University Jan-Werner Mueller will discuss on 30/9....
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The Disillusionment of Alexander Hamilton: Governmental Energy

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

September 15, 2021

Among the American founders, Alexander Hamilton was easily the most consistent and unabashed proponent of a strong national government. His foremost dream for the new United States was that it would eventually achieve the kind of international prominence, military might, and economic prosperity that he saw embodied in the great European monarchies, especially Britain, …...
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Rachelle Meyer announces publication mini-comics

September 10, 2021

Rachelle Meyer, an American artist who lives in Amsterdam, created Texas Tracts, a collection of autobio mini-comics. In the trilogy, Rachelle shares funny and touching stories about growing up Catholic in the Lone Star State. Click here for the Faces on the Ferry blogseries she wrote for the John Adams in 2019....
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The Disillusionment of George Washington: Partisanship

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

September 8, 2021

Throughout his remarkable public career, one of George Washington’s foremost wishes for his country was that it would remain free of political parties and partisanship. All of America’s founders at least professed an aversion to “factions,” as they were frequently called, but none loathed them more fiercely, consistently, and sincerely than he did. As …...
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Why America’s Founders Came to Fear for the Country’s Future

By Dennis C. Rasmussen

September 1, 2021

On September 17, 1787, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gathered one last time in what is now Independence Hall in Philadelphia in order to sign the charter that they had spent the past four months crafting. As the last of the thirty-eight signers affixed their names to the Constitution, Benjamin Franklin called attention …...
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Online Exhibtion: Foam Talent 2021

August 27, 2021

The 15th edition of Foam Talent presents an online selection of 20 outstanding artists. The exhibit features four American photographers, Tommy Kha, Pat Martin, Joey Solomon and Leonard Suryajaya. The annual competition is a search for exceptionally talented young photographers,...
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Exhibition Margaret Kilgallen

August 25, 2021

The Bonnefanten museum in Maastricht is showing That's where the beauty is, an exhibition exploring the work of American artist Margaret Kilgallen. She's known for her line drawings, which are closely linked to various subcultures and feminist themes. On view until 7 November....
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Exhibition ‘The Art of the Brick’

August 17, 2021

The world’s largest exhibition of Lego®-art is in Amsterdam this summer. The 100 art works on view were all created by New York artist Nathan Sawaya. He is the first artist to ever take LEGO into the art world. 'Art of the Brick' is on view until 29 August....
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Patrick Radden Keefe

Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty

Sep 29, 2021, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The name of the Sackler family adorns the walls of many storied institutions – Harvard, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oxford, the Louvre. They are one of the richest families in the world, known for their lavish donations to the arts and sciences. The source of the family fortune was vague, however, until it emerged …...
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Russell Shorto

Smalltime: A Story of My Family and the Mob

Sep 15, 2021, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Could it really be happening? Will there – after more than a year and a half online – be a John Adams event with a real, live speaker?! Yes, in addition to our rich online program we are happy to start welcoming speakers in person again. On September 15, Russell Shorto will take the John …...
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Outdoor exhibit Ellsworth Kelly

July 22, 2021

This summer, Rijksmuseum Gardens will exhibit nine sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly. Kelly was one of the most important American artists of the 2nd half of the 20th century. All nine sculptures are on view in the Netherlands for the first time....
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Far Cries 401

July 19, 2021

The Delfshaven Festival presents Far Cries 401, a show about leave-taking, inspired by the last year's anniversary of the voyage of the Pilgrim Fathers to America. July 21 & 22, at the Pelgrimsvaderkerk in Rotterdam....
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ITA-Ensemble performs ‘A Little Life’

July 13, 2021

No novel has captivated and moved millions of readers during the past few years like A little life by American author Hanya Yanagihara. For ITA, Ivo van Hove adapted Yanagihara’s novel to theater and created a fascinating performance (from 29 September-2 October). ...
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Eliot Brown

The Cult of We: WeWork, Adam Neumann, and the Great Startup Delusion

Jul 14, 2021, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The Cult of We by Wall Street Journal correspondents Eliot Brown and Maureen Farrell is the definitive inside story of WeWork and its audacious founder Adam Neumann. Neumann transformed himself from a struggling baby clothes salesman into the charismatic, hard-partying CEO of a company worth $47 billion — on paper. Billions poured in, but in …...
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Webinar: Blood on the River

July 3, 2021

On July 7, the NAF presents Blood on the River. In this webinar, historian Marjoleine Kars will tell the story of the thousands of slaves in the Dutch colony of Berbice who rose up in 1763 and seized control of many of the colony’s plantations. Click here to register....
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Exhibition Bruce Nauman at Stedelijk Museum

June 29, 2021

In collaboration with Tate Modern, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam presents the largest overview of the American artist Bruce Nauman in the Netherlands up to now. This exhibition spans a period of more than fifty years and reflects Nauman’s preoccupation with themes such as the body, language, and control....
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Book Launch: Curbing Traffic

June 28, 2021

On June 29th, Chris and Melissa Bruntlett's book Curbing Traffic will be released. It argues for an end to auto-dependency and supremacy, through the lenses of equity, wellbeing, resilience, and social cohesion. The authors just finished a blog series for the John Adams based on their book....
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The Age-Friendly City

By Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

June 24, 2021

As we get older, many of us aspire to the same ideals: To enjoy old age from the comfort of the home we’ve built for as long as our bodies and minds will allow. We save for retirement to reduce financial worry, set up systems with family and friends to take care of each …...
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International Podcast Festival by Oorzaken

June 23, 2021

Oorzaken, a Dutch platform for narrative audio, will host the International Podcast Festival from 1-4 July. Part of their program is in English: Climate Anxiety (July 3rd), Plantation of Our Ancestors and a ...
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Niall Ferguson

Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

Jul 05, 2021, 7:30 pm - 8:45 pm

Might there have been fewer deaths from Covid-19 if governments had been quicker to impose lockdowns and restrict, even ban, air travel? Might its spread have been more quickly controlled if the Chinese authorities had been more open when the first cases were identified? The knowledge about diseases that we have accumulated over the past …...
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The Prosperous City

By Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

June 17, 2021

No matter the country, the connection between access to opportunity and economic prosperity is intrinsic. A population should be able to easily access housing, education, employment, health care, shops, and essential services. Despite this recognition, a car-dominant focus overlooks the negative impact this has on almost everyone, particularly those of lower incomes. Taking into …...
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Lecture ‘How Fascism Works’

June 17, 2021

Munich Dialogues on Democracy presents How Fascism Works: the Politcs of Us and Them, a lecture by Jason Stanley, Professor of Philosophy at Yale. He will explain how nations don’t have to be fascist to suffer from fascist politics. On June 28th, 2021, 7pm (CET)....
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Virtual Symposium – Amsterdam and Rembrandt

June 15, 2021

On June 16th, the National Gallery of Canada will host a virtual symposium that traces the central decades of Rembrandt’s career, from his arrival in Amsterdam to the emergence of his late style in the mid-1650s, in the transformative context of the dynamic city that became his home. Click here for more info and to...
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RIAS hosts lecture about Covid and globalization

June 11, 2021

On 16 June, 4 pm (CET), the RIAS will host 'America’s Conflicted Relationship with Globalization in the Age of Covid', an online lecture by Petra Goedde, professor at Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania). Goedde is an expert on U.S. foreign relations, cultural globalization, and gender history....
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The Accessible City

By Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

June 10, 2021

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, a reccurring theme appeared every time a city suggested removing on-street parking in favor of low-car environments with extended sidewalks, pop-up bike-lanes, and patios; all in an effort to accommodate physical distancing and safer movement through its streets. Namely, the negative impact that would have on the disabled community: creating …...
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Exhibition: Art Against the Flow – Chicago Calling

June 4, 2021

Museum of the Mind | Outsider Art, the only museum in the Netherlands that shows art works by national and international Outsider Artists, presents Art Against the Flow: Chicago Calling. The exhibition (from June 5) explores the visual story of the Windy City through works by ten Chicago artists. The museum is located at the Hermitage...
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The Feminist City

By Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

June 3, 2021

In the Netherlands, 56% of cyclists are women. This is not, as many like to purport, because Dutch women are born on bicycles, or that somehow, they are more confident, take more risks, or are in any way superior. Rather, the female cycling rates are so high because every Dutch city, town, and village …...
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Exhibition to celebrate 375th anniversary of Brooklyn

June 1, 2021

To celebrate the 375th anniversary of the present-day New York neighborhood of Brooklyn, named after the Dutch city of Breukelen, Regionaal Historisch Centrum Vecht & Venen hosts the exhibition With a packed suitcase to Brooklyn. From June 24th, click here for more information (in Dutch)....
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The Child-Friendly City

By Chris & Melissa Bruntlett

May 27, 2021

Emigrating to a new country is a difficult decision for anyone, and we were fully aware that uprooting our nine- and twelve-year-old children from the lives they had known since birth would come with its own set of challenges. But to give our children a freedom and independence we found impossible in our car-dominated …...
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Lecture: Dutch Slave Resistance in New York

May 26, 2021

The Netherland-America Foundation and the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies (RIAS) present ‘Dutch Slave Resistance in New York,’ a lecture about Dutch-owned enslaved people who played a visible role in challenging slavery throughout the state. The discussion will be moderated by former John Adams director Russell Shorto. June 1st, 6pm (CET)....
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Lecture: The Serendipity Mindset

May 21, 2021

On June 3rd (8pm CET), John Adams director Tracy Metz will talk to Dr. Christian Busch, author of The Serendipity Mindset and director of the Global Economy program at New York University's Center for Global Affairs. They will talk about the the science of serendipity, and how turn the unexpected into positive outcomes and creativity. Hosted by ...
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Elizabeth Kolbert

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future

Jun 10, 2021, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

If we can just get through the 21st century, humanity might have a chance, says Elizabeth Kolbert. We have already intervened in the earth’s system to the extent that we are now living in the ‘Anthropocene’. Maybe we can buy time by intervening even more, with so-called geo-engineering: turning carbon emissions to stone, for example, …...
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Everything in life is better on a bike

By Tracy Metz

May 20, 2021

“Ask a Dutch person why they cycle so much, and they’ll shrug: ‘It’s just in our culture’; oblivious to the vast infrastructure networks built to make it easy. Ask an American why they drive so much, and they’ll do the same. First we shape our streets; then our streets shape us.” This was a …...
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Podcast by Jill Lepore

May 18, 2021

In the podcast The Last Archive, acclaimed historian Jill Lepore traces the history of evidence, proof, and knowledge in search of an answer to the question: Who killed truth? In 2019, Lepore visited the John Adams to discuss her book These Truths – A History of the United States....
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Online events Netherland-America Foundation

May 15, 2021

The NAF celebrates its 100th birthday with two events in May. The 20th, the NAF Live TV-Culture Edition will be broadcast from studios in Amsterdam and New York, featuring Dutch and American artists. The next day will bring the webcast 'Connecting Flight: 75 years Amsterdam – New York', commemorating the first...
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Lecture on Frederik Douglass by David W. Blight

May 10, 2021

Munich Dialogues on Democracy, Amerikahaus and the Bavarian American Academy present 'Frederick Douglass: Prose Poet of American Democracy', a talk by David W. Blight, Professor of History and Frederik Douglass expert. He will describe how Douglass, a former slave, would become the most famed and widely travelled orator in the nation, using...
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TV adaption of novel The Underground Railroad

May 6, 2021

On May 14th, Amazon will start airing The Underground Railroad, a historical fiction drama series directed by Barry Jenkins based on the novel of the same name by Colson Whitehead. The author visited the John Adams in 2017 to talk about his novel which won both the Pulizer Prize and the National Book Award. Click on the Read more button to watch the trailer....
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The Europe Challenge

May 2, 2021

The European Cultural Foundation launches The Europe Challenge: how do cultural public spaces help tackle economic recession, unemployment, social tensions, and climate change? At this online event on May 9th, people working throughout public spaces in Europe will discuss how this initiative works towards...
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The John Adams partners with America institutes in Europe

April 29, 2021

Strengthening European-American Relations There is something new afoot at the John Adams – something bigger than bringing American culture to the Netherlands. We are making European connections! After all, the John Adams is not the only cultural institution in Europe which keeps tabs on great American thinking. It struck me that if these institutions are …...
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Launch Antwerp America Foundation

April 22, 2021

The Antwerp America Foundation, a new independent forum for American culture and a partner of the John Adams, will host its 1st lecture on May 4, 2.45 pm (CET). American economist and leading expert on sustainable development Jeffrey Sachs, will talk about...
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Online session on Russia by John Hopkins University

April 20, 2021

John Hopkins University will host an online discussion on how to deal with Russia. Former World Bank expert on Russia and political economist at JHU Washington Marsha McGraw Olive, and Dutch NRC columnist Hubert Smeets will talk about the relations of the US and the EU with Russia. On April 28th, 8pm (CET)....
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Panel discussion: What’s Wrong with Tech?

April 15, 2021

What’s Wrong With (www/), a diagnostic discussion series, presents What's Wrong with Tech? On April 22nd, 3pm (EST), three American panelists will discuss how technology has helped society develop, and how its application created (moral) dilemmas at the same time....
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Dr. Anthony Fauci

Challenging Corona

May 25, 2021, 5:30 pm - 6:45 pm

The John Adams Institute is happy to welcome Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President, for a conversation about our response to the corona virus. If we have to learn to live with the virus, as is now often said, what will the ‘new normal’ look like? Is there indeed light at the …...
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Sharon Zukin

The Urban Innovation Complex

Apr 19, 2021, 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Cities like New York and San Francisco have bloomed thanks to the innovation economy. Can tech save our cities? In her new book The Innovation Complex, professor of urban sociology Sharon Zukin shows how these forces are shaping both the new urban economy and urban space. What happens when big tech enters a city? It brings talent and jobs and new ideas and urban revival, yes, but the ‘innovation complex’ also increases dependence on global capital and enables the rise of a new meritocratic...
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NIAS Lecture 2021

April 8, 2021

When we talk about the history of a country or a city, whose history are we talking about? This year’s NIAS Lecture will address the challenges of making an inclusive history. April 21th, 3.30pm (CET), with Jennifer Tosch (Founder of Black Heritage Tours Amsterdam & New York) and Femke Halsema (Mayor of Amsterdam)....
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Brainwash presents Shoshana Zuboff

April 5, 2021

Tech companies know what you are doing by collecting all the information you share. On April 25th, Harvard professor Shoshana Zuboff will discuss the dangers of this new reality at Brainwash Weekend. She will be joined by philosopher Haroon Sheikh, who moderated our event with Barry Eichengreen about his book The Populist Temptatation....
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Online lecture about American art history

April 1, 2021

The Arts Society of The Hague presents Masters of America from Copely to Bellows, a lecture about American art of the early modern period through the work of its leading masters. De online presentation takes place on April 13th, at 8pm. Last December, the John Adams hosted an event on art and activism in America....
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Podcast: Comparing the Contrast

March 28, 2021

Norman Vladimir Smith, a US citizen living in Amsterdam, is the host of Comparing the Contrast, a podcast about all the things you discover when you take the leap to live outside of your home country. It deals with personal topics like connection, obligation and isolation....
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Webinar on the Dutch role in slave trade

March 23, 2021

The first enslaved Africans arrived in Virginia in 1619 on the White Lion, a privateer ship sailing under the aegis of Dutch letters of marque. On April 13, 2021 at 6pm (CET), the Netherland-America Foundation will host a webinar about the Dutch role in these events. It will feature Dutch journalist and author Leendert van der Valk, who recently published an article on this topic. Click ...
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Book discussion on Dutch women in the resistance

March 21, 2021

In honor of Women’s History Month, the U.S. Mission to the Netherlands and Resistance Museum Amsterdam will host an online conversation with American author Tim Brady on his latest book Three Ordinary Girls, which tells the story of Dutch resistance fighters Hannie Schaft and the sisters Truus and Freddie Oversteegen. On March 23rd, 4pm (CET)....
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Munich Dialogues on Democracy presents Robert B. Zoellick

March 18, 2021

On March 25th, 7pm (CET), Munich Dialogues on Democracy presents an online lecture by American politician, public official and former president of the World Bank, Robert B. Zoellick. He will talk about U.S. diplomacy and foreign policy in the past, the present and the future....
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Book discussion Russell Shorto

March 16, 2021

Former John Adams director and best-selling author Russell Shorto grew up knowing his grandfather was a small-town mob boss. In his new book Smalltime, he takes on this part of his past. The American Book Center will interview the author online about this story on March 23rd, 7.30pm. Shorto took the John Adams stage as a guest speaker in ...
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Testimony of our landscape

By Richard Frishman

March 10, 2021

House and ambush site of state field secretary for the NAACP Medgar Evers (Jackson, Miss.). In 1963, he was gunned down in his driveway by a white supremacist. All human landscapes are embedded with cultural meaning. And since we rarely consider our constructions as evidence of our priorities, beliefs and behaviors, the testimonies our …...
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Seminar Russell Shorto: New York’s Dutch Beginnings

March 8, 2021

The New Netherland Institute presents a six-part seminar on New York's Dutch beginnings presented by former John Adams director Russell Shorto and Dennis Maika. Starting on March 18, the purpose of this seminar is to share the new view of New York’s beginnings with a wider audience, and to explore its influence on later American history....
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Speech Battle 2021

March 5, 2021

Who writes the best speech for Kamala Harris? In honor of International Women's Day, De Balie and deBuren will host the final of the Speech Battle 2021. On March 7 at 8pm, join the free livestream and help pick a winner. This event is in Dutch. (photo ©Gage Skidmore)....
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The Original Sin

By Richard Frishman

March 3, 2021

A former ‘segregation wall,’ built to separate customers of color. Templin Saloon, Gonzales (TX). Slavery is often referred to as America’s “original sin.” Its demons still haunt us in the form of segregated housing, education, health care, employment. Through these photographs, I’m trying to preserve the physical evidence of that sin — because, when …...
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Arun Chaudhary

Campaigning the American Way

Mar 16, 2021, 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm

The victory of Joe Biden in the US elections was predicted by no one in 2019, and by any reasonable metric, he did not run an innovative or even effective campaign. So why did he win? Arun Chaudhary, who worked on both Barack Obama’s and Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns, and is currently a campaign advisor …...
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Film Talk: RBG

February 28, 2021

On March 2nd, SIB Utrecht will screen and discuss the documentary RBG detailing Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s life and achievements. Dr. Valenta, president of the American Studies Association, will explain how Ginsburg fought for gender equality through application of her legal knowledge. Ginsburg visited the John Adams in 1999....
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Accelerating Women’s Entrepreneurship

February 26, 2021

On March 8, The Netherlands Diplomatic Network in the United States will hold a virtual roundtable about women's entrepreneurship and the impact the Network has on its development and growth. With, amongst others, Dutch Ambassador to the US André Haspels, and Neelie Kroes, former Dutch Minister and EU Commissioner. Click here to register....
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“We might get lost again”

By Richard Frishman

February 24, 2021

Former colored entrance to a theater, Kilgore (TX). The six faded letters are all that remain, and few people notice them. I would never have seen them if a friend hadn’t pointed them out to me while we walked through New Orleans’s French Quarter. I certainly wouldn’t have realized their significance. On Chartres Street, …...
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Foam Talent: ‘Atlanta Made Us Famous’

February 16, 2021

The fifteenth edition of Foam Magazine's Talent issue presents a selection of outstanding artists. One of them is the Dutch-Moroccan photographer Hajar Benjida (1995). Her photo series Atlanta Made Us Famous highlights the women who play an important role in the Atlanta hip-hop scene....
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Lecture on Biden’s new transatlantic agenda

February 10, 2021

With the new engagement from Washington towards Europe, hopes run high that transatlantic relations will quickly return to a state of pre-Trump ‘normalcy’. But how realistic is this? On Feb. 18 (16.30pm), the Netherlands Atlantic Association debates this subject with Han ten Broeke, Roberta Haar and Heather Conley. In...
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Rebecca Henderson

Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire

Mar 04, 2021, 7:15 pm - 8:30 pm

Yes, capitalism is the greatest source of prosperity the world has ever seen. But many also blame it for the massive problems that plague the modern world. In Reimagining Capitalism in a World on Fire, Harvard Business School Professor Rebecca Henderson argues that only a new form of capitalism can drive the innovation we need …...
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Obamas to make movie of Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West

February 8, 2021

Obama’s production company Higher Ground announced six new projects in development for Netflix, including an film adaptation of author Mohsin Hamid's novel Exit West. The book tells the story of a couple who find magical doors to transport them to other places and land in the middle of a global refugee crisis. In 2017, Hamid visited the John Adams to discuss Exit West....
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Art Against the Flow: Chicago Calling

February 3, 2021

Museum of the Mind in Amsterdam presents 'Art Against the Flow: Chicago Calling', an exhibition in cooperation with The Center for Intuitive and Outsider Art in Chicago. It's a story told by eleven artists, and shows how the art scene in Chicago has a special relationship with uniqueness and authenticity. The exhibition is scheduled to open on March 3rd....
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Docuseries by Dutch film maker at Sundance

January 28, 2021

This year's Sundance Film Festival will screen Seeds of Deceit, a docuseries by Dutch film maker Miriam Guttmann. The three-part documentary tells the story of Jan Karbaat, a fertility doctor in the Netherlands. As his patients’ offspring began looking into their ancestry, a disturbing story emerged about a man who secretly used his own semen to impregnate his patients. As from 28 Jan., screening is available ...
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Podcast ‘Jan & Christina’

January 22, 2021

In the podcast Jan & Christina (in Dutch) by Katinka Baehr, we meet Dutch photographer Jan Banning who committed himself to helping Christina Boyer, an American woman who has been imprisoned for 28 years for the murder of her 3-year-old daughter. Wrongly, according to Banning....
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Lecture by Roberta Haar

January 20, 2021

AG Eindhoven presents 'Biden: Will the EU and the US become solid allies again?', an online lecture by Roberta Haar, Professor of Foreign Policy Analysis and Transatlantic Relations at University College Maastricht. 21st, 8pm. In 2019 she moderated our event with Hendrik Meijer about the creation of NATO, and more recently with Ian...
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Inauguration show at Boom Chicago

January 14, 2021

On the day Joe Biden will be inaugurated as President, Boom Chicago will host The Final Lock Him Up Comedy Show with Greg Shapiro and Pep Rosenfeld, combined with the live broadcast of the inauguration and Biden's inauguration speech. Online on 20 Jan, 5.30pm....
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Martin Luther King vs. The FBI

Documentary & Doc Talk

Jan 23, 2021, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Captivating and urgent, Martin Luther King vs. The FBI uncovers how during the civil rights movement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) utilized every means at its disposal to sabotage the efforts of dr. Martin Luther King and other Black activists. Based on recently discovered and declassified files, the documentary powerfully demonstrates how fear for …...
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Podcast ‘Over the Hill’ by Laila Frank

January 5, 2021

In the run-up to the Georgia Runoffs, the podcast Over the Hill by Haagsch College (in Dutch) talks about the Deep South. Will the shifting demographics impact the outcome of the elections? The podcast is moderated by America-journalist Laila Frank, who will also host ...
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OBA – Cinema Literair shows ‘Being There’

December 27, 2020

On 20 Jan. at 7.30pm, the night before President Biden's inauguration, OBA will show Being There, the film adaption of Jerzy Korsinki's classic novel. Prior to the screening, editor-in-chief of the Groene Amsterdammer Xandra Schutte will interpret the recent political developments in the US using Being There as a guideline. The John Adam hosted several events in cooperation with the OBA, like ...
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Amsterdam Light Festival: Edition#9

December 23, 2020

Although in a different set-up, the Amsterdam Light Festival is still bringing light to the city this year. The 2020 theme is When Nature Calls. Seven works of art will be spread over four different neighborhoods. On the website, a new artwork will be highlighted online every week in December and January. You can also explore previous editions,...
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The Daily: Matthew Desmond on Eviction Crisis

December 19, 2020

The New York Times podcast The Daily talked to Matthew Desmond, Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and contributing writer for The Times Magazine, about the evictions crisis in the United States, which has gotten a lot worse during the pandemic. In 2018, Desmond visited the John Adams to discuss his book Evicted: Poverty and...
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The Georgia Runoffs: Battle for the Senate

with Michael Steele & Jonathan Capehart

Jan 06, 2021, 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm

The presidential election is over, but the race for the US Senate is heating up – and Georgia holds the key. It is here that the last two seats in the Senate are up for grabs, so the stakes are high. Will the Republicans maintain their grip on the Senate? Or will the Democrats create …...
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Lecture by Prof. Odd Arne Westad

December 8, 2020

On Dec 10, 7pm, Munich Dialogues on Democracy presents The Sources of Chinese Conduct. Are Washington and Beijing Fighting a New Cold War, a lecture by Odd Arne Westad, Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. He will explore the parallels and the differences between China today and the Soviet Union of old, and the effect that...
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Atlantic Dialogue

December 6, 2020

On Dec. 8, 7pm, the Netherlands Atlantic Youth will organize a program with Emma Sky, Director of the Yale World Fellows Program and former advisor to the U.S. military in Iraq and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. She will talk about U.S.-Iran tensions, the Israeli-Gulf rapprochement, and her expectations of President-elect Biden’s Middle East policy....
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Lecture by Dr. Anthony Fauci

December 4, 2020

On Dec. 10, 8.30pm, Amsterdam UMC and the Volkskrant will be hosting the 'Anatomische Les', a public lecture about medicine and society. This year's (online) guest speaker is dr. Anthony Fauci, the American director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Fauci will share his insights on the ongoing corona pandemic....
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Art & Activism in America Now

Dec 16, 2020, 7:30 pm - 9:00 pm

American art today is confronting issues of racism, colonialism and identity head on. What is it like to be a visual artist in America now, where the public debate is dominated by Trumpism on the one hand and Black Lives Matter on the other? The John Adams is joining forces with Kunsthal KAdE to talk …...
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Home is where the heart is

By Chad Bilyeu & Mieke Bleeker

December 2, 2020

A large part of issue number four of Chad in Amsterdam is about origin. What does it mean when you’re constantly on the move? In A Tale of Three Cities (The Dutch Inquisition), we find Chad once more at a bar, being asked where he’s from. This time, it gets him reminiscing about the three …...
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De Pont presents Hans Broek: The Things I Used To Do

November 25, 2020

From 19 Nov-18 April, Museum De Pont in Tilburg presents the exhibition The Things I Used to Do, by Dutch painter Hans Broek, who lived in the US for twenty years. He became intrigued by the history of slavery, which resulted in a series of paintings depicting forts, dungeons, cell doors and the homes of plantation owners on the coasts at both sides of the Atlantic....
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Something Fishy

By Chad Bilyeu & Mieke Bleeker

November 25, 2020

In The Four Fish Specialists in the third issue of Chad in Amsterdam we’re talking herring. Although it is considered a delicacy in the Netherlands, dipped in onions, the silvery and slightly slimy snack is not for everyone. Especially for the non-Dutch, it can be quite the experience. Chad’s first encounter with the infamous …...
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NPO2: ‘The Kingmaker’ by Lauren Greenfield

November 22, 2020

NPO2 presents Lauren Greenfield's superb documentary The Kingmaker. It portrays Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines and the family's efforts to return to political power. Tuesday Nov. 24 at 23.35 pm. Greenfield visited the John Adams in 2017 to discuss her monograph Generation...
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The Dutch Inquisition

By Chad Bilyeu & Mieke Bleeker

November 18, 2020

In the recurring item The Dutch Inquisition in the second issue of Chad in Amsterdam, Chad again goes into the subject of compartmentalization, the Dutch urge to divide the world into nicely fitting categories, as he sees it. One of the things he loved about Amsterdam when visiting the city before moving there, was its …...
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Ian Buruma

The Churchill Complex

Dec 01, 2020, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

What would Churchill do? The Special Relationship between Britain and America has done much to shape the world as we know it, from World War II through to Trump and Brexit. The victors of the war inherited a legacy of leadership and prestige as beacons of freedom and democracy. But what is left of that …...
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Where Are You From?

By Chad Bilyeu & Mieke Bleeker

November 11, 2020

“Where are you from?” Chad has lost count how many times he’s been asked that question. It inspired him to create The Dutch Inquisition, a recurring item in all four issues of the comic. The question seems pretty harmless, nothing more than an easy way to start a conversation. But to Chad, it is …...
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IDFA: The Americans

November 11, 2020

IDFA presents 'The Americans, a series of six films in which outsiders observe and capture life and the people of the United States. Starting from 19 November, the next three titles shown are 'Til Kingdom Come, Non Western and Below Sealevel. Click here for more info and tickets....
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School of Life presents Zadie Smith

November 9, 2020

On 19 November, School of Life will host an online interview with Zadie Smith, one of the most important writers of our time. Smith and moderator Clarice Gargard will talk about a range of topics, like identity, class, racism, privilege and suffering. Zadie Smith visited the John Adams in 2016 to discuss her...
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Exhibtion at Foam: Amsterdam Girls

November 4, 2020

Foam presents Amsterdam Girls, with over 50 vintage portraits and contact prints from the analogue archive of the American photographer Remsen Wolff. From 1990 to 1992, Wolff spent a month each year in Amsterdam to portray the transgender community. On view until 6 December....
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Exhibition William Wegman

October 25, 2020

Fotomuseum Den Haag presents Being Human, an exhibition by American photographer William Wegman. His human-like portraits of his ever-expanding cast of dogs have brought him worldwide fame. Until January 3rd, the museum shows a major survey of four decades of Wegman’s work....
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America programs at Pakhuis de Zwijger

October 21, 2020

In the run-up to the presidential elections, Pakhuis de Zwijger hosts several America related online events, covering a range of topics like the political battle, the deep division in US society and the influence of the current pandemic. 22, 28 and ...
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Livecast about ‘She Said’

October 16, 2020

The Narrative Journalism Foundation in Amsterdam presents the livecast She Said, about the journalists that broke the Harvey Weinstein story. One of them was Rebecca Corbett, editor at the New York Times, who will discuss her work with Xandra Schutte. On Oct 20, 8:30pm. In 2019, Megan Twohey, one of...
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Nussbaum and Power at Brainwash

October 13, 2020

Brainwash Festival will be online this year (16-18 Oct), hosting some excellent American speakers like former Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power and Professor of Law and Ethics Martha Nussbaum. Both were also guests of the John Adams. Power joined us online recently, Nussbaum took the stage in 2012 and ...
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The Day After the 2020 Elections

Reflections on the Outcome

Nov 04, 2020, 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

On November 4th, the day after the upcoming US Elections 2020, the John Adams Institute is organizing a live online event with several commentators – many of whom you may have seen at the John Adams before – to hear their thoughts and reflections on the undoubtedly turbulent events of the day before. We don’t …...
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The US 2020 Elections

High School Student Webinar

Nov 02, 2020, 10:30 am - 11:30 am

Our 2020 Quincy Club lecture school series on the US Presidential Elections filled up fast. For everyone who missed out or wants to participate again, the John Adams is organizing a live online broadcast on the day before the elections, Monday 2 November at 10.30 am. This broadcast will be presented live by Albertine Bloemendal, …...
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Livecast about Henrietta Lacks

October 7, 2020

The Narrative Journalism Foundation in Amsterdam presents The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a livecast with American science writer Rebecca Skloot, who wrote a book about the remarkable story of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cell line, known as HeLa, that came from Lacks's cervical cancer cells...
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The Divided State of America

October 3, 2020

In the weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election, artist duo J&B will radically alter the façade of EENWERK Gallery in Amsterdam with a new work, The Divided State of America – a monumental, transparent variation of the American flag. On view from 10 Oct-10 Nov....
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Comedy about the Elections at Boom Chicago

October 1, 2020

Boom Chicago presents a comedy show about the upcoming presidential elections. Lock Him Up is the follow-up to their longest running show, Trump Up the Volume. Starring Pep Rosenfeld and Greg Shapiro, the show will bring you inside the 2020 presidential race with stand-up and improv comedy. Click here for 25% off using discount code ADAMSBOOM....
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Exhibition ‘This Is America | Art USA Today’

September 24, 2020

On 3 November, Americans go to the polls to elect the President: will it be Donald Trump or Joe Biden? A pivotal moment in a politically and socially divided country. Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort has set out to discover what position artists are adopting in these charged times which resulted in the exhibition This Is America | Art USA Today. From Sept 26-Jan 3....
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Coffee Klatsch

2020 Election Talk

September 22, 2020

In the run-up to the presidential elections, the John Adams hosts the ‘Coffee Klatsch’, a weekly online discussion for our members and patrons and our Family and Friends about election related topics, hosted by Glen Kendall and Gabe Marino. At the third meeting, we discussed the corona virus hitting the White House and what it might mean....
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Abhijit Banerjee

Good Economics for Hard Times

Oct 06, 2020, 8:30 pm - 9:30 pm

The Nobel Prize for Economics 2019 went to Abhijit Banerjee from India and his wife Esther Duflo, from France. Both are economists at MIT where they founded the Poverty Action Lab. They were awarded the Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work on new, practical ways to fight global poverty. “Economics is too important to be …...
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Royal Philharmonic Society presents Alex Ross

September 22, 2020

On September 29, The Royal Philharmonic Society will host an online interview with Alex Ross, author and music critic for The New Yorker, moderated by Stephen Fry. He will discuss his new book Wagnerism. A decade ago, Alex’s book The Rest Is Noise caused a sensation in its epic account of music’s power and impact through the 20th century. Alex Ross visited the...
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Quincy Club 2020

Learn all about the Presidential Elections

September 21, 2020

Our school program the Quincy Club is back on the road! The coming weeks Albertine Bloemendal will visit around 20 high schools in the Netherlands to teach about the upcoming presidential elections. First stop: the Stedelijk Dalton College in Alkmaar....
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Hollis Kurman publishes picture book

September 15, 2020

Writer, poet and moderator Hollis Kurman published Counting Kindness, her debut picture book, which traces the refugee child’s journey through the lens of help and hope experienced along the way. The book will be published in 8 countries in 2020-21. Hollis moderated several events at the John Adams institute: Jonathan Safran Foer in ...
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‘Unseen 2020 at the Gallery’

September 9, 2020

Gallery Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam presents Unseen at the Gallery showing previously undisplayed work by three American photographers (Jenia Fridlyand, Raymond Meeks and Bryan Schutmaat) who use their own surroundings as a source of inspiration. On view until 10 October....
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Brian Rose captures last days of Confederate statues

September 3, 2020

Brian Rose photographed the last days of the Confederate statues along Monument Avenue in Richmond (VA), which were removed in the wake of the riots that followed the death of George Floyd. His powerful images capture an extraordinary moment in time, collected in his upcoming book Monument Avenue - Grand Boulevard of the Lost...
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Exhibition: Tell Me Your Story

August 22, 2020

Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort presents the visual richness of black culture through the works of 50 African American artists. Tell Me Your Story shows 140 works - mainly on loan from the United States (until August 30th). The exhibition was prolonged after it temporarily closed because of the coronavirus....
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Madeleine Albright

Hell and Other Destinations

Jun 20, 2020, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright returned to the John Adams Institute once more, this time for an online interview with Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal about her new book Hell and Other Destinations, a 21st-Century Memoir. As one of the world’s most admired and tireless public servants, Albright reflects on the final stages of …...
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UN, US, NL

Online Webinar with Samantha Power and Karel van Oosterom

Jun 25, 2020, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm

With her book The Education of an Idealist: A Memoir, Samantha Power – Barack Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations from 2013-2017, Pulitzer Prize winner and human rights advocate – has written an intimate, powerful, and galvanizing memoir. The book traces Power’s distinctly American journey from immigrant to war correspondent to presidential Cabinet official during …...
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100 Years of Voting: Women’s Rights and Responsibilities

Liz Cheney & The National Archives on the 19th Amendment

Aug 27, 2020, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

In 1920, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified, winning women a constitutional guarantee of equal voting rights with men and bringing an end to decades of political disenfranchisement. Hosted by the American Women’s Club of Amsterdam, the U.S. Consulate General in Amsterdam and The John Adams Institute, this free online event will feature …...
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David Frum on the upcoming Presidential Elections

'Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy'

Sep 24, 2020, 9:15 pm - 10:15 pm

The John Adams is pleased to announce the second speaker in our fall program, in collaboration with De Balie. David Frum, journalist at The Atlantic and author, will be joining us for a free online event to discuss the upcoming presidential elections with moderator Tim Wagemakers. Political commentator David Frum will also discuss his latest …...
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High School Student Webinar

California and Silicon Valley

Jun 11, 2020, 10:30 am - 11:30 am

Every year, already since 2002, the John Adams Institute organizes a lecture program called The Quincy Club at schools all throughout the Netherlands to help young audiences better understand American culture. This year, the John Adams presented a unique, online live Quincy Club webinar about California’s Silicon Valley, an English program aimed at students in …...
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Esther Safran Foer

I Want You to Know We're Still Here

May 26, 2020, 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm

For our third online event we invited author Esther Safran Foer. The mother of three renowned authors – Franklin, Jonathan and Joshua – has written a heartfelt memoir exploring the history of her parents and extended family who were killed in Ukraine during World War 2. Her book, I Want You to Know We’re Still …...
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Francis Fukuyama

In Government We Trust

May 12, 2020, 12:00 am - 9:00 pm

How will the current COVID-19 crisis influence national democracies and international political relations? Will there be a shift in the balance of powers – between countries, but also between democracies and dictatorships? For insight and knowledge on these matters, we can look to the renowned American political scientist Francis Fukuyama. The John Adams Institute and …...
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Roger Ross Williams

The Innocence Files

Apr 15, 2020, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

The documentary series The Innocence Files is inspired by ‘The Innocence Project’, started in 1992 by two New York lawyers who use DNA technology to exonerate people who were wrongly convicted. There are now Innocence Projects in every state of the US. They have been able to get over 2500 people out of jail, often …...
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NAF Live TV

August 16, 2020

The Netherlands Chapter of the Netherland-American Foundation will host a live broadcast on September 9 (8.30pm) from the Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam, hosted by Humberto Tan. The live stream will include interviews with NAF Fulbright fellows, alumni and corporate supporters of the NAF. Click here for more info and to register. Watch this ...
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Foam: On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World

August 11, 2020

Foam's On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World unites the work of 27 contemporary artists who use innovative visual techniques to reflect on the evolving relationship between humans and nature. The exhibition shows the work of several American photographers. On view through September 2nd....
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Theatre: Angels in America

August 5, 2020

ITA and Nederlands Theater Festival present Angels in America by American playwright Tony Kushner, a complex portrait of a combative generation that goes against the spirit of the times: the havoc that AIDS causes strengthens the ultra-conservative forces in their fight against free love. On 12 September (Dutch spoken)....
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Leiden400 launches documentary ‘Stromingen’

July 30, 2020

Leiden400, which commemorates the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower, presents the documentary Stromingen, a virtual reconstruction of locations connected to the Pilgrims' time in the Netherlands. John Adams director Tracy Metz participated in this project. 2 August at 4pm, live stream via YouTube and Facebook....
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‘Your Freedom or My Freedom?’

By Mieke Bleeker

July 29, 2020

After a harrowing journey, the Pilgrims had finally reached the Promised Land and found their freedom. But what about the freedom of the people who were already there? Land for grabs The New England coast might have appeared abandoned at first. Earlier European visitors transmitted numerous diseases that ravaged the Native American communities. Between …...
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‘Do I Stay or Do I Go?’

By Mieke Bleeker

July 22, 2020

Even though the Pilgrims believed strongly in God’s providence, this question must have weighed heavy on their minds. What would it be like on the other side of the ocean? Would they survive the crossing? Could they afford it? In the end, only about fifty of the three hundred people who made up the Pilgrim …...
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Foam presents American photographer Alex Sloth

July 15, 2020

Photographer Alec Soth (Minneapolis, 1969) has become known as the chronicler of life at the American margins of the United States. His most recent project, I Know How Furiously Your Heart Is Beating concentrates on individuals and their private settings, marking a departure from Soth’s earlier work. From 11 Sept-6 Dec at Foam. For more information, click ...
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BLOG SERIES

The Pilgrim Fathers: The Price of Liberty

July 15, 2020

The story of the Pilgrims and the Mayflower is remarkable, and one worth telling. But over time, it was also greatly romanticized and distorted. Based on the exhibition ‘Pilgrims to America’ at Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden, this blog series tries to paint a more nuanced picture of the Pilgrims’ enterprise....
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“Can I Be Who I Am?”

By Mieke Bleeker

July 15, 2020

Can I be who I am? It’s one of the questions the exhibition Pilgrims to America – And the Limits of Freedom presents to its visitors. If we could ask the strict, Puritan religious community in England in 1608 which we now know as the Pilgrim Fathers, they would probably have answered with a …...
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VR Documentary by Roger Ross Williams

July 6, 2020

In the VR doc Travelling While Black you are seated at a table in a restaurant listed in 'The Green Book'. This guide was used from the 1940s-60s to tell African Americans where to find safe petrol stations, hotels, restaurants and hospitals. At EYE from 16 July-5 Aug. Director Roger Ross Williams visited the John Adams in 2018 and ...
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Hamilton Musical on Disney Plus

July 2, 2020

The film version of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Broadway hit Hamilton isn't exactly like going to the theater, but it still delivers a theatrical thrill. The premiere was planned for 2021, but was rescheduled after live performances of the musical were cancelled due to the corona crisis. Available for streaming on Disney Plus from July 3rd. Click ...
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Munich Dialogues on Democracy: The Information War

June 30, 2020

On July 20th (7pm), Nina Jankowicz, author and Disinformation Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington DC, will talk about the information war and disinformation campaigns. She will explain how we can better understand the motivations behind these attacks and how to beat them. In collaboration with Amerika Haus Munich. For more information about this online lecture, click here....
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Timothy Snyder at House of European History

June 25, 2020

House of European History Professor Timothy Snyder, a leading expert on Europe's history, to discuss the continent's shared and divided memory, in light of current events. In examining some of the darkest moments of recent history, Snyder finds hope and principles that could lead Europe out of its current malaise. Online on July 1st, 6pm. Snyder ...
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American Pioneers Concert by Ciconia Consort

June 17, 2020

On July 2nd, The Ciconia Consort presents the American Pioneers Concert at the Pelgrimvaderskerk in Delfshaven, performing music by American composers such as Copland, Ives and Antheil. Maarten van Rossum will provide historical context. Click here for tickets and more info....
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Movies That Matter: The Apollo

June 10, 2020

Pakhuis De Zwijger and Movies That Matter hosted a livecast with (amongst others) film director Roger Ross Williams on June 10th. His documentary about the Apollo Theater in Harlem formed the starting point for a discussion about art and the civil rights movement. Click here to watch. The John Adams screened and discussed the documentary with Roger Ross Williams last year....
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Documentary ‘Why We Hate’ at NPO

June 7, 2020

Why We Hate is a six-part documentary series produced by Steven Spielberg and Alex Gibney which explores the human condition for hatred and how we can overcome it. Broadcasted on 7 June, 10.10pm at NPO 2 or watch online. Click here to watch the trailer....
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Da 5 Bloods: New Spike Lee Film

May 28, 2020

Spike Lee turns his sights on Vietnam in his next film Da 5 Bloods, an action-adventure tale about four black veterans who return to Vietnam more than 40 years after the war, premiering June 12th on Netflix. Click here to watch the trailer. Spike Lee visited the John Adams in 2010....
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Jamel Shabazz Photography Exhibition

May 20, 2020

Fotomuseum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht presents the exhibition Streetlife from 1 June-27 September 2020. The museum shows colorful work by the American photographer Jamel Shabazz and black and white portraits by Dutch photographer Hans Rietveld. The street photography mostly shows the 60s, 70s and 80s....
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Watch Our Online Events

? Watch The Videos

May 20, 2020

The video of our webinar with Samantha Power and Karel van Oosterom is now online. Here you can also watch or rewatch the video’s of our previous online events....
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Virtual tour Keith Haring Exhibition

May 16, 2020

The BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts Brussels presents Walk With Me, a virtual tour of their exhibition of New York urban artist Keith Haring. In these video's, several experts walk you through the museum, while sharing their views of the works....
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Online lecture about the 1960s by the NNA

May 13, 2020

On May 19, the Netherlands Atlantic Association organizes an online program with American writer Christopher Caldwell, themed: What did the 'Sixties' bring us: Liberation or Confusion? It focuses on the ‘fruits’ of the liberal revolution of the 1960s and its political consequences that are being felt today in the US....
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Online opening commemorative year Leiden400

May 9, 2020

On May 16, the opening of the commemorative year Leiden400 takes place online due to the coronavirus. 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower taking the Pilgrims from Leiden to America. A livestream will take visitors on a tour through Leiden's historic city centre and museums to learn about the the Pilgrims’ story....
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Livestream: Making social impact in New York City

May 5, 2020

Pakhuis De Zwijger will livestream the series 'Infected Cities', kicking off with an episode about New York City. A panel of speakers will look at the impact of the virus on the city. Who are committed to support the people that are affected most by the crisis? And what role does art and culture play? May 7, 6.30pm....
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2DOC: Documentary “Truus’ Children”

May 3, 2020

Recently, the NPO broadcasted a documentary about Truus Wijsmuller, a member of the Dutch resistance who helped some 10,000 predominantly Jewish children to escape from Nazi-occupied European cities. Click here to watch. Author Megan Waite Clayton wrote a novel about these 'Kindertransports'. She visited the John Adams last January....
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Burning Man 2020 is going virtual

April 30, 2020

The world-famous annual event Burning Man in Nevada is going digital this year by creating a temporary virtual metropolis in the Black Rock Desert instead of an actual one. Not only is everyone welcome to join, but the public is also invited to make suggestions for the program...
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BLOG SERIES

Rumblings Among the Dispossessed

April 28, 2020

In the final blog of this series, journalist Sjors Roeters describes crossing the US by van and experiencing the effects of the pandemic on the homeless firsthand, and how the housing crisis in the country is at breaking point....
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Rumblings Among the Dispossessed

By Sjors Roeters

April 28, 2020

Shelter in place, they ordered. Stay home, they said. Tonight I have neighbors for a change. I’m new on the block. I parked my van next to a family along the Pacific Coast Highway, half an hour west of Los Angeles. The stuffed garbage bags outside their beat-up car indicate that they’ve been living …...
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BLOG SERIES

Dutch doctors in the epicenter in New York City

April 24, 2020

Two Dutch doctors who live in New York City describe how dealing with COVID-19 drastically changed their work as health care workers at a cancer center....
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Dutch doctors in the epicenter in New York City

By Jaap Jan Boelens and Leontine van Elden

April 24, 2020

Every evening at seven o’clock we listen to the tens of thousands of New Yorkers cheering in support of all the healthcare workers and other essential workers in emergency rooms, outpatient clinics and nursing homes. Our kids are proud of us: “They are cheering for you too!” When we moved to New York City …...
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Online Travelling

April 21, 2020

While being stuck at home, there are still a lot of places you can visit virtually. The Washington Post recently published a list of 52 places you can go and see online, including several destinations in the U.S. like Washington DC, Richmond (VA) en Glacier National Park in Montana....
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BLOG SERIES

My Life as a Dog

April 21, 2020

In this next part of our blog series, podcast maker Leon Neyfakh counts his blessings being able to sit out the pandemic from the comfort of a home outside the city, protecting him from a reality which others cannot escape....
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My Life as a Dog

By Leon Neyfakh

April 21, 2020

I had gotten pretty good about feeling lucky even before all this happened. But I’m now more conscious of my luck than ever, both in terms of the big picture – I am young, healthy, self-employed – as well as all the circumstantial reasons that have allowed me to experience the pandemic not as …...
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Soundwalks by Soundtrackcity

April 18, 2020

Soundtrackcity's offer free audio soundwalks that have been developed by teams of sound artists, visual artists, musicians, theater and film makers. They make the invisible tangible and stimulate your imagination while walking the city....
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BLOG SERIES

Quiet Spring in Rock Creek Park

April 17, 2020

In the 8th part of this blog series, US correspondent Bas Blokker tries to figure out how to balance enjoying the peacefulness in Washington DC without trivializing the gravity of the epidemic....
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Quiet Spring in Rock Creek Park

By Bas Blokker

April 17, 2020

Rituals Every morning my editor calls from the Netherlands. We discuss what we think is happening in the United States, what we’ve read or seen, and what could be a topic for me to write about. He used to call from the Amsterdam office of the national daily NRC Handelsblad, a four-storied workspace in …...
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BLOG SERIES

Black Liberators

April 15, 2020

The final part of this blog series tells the remarkable story of how research into the origins of a military cemetery for American soldiers in the Netherlands led to the discovery of the forgotten history of the Black Liberators....
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Mieke Kirkels – The Oral History of the Black Liberators

By Jonathan Pieterse

April 15, 2020

There is one person who has done more than anyone else in the Netherlands to bring the stories of the Black Liberators into the light of day: Dutch oral historian Mieke Kirkels. She is the author of From Farmland to Soldiers Cemetery, From Alabama to Margraten and Children of Black Liberators. I interviewed her …...
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Boom Chicago Starts Live Streaming Comedy

April 14, 2020

Boom Chicago is starting live comedy shows online. The first one up is 'Trump Up the Volume: Social Distancing Edition', featuring stand-up comedians Pep Rosenfeld and Greg Shapiro. On 14, 16, and 18 April, 8pm. Click ...
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BLOG SERIES

All In All We Be Blessed

April 13, 2020

In the 7th part of ‘Stories From The Other Side’, North Carolina resident Michael Martin discovers the blessings of being alone together and reflects on ‘the herd instinct’ of both humans and animals....
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All In All We Be Blessed

By Michael Martin

April 13, 2020

After leaving the Netherlands ten years ago my family and I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina where we still rent an old red-brick parsonage adjoining a Moravian church. Directly across our street is an elementary school and around the corner a middle school; within a couple of blocks you’ve got two more churches, a …...
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Frank Lloyd Wright sites offer virtual tours during pandemic

April 10, 2020

Fallingwater, Hollyhock House and Taliesin West are among the 12 Frank Lloyd Wright-designed properties opening their doors to virtual tours. The initiative called #WrightVirtualVisits will share tours on their websites, and Facebook and Instagram accounts. Last year, the John Adams hosted 'My Father and Frank...
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BLOG SERIES

False Reassurance

April 10, 2020

Correspondent Casper Thomas reports on tuning into the daily White House corona briefing, where he listens to President Trump creating false hope and spreading confusion....
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False Reassurance

By Casper Thomas

April 10, 2020

Life under lockdown in Washington DC has quickly led to new habits. The daily late-afternoon walk ranks in the category ‘pleasant’. The Corona-crisis has turned parts of DC into what sometimes resembles a Southern European city: countless people just going around the neighbourhood, stopping for a chat. People on the streets instead of cars. …...
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BLOG

Black Liberators

April 8, 2020

The fourth blog of our series about the Black Liberators examines the mixed-race relationships that arose from the presence of African American soldiers in The Netherlands during World War II....
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Marga Altena – Bringing Color to Dutch History

By Jonathan Pieterse

April 8, 2020

Marga Altena wrote the text for the graphic novel Franklin – Een Nederlands Bevrijdingsverhaal (Franklin – A Dutch Liberation Story). She is a cultural historian who publishes about class and ethnicity like the book A True History Full of Romance. Mixed Marriages and Ethnic Identity in Dutch Art, News Media and Popular Culture (1833-1955). The scenario …...
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Blog Series

How We Live Now

April 6, 2020

Former John Adams director Russell Shorto describes what family life is like living in a small town in the mountains of western Maryland while sheltering in place: about untouched jigsaws, a homemade gym, roaming the house and the need to be nice when there’s nowhere to go....
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How We Live Now

By Russell Shorto

April 6, 2020

My wife and I both work from home. We live in a small town in the mountains of western Maryland, which is always quiet. So: not much change. Except that our 10 year old is no longer in school, and our 19 year old is back from his first year at university. Both of …...
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Free film streaming by the Library of Congress

April 5, 2020

The Library of Congress was created in 1800 by the same act of Congress that moved the federal government to Washington, with a $5,000 budget for books approved by John Adams. The biggest library in the world, it has an extraordinary trove of free online offerings that includes hundreds of old (and really old) movies....
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BLOG SERIES

A Stage Set without Actors or Audience

April 3, 2020

What do you do as a photographer in New York now the streets are empty? Brian Rose decided not to take pictures of the calamity that has befallen the city, but instead capture this moment of emptiness as a lesson to never take anything for granted....
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A Stage Set without Actors or Audience

By Brian Rose

April 3, 2020

As a photographer, the concept of sheltering in place is foreign to my instincts, but here in New York, in the midst of this invisible infectious storm, we have been ordered to stay at home. However, we are permitted the liberty of taking walks as long as we maintain the requisite social distance of …...
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BLOG SERIES

Black Liberators

April 1, 2020

In the third part of our blog series about the Black Liberators, Professor Gloria Wekker stresses the importance of an inclusive history and asks the question: is the issue of race in Dutch history forgotten, or suppressed?...
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Gloria Wekker – Suppressed Histories

By Jonathan Pieterse

April 1, 2020

Gloria Wekker is an professor emeritus of Gender and Ethnicity at the University of Utrecht. In 2016 Duke University Press published White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, about racism in the Netherlands. She is Surinamese-Dutch. At the Institute for War-, Holocaust- and Genocidestudies she spoke about the importance of an inclusive history. The …...
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Blog Series

Celebrating a Birthday - via Zoom

March 30, 2020

How do you celebrate while in self-isolation? California resident Deborah Frieden talks about virtual birthdays, social distancing Happy Hour and how small gestures have turned into big things in the age of the coronavirus pandemic....
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Celebrating a Birthday – via Zoom

By Deborah Frieden

March 30, 2020

It was time for my first social distancing Happy Hour. On the block where I live, in Oakland, California, my neighbors stepped out onto their porches or front yards with a drink and we all toasted each other from a safe distance. My husband and I live at the bottom of a hill. So …...
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Blog Series

A Sea Without A Captain

March 27, 2020

In the second blog of this series, constitutional expert Kim Wehle reflects on America’s dealing with COVID-19 on the personal, political and ethical level....
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At Sea Without A Captain

by Kim Wehle

March 27, 2020

The question of how America is dealing with COVID-19 warrants a response on at least three levels: the personal, the political, and the ethical. On a personal level, the feeling in the United States seems to toggle between anxiety and fear on the one hand and, by some reports, indifference on the other. I …...
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BLOG

Black Liberators

March 25, 2020

The 2nd blog of our series about the Black Liberators examines the rare depiction of African American soldiers in popular historical culture, and in comics in particular....
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Kees Ribbens – Comics and Popular History

By Jonathan Pieterse

March 25, 2020

Kees Ribbens is a big comic book fan. He has a large collection of comic books, many of them about World War II and so I interviewed him about his involvement with Franklin – A Dutch Liberation Story. He is also a senior researcher at the NIOD, the Netherlands Institute for War, Holocaust and …...
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Stories From The Other Side

Can New York City Lose its Twinkle?

March 24, 2020

This series tells the stories of a range of people living the U.S. during the current pandemic. In this 1st part, New York City resident David van der Leer tells how the city that never sleeps is quieting down....
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Can New York City Lose its Twinkle?

by David van der Leer

March 24, 2020

Questions are typically more appealing to me than the right answers, but tonight I realized I am yearning for answers to questions I had been avoiding for weeks. It is 9 pm and I am standing on the roof of my apartment building in Chelsea. We are sandwiched between the skyline of the Financial …...
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Video: Amerika 2020 at the Rode Hoed

March 23, 2020

On March 11th, The Rode Hoed presented the 1st part of their event series about the American presidential elections in 2020 called Amerika 2020. Casper Thomas, America-correspondent for De Groene Amsterdammer, discussed with a panel of experts whether the U.S. is ready for a progressive revolution. Video of the event is now available (in Dutch)...
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Worldwide Online Exhibitions

March 19, 2020

Google Arts & Culture has partnered with museums and galleries around the world to make their exhibitions available online, including Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, Washington's National Portrait Gallery, and the Whitney Museum of American Art....
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BLOG

Black Liberators

March 18, 2020

This new four-part blog series is about the Black Liberators – the African American soldiers who helped liberate Western Europe during World War II. For this first part, we talked to Brian Elstak, the illustrator of the graphic novel Franklin – A Dutch Liberation Story....
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Brian Elstak – Art, Racism and the Black Liberators

By Jonathan Pieterse

March 18, 2020

For the first instalment of this blog about the Black Liberators, I interviewed Brian Elstak. Not only did he contribute to the Black Liberators exhibition at the NIOD (temporarily closed), he’s also the illustrator of the graphic novel Franklin – A Dutch Liberation Story. It tells the fictional story of the African American soldier …...
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Vivian Maier – Works in Color

March 16, 2020

In the spring, Foam presents the colorful work of photographer Vivian Maier in the exhibition Works in Color. Foam showed her black and white photographic work in 2014, but this exhibition is all about some 60 color-photographs from the period 1956-1986....
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The Apollo – Directed by Roger Ross Williams

March 10, 2020

On March 18, New Metropolis Zuidoost is screening The Apollo, a dazzling documentary about the renowned Apollo Theater in Harlem, revealing the theater’s importance for the careers of black artists and the black community in New York. The John Adams screened and discussed the documentary with director Roger Ross Williams last year....
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Introduction

Introduction to Kim Wehle

March 4, 2020

Moderator Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal delivered the following introduction to Kim Wehle, who discussed the importance of the Constitution in connection to current U.S. politics....
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Introduction Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal to Kim Wehle

March 4, 2020

Good evening, and a very warm welcome to everyone — for an evening on the US Constitution. We are gathered here on Super Tuesday. As we speak, Democrats in 14 states are casting their votes for the preferred Democratic candidate of their choice, which will eventually lead to a Democratic candidate running against Donald …...
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Rode Hoed: America 2020

February 24, 2020

Rode Hoed organizes a three-part event series about the American presidential elections in 2020 called Amerika 2020. Casper Thomas, America-correspondent for De Groene Amsterdammer and Het Financieele Dagblad, talks to a different panel of experts at each of the three events. During the first event, on March 11th, the panel will discuss...
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Music Theater: The Last Poets

February 19, 2020

The Last Poets is loosely inspired by the book of the same name by Christine Otten, about the life story of a group of black men who emancipated themselves in the United States in the late 1960s through poetry and music. They stood at the cradle of hip hop and their legacy is still an inspiration for many rap artists. At ITA on February 22 and 23....
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Exhibition Tony Cokes: To Live as Equals

February 16, 2020

BAK, the Basis voor Actuele Kunst in Utrecht, will host the exhibition Tony Cokes: To Live as Equals. The exhibition consists of a selection of Cokes' video works of the past 30 years. It shows his critical perspective on society and asks the question: How can we break the cycle of oppression and inequality, how can we Live as Equals?...
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BLOG

When it comes to John Brown’s raid, nothing is black and white

February 13, 2020

In this 4th and final blog of our series about abolitionist John Brown, we wonder what to make of him: a hero or a villain?...
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John Brown: friend or foe?

By Mieke Bleeker

February 13, 2020

“John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave, While weep the sons of bondage whom he ventured all to save; But tho he lost his life while struggling for the slave, His soul is marching on.” ‘John Brown’s Body’ – Union marching song (tune: Battle Hymne of the Republic) For people either very much …...
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VR Documentary by Roger Ross Williams

February 11, 2020

EYE's new virtual reality program, 'Xtended' shows the VR doc Travelling While Black , where you are seated at a table in a restaurant listed in 'The Green Book', a survival guide for black travellers dating from the mid-20th century. Director Roger Ross Williams visited the John Adams in 2019 for a screening of his documentary about the Apollo Theater in Harlem and in...
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BLOG

When it comes to John Brown’s raid, nothing is black and white

February 10, 2020

In the 3rd part of the blog series about abolitionist John Brown, we explore the motives for his raid on Harpers Ferry. What drove him to act and who inspired him?...
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Crossroads of Abolitionists

By Mieke Bleeker

February 10, 2020

Why John Brown opposed slavery in the way he did is hard to say. We know that as a twelve-year-old, he witnessed a slave boy about his age being severely beaten with an iron fire shovel, which shocked him greatly. We also know that his father, who was involved in the Underground Railroad by …...
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American Pioneers: A Concert Tour by the Ciconia Consort

February 6, 2020

2020 is the four-hundred year anniversary of the Pilgrim Fathers departing the Dutch city of Leiden and landing in what would eventually become the United States of America. The Ciconia Consort will organize a special Concert Tour, playing the music of composers who followed in the footsteps of the Pilgrim Fathers....
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BLOG

When it comes to John Brown’s raid, nothing is black and white

February 6, 2020

In the second part of the blog series about abolitionist John Brown, we ponder the question if somehow his failed raid on Harpers Ferry can still be considered a success....
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Was John Brown’s failed raid still a success?

By Mieke Bleeker

February 6, 2020

Just over a week after his capture, John Brown stood trial. He was charged with treason, conspiracy and murder. It must have been quite a sight: the courtroom was packed with witnesses, journalists and spectators, while John Brown was lying on a cot due to stab wounds he had sustained during his arrest. Brown’s …...
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Jesse Ball at Athenaeum Bookstore

February 4, 2020

On Thursday, February 13th Jesse Ball will speak at the Athenaeum Bookstore in Amsterdam about his new book, 'The Diver's Game'. He will be interviewed by poet and critic Roelof ten Napel. The book is about young children trying to survive in a dystopian city....
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BLOG

When it comes to John Brown’s raid, nothing is black and white

February 3, 2020

In 1859, the white abolitionist John Brown led a raid on Harpers Ferry in Virginia to initiate an armed slave revolt. Although the uprising failed, it still captures the imagination of many. Mieke Bleeker of the John Adams Institute travelled to Harpers Ferry to find out why....
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The raid: “Men, get on your arms, we will proceed to the Ferry”

By Mieke Bleeker

February 3, 2020

John Brown, a white man, was a fierce opponent of slavery who saw the enslavement of black people as a sin against God. At an anti-slavery convention in Canada in 1858, he proposed the creation of a free state under a new set of laws called the ‘Provisional Constitution of the United States’, which …...
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Exhibition: Tell Me Your Story

January 31, 2020

From February 8, visitors can explore the visual richness of black culture in Kunsthal KAdE in Amersfoort through the works of 50 African American artists. Tell Me Your Story shows 140 works - mainly on loan from the United States (until May 17)....
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Presentation: The American Presidency – Frans and Paul Verhagen

January 28, 2020

On Thursday January 30 Frans and Paul Verhagen present their new book 'The American Presidency'. They explain everything there is to know about the most powerful office in the world....
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Jamel Shabazz exhibition ‘Streetlife’

January 27, 2020

Museum aan het Vrijthof in Maastricht presents the exhibition 'Streetlife' from March 21st until August 30th 2020. The photography museum shows colorful work by the American photographer Jamel Shabazz and black and white portraits by the Dutch photographer Hans Rietveld....
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DOKIN website

War Children In The Netherlands

January 23, 2020

On the website www.dokin.nl, made possible by the sound research by Miriam Keesing, you can learn about the refugee children from the Third Reich who came to the Netherlands after Kristallnacht on the so called Kindertransports. The John Adams recently hosted an event related to this topic....
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Introduction

Introduction to Meg Waite Clayton

January 22, 2020

Moderator Ronald Leopold delivered the following introduction to Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Last Train to London, a novel based on the true story of the Vienna Kindertransports and the heroic Dutch woman who led the rescues, Truus Wijsmuller....
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Introduction Ronald Leopold to Meg Waite Clayton

January 22, 2020

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Kim Wehle

How to Read the Constitution - and Why

Mar 03, 2020, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Super Tuesday! That unique American event marks an important moment at the start of the elections. This year it takes place on Tuesday March 3rd. On that very day, the John Adams will host Kim Wehle, a law professor, constitutional scholar, commentator and author of the book How to Read the Constitution – and Why. …...
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Exhibition Postions #6:Bodywork in Eindhoven

January 20, 2020

The exhibition Positions #6: Bodywork in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven consists of five interconnected solo shows by internationally acclaimed artists. Their works shed light on the malleability of the body. With his installation The Doors, Zach Blas (1981, USA) draws the visitor into the world of psychedelics and smartdrugs, which...
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Martin Luther King Tribute and Dinner

January 19, 2020

On January 26th, Overseas Americans Remember (OAR) will sponsor the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Tribute and Dinner at the Hotel Den Haag-Wassenaar. The commemoration will feature a number of distinguished speakers as well as music integral to the civil rights movement. For more information, please visit this website....
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Introduction

Introduction to Daniel Ziblatt

January 17, 2020

Moderator Chris Kijne delivered the following introduction to Daniel Ziblatt, one of the autors of How Democracies Die. Ziblatt gave an alarming analysis of the collapse of various democracies in recent history, and compared them to the state of the US government today....
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Introduction Chris Kijne to Daniel Ziblatt

January 17, 2020

Ladies and gentleman welcome, and welcome again Daniel Ziblatt. Forgive me for starting this introduction with a little story about myself. I know it´s not done, but sometimes temptation is just too strong. For the first thing that came to mind when asked to host this evening with Daniel Ziblatt on How Democracies Die …...
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BLOG SERIES

Atlantic City, Forlorn

January 16, 2020

In this fourth and final blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected photographs from Brian Rose’s book ‘Atlantic City’ showing the city as a symbol of excess and decline....
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Atlantic City: Excess and Decline

By Tracy Metz

January 16, 2020

In this fourth and final blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected photographs from Brian Rose’s book ‘Atlantic City’ showing Atlantic City as a symbol of excess and decline. “Atlantic City is a dramatic symbol of American excess and decline. Once the most popular family vacation destination in the United …...
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Harriet Tubman on the Big Screen

January 14, 2020

The upcoming movie Harriet tells the impressive true story of Harriet Tubman, a courageous Afro-American freedom fighter who played an important role in the fight against slavery. In Dutch theaters starting February 13. Actress Cynthia Erivo is nominated for an Oscar for her role as Tubman....
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BLOG SERIES

Atlantic City, Forlorn

January 13, 2020

For the third blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected several photographs from Brian Rose’s book ‘Atlantic City’ showing the remnants of Trump’s failed Atlantic City kingdom....
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Trump’s failed Kingdom

By Tracy Metz

January 13, 2020

For the third blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected several photographs from Brian Rose’s book ‘Atlantic City’ showing the remnants of Donald Trump’s failed Atlantic City kingdom. “The shuttered Trump Plaza will likely be torn down. It is one of four casinos that closed in 2014, representing a third of …...
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BLOG SERIES

Atlantic City, Forlorn

January 9, 2020

For the second blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected photographs from Brian Rose’s book Atlantic City showing the effect Donald Trump had on the city. The book captures a haunting image of the place once known as the world’s playground....
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Can Trump make Atlantic City great again?

By Tracy Metz

January 9, 2020

For the second blog of this series, John Adams director Tracy Metz selected photographs from Brian Rose’s book ‘Atlantic City’ showing the effect Donald Trump had on the city. “As for Michael MacLeod, the sculptor of the elephants outside the Taj, he says his anger over the episode has faded, and he can …...
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Keith Haring at the BOZAR

January 7, 2020

The BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts Brussels presents an exhibition of New York urban artist Keith Haring. During the ‘80s in New York, he created art in public spaces with a very unique style. The exhibition runs until April 19^th, 2020. Check their website for tickets and more information....
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BLOG SERIES

Atlantic City, Forlorn

January 6, 2020

In this new 4-part blog series, John Adams director Tracy Metz reflects on Atlantic City, a book by American photographer Brian Rose, who captures a haunting image of the city once known as the world’s playground....
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Taj Mahal in Atlantic City

By Tracy Metz

January 6, 2020

Atlantic City, on the coast of New Jersey, was born in the mid-nineteenth century and grew so big, so fast, that it captured the American imagination. It was ‘the World’s Playground’. Its hotels were the largest and finest, its nightclubs legendary. And then, as it began to fade, the casinos came. Donald Trump was …...
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Gallery Fontana presents ‘Seasons Dwelling’

January 2, 2020

Gallery Fontana in Amsterdam presents their winter exhibition 'Seasons Dwelling', featuring work by New York sculptor and installation artist Lauren Ewing. The exhibition takes a close look at the dialectics between decay and vulnerability and reflects on past histories of society, industry and culture. On view until 18 January....
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Dead Duck

December 24, 2019

By Tracy Metz “With so many problems confronting us today, are we ready to turn to a different leadership model? And if so, what might it be?” With this rhetorical question, Russell Shorto in his foreword sets the scene for the book to follow, Don’t Drown a Dead Duck: The art of gentle effectiveness …...
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Review

Review 'Don't Drown a Dead Duck'

December 24, 2019

Former John Adams-director Russell Shorto wrote a foreword to the English translation of the book Don’t Drown a Dead Duck: The art of gentle effectiveness by former chair of the board Marry de Gaay Fortman. Current director Tracy Metz wrote a review....
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American tenor John Osborn performs at Muziekgebouw

December 24, 2019

On Jan. 10th., world-famous American operatic tenor John Osborn and soprano Lynette Tapia will perform in Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ with a programme of famous songs such as ‘Maria’ from Bernstein’s West Side Story and Spanish opera classics. Osborn made his name as opera singer with his miraculously high voice. Click ...
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Meg Waite Clayton

The Last Train to London

Jan 21, 2020, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Next year the Netherlands commemorates 75 years of liberation from Nazi repression. Bestselling author Meg Waite Clayton is coming to the John Adams to discuss her new novel The Last Train to London, which is based on the true story of the Vienna Kindertransports and the heroic woman who led the rescues, Truus Wijsmuller. In …...
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Recital by American pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner

December 17, 2019

The collaboration between American pianist Llewellyn Sanchez-Werner and French-German violinist Louise Wehr is described as 'controlled recklessness, earthly aggression, elegant sophistication and endless poetry.' On 26 January they will perform - amongst others - works of Stravinsky, Chopin and Debussy at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Click ...
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Foam: Exhibition Wright Morris

December 8, 2019

Foam presents the first-ever exhibition in the Netherlands of the celebrated American author and photographer Wright Morris. His images capture inanimate objects that characterise rural and small-town American life in the 1930-50s. From 24 January - 5 April 2020. On 23 January, John Adams director Tracy Metz will open the exhibition....
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Introduction

Introduction to Megan Twohey

December 4, 2019

Moderator Joyce Roodnat delivered the following introduction to Megan Twohey, one of the autors of She Said, the explosive book about the investigation into Harvey Weinstein and the #MeToo movement that followed....
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Introduction Joyce Roodnat to Megan Twohey

December 4, 2019

On October 5, 2017, the New York Times published an article with the headline: ‘Harvey Weinstein Paid Off Sexual Harassment Accusers for Decades’. It was researched and written by two brave reporters, Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. Tonight we are happy and honored to welcome half of this duo: Megan Twohey. That headline, ‘Harvey …...
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Daniel Ziblatt

How Democracies Die

Jan 16, 2020, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

How do democracies die? Not at the hands of generals, but of elected leaders – presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very process that brought them to power. That is the unsettling conclusion of Harvard professor Daniel Ziblatt’s highly praised book How Democracies Die. He will be speaking about it at the John Adams on …...
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Exhibition: Black Liberators

December 2, 2019

A travelling exhibition pays tribute to the forgotten black soldiers who helped to liberate the Netherlands during the Second World War. The exhibition is combined with the graphic novel Franklin: A Dutch Liberation Story. For dates and locations, click here....
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Fellowship American Phography at the Rijksmuseum.

November 26, 2019

The team of Photography Curators of the Rijksmuseum is preparing a major exhibition of American photographs—from the birth of the medium in 1839 to the present—in a wider context. The Terra Foundation for American Art offers early career scholars the opportunity to conduct photo-historical research into American photography in the Rijksmuseum collection. Candidates are invited to submit a research proposal that links to the themes that were...
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Introduction

Introduction to George Packer

November 21, 2019

Moderator Chris Kijne delivered the following introduction to George Packer, who discussed his biography about diplomat, policy maker, presidential advisor and international negotiator Richard Holbrooke....
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Introduction

November 21, 2019

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome again and thank you very much for coming tonight. Because I would have understood if you’d stayed home. If you would have stuck glued to the television-set to watch the drama unfolding on Capitol Hill with the impeachment-hearings. But you’ve been wise to come. For what a moment in time …...
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Talkshow Stadsleven on Startups: ‘Start up, Fall Down’

November 18, 2019

Stadsleven, the talkshow hosted by John Adams Director Tracy Metz will delve into the glory and the pain of startup life and ask: is this still the best model for innovation? In partnership with innovation hub TQ, and with a spectacular lineup of speakers including Prins Constantijn van Oranje of TechLeap and Jennifer Harvey of Google Launchpad. On Nov. 26 at Pakhuis de Zwijger. Click ...
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BLOG SERIES

Faces on the Ferry

November 16, 2019

American artist Rachelle Meyer lives in Amsterdam Noord and uses her 12 minute ferry commute to sketch her fellow commuters and the city’s changing seasons. In this 4-part blog series she takes us with her on her Faces on the Ferry art project. In this last part: summer....
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The Eternal Tourist

by Rachelle Meyer

November 16, 2019

I like to think I can tell which passengers on the ferry are tourists. There are some dead giveaways, of course – suitcases on wheels, pairings of cargo shorts with baseball caps, shopping bags from cheese shops and major museums. What I envy is their fresh-eyed excitement. When we turned our gaze towards Amsterdam …...
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Introduction

Introduction to Joseph Stiglitz

November 16, 2019

Moderator Sheila Sitalsing delivered the following introduction to Joseph Stiglitz who told a compelling story about the dangers of free market fundamentalism and the many economic challenges America is facing....
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Introduction Sheila Sitalsing to Joseph Stiglitz

November 16, 2019

I’d never noticed this before, but when you Google the name Joseph Stiglitz – as I did some time ago when I went online to order his latest book – one of the frequently asked questions that pops up is this one: ‘Is Joseph Stiglitz a socialist?’ From a Dutch perspective that’s a somewhat …...
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BLOG SERIES

Faces on the Ferry

November 14, 2019

American artist Rachelle Meyer lives in Amsterdam Noord and uses her 12 minute ferry commute to sketch her fellow commuters and the city’s changing seasons. In this 4-part blog series she takes us with her on her Faces on the Ferry art project. In this third part: spring....
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Springfulness

by Rachelle Meyer

November 14, 2019

Spring comes on like a gift. The sun, an almost forgotten friend, coaxes the ferry passengers out onto the deck. He opens us up like flowers. It was the changing of the seasons from winter to spring that inspired the broader Faces on the Ferry project. When I flipped back through my mini sketchbook …...
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BLOG SERIES

Faces on the Ferry

November 11, 2019

American artist Rachelle Meyer lives in Amsterdam Noord and uses her 12 minute ferry commute to sketch her fellow commuters and the city’s changing seasons. In this 4-part blog series she takes us with her on her Faces on the Ferry art project. In this second part: winter....
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Illustrate with Words

by Rachelle Meyer

November 11, 2019

I love the written word. One of the reasons I chose to put “Dedicated Readers” in the spotlight in the Faces on the Ferry series is because I think they deserve attention, simply for choosing to absorb information in this thoughtful, patient way. A book, of course, is the traditional cherished object. But I’ll …...
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BLOG SERIES

Face on the Ferry

November 7, 2019

American artist Rachelle Meyer lives in Amsterdam Noord and uses her 12 minute ferry commute to sketch her fellow commuters and the city’s changing seasons. In this 4-part blog series she takes us with her on her Faces on the Ferry art project. In this first part: autumn....
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Common Time

by Rachelle Meyer

November 7, 2019

After I moved to Amsterdam Noord, I started sketching fellow passengers during my twelve-minute ferry ride to the center in the mornings. I’d finish the pencil sketches off with fineliner pens and marker over a cup of coffee once I got to my studio. Between January and May 2017 the tiny sketchbook filled up …...
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Exhibition: ‘Connecting Time’ by Daniel Arsham

November 7, 2019

Moco Museum in Amsterdam is hosting New York-based artist Daniel Arsham’s solo show Connecting Time. Arsham’s work draws on a range of disciplines, incorporating architecture, design, sculpture, film and performance. Moco Museum is the first museum in the Netherlands to present Daniel Arsham’s work. Until January 6, 2020....
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Roger Ross Williams

Documentary 'The Apollo' & Doc Talk

Nov 24, 2019, 1:45 pm - 4:00 pm

IDFA and the John Adams present the documentary The Apollo by director Roger Ross Williams. After the screening, Williams will take the stage for an interview, along with several experts on soul music. In 2018, the John Adams hosted Roger Ross Williams for a screening of his powerful documentary American Jail. The Apollo Theater on …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

October 24, 2019

In our latest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. Click here to read all seven episodes....
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Book Presentation: The Boy between Worlds

October 23, 2019

On November 7 Athenaeum Bookstore presents Dutch author Annejet van der Zijl en her English translator Kristen Gehrman to discuss The Boy Between Worlds (Sonny...
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International Theater Amsterdam: Angels in America

October 18, 2019

ITA presents Angels in America by American playwright Tony Kushner, a kaleidoscopic story and a complex portrait of a combative generation that goes against the spirit of the times: the havoc that AIDS causes strengthens the ultra-conservative forces in their fight against free love. From 20-22 November....
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An evening with John Grisham

in conversation with Twan Huys

Nov 19, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

We are thrilled to announce that best-selling author John Grisham is coming to the Netherlands for the very first time. After his debut A Time to Kill appeared in 1988, his books have been translated into more than 40 languages and sold over 300 million copies worldwide. Grisham drew his experience from practicing criminal law …...
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Introduction George Blaustein to Jill Lepore

October 17, 2019

Jill Lepore is one of our era’s most important historians. It is by now conventional to say this; it’s also true. But saying such a thing forces us to think about what it means to be an important historian. She is the author of twelve books, including one co-authored work of historical fiction. I …...
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Introduction

Introduction to Jill Lepore

October 17, 2019

Moderator George Blaustein delivered the following introduction to Harvard historian Jill Lepore who discussed her brilliant new book These Truths – A History of the United States....
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Megan Twohey

She Said

Dec 03, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The most explosive book of this year is without a doubt She Said: Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor’s book about their wide-ranging investigation into Harvey Weinstein’s alleged sexual predation. It has already been labeled a “feminist All the President’s Men”. Megan Twohey will take the John Adams stage to discuss her Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting about …...
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Theater: Dutchman

October 13, 2019

The English-speaking theatre company Orange presents Dutchman, a stylized encounter between Clay, a young, intellectual middle-class black man and Lula, a seductive white fellow passenger on a New York City subway car. From 1-9 November at Het Amsterdams Theaterhuis. Click here for tickets....
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Old and Young

By Emile Waagenaar

October 10, 2019

When Milton Vanicor, 90 years old in this picture, was still a child, his father made this 1-string fiddle for him. It only sounded good if it was a ‘Prince Albert’ cigar box. His wife Odile used to arrange the financial agreements for the bands Milton played in, among others The Lacassine Playboys with …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

October 10, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this final blog, Waagenaar visits the old and new generation of Cajun musicians....
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See You Later, Alligator!

By Emile Waagenaar

October 8, 2019

Shelton Manual was blind. Long ago he was blinded by a bullet during the hunt. So he could not see what his room looked like. He had a housekeeper who benefited from it and had taken half the interior of his house. Shelton’s neighbor welcomed us warmly and showed us to the living room. …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

October 8, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this sixth blog, Waagenaar discovers the origins of ‘see you later, alligator!’...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

October 3, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this fifth blog, Waagenaar tells about his personal encounters with Cajun musicians while traveling the Deep South....
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Eddie, Eddie, Ervin, Rodney and Doris Leon

By Emile Waagenaar

October 3, 2019

I also visited several small but world-famous sound studios such as Eddie Shuler’ s Goldband Records in Lake Charles, not far from the Texan border. A small dark recording studio where in 1959 Eddie recorded the first single by Dolly Parton, then 13 years old, called ‘ Puppy Love’ . But also in the …...
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Introduction Margaret McGovern to Jed Emerson

October 2, 2019

I’m Margaret van Beuningen, from Pymwymic, the ‘Put Your Money Where Your Meaning Is Community’ of impact investors. Founded here in Amsterdam 25 years ago by my Dutch husband, Frank van Beuningen, Pymwymic has grown into a community of several hundred private investors who want to be connected to the purpose of their capital, …...
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George Packer

Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century

Nov 20, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Arrogant, self-absorbed, even brutal – yes. But also sentimental and sometimes compassionate. Endearing? Not so much. Brilliant? Absolutely. Above all, Richard Holbrooke was ambitious – and he embodied much of the character of American foreign policy in the latter half of the 20th century. George Packer, one of America’s most renowned authors and winner of …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

October 1, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this fourth blog, Waagenaar portrays Cajun musicians in their home....
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Cajun Musicians At Home

By Emile Waagenaar

October 1, 2019

In those first years I traveled from here to there, on roads like the LA 82, passing the Rockefeller State Wildlife Refuge near Grand Chenier. No idea where I would end up. But the more musicians I got to know, who all referred me to other musicians, the more I got the idea that …...
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Book Presentation: Nate Chinen – Playing Changes

September 30, 2019

Renowned American music journalist Nate Chinen presents Playing Changes, his book on jazz in the 21st century. Chinen is a familiar name for jazz aficionados; for years he was jazz critic for the New York Times and he has written liner notes for numerous albums. On October 13 at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Click here for more info and tickets....
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Lecture Arts Society The Hague: The Rockefellers

September 28, 2019

The Arts Society The Hague hosts Professor Andrew Hopkins to discuss The Rockefellers. Fuelled by oil, this famous yet private family amassed one of the greatest art collections in the world during the 20th Century. On October 8, at the De Warenar in Wassenaar. Click here for more information....
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

September 26, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this third blog, Waagenaar goes in search of legendary Cajun musicians....
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A Warm and Humid Evening in Louisiana, 1982

by Emile Waagenaar

September 26, 2019

On a warm and humid evening in May 1982 I got off the Greyhound bus in Lafayette. I found myself standing at the crossroads of another culture, across from the Grant Street Dance Hall. I went into a bar where a band was playing, they told me it was Zydeco. Good music, but not …...
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Cajun Origins in Acadie

by Emile Waagenaar

September 24, 2019

The Cajuns trace their history back to French people who left their homes in the 1600’s and ventured to Acadie (today’s Nova Scotia, Canada). Among these migrants were carpenters, notaries, even prostitutes. Later, many French farmers and fishermen also moved there. This is a passenger registration list from 1636, from the Archives Départementales de …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

September 24, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana in black and white photographs. In this second blog, Waagenaar visits the origin of the Cajun people....
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Lecture: Emile Waagenaar on Cajun culture

September 23, 2019

Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar, whose pictures about Cajun musicians feature in our latest blog series, will discuss his work on November 10 at Louisiana in De Parel in Utrecht, an event about Cajun and Zydeco cultures from the Deep South....
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Dina Nayeri

The Ungrateful Refugee

Nov 04, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Eternal gratitude. Is that what is expected from a refugee? How long can you stay grateful, and how do you show your gratitude? And if you do not show your gratitude, will you be sent back to… well, to where? In The Ungrateful Refugee (translated by Susan Ridder into De ondankbare vluchteling for Volt Publishers), …...
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BLOG SERIES

Cajun Culture - Portraits of South Louisiana

September 18, 2019

In our newest blog series, Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar captures Cajun musicians in South Louisiana on film. Over the coming weeks we will showcase several of his images....
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How I Discovered Cajun Music

By Emile Waagenaar

September 18, 2019

This is the first of a series of blogs for the John Adams by the Dutch photographer Emile Waagenaar, author of the book ‘Arrête pas la musique! – Portraits of South Louisiana’ for which he photographed Cajun musicians at home. The blog will appear biweekly on our website. It all started in 1979. On the …...
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Dutch Heritage World Tours

September 18, 2019

Dutch Heritage World Tours offers free audio tours that focus on the Dutch-American heritage in New York City and the State of New York, a subject the former director of the John Adams, Russell Shorto is also very familiar with. Click here for the event with Russell in 2004 when he discussed his book New...
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Podcastfestival 2019

September 13, 2019

On September 28, Podcastnetwerk hosts the second edition of its Podcast Festival at the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam. It offers multiple workshops, panels and live shows. With a keynote by American podcast maker Tim Howard, the executive producer of the renowned podcast Reply All....
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Joseph Stiglitz

People, Power, and Profits

Nov 15, 2019, 8:30 pm - 10:30 pm

Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz is returning to the John Adams to discuss his important new book People, Power, and Profits (translated into Winst voor iedereen, by Arian Verheij and Huub Stegeman for Athenaeum), about the dangers of free market fundamentalism and the many economic challenges America is facing. In this book, Stiglitz explains how …...
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Lecture: Colson Whitehead

September 10, 2019

Brainwash Festival, The Black Archives and the Tropenmuseum present author Colson Whitehead who recently published his searing new novel The Nickel Boys. In 2017 Whitehead visited the John Adams to discuss his novel The Underground Railroad which won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction that same year. Click...
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Introduction

Introduction to Jonathan Safran Foer

September 4, 2019

Moderator Hollis Kurman delivered the following introduction to Jonathan Safran Foer. Foer talked about his new book We are the Weather in which he explores climate change and how we are dealing with it all wrong....
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Introduction Hollis Kurman to Jonathan Safran Foer

September 4, 2019

Jonathan Safran Foer doesn’t shy away from tackling life’s biggest questions. In his novels and non-fiction to date, he has covered the Holocaust, 9/11, the Middle East conflict, Jewish identity, family relationships, factory farming and, with this latest book, the climate crisis. As one reviewer from Bookforum noted when his last novel came out, …...
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SURVEY

Your opinion matters!

September 3, 2019

Share your thoughts on the John Adams Institute through our new survey and win two tickets to a John Adams event of your choice!...
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Exhibition: Invisible Man

August 30, 2019

Nieuwe Vide presents Invisible Man, based on the book by American writer Ralph Ellison. The exhibition take a critical look at the themes of Invisible Man in relation to our contemporary society. Who is invisible in our society? Who has history made invisible? From 6 September – 3 November....
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Introduction

Introduction to Raymond Neutra

August 30, 2019

Moderator Natascha Drabbe delivered the following introduction to Raymond Neutra. Neutra talked about his father Richard Neutra, one of the most influential architects of the past century. Talking points were his father’s work and his relationship to architecture in America....
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Introduction Natascha Drabbe to Raymond Neutra

August 30, 2019

Good evening everyone, How nice to see so many familiar faces, and also plenty of new ones! Alice Roegholt, the director of this fantastic museum and the driving force behind the promotion of The Amsterdam School as an architectural style and this masterpiece, Het Schip in particular, cannot be with us tonight because her …...
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Lecture: Charles Eisenstein

August 26, 2019

ZinZien presents Charles Eisenstein, an American public speaker, gift economy advocate and writer to discuss his books Sacred Economics and The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible. He will reflect on topics such as climate, ecology, business, money, politics, society and philosophy in a new and innovative way. On October 3 in Amsterdam and October 5 in Leusden. Click ...
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Lecture: Hidden Stories

August 23, 2019

To mark the opening of hotels in London and Downtown LA, The Hoxton uncovers stories of local legends from both these cities and Amsterdam. Hosted by American writer, researcher and storyteller Elyzabeth Gormane, Hidden Stories tells intersectional tales from LGBTQ, Asian-American, and women’s history, delving into the lives and work of Benno Premsela, Anna May Wong and the...
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Amsterdam Fringe Festival: Who Wants To Meet a Real God Damn American?

August 21, 2019

In this storytelling performance, theatremaker Noah Voelker struggles with his American identity after he gets rejected for a role in a movie because he “isn't American enough”. What complicates things more is that his brother, who is adopted from Russia, has grown up to become an all American man. 6, 7, 8, and 10 September at Perdu. Click ...
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Exhibition: Mitch Epstein – In Time

August 19, 2019

From October 1, 2019 to February 9, 2020, Museum Helmond presents 60 photos by American photographer Mitch Epstein (Massachusetts, 1952). The photos are selected from three series: Family Business, American Power, New York Arbor and Rocks and Clouds. Epstein is a fine-art photographer, and among the first to make significant use of color....
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Lecture: Katie Roiphe – Disappointing the Feminists

August 11, 2019

On September 20, the American writer Katie Roiphe will give the annual SPUI25 lecture at the auditorium of the University of Amsterdam. Her lecture, Dissapointing the Feminists, examines the complicated...
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Dance: Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

August 3, 2019

The Holland Dance Festival and Luxor Theater Rotterdam present the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, founded by the legendary African-American dancer and activist Alvin Ailey. The program offers a unique overview of the beautiful repertoire of this legendary company. The group, consisting of young, black African-American modern dancers, changed...
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Documentary: Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool

July 24, 2019

This documentary about Miles Davis, one of the most important and influential jazz musicians of the 20^th century, explores through archive photos, home videos and interviews with fellow musicians why he is still relevant today. With an introduction and performance by Dutch trumpeter Eric Vloeimans. At The Balie on September 6....
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Exhibition: Monsanto®

July 21, 2019

The Ravestijn Gallery hosts the exhibition Monsanto®: A Photographic Investigation by Mathieu Asselinin. The exhibition shows Asselin’s exhaustive project about the origins, methods and consequences of the destructive pesticides manufactured and used by the American chemical company Monsanto, in both a current...
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Musical: Some Fun

July 16, 2019

ITA presents Fun Home, an autobiographical musical based on a graphic novel by American cartoonist Alison Bechdel. The story, set in contemporary Pennsylvania, is about Alison who is struggling with the complex relationship with her deceased father. Fun Home is part of the cultural program of Pride Amsterdam. From 24 July - 4 August....
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Raymond Neutra

My Father and Frank Lloyd Wright

Aug 29, 2019, 5:30 pm - 9:00 pm

From old-world Vienna to the breezy mid-century Modernism of Southern California: the career of the architect Richard Neutra (1892-1970) spanned continents and epochs. His son Raymond Neutra is coming to Amsterdam for an event co-hosted by Iconic Houses and Museum het Schip, to talk about his father’s work and his relationship to architecture in America. After …...
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Jill Lepore

These Truths

Oct 16, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Three truths, no more and no less: political equality, natural rights, and sovereignty of the people. According to Thomas Jefferson, these truths were the foundation on which the American experiment rested. Most Americans recognize his words in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” How …...
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Exhibition: Stuff Matters

July 11, 2019

Centraal Museum Utrecht presents Stuff Matters by sculptor and installation artist Jessica Stockholder (Seattle, 1959). Stockholder combines everyday items to form overwhelming compositions. In this exhibition, she offers a retrospective of her oeuvre and applies her unique...
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Photography: Henry Horenstein

July 3, 2019

Gallery ElliottHalls will be showing two separate series from Henry Horenstein’s impressive portfolio. Horenstein (Massachusetts, 1947) has often been called one of the greatest photographers of his generation, with a diverse career, from documentary photography to portraiture, spanning an impressive five decades to date. From June 29 - August 17....
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Jed Emerson

The Purpose of Capital

Oct 01, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What is the purpose of your capital? The emergent ‘impact investing’ movement holds out the golden promise that we can make money and do good at the same time. This new financial sector is being embraced not only by family offices and social entrepreneurs, but also by traditional financial strongholds such as by Blackrock, JP Morgan and …...
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Leon Neyfakh

Storytelling in the Digital Age

Sep 10, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The podcast. Whether you only have a quick 15 minutes to spare on the bus or train, or an hour-long drive to work, there’s a perfect podcast out there for you. Podcasts can tell real, engaging stories, creating a sense of connection between listener and content, and at the same time making you feel part …...
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Photography: Deana Lawson

July 1, 2019

Huis Marseille in Amsterdam presents the first large solo exhibition of Deana Lawson’s work in Europe. Lawson is one of the most compelling photographers of her generation, who likes to blur the boundary between fact and myth. Novelist Zadie Smith, who visited the John Adams in 2016, wrote a wonderful profile on Lawson in the ...
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Exhibition: Decoders-Recorders

June 26, 2019

Looiersgracht 60, centre for art, design and architecture, announces ‘Decoders-Recorders’ – a double solo exhibition by New York based Steffani Jemison and Hong Kong based Samson Young. Each artist investigates distinct forms of notation, gesture, and alternative languages to articulate suppressed social histories and contemporary predicaments....
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Introduction

Introduction to Hendrik Meijer

June 22, 2019

Moderator Roberta Haar delivered the following introduction to Hendrik Meijer. Meijer spoke about Senator Arthur Vandenberg, who paved the way for the creation of NATO by putting the greater good of the country ahead of partisanship....
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Introduction Roberta Haar to Hendrik Meijer

June 22, 2019

In 1995, as a graduate student at The Pennsylvania State University, I wrote a paper entitled “The Merchants of Death and the Origins of War,” for an International Relations seminar, which I also presented at the annual Pennsylvania Political Science Association meeting. Although it is 25 years ago, I still vividly remember this paper, …...
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Concert: From Birmingham to Bamako

June 21, 2019

From Birmingham to Bamako is a musical encounter between two legendary music groups. The Blind Boys of Alabama are a gospel ensemble from Birmingham, Amadou and Mariam are from Mali and present a mix of Afropop, soul and electro. 17 July at the Concertgebouw....
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Dance: A Quiet Evening of Dance

June 18, 2019

This four-work program at ITA in November is a unique opportunity to discover the versatility of American dance innovator William Forsythe. Forsythe is regarded as one of the founders of contemporary dance who freed the art form from its classical straitjacket. The four works range from sober minimalism to baroque opulence. Click here for more info and tickets....
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BLOG

The Golden Rock

June 18, 2019

In the third episode of our blog series about the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, nicknamed ‘The Golden Rock’, we learn how the conquest of St. Eustatius by the British ended the American War of Independence, but not in the way they had envisioned....
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How America was lost

by Willem de Bruin

June 18, 2019

The merchants of St. Eustatius were used to the presence of British warships around the island, on the lookout for ships with supplies for the rebellious settlers in North America. It therefore took some time before they realized that the fleet approaching the island on the morning of February 3, 1781, came for a …...
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Exhibition: Playground of my Mind

June 12, 2019

Bergarde Galleries presents the exhibition Playground of my Mind. Inspired by playgrounds from the tubulent 60s and 70s in New York City, American artist Julia Jacquette gives a graphic look at modernistic playgrounds in New York in a series of drawings....
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Jonathan Safran Foer

We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast

Sep 03, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Climate change is the single biggest threat to human survival – and we are dealing with it all wrong, according to bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer. In his new book We Are the Weather, Foer explores the central dilemma of our time in a creative and urgent new way. We have turned our planet into …...
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BLOG

The Golden Rock

June 11, 2019

In this second episode of our new blog series about the Dutch island of St. Eustatius, nicknamed ‘The Golden Rock’, we learn how the American War of Independence offered new trading opportunities for the ‘double-dealing Dutch’....
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‘You find here everything’

by Willem de Bruin

June 11, 2019

When in the spring of 1775 the first shots sounded in the American War of Independence – as it would later be known -, neither party was prepared for a prolonged struggle. Washington’s Continental Army faced many problems. His army was not only smaller, but in need of everything, especially weapons and gunpowder. So …...
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FotoFestival Naarden 2019

June 4, 2019

FotoFestival Naarden shows the series We love where we live by Dutch photographer Louise Honée (1974). The main characters are young people in McDowell County, West Virginia whose identity is closely related to where they grow up; once one of the richest areas of America, today it is one of the poorest regions afer the coal mines closed and more and more people were forced to leave....
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BLOG

The Golden Rock

June 4, 2019

In this new blog series, journalist Willem de Bruin tells the story of The Golden Rock, the name by which the Dutch island of St. Eustatius was known in the eighteenth century and which played a decisive role in the birth of the United States....
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The First Salute

by Willem de Bruin

June 4, 2019

St. Eustatius – or Statia as the English-speaking islanders say – is hardly a tourist destination. Unlike neighboring St. Maarten, visited by thousands of Dutch and American holiday-makers, St. Eustatius has no golden beaches. Yet this small Dutch island on the northern end of the Lesser Antilles is popular with divers, who are attracted …...
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Poetry International: The Metropole Orchestra & The Last Poets

May 31, 2019

On June 14, the Metropole Orchestra will open the 50th Poetry International Festival Rotterdam with a literal bang. In this theatrical kick-off, the orchestra will perform unique duets with poets, including the legendary The Last Poets, American godfathers of hip hop and spoken word. The next day, The Last Poets will give an exclusive small …...
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Introduction

Introduction to Barry Eichengreen

May 28, 2019

Moderator Haroon Sheikh delivered the following introduction to Barry Eichengreen. Berkeley economist Eichengreen examined the concerns that populists raise from an economic and historical context....
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Introduction Haroon Sheikh to Barry Eichengreen

May 28, 2019

Ladies and gentleman, The question of populism captured everyone’s attention in 2016 when against all predictions the British voted to leave the European Union and Donald Trump won the election for the American presidency. This year, the ghost of populism- to paraphrase Marx- is roaming around Europe. Here in the Netherlands the issue was …...
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Hendrik Meijer

Senator Arthur Vandenberg and the Creation of NATO

Jun 20, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In 2020 the Western world will celebrate the founding of NATO 70 years ago. To make the idea of such a transatlantic treaty even possible, the US had to move from a position of isolationism towards a more open and engaged relationship with European countries. This change of direction started with the Vandenberg Resolution, which …...
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Lecture by poet Rita Dove

May 27, 2019

For the third time, the Poetry International Festival Rotterdam will host Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Rita Dove (Akron, Ohio - 1952). Nova has had a major impact on American letters, not only through the nature and quality of her work, but also by serving as an ambassador for poetry. Her work is lyrical and at the same time marked by a keen historical and political consciousness....
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Play: Noises Off

May 23, 2019

The English-speaking Orange Theatre Company presents Michael Frayn's play Noises Off, which takes a fond look at the follies of theatre folk, whose susceptibility to out-of-control egos, memory loss, and passionate affairs turn every performance into a high-risk adventure. It captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of 'Nothing On', making it a...
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Introduction

Introduction to Stephen P. Williams

May 22, 2019

Maarten van Essen, Program Director of the John Adams, delivered the following introduction to Stephen P. Williams. Williams explained what Blockchain is, how it works and what the implications are for the future of our world....
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Musical: The Book of Mormon

May 21, 2019

The Book of Mormon, a musical comedy, follows a pair of Mormon boys sent on a mission to Africa, a long way from their home in Salt Lake City. It was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone known for their award-winning television show South Park. Performances from September 26 until October 27 at Koninklijk Theater Carré in Amsterdam. Click here for more information and tickets....
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Introduction Maarten van Essen to Stephen P. Williams

May 14, 2019

Good evening. My name is Maarten van Essen and I am the program director of the John Adams. A special word of welcome to our guests from the US: Stephen Williams, author of ‘Blockchain: The Next Everything’ and Stevie Conlon, Vice President responsible for bank regulatory advisory services at Wolters Kluwer in the US. …...
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Book: Polderpolonaise -The Netherlands in drawings: the Dutch, their country and their culture

May 11, 2019

What is The Netherlands about? If you remove the clichés of clogs, windmills and tulips, what remains? And what do the Dutch consider to be typically Dutch? In this book, Merel Corduwener takes the reader on an illustrative journey to examine these questions - and more. The book will be launched on June 6 at The American Book Center, moderated by John Adams director Tracy Metz. Click ...
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Book: The Golden Rock (De Gouden Rots)

May 6, 2019

St. Eustatius, once the most important free port of the Caribbean, played an significant role in world history. Merchants on the island provided the rebellious American settlers with weapons during the American Revolutionary War, and after St Eustatius brought a salute to a rebellious warship, it was considered by the Americans as the first recognition of their independence. Journalist and author Willem de Bruin wrote a fascinating book about the history of this illustrious island, ...
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Exhibition: Silver Lake Drive by Alex Prager

May 2, 2019

Foam presents Silver Lake Drive, a retrospect of more than ten years of work by the American photographer and filmmaker Alex Prager. It will be the first time that her most significant photo series and video works are all presented in one exhibition. From 14 June-4 September....
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Super 8: Witness to History

May 1, 2019

By Tracy Metz The Super 8 was pure magic. Kodak’s first affordable lightweight amateur camera, which came on the market in the mid-60’s, gave everyone a tool with which to tell their story in moving images and keep them for posterity. From baby’s first steps to events that moved the world, the Super 8 …...
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Exhibition: David LaChapelle

April 29, 2019

Art Gallery Reflex Amsterdam presents Act of Nature, the latest solo exhibition of celebrated American photographer David LaChapelle. The exhibition includes his most recent work, as well as highlights from the past ten years. From 1 June – 20 July 2019....
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Photography: Dear Mr. Picasso

April 23, 2019

Dear Mr. Picasso, an illustrated love affair with freedom is a memoir of American photographer, Fred Baldwin (1928). Baldwin’s life took an extraordinary turn when he decided to interview and photograph Pablo Picasso. What followed were picture stories about reindeer migrations, the Ku Klux Klan, polar bear expeditions and the Civil Rights Movement, photographing Martin Luther King....
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Exhibition: I Can Make You Feel Good

April 18, 2019

This spring, Foam Photography Museum Amsterdam presents I Can Make You Feel Good, the first solo exhibition of upcoming photographer Tyler Mitchell (1995, USA). In his work Mitchell creates what he calls a "black utopia". He photographs young black people against a palette of candy colors, in the freedom of nature or against idyllic painted backgrounds. The...
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Michael Ondaatje in conversation with Stine Jensen: Making sense of our Past

April 15, 2019

On April 19, The School of Life presents an evening with one of the most influential writers of the century, Michael Ondaatje. Together with philosopher Stine Jensen, he will discuss our relationship with our past, our family ties, the way memory works and our longing to understand where we come from. Click here for more info...
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Concert: ‘Mississippi Goddam’: Hommage to Nina Simone

April 8, 2019

The Metropole Orkest and composer, arranger and conductor Jules Buckley take a bold and fresh look at the life and work of Nina Simone. With songs which helped create the legacy of this truly remarkable artist, all arranged and re-imagined by Buckley and his team, the orchestra will bring this special music to life once more. August 26, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. For...
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Introduction

Introduction to Kristen Roupenian

April 3, 2019

Moderator Els Quaegebeur delivered the following introduction to Kristen Roupenian. Roupenian discussed You Know You Want This, a collection of short stories that explore the complex – and often darkly funny – connections between gender, sex, and power....
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Introduction Els Quaegebeur to Kristen Roupenian

April 3, 2019

I read Kristen Roupenian’s Cat Person for the first time in the same week I got asked twice how many #metoo experiences I had had in my life. How many, not if I had had any. I read it for the second time because somebody – a former US correspondent journalist whom I have …...
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Benefit Gala: Playing the Cathedral

March 28, 2019

In 2016 the John Adams hosted an event with Philipp Glass, one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. On 11 May a major charity gala 'Playing the Cathedral', will take place at the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam to fund the church as an international music stage. American composer Philip Glass will play one of...
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Sign of the Times: Keynote-speech Daniel Libeskind

March 28, 2019

With Sign of the Times, Internationaal Theater Amsterdam and De Balie explore the social themes of today. American-Polish architect Daniel Libeskind will discuss his radical designs and the strong emotions his work evokes. Libeskind is known for his iconic buildings across the world, like the new World Trade Center after 9/11 and the Jewish Museum in Berlin. For more information and tickets, click ...
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Theater: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

March 27, 2019

Theatre collective Dood Paard revisits the classic drama by American playwright Edward Albee, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? Against a sober backdrop, they perform the integral legendary play in a translation by Gerard Reve. Click here for more info and tickets....
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Film: Goldie

March 25, 2019

Dutch filmmaker Sam de Jong makes an impressive American debut with Goldie, about three sisters who try to stay out of the hands of the youth care system. Click here to read the interview with Sam de Jong in de NRC (in Dutch) and ...
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Seminar: ‘Nato at 70’

March 21, 2019

On Thursday April 4 The Netherlands Atlantic Association organizes a program themed ‘Nato at 70’. During this seminar a panel of experts will discuss what exactly we celebrate with NATO’s seventieth anniversary, and if the answer to that question is the same for every member. What will be the key question for NATO to answer in …...
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Barry Eichengreen

The Populist Temptation

May 27, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In the last few years, populism – on both the right and the left – has spread like wildfire throughout the world. Economic changes and downturns have left sections of populations worse off. What are these economic grievances that drive populist movements? And how can our welfare systems designed to support them prevent these grievances? …...
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Installation ‘Meadow’ by Studio Drift at Indianapolis Museum of Art

March 19, 2019

The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields commissioned the Dutch art collective Studio Drift to create an interactive meadow. This large-scale, kinetic light sculpture comprises of 18 mechanical blossoms that open and close in response to visitors passing below. The installation will be on view for one year until 22 February 2020. Click ...
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Stephen P. Williams

Blockchain: The Next Everything

May 13, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What is blockchain? Why does everyone, from tech experts to business moguls, believe it is bound to revolutionize society as significantly as the internet? Join us for an evening that helps us understand what it is, how it works and what the implications are for the future of our world. Journalist and author Stephen Williams, …...
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Introduction

Introduction to Saskia Coenen-Snyder

March 15, 2019

Moderator Ronald Leopold delivered the following introduction to Saskia Coenen-Snyder. Coenen describes people’s experience of war through their senses: a new approach she calls ‘sensory history’....
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Introduction Ronald Leopold to Saskia Coenen-Snyder

March 15, 2019

Qoute: “We’ve all been a little confused this past week, because our dearly beloved Westertoren bells have been carted off to be melted down for the war, so we have no idea of the exact time, either night or day. I still have hopes that they’ll come up with a substitute, made of tin …...
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Holland Festival: Concert by Roomful of Teeth

March 12, 2019

The Holland Festival presents Roomful of Teeth, a young American ensemble of eight singers, known for their genre-defying experiments and versatility: from light-hearted pop songs to atonal music, from crystal clear close harmony to yodelling – Roomful of Teeth has an immense range. Partita for 8 Voices, this concert’s main piece, was written by member of the ensemble. For more information and tickets, click ...
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Festival: Oorzaken

March 7, 2019

Oorzaken is a festival about the most beautiful podcasts and audio stories. Visitors can enjoy talks, workshops, interviews and even a podcast-party. Amongst the speakers are American podcasters Scott Carrier en Chenjerai Kumanyika. Carrier is best known for his podcasts This American Life and ...
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Panel Discussion: What is Killing Western Civilization?

March 4, 2019

On 27 March, The Rotterdam Students For Liberty and the Ayn Rand Institute will host an event with Israeli-American entrepreneur and writer Yaron Brook, and British author, journalist and political commentator Douglas Murray. They will discuss the...
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American Photography: Spring publications

February 28, 2019

Schilt Publishing & Gallery presents two new titles by American photographers: Images in Transition by David Pace is a collection of wirephotos transmitted during World War II transformed to reveal the irregularities of the transmission process and retouchings made for the newspaper publications of that time. Going South – Big...
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Lecture about Georgia O’Keeffe by James Russell

February 26, 2019

On March 12, The Arts Society The Hague presents a lecture by historian and curator James Russell about American artist Georgia O'Keeffe, best known for her paintings of enlarged flowers, New York skyscrapers, and New Mexico landscapes. The lecture starts at 8pm and will be held at theater De Warenar in Wassenaar....
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And so the Story Ends

by Laila Frank

February 26, 2019

My first week in Los Angeles was miserable. Months of fantasizing about a new life and a new career reality ended in a shitty campervan in a garden in the Valley, an empty mailbox, loneliness and instant self-doubt. On the fourth day I drove my rental car straight into the rear end of a …...
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Kristen Roupenian

You Know You Want This

Apr 02, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

When Kristen Roupenian’s short story ‘Cat Person’ came out in The New Yorker magazine and online at the end of 2017, it immediately went wildly viral: it became the second-most-emailed page on the New Yorker’s website in that entire year. The story confused readers who mistook it for reportage rather than fiction, given that it …...
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International Theater Amsterdam: Falling Man

February 20, 2019

Falling man is play by French director Julien Gosselin, based on the work of author Don DeLillo. It's a reflection on global terrorism and its effect on a family in New York during the aftermath of 9/11. From 14-30 March at ITA (Leidseplein 26)....
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The Architecture of Being Lonely

by Laila Frank

February 19, 2019

Chris looked like the popular hunk in a teenage movie. His defined jawline, toned muscles and shiny set of teeth kindly greeted me at his door in Corpus Christi, Texas. Like most estates in that part of Texas, the place looked more like a castle then like the single-family home it really was. Two …...
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Introduction Ellen de Bruin to Tommy Orange

February 15, 2019

In the first half of 2018, people just couldn’t stop talking about a debut novel that would be released soon, and then after it was released, people still couldn’t stop talking about it. The New York Times called it ‘a new kind of American epic’. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal …...
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NAA Program: Trump’s Next Two Years and a 2020 Election Preview

February 12, 2019

On Tuesday March 5, the Netherlands Atlantic Association organizes a program themed 'Trump’s Next Two Years and a 2020 Election Preview'. The subject matter will be addressed by two outstanding experts: Matt Mayer, the president of American think tank Opportunity Ohio, and the Dutch America-expert Laila Frank. Their discussion will be moderated by foreign policy expert and former America commentator Paul Brill. For...
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(The City of) What If

by Laila Frank

February 12, 2019

The place was deserted except for one man, carrying the unmistakable air of a long-life surfer. With a cigar between his lips he had sat his slender and tall body on a rock, patiently staring at the ocean. “Waiting for the waves?” I asked. “It might be a while”, he said. “Care to join?” …...
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Peter Sellars

The Future of Opera in a Changing World

Mar 01, 2019, 5:30 pm - 6:15 pm

The John Adams is partnering with the Dutch National Opera for a special 45-minute talk about the future of opera in a changing world, by renowned stage director Peter Sellars. Sellars is best known for staging plays and operas for numerous international theaters in settings wildly different from those suggested by the text. He wrote …...
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The Last Free Place on Earth

by Laila Frank

February 5, 2019

It was a little before sunset when the sign ‘Last Free Place on Earth’ welcomed us to Slab City. Abel drove up in his ragged pick up truck and the unmistakable aroma of marijuana to drop off the keys. Our home for the night was a gutted-out RV in the southern California desert, one …...
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Netherland-America Friendship Gala

January 31, 2019

On April 4, 2019 the Netherland-America Foundation (NAF) will celebrate Dutch-US ties at the Netherland-America Friendship Gala at the Pieterskerk in Leiden. With prominent fundraising events such as the Peter Stuyvesant Ball in New York, the Dutch American Heritage Day Gala in the Los Angeles and the intimate Boston Dinner Club setting the precedent, the NAF is now bringing this black-tie tradition to the Netherlands to raise funds for the educational and...
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Good Neighbours and Distant Friends

by Laila Frank

January 29, 2019

An unexpected gust of homesickness snuck up on me while watching a Scandinavian series on Netflix. Maybe it’s because everybody here seems to think Amsterdam is the capital of Scandinavia and I have given up explaining it’s really not. Nonetheless these gorgeous blond people driving around at night between Northern European countries, mingling languages that …...
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Lecture: Experience economy: where are we heading to?

January 28, 2019

In the context of the new book Worlds of Wonder by Stan Boshouwers and Erik Bär, the authors and American experience economy expert Joseph Pine, will discuss where we are heading to with the powerful concept ‘the experience economy'. February 1, at Pakhuis de Zwijger. ...
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Film: If Beale Street Could Talk

January 23, 2019

'If Beale Street Could Talk' is a 2018 American drama film directed and written by Barry Jenkins, based on James Baldwin's novel of the same name. It follows a young African-American woman who, with her family's support, seeks to clear the name of her wrongly charged lover and prove his innocence before the birth of their child. The film won several awards and has been nominated for three Oscars. In Dutch movie theaters from February 14....
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Money Talks

by Laila Frank

January 22, 2019

“Do you have en emergency number you would like us to call? It saves you the expensive ambulance ride to the hospital in case something goes wrong during class. And welcome to your new yoga school!” “Happy to be here”, I reply, aware of the appropriate response. Yet inside I smile and warily shake …...
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Exhibition: Pressing Matter

January 21, 2019

The exhibition Pressing Matter by Dan Walsh (1960, Philadelphia) is his first European museum solo exhibition since 2002. The ornamental abstraction of this veteran American painter is rooted in the economical visual idiom of minimal painting from the 1960's and 70's. From 25 January 2019 - 12 January 2020 at the Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht....
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Introduction

Introduction to Tommy Orange

January 17, 2019

Moderator Ellen de Bruin delivered the following introduction to Tommy Orange on February 14....
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Introduction Joost de Vries to Jennifer Clement

January 17, 2019

I suppose we are all familiar with the law of Chekhov’s gun, right? That is the fiction equivalent of the law of gravity or the first law thermodynamics – it is the storytelling law first formulated by the Russian writer Anton Chekov that states that if a gun is introduced in the first act, …...
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Exhibition: American Winter

January 16, 2019

American Winter is the third exhibition by Swedish photographer Gerry Johansson at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam. Last winter Johansson travelled the hamlets and deserted towns of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado. In these often-forgotten fly-over states, Johansson captured the serene beauty of abandoned homes, deserted main streets, disused factories, gas tanks, oil...
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Dirty Joe

by Laila Frank

January 15, 2019

It had been two months since Dirty Joe caught a wave. The last one broke his arm; another casualty added to a long life of surfing. His return did not go unnoticed. It was a Sunday morning, just after sunrise. There is something magical about early morning sessions: the water still fresh and crisp, …...
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Francis Fukuyama

Against Identity Politics

Mar 08, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The John Adams Institute, in collaboration with De Balie, is once again hosting the renowned political scientist Francis Fukuyama to discuss his new book Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment, translated into Dutch as Identiteit and published by Atlas Contact. In Identity, Fukuyama shows that populist nationalism is not motivated by …...
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Ode to Muscle Beach

January 14, 2019

Inspired by stereotypical expressions of masculinity, Belgian artists Egon Van Herreweghe & Thomas Min have built a 1: 1 replica of Santa Monica's Muscle Beach in Kunsthal Gent. At the end of the exhibition the installation will be cut into pieces and spread over private gardens and sculpture parks....
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Exhibition: Ghosts don’t walk in straight lines

January 8, 2019

Foam presents the project ‘Ghosts Don’t Walk in Straight Lines‘ by Saskia de Brauw and photographer Vincent van de Wijngaard. For this project Saskia de Brauw, mostly known for her international career as a top model, crossed the streets of New York by foot. This slow walk along Manhattan was documented along with stories and encounters from …...
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Book Release: Unique

Unique - Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity

January 8, 2019

What is a “unique” photograph? Is it still possible to make photographs that are unique, given the medium’s ubiquity in our world? In Unique: Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity, artist and editor Katherine Oktober Matthews guides photographers through today’s complex landscape of images....
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Book Release: Unique

January 8, 2019

What is a “unique” photograph? Is it still possible to make photographs that are unique, given the medium’s ubiquity in our world? Unique: Making Photographs in the Age of Ubiquity is a thoughtful guide for photographers through today’s complex landscape of images, with the ultimate goal of understanding how to make images that matter. Artist …...
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Tommy Orange

There There

Feb 14, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The author of one of the most galvanizing debut novels of 2018 took the John Adams stage to discuss his story about twelve characters who converge and collide on one fateful day. Tommy Orange’s groundbreaking novel There There – translated for Meulenhoff into Dutch as Er Is Geen Daar Daar – was chosen as one …...
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BLOG SERIES

California Dreamin'

January 8, 2019

Journalist Laila Frank spent part of 2018 traveling the West Coast. In this series she shows the different faces of California, ‘the Golden State’: the richest of all states is also home to the highest poverty rate in the country. In her 8th and final blog, Laila wonders about the American art of storytelling....
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Under the Boardwalk

by Laila Frank

January 8, 2019

It’s a hot summer afternoon and Rob and I are walking the Venice Beach Boardwalk. Vendors display their goods while tourists stroll past, bodybuilders sculpt their torsos on Muscle Beach while musicians catch up with the sound of the ocean. It’s Hollywood at its most picture perfect: Venice Beach as it is known around …...
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Exhibition: Static Mythologies

January 2, 2019

Galerie Ron Mandos proudly presents Static Mythologies, an exhibition with new works by American artist Daniel Arsham. Arsham is well-known for his ‘fictional archaeology’: sculptures depicting iconic cultural objects from our age, turned into relics by the artist who casts them in geological substances such as volcanic ash, rose quartz, obsidian and glacial rock. From January 12 - March 16 at ...
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David Eicher & André Kuipers

Mission Moon: Reliving the Great Space Race

Feb 06, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

In 1969 a seemingly impossible goal was achieved as Neil Armstrong uttered his immortal line: “That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for Mankind.” This year celebrates not only 50 years since Apollo 11 and the first human steps on the Moon, but also the achievements of all the Soviet and American …...
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Saskia Coenen-Snyder

Signs and Sounds in Nazi-Occupied Amsterdam

Mar 14, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

How did residents of the city of Amsterdam experience the Nazi-occupation in the 1940s through their sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch? People’s senses changed dramatically during these years, and learning more about the history of the senses gives us better insight into how people experienced the war. In a co-operation with the Anne Frank …...
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Pop-up exhibition: Foam Next Door

December 17, 2018

On 12 January, Foam will open a temporary new location: Foam Next Door. In a former office building on the Keizersgracht 617, a stone's throw from the museum, Foam presents the brand-new exhibition Foam Talent 2019, with the work of a new generation of image makers. Amongst the Foam Talents 2019 are three American photographers: Gregory Eddi...
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Exhibition: Chihuly at the Groninger Museum

December 14, 2018

The work of the American artist Dale Chihuly is a show of glass, light and color. His sensational creations are on show until May 5, 2019 in the Groninger Museum....
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Introduction Damiaan Denys to Michael Pollan

December 12, 2018

Michael Pollan was born too late to participate in the psychedelic era of the sixties. “The only way I was going to get to Woodstock,” he writes, “was if my parents drove me.” Eventually, the doors of perception opened for Pollan this millennium. New science, old psychedelics How to Change Your Mind is Pollan’s exciting …...
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Jennifer Clement

Gun Love

Jan 16, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

For our first event of 2019, the John Adams will host Jennifer Clement, author of four novels and President of PEN International – the first woman President since the organization was founded in 1921. Clement’s latest novel is Gun Love, which was a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award and was named one of …...
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Introduction Seije Slager to ‘Analyzing the Midterms’.

December 7, 2018

They say generals are always busy fighting the last war. The same probably goes for pundits: always busy analyzing the last election. When Obama won a relatively easy presidential victory in 2012, the common wisdom was that the Republican Party had missed the boat. In a rapidly changing America, it had become a bastion …...
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Exhibition: Good Goddamn

December 6, 2018

Good Goddamn is a project by photographer Bryan Schutmaat about a man named Kris from rural Texas and his last few days of freedom before going to prison. The exhibition consists of only 27 photographs, shot over a period of ten days in February 2017. On view at Galerie Wouter van Leeuwen in Amsterdam until 5 January 2019....
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Exhibition: David Lynch – Someone is in my House

December 4, 2018

From 30 November, the Bonnefantenmuseum is presenting the extensive retrospective Someone is in my House, by the American artist David Lynch. Although David Lynch is undoubtedly a pivotal figure in the international film and TV world, his work as a visual artist is not nearly as well-known. The...
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Everybody Works!

A workshop on diversity, youth and jobs

Mar 23, 2011, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

“Everybody Works!” is a hands-on conference and workshop that explores practical ways in which to connect diverse youth to labor opportunities in the private and public sectors. Organized by the John Adams Institute in cooperation with the United States Embassy and the U.S. Department of State, the conference started off with an overview of the …...
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Stephanie Houtzeel

Mezzo-Soprano

Mar 13, 2011, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

Mezzo-Soprano Stephanie Houtzeel is winning accolades for her opera and concert performances around the world. She was nominated one of the best up-and-coming singers by Opernwelt Magazine. Opera News has praised her performances as “vocally, dramatically and physically sublime.” During her recital she performed musical selections by American composers Charles Ives and Elliot Carter....
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Hyphen-Nation

American Perspectives on Diversity

Feb 05, 2010, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

Immigration and diversity: they are the biggest, hottest, most painful issues in the Netherlands. America is the land of diversity. What is the secret to America’s approach? It’s a tiny thing: the hyphen. Everyone in the U.S. has a dual identity: Mexican-American, Italian-American, African-American…America tells newcomers: “Become American, join us…but don’t lose your origins!” Can …...
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Theater: Husband and Wives

November 29, 2018

The play Husbands and Wives, based on a film by Woody Allen, confronts us with questions we all ask ourselves at some point. When is a relationship over? And how to continue? Should you cling to what you have or be open to something entirely new? How well do you know yourself, your partner, your friends? Can you be lonelier in a relationship than on your own? Husbands and...
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Introduction to Harold McGee by Hans Steketee

November 27, 2018

The late food historian Alan Davidson was once invited to appear on the tv-show of the American domestic goddess Martha Stewart. He talked about his groundbreaking book on the history and culture of food, called The Oxford Companion to Food, and he was then asked to prepare his favourite dish. Davidson, being part English, part Scottish, …...
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Lecture by Peter Fend: Rising Waters

November 27, 2018

The exhibition Repairing Earthquake Project by the artist Nishiko about the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan, is accompanied by the Stroom School program Rising Waters around the theme of sea level rise. On November 28, Peter Fend (USA), co-founder and member of the activist artist collective Ocean Earth Development Corporation will hold a ...
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Introduction by Tracy Metz to Jeremy Rifkin

November 26, 2018

As an American who has lived in Europe now for over half her life, I read Jeremy Rifkin’s book The European Dream with mixed feelings. On the one hand, of course it is music to my ears. When I came to Europe after college I could feel the difference: a different pace of life, a …...
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Introduction by Tracy Metz to Tom Wolfe

November 26, 2018

There are not many men in my life, but Tom Wolfe is one of them. He seems to have accompanied me through many stages of my life. He published ‘The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test’ in 1968, when everyone of my generation was experimenting with drugs – smoking pot, dropping acid (I, of course, only inhaled…). …...
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Introduction by Charles den Tex to Karin Slaughter

November 26, 2018

Introduction by Charles Den Tex: Good evening ladies and gentlemen, It is a great honour for me to introduce to you tonight’s leading lady. She has taken this country, and a few others, by storm. She is a woman who makes writing look natural and who makes success look easy. People like that, I tell …...
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Book signing with Jeff Kinney

November 22, 2018

Jeff Kinney, American cartoonist, designer of online games and author of children's books, including the immensely successful Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series will visit bookstores in Leeuwarden and The Hague on 4 and 5 December. Click here for more infomation about the book signing. In 2012, the John Adams invited ...
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Stephen Greenblatt

Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare

Nov 23, 2004, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

The John Adams Institute hosted writer Stephen Greenblatt, who spoke on his biography on William Shakespeare, titled Will in the World: How Shakespeare became Shakespeare. For his biography, Greenblatt did extensive research on Shakespeare’s life concerning religion, London, ghosts, rural life, alcoholism, his marriage and his fellow writers. The Elizabethan era seems to come to life, …...
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Up and Down the Ballot

By Iris Bos

November 19, 2018

It is almost two weeks since the U.S. Midterm Elections took place. As more and more races that were too close to call on or right after Election Day have finally been called, the new political landscape is slowly becoming clearer. Even though pundits on Election Night were sceptical at first, we did see a …...
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Exhibition Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train – The People’s View

November 19, 2018

From 26 January to 12 May 2019 the Nederlands Fotomuseum will present the exhibition Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train – The People’s View. For this project, artist Rein Jelle Terpstra has created a visual reconstruction of the ‘funeral train’ – the train that, on 8 June 1968, transported the mortal remains of the murdered politician Robert F. Kennedy from...
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Dance performance: Opus Cactus

November 14, 2018

Known internationally for presenting work of exceptional inventiveness and physical beauty, MOMIX is a company of dancer-illusionists under the artistic direction of American choreographer, dancer and director Moses Pendleton. Their current show 'Opus Cactus' brings the landscape of the American Southwest to life with his signature illusionistic style creating dynamic images of cactuses, slithering lizards and fire dancers. Check their ...
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Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything Is Illuminated

Sep 18, 2002, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

The John Adams Institute hosted author Jonathan Safran Foer, who spoke about his novel Everything Is Illuminated. The novel has been named Book of the Year by the Los Angeles Times and is the winner of numerous awards, including the Guardian First Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and the New York Public Library Young Lions …...
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Jonathan Spence

Treason by the Book

May 30, 2002, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

The John Adams Institute hosted an evening with Yale professor Jonathan Spence, who visited on account of his book Treason by the Book. Treason by the Book is a historical account of the Zeng Jing (曾靜) case which took place during the reign of the Yongzheng Emperor of China around 1730. Zeng Jing, a failed degree …...
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Introduction

Introduction to Michael Pollan

November 14, 2018

Moderator Joost de Vries delivered the following introduction to Jennifer Clement on January 16....
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Introduction Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal to Timothy Snyder

November 14, 2018

Warm welcome on behalf of De Balie and the John Adams Institute, who joined forces on this occasion to welcome Professor Timothy Snyder and to discuss his book The Road To Unfreedom. An important book which cannot and should not be ignored by anyone who gives a damn about democracy, and the rule of …...
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Mark Danner

A Helpless Giant? America and the Post-Cold War World

Jun 14, 2000, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

The John Adams Institute presented an evening with writer and journalist Mark Danner. He spoke on American Foreign Policy after the Cold War. Danner is a former staff writer for The New Yorker and frequent contributor to The New York Review of Books. Danner specializes in U.S. foreign affairs, war and politics, and has written extensively …...
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Concert: Young chamber music sensation from the U.S. to play at the Concertgebouw

November 12, 2018

The Callisto Trio is the latest chamber music sensation from the United States. In May 2016 the Callisto Trio was the youngest ensemble to win the bronze medal in the senior division of the prestigious Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. On January 13, 2019 the ensemble will perform works of Schoenfield, Ives and Dvorák at the Recital Hall of the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. For the complete program and tickets, click ...
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Michael Pollan

How to Change your Mind

Dec 11, 2018, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Michael Pollan is returning to the John Adams to discuss his new book How To Change Your Mind with renowned psychiatrist Damiaan Denys. In this new book Pollan has moved on from his research on food to delve into the world of psychedelics and their medical use. In the past decade, there has been renewed …...
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Introduction Joost de Vries to Richard Powers

November 8, 2018

Our guest this afternoon is an American writer, he was born in Evanston, Illinois. He is a National Book Award winner, a recipient of the MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’, he is a professor in creative writing, he has been twice nominated for the MAN Booker Prize and weirdly he has lived for a couple of …...
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Documentary film: The King

November 8, 2018

Forty years after the death of Elvis Presley, filmmaker Eugene Jarecki takes a musical road trip across the U.S. in Elvis Presley’s 1963 Rolls Royce during the 2016 presidential election, comparing Elvis’s transition from country boy to ‘The King’ to America’s transformation into an empire. With Alec Baldwin, Emmylou Harris, Ashton Kutcher, Lana Del Rey …...
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Midterm Reflections

By Casper Thomas

November 7, 2018

Politics are about emotion, especially at the Midterm Elections in the U.S. that were widely seen as a referendum about the most controversial president in recent history. Politics were also about emoticons on this Election Day. On the website of the New York Times, a ballot was shown throughout the day. You could click …...
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American Adventures in Architecture

Frank Gehry and John Walsh in Discussion

Jul 02, 1999, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

As part of the American Adventures Festival in Amsterdam, the John Adams Institute hosted a series of lectures on various subjects. On July 2, 1999, architect Frank Gehry and director of de J. Paul Getty Musem John Walsh spoke on the American influences in European architecture. Dutch architect Cees Dam moderated the evening. Internationally celebrated …...
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American Adventures in Art

A Discussion between David Salle and Anna Tilroe

Jun 27, 1999, 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

As part of the American Adventures Festival in Amsterdam, the John Adams Institute hosted a series of lectures on various subjects. On June 27, 1999, American artist Davide Salle and Dutch art critic Anna Tilroe discussed the American influences on European contemporary art. David Salle established himself in the late 1970s as one of the …...
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American Adventures in Music

Philip Glass and Louis Andriesen in Discussion

Jun 26, 1999, 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm

As part of the American Adventures Festival in Amsterdam, the John Adams Institute hosted a series of lectures on various subjects. On June 26, 1999, American composer Philip Glass and Dutch composer Louis Andriessen spoke about influences from the U.S. on 20th century Dutch composing. Since the opera Einstein on the Beach, produced in collaboration …...
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American Adventures in Music

Wynton Marsalis and Leonard Slatkin in Discussion

Jun 21, 1999, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

As part of the American Adventures Festival in Amsterdam, the John Adams Institute hosted a series of lectures on various subjects. On June 21, 1999, jazz trumpet player, classical musician and composer Wynton Marsalis and music director of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C. Leonard Slatkin discussed American music. Marsalis wrote an epic oratorio …...
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Making it hard to vote

By Iris Bos

November 6, 2018

The United States is the oldest existing nation with a constitutional government in which the people elect their own government and representatives. However, most of its citizens do not participate in the process. Voter turnout in the U.S. is much lower than in most established democracies. In the midterm elections of 2014, only 36.7 percent …...
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Analyzing the Midterms

With Darius Baxter & Frank Luntz

Dec 06, 2018, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The 2018 midterm elections, featuring hundreds of congressional, state and local primaries, culminate with the Nov. 6 general election to decide whether Democrats gain control of Congress or if Republicans keep their hold on the legislative branch. On December 6, one month after these elections, two political commentators from opposite sides of the political spectrum …...
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Screening ‘Fahrenheit 11/9’ and Midterm Elections review

November 4, 2018

On November 7, the day after the U.S. Midterm elections, Pakhuis De Zwijger screens the impressive documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 by Michael Moore. Prior to the film, Laila Frank and Jamila Aanzi will discuss the results of the elections. Click here for more information and tickets....
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Lecture & Screening: Hollywood, the City of Women & A Letter to Three Wives

November 1, 2018

Hollywood, the City of Women, a book by Antoine Sire, does not only offer a detailed description of the paths of the stars who built the Hollywood legend, it is also an invitation to watch their films again and again. In these cinematographic portraits, Sire digs into the struggles of the actresses and women of the film industry during a crucial period in time for both cinema and the world. For the first time in English, Antoine Sire will share his passion and cinema erudition on...
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Women to Watch

By Kathelijne Niessen

November 1, 2018

American politicians Stacey Abrams and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have a couple things in common. Until recently, the two women were relatively unknown on the national stage. Neither of them are ‘usual suspects’. And both of them could write history next week. On November 6, their names will be on the ballots in Georgia and New …...
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Book: Images of Dutchness

October 30, 2018

Why do early films present the Netherlands as a country full of canals and windmills, where people wear traditional costumes and wooden shoes, while industries and modern urban life are all but absent? In Images of Dutchness Sarah Dellmann investigates the roots of this visual repertoire from diverse sources, ranging from magazines to tourist brochures, from anthropological treatises to advertising trade...
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Rewriting the Playbook: A historic number of women are running for office

By Iris Bos

October 29, 2018

More women are running for political office this year than ever before. That is remarkable, given that feminism suffered a tough blow in the United States 2016 election. Not only did the defeat of Democratic presidential nominee and former U.S. Senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton mean that women have yet to shatter …...
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Film: RBG

October 25, 2018

RBG chronicles the career of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, which spans several decades, and how she developed a legal legacy while becoming a pop culture icon. The film is a biographical depiction of Ginsburg from her birth in Brooklyn, New York, her college education and subsequent career as a law professor, her appointment to the federal judiciary by President Jimmy Carter, and eventual appointment to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton. Showing in...
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Errol Morris

Documentary 'American Dharma' & Doc Talk

Nov 18, 2018, 5:30 pm - 7:45 pm

The John Adams presents, in cooperation with IDFA, the documentary American Dharma about Steve Bannon. The screening will be followed by a discussion between filmmaker Errol Morris and journalist Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal. The movie is an extensive interview by Morris with Steve Bannon, head of the 2016 Trump campaign, former White House Chief Strategist …...
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A NEW BLOG SERIES

Midterm Elections 2018

October 24, 2018

In the sixth and final blog of our blog series about the Midterm Elections 2018, Iris Bos writes about ballot questions – which are used by public officials to ask their constitutions advisory questions on specific legislation – and ballot measures, a way for the public to directly pass or repeal a specific law without it …...
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This Election is about Health Care

By Iris Bos

October 24, 2018

“My health insurance costs me $625 every month and I still pay a lot over-the-counter.” I’m on a Greyhound bus from Knoxville, TN to Washington, D.C. and it has broken down in a small town in rural Virginia. We have been waiting over six hours for a new bus to arrive out of North …...
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Essay Timothy Snyder (in Dutch)

Essay Timothy Snyder

October 23, 2018

In this compelling essay for De Groene Amsterdammer, Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, writes about Vladimir Putin’s so-called ‘politics of eternity’ which has been implemented since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Click here to read the article and here for Timothy Snyder’s up-coming event with the John Adams....
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Public Talk: Police Killings in Self-Defense

October 22, 2018

Fatal police shootings often take place when an officer perceives a threat from a civilian and acts in self-defense. Focusing on the policing context, this presentation asks: When is defensive killing under uncertainty morally permissible? At the Wijnhaven Building in The Hague, Postdoctoral Fellow Jennifer Page...
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Stand-up comedy: Dave Chappelle in the Ziggo Dome

October 17, 2018

On October 25, Dave Chappelle, one of America's great stand-up comedians, will perform in the Ziggo Dome. Dave Chappelle is known for his razor sharp jokes about race, drugs, popular culture, politics and his own fame. He started out as an actor in the feature film Robin Hoods: Men in Tights, but became widely known for his stand up through his skits on Chappelle's Show. He has won several Emmy awards for his work in stand up comedy. For more information and tickets,...
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Concert: ‘Emily, op liefde en dood’

October 15, 2018

The Pablo Neruda Foundation's latest production, the concert Emily, on love and death, is inspired on the work of American poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson (1830 – 1886), which will be performed in Amsterdam on 5 November at the Dominicuskerk (Spuistraat 12). For more performance dates, click here....
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Exhibition: It’s all about Power

October 10, 2018

On 1 October 2018 Power of Art House opens a new gallery for rebellious and activist art. The gallery is located at the Entrepotdok 26 in Amsterdam. The opening exhibition 'It’s all about Power' shows works of three international artists: CSAR (The Netherlands), Antuan Rodriguez (Cuba/USA) and INDECLINE (USA). Each piece is a reflection on the relationship between power and counter forces. The exhibition runs until 31 December....
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Christiane Amanpour

From the Gulf War to the Trump Presidency

Jan 25, 2019, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

On January 25th, Christiane Amanpour, CNN’s chief international anchor and host of the network’s award-winning global affairs program ‘Amanpour’, will take the stage at the John Adams for the first time. Amanpour will discuss her illustrious career in journalism, spanning three decades, from the Gulf War to the Trump presidency. Amanpour’s international career began in …...
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Alice Walker

Writer as Medium

May 27, 1990, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

On May 27th, 1990, writer Alice Walker visited the John Adams Institute to lecture on civil rights and civil participation. Alice Walker was born in Georgia. In 1982 she gained world renown with her novel The Color Purple. The novel was awarded the Pulitzer prize, the American Book award and the National Book Critics Circle award. …...
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Exhibition: The Turbulent Vessel

October 8, 2018

Babs Haenen, born in Amsterdam in 1948, creates expressive and impressionistic ceramics that give equal importance to color, line, and form. Her works are embellished in a painterly manner, highlighting the influence of abstract painting and landscape motifs, like rippling water, on her practice. Her exhibition 'The Turbulent Vessel' opens at Hostler Burrows gallery in New York City on October 10....
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Introduction to Roger Ross Williams

Introduction to Roger Ross Williams

October 5, 2018

Moderator Tracy Metz delivered the following introduction to Roger Ross Williams, film director of ‘American Jail’, on October 4 in Boom Chicago....
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Introduction Tracy Metz to Roger Ross Williams

October 5, 2018

The political and the personal meet in ‘American Jail’ Welcome to the John Adams Institute. My name is Tracy Metz, I am the director of the John Adams which – as many of you know – is an independent not-for-profit foundation that brings the best and the brightest of American thinking to the Netherlands. Under …...
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Paul Watkins

On Night Over Day Over Night

Jun 06, 1991, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

On June 6th, 1991, the John Adams Institute hosted British-American author Paul Watkins. He spoke about his novel Night over Day over Night (translated in Dutch as Dag in Nacht uit). The protagonist is a German teenager, who joins the Waffen-SS in 1944. Watkins examines the psychology of the Waffen-SS members in the final stretch of the …...
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Article Jonathan Capehart

Article Jonathan Capehart

October 3, 2018

In this compelling article for the Washington Post, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart writes about the imperiled Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh and the related issue of white (male) entitlement. Click here to read the article and here for this event with the John Adams....
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Dance Perfomance: Giovanni’s Room

October 3, 2018

Surinam-Dutch choreographer Ryan Djojokarso and Korzo Productions present Giovanni's Room, inspired by a book by James Baldwin, American novelist and social critic. As one of the leading authors of the 20th century, James Baldwin denounced racial and sexual misdeeds. It will be performed throughout the Netherlands in September and October, ending its tour in Amsterdam on October 30th. To read the story of Giovanni's Room, click ...
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IDFA & Black Achievement Month

October 1, 2018

As October is Black Achievement Month, the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam is showing four documentaries telling the extraordinary stories of black changemakers. Now in theaters in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague. For more information and dates, click ...
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Paul Theroux

Double Lives and Escapades - The Adventures of Paul Theroux

Apr 11, 1990, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

On April 11th, 1990, travel author Paul Theroux visited the John Adams Institute to discuss his book My Secret History. Theroux gained renown as author of travel stories. With his sharp pen and intriguing reports, he brought renewed interest to the literary travel genre. However, Theroux sees his travel stories as subordinate to his other work. Traveling …...
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Paul Auster

On the Search for the Limits of Human Existence

Jan 24, 1990, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

On January 24th, 1990, Paul Auster visited the John Adams Institute to speak on one of the central themes in his novels; the search for the limits of human existence. Auster grew up in Newark, New Jersey, in a family of Jewish-Austrian descent. He spent a few years in France, were he mainly focused on …...
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Jamaica Kincaid

The Sound of Silence: Tales from the Caribbean

Dec 07, 1989, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

In 1989 Jamaica Kincaid visited the John Adams Institute to talk about ‘A Small Place’. Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright, ‘A Small Place’ magnifies our vision of one small place with Swiftian wit and precision. Jamaica Kincaid’s expansive essay candidly appraises the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up, and makes palpable …...
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Timothy Snyder

The Road to Unfreedom

Nov 13, 2018, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Democracy and the rule of law in Western societies are under threat, according to Timothy Snyder, professor of history at Yale University, due to Vladimir Putin’s efforts to destabilize neighboring governments and to stir up dissent in countries from France to the United States. The John Adams, in a collaboration with De Balie, is happy …...
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Rick Prelinger: The Lost landscapes of New York

September 24, 2018

The Lost Landscapes of New York, the latest project of author, archivist and film maker Rick Prelinger will have its European premiere on October, 14 at the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam. Prelinger will deliver a special lecture on the film history of New York. Using amateur and archive film material never previously screened, he will show in stunning fashion the changes to and...
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Richard Powers

The Overstory

Nov 04, 2018, 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

National Book Award winning author Richard Powers took a risk with his new novel The Overstory: in it trees talk. The trees are well-developed characters with interesting quirks who converse with each other, and with a handful of humans. Or rather, a few characters in The Overstory become convinced that trees are talking to them. …...
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Theater: The Mountaintop

September 19, 2018

The Mountaintop is a play by American playwright Katori Hall. It is a fictional depiction of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.'s last night on earth set entirely in Room 306 of the Lorraine Motel on the eve of his assassination in 1968. Click here for theater listings....
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Exhibition: David LaChapelle – Good News for Modern Man

September 17, 2018

David LaChapelle's spectacular, colourful, and often controversial portraits of celebrities have become iconic archetypes of our generation. This large-scale solo museum show Good News for Modern Man will feature more than 70 works, highlighting areas of the artist’s oeuvre, from portraiture, still life, landscapes and tableaux. This comprehensive survey also introduces LaChapelle’s latest series, New World, in...
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The U.S. Midterm Elections: What’s at Stake?

A John Adams & Fulbright Event with Jonathan Capehart

Oct 18, 2018, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The John Adams and the Fulbright Center are bringing Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart to Amsterdam. Capehart is a contributor to MSNBC, host of “America on the Line” on New York Public Radio (WNYC) and a member of The Washington Post editorial board, where he writes about politics and social issues. He will discuss the upcoming US mid-term elections …...
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Exhibition: Dana Lixenberg’s ‘American Images’

September 12, 2018

GRIMM Gallery (Amsterdam) is pleased to announce American Images, a solo exhibition featuring the work of photographer Dana Lixenberg. American Images comprises a selection of portraits of American icons who have been instrumental in shaping today’s popular culture, like Tupac, Puff Daddy and Mary J. Blige. To find out more, click here. From September 15 - October 27, 2018...
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Exhibition: Me Neither!

September 10, 2018

Kathe Burkart presents a selection of her large-scale works in painting, photography and video at the Lumen Travo Gallery in Amsterdam. The latest additions to her well known Liz Taylor Series are paintings primarily from the last 4 years, made mostly in the Dutch language. Besides that, the show features the Amsterdam premiere of the new video piece Losing The Studio, as well as several other video works, along with selected works from the past year in Nudes series. Click ...
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American Jail: Film & Interview

With Director Roger Ross Williams

Oct 04, 2018, 7:30 pm - 10:00 pm

The John Adams, in collaboration with Submarine, is bringing Academy Award-winning director Roger Ross Williams to Amsterdam to discuss his latest documentary, American Jail. In this provocative and personal film, he explores the modern tragedy of mass incarceration from both a very personal and a political angle. He contends that poor people and minorities are more …...
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Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam: An evening with Hanya Yanagihara

September 5, 2018

Hawaiian writer Hanya Yanagihara will talk about her work during 'An evening with...' at the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam on September, 24. Yanagihara is best known for her bestselling book A Little Life. A theater version directed by Ivo van Hove will hit the stage this season. Journalist Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal will moderate....
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Exhibition and Performances: Birdscore

August 29, 2018

BirdScore is a collaboration between American musician/artist Michael Pestel and Dutch visual artist Jeroen van Westen: an interactive set of multi-media installations, a choreographed/scored performance work, interlocking indoor and outdoor, and a strategy for local environmental research and interspecies communication with birds. The title refers to the counting or ‘keeping score’ involved in...
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Seminar: ‘Forward Thinking Leadership’ with Barack Obama

August 27, 2018

What single quality differentiates exceptional leaders from ordinary leaders? It's ‘Forward Thinking’: the ability to engage your people in a journey towards a better future. On September 28th, world class experts in forward thinking leadership will come together in Amsterdam, the Netherlands for a unique seminar, organized by Denkproducties, featuring a moderated conversation with special guest, President Barack Obama. For more information and to register, click ...
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Exhibition: Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth at The Hague Museum of Photography

August 21, 2018

American photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield has been concerned with the subject of wealth for 25 years, portraying both the rich and famous 1% and those who do everything in their power to project the same image. Opening on September 15, The Hague Museum of Photography will be showing Generation Wealth, the first major retrospective of Greenfield’s work. In 2017, The John Adams Institute hosted...
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Photo exhibition: Todd Hido – Bright Black World

August 14, 2018

Reflex Gallery in Amsterdam is presenting the latest work of American photographer Todd Hido. From 15 September to 17 November, the gallery will show a selection of 18 images. The photos are the result of Todd Hido's exploration of the Northern Hemisphere during the harsh winter times. Click here for more information....
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VIDEO ALBRIGHT

Madeleine Albright and Frans Timmermans

July 5, 2018

You can watch the video of our event with Madeleine Albright, in conversation with Frans Timmermans, by clicking here. ...
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A Knock on the Door

By Lize Geurts

July 5, 2018

“There is a knock on the door. Whether or not the belongings are packed, the kids are ready, or the new plan is put in place, no longer matters.” A few sentences written on a wall plastered with eviction notices describe what happens to a family when their landlord one day decides it has …...
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Talk on Exclusion and Eviction 4-Jul-2018

July 3, 2018

Professor Michel Vols will present a talk titled 'Exclusion and eviction: housing law as a tool of social control.' This lecture is organist by Cody Hochstenbach, in cooperation with the Centre for Urban Studies....
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Interview Matthew Desmond

Interview with Matthew Desmond

July 2, 2018

Katherine Oktober Matthews interviews Matthew Desmond on the contemporary American epidemic of evictions. Desmond will be speaking about his work at the John Adams Institute on July 4....
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Interview with Matthew Desmond

By Katherine Oktober Matthews

July 2, 2018

In his book “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City,” Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond reports on the contemporary American epidemic of evictions. His warning looms large: “Without a home everything else falls apart.” Told from the perspective of eight individuals being evicted in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as their landlords, Desmond’s investigative book …...
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The American and Dutch Housing Crisis Compared

By Cody Hochstenbach

July 2, 2018

The United States are confronted with a severe housing crisis. The poor struggle to find decent, affordable and secure housing. In contrast, the affluent are able to use their property as money-making machines. In his landmark book Evicted, sociologist Matthew Desmond shows that one of the most unjust features of the US housing system …...
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Vacation for White People

By Arjen van Veelen

June 28, 2018

Branson, Missouri has a reputation for being a Christian version of Las Vegas. The conservative tourist town is situated in the Ozark Mountains, near the Arkansas state border. Despite its remote location, the town attracts millions of visitors every year. They come for country music and Christian theater shows; for the Silver Dollar City …...
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World Press Photo Exhibition 2018, Amsterdam

June 27, 2018

World Press Photo 2018 in De Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam: the world premiere of the global tour of the international press photo contest exhibition. You’ll see over 160 impressive photographs by 42 press photographers from 22 countries. You also see the winning productions in the Digital Storytelling Contest. De Nieuwe Kerk, Amsterdam 14 April – 22 July 2018 …...
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An Elvis Presley on the Extreme Right

By Arjen van Veelen

June 25, 2018

If you want to pay Elvis Presley a visit, you could just go to Graceland; that’s where he’s buried. Better yet, head off to Wright City, Missouri, where the singer’s spirit is still alive and kicking. The small country town is about an hour’s drive from St. Louis. Even before you hit town, you …...
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The Gateway Arch: a Statue of Unliberty?

By Arjen van Veelen

June 18, 2018

Is the Statue of Liberty still an appropriate icon for the USA? To an international audience, the massive monument is undoubtedly the country’s most famous and cherished landmark. Lady Liberty still welcomes crowds of tourists, just like she used to welcome immigrants with her arms wide open. But does she tell an honest tale? Is …...
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A NEW BLOG SERIES

Poverty and Profit in the American City

June 12, 2018

In this 6 part blog series we will focus on the theme of our event with Matthew Desmond on July 4: home evictions. We will post an interview with Arjen van Veelen, three segments of his book 'Amerikanen Lopen Niet', an interview with Matthew Desmond, and a review of the exhibition at the National Building Museum in Washington based on Desmond’s book ‘Evicted'. Click here to read part 1. ...
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Interview Arjen van Veelen

By Katherine Oktober Matthews

June 12, 2018

Dutch journalist Arjen van Veelen didn’t plan on moving to the U.S.—but after his wife accepted a job in St. Louis in the summer of 2014, he found himself coincidentally in the backyard of the Ferguson riots. With that, he began to research and write about his American experience, reporting back to a fascinated …...
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American poets at 49th Poetry International Festival Rotterdam

May 28, 2018

From 29 May to 3 June, Poetry International will bring a choice selection of poetic voices to Rotterdam. The festival poets of the 49th PIFR are younger than ever and unafraid to wade into many a topical discussion with their poetry, whether it concerns the environment or sustainability, racism, diversity and gender, massively destabilising violence, …...
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Play ‘The Pillowman’ by Orange Theatre Company

May 25, 2018

About ‘The Pillowman’: In an interrogation room in an unnamed totalitarian dictatorship, Katurian, a writer, is being interrogated by two detectives. Next door, Katurian’s mentally disabled brother Michal waits. The detectives want to know why Katurian’s stories feature gruesome plots about infant murder and torture, and in particular, why they seem to mirror a string …...
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Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich

May 25, 2018

The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation has awarded the 2018 Erasmus Prize to the American journalist and writer Barbara Ehrenreich. Listen to Barbara Ehrenreich speak at our event in 2005. Read Tracy Metz’ interview with Ehrenreich for NRC here. ...
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Introduction to Andrew Keen

Andrew Keen

May 25, 2018

Seije Slager delivered this introduction to Andrew Keen, author of ‘How To Fix The Future’, on May 24th in Pakhuis de Zwijger....
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Introduction Seije Slager to Andrew Keen

May 24, 2018

Introduction to Andrew Keen – How to Fix The Future It was only ten years ago that Andrew Keen was routinely discarded as a troll by most tech thinkers. “The problem is that Keen’s book is the worst of link bait. It’s link whoring. Or should I say talk-show prostitution?”, foamed tech apostle Jeff Jarvis. …...
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Madeleine Albright

Fascism: A Warning

Jun 29, 2018, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

We are happy to announce that former U.S. Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, is returning to the John Adams Institute to discuss her latest book ‘Fascism: A Warning’, which offers a personal and urgent examination of fascism in the twentieth century and how its legacy shapes today’s world. After her talk, Former Secretary Albright will …...
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To Be Sung, opera directed by Jorinde Keesmaat, opens in New York

May 17, 2018

On May 17th and 19th, the opera ‘To Be Sung’ by Pascal Dusapin, stage directed by Jorinde Keesmaat, will be performed at the Center for Contemporary Opera (CCO) in New York. Jorinde Keesmaat is a freelance stage director of opera performances and staged classical concerts in the Netherlands and abroad. She is currently a Guest Director-in-Residence …...
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Moving Together: A Week with Angela Davis

May 15, 2018

“Moving Together: Activism, Art and Education” is a weeklong program taking place from 12 – 17 May at various arts, cultural, educational and heritage institutions, and community centers in Amsterdam. Together with esteemed guest Professor Angela Y. Davis, as well as artists, scholars, activists and audience members, the program will look into questions of citizenship, …...
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The Fourth Estate

An Evening with The New York Times

May 22, 2018, 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm

The John Adams Institute, in collaboration with VPRO Television, is happy to announce a special screening of the documentary series The Fourth Estate, a four-part series in which renowned filmmaker Liz Garbus (‘Bobby Fischer Against The World’) documents the Washington bureau of The New York Times during the tumultuous first year of the Trump administration. …...
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Andrew Keen – How To Fix The Future

May 2, 2018

Internet critic Andrew Keen: ‘There’s no app to fix the future’ By Katherine Oktober Matthews Andrew Keen has spent the last decade writing critically about the digital revolution. “I’ve been called everything from a Luddite and a curmudgeon to the ‘Antichrist of Silicon Valley,’’ he writes. In his newest book, How to Fix the Future, …...
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American painter Wayne Thiebaud in Museum Voorlinden

April 30, 2018

Museum Voorlinden proudly presents the first-ever European retrospective of the work of American painter Wayne Thiebaud (1920), on show from 9 June through 16 September 2018. Famous for his mouthwatering depictions of cakes, ice creams and hot dogs, Thiebaud has placed the American everyday life at the core of his artistic practice. The career of …...
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Matthew Desmond

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City

Jul 04, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

What if the dominant discourse on poverty in the United States is wrong? What if the problem isn’t that poor people have bad morals, or that they lack the skills and smarts to fit in with our shiny 21st-century economy? What if the problem is that poverty is profitable? These are the questions at the …...
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Mac Barnett & Jon Klassen

The Wolf, the Duck and the Mouse

Jun 16, 2018, 3:00 pm - 3:45 pm

A wish has come true! The John Adams Institute is happy to announce we are hosting an event especially for children, with the award-winning duo author Mac Barnett and illustrator Jon Klassen, who have successfully collaborated on several picturebooks, the trilogy ‘Triangle’, ‘Square’ and ‘Circle’, as well as ‘Extra Yarn’, and ‘Sam & Dave Dig …...
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Anne & Emmett in the DeLaMar Theatre

April 23, 2018

Anne & Emmett, famous and acclaimed in the United States, can finally be seen in the Netherlands on May 18 and May 19 in the DeLaMar Theatre. This gripping play is a tribute to two teens who changed the course of history: Anne Frank, whose diary on the Holocaust touched the hearts of humanity, and …...
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Teun Voeten: New York Skyscrapers

April 13, 2018

Teun Voeten (Boxtel, 1961) studied cultural anthropology and philosophy in Leiden. Since 1991 he has been covering war conflicts worldwide as a photographer for publications and organizations like Vanity Fair, National Geographic, Newsweek and Human Rights Watch. His focus had also always been on architectural photography. Since 1989 he has been working on his series …...
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Andrew Keen

How To Fix The Future

May 24, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams Institute is happy to announce our upcoming event with author Andrew Keen, one of the world’s best known and controversial commentators on the digital revolution. In his new book, How to Fix the Future, Keen showcases global solutions for our digital predicament. After the huge changes of the Industrial Revolution, civilized societies remade …...
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1968 – Vietnam Protest

You Say You Want A Revolution

May 05, 2018, 7:15 pm - 9:30 pm

Fifty years ago, from Paris to Mexico-City, young people, students, factory workers and filmmakers united to protest authority. They did not only carry rocks, but also light, flexible 16mm camera’s. On the fiftieth birthday of the May 1968 Paris events, EYE Film Museum, in their series “1968 – You Say You Want A Revolution”, will show …...
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The Quincy Club: Marshall Plan

April 10, 2018

The Quincy Club is the educational program of the John Adams Institute, which strives to help young audiences better understand American history and culture. It is named after John Quincy Adams, the son of John Adams and the sixth president of the US. Since 2002, it has organized fourteen lecture tours, in which a speaker …...
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American Beauty at the Design Museum – American Ceramics in Europe

April 6, 2018

The collection of the Design Museum in Den Bosch roughly comprises half a century: from the 1950s to the early 21st century. Characteristic of American ceramicists’ work is ‘do what you want!’ and a hankering after the extreme which corresponds seamlessly with the country of the American Dream, imagination, adventure and boundless opportunities. These ceramics …...
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April 5th: Face Value – The Irresistible Influence of First Impressions

April 3, 2018

On Thursday April 5th at 19.30 Alexander Todorov (Princeton University) is coming to Athenaeum Roeterseiland to speak about his book “Face Value”. A fascinating scientific account of first impressions, “Face Value” explains why we pay so much attention to faces, why they lead us astray, and what our judgments actually tell us. Khadija al Mourabit …...
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March 29th: Culinary Historian Peter G. Rose at the Special Collections Library

March 22, 2018

American Culinary Historian Peter G. Rose will give a talk on “Manuscript Cookbooks as Documents of Social and Family History” (in Dutch) at the Special Collections Library of the University of Amsterdam on March 29. Using her knowledge of Dutch customs and food history, she will discuss examples of such Dutch/American recipe/scrap-books that contain Dutch …...
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April 11th NIAS Lecture: Violence and the History of Inequality

March 19, 2018

The NIAS – one of the institutes of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) – will host its very first lecture. It will be delivered by the distinguished historian Walter Scheidel (Stanford University). In his lecture, “Violence and the history of inequality”, he will present new insights into why inequalities are so …...
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March 15, 2018

B. Rapport JAI 2017...
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Interview with Andrew Keen

Andrew Keen

March 15, 2018

Andrew Keen, author of ‘How To Fix The Future’ was interviewed by Katherine Oktober Matthews. Keen will be our guest on May 24th, 8pm at Pakhuis de Zwijger – moderator Seije Slager....
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Interview with Jeremy Bailenson

March 15, 2018

‘Virtual reality is complete mental transportation’ Virtual Reality has come a long way. Like most technological leaps, it’s had a huge push from the entertainment industry, but current applications span a wide range of social and academic fields. Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, has just released his …...
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March 8th-18th: Roze Filmdagen in Het Ketelhuis

March 15, 2018

The Roze Filmdagen (meaning ‘Pink Film Days’) is the largest film festival for LGBTQ films in the Netherlands. The wide and varied selection of films includes romantic comedies, thrillers, powerful drama, provoking documentaries and everything in between. The variety in films reflects the diversity of the community. Besides several focus programmes Roze Filmdagen proudly showcases …...
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American photographer Daniel Shea wins Foam’s Paul Huf Award

March 12, 2018

Daniel Shea (1985, US) is the winner of the twelfth Foam Paul Huf Award. This annual prize, given to a photography talent under 35 years, consists of €20.000 and an exhibition in Foam. The jury chose Daniel Shea from a pool of 100 nominated photographers, from 20 countries worldwide. FIND OUT MORE...
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March 9 – March 10: Orange Theatre Company plays ART by Yasmina Reza

March 8, 2018

The English speaking theatre company of Amsterdam will be performing the play ART this weekend at the Tobacco theatre in the heart of Amsterdam. ART (by Yasmina Reza) is a play originally written for three men. Orange Theatre Company is switching things around and presenting this play with three women. You will see that without …...
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14 March – 16 May: This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice at EYE

March 6, 2018

EYE and the University of Amsterdam will present This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice, a series of six public lectures devoted to notable projects in the fields of film restoration and film heritage, varying from found footage documentary films to the restoration and presentation of 70mm Hollywood classics. This is Film! offers insight into …...
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Jeremy Bailenson

Experience on Demand

Apr 24, 2018, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Virtual reality is getting better at simulating the real world. Can it also transform education, environmental conservation, health care? And… do we want it to? Yes, says Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. He is speaking at the John Adams Institute on April 24th. Bailenson has spent two decades researching …...
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Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan

February 26, 2018

Jennifer Egan spoke about her novel ‘Manhattan Beach’ at the Aula on February 21st. Watch the short video of the lecture here. The full lecture and interview are available on Lezen TV....
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21 April 2018 to 28 October 2018: American Photographer David LaChapelle

February 26, 2018

The Groninger Museum will feature an exhibition by an American photographer. David LaChapelle (b. 1963) began his illustrious career taking pictures for Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine. His innovative approach quickly established LaChapelle as one of the world’s most influential photographers. His spectacular, colourful, and often controversial portraits of celebrities have become iconic archetypes of our …...
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Jennifer Egan

Jennifer Egan

February 22, 2018

Jennifer Egan was our guest at the Aula in Amsterdam on February 21st discussing her book Manhattan Beach. You can read moderator Hollis Kurman’s introduction to Jennifer Egan here....
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Introduction to Jennifer Egan

February 22, 2018

Hollis Kurman – Introduction to Jennifer Egan 21 February 2018, Aula/UvA, Amsterdam ‘Is there anything Jennifer Egan can’t do?’ So begins The New York Times Book Review of Manhattan Beach. This breathless review is a testimony, of course, to the uncanny breadth, depth and disruptiveness of Egan’s ability as a writer. Just when she had …...
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A.M. Homes

May We Be Forgiven

Apr 13, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams Institute is happy to announce our upcoming event with renowned novelist A.M. Homes, in co-operation with Toneelgroep Amsterdam. Libris Prize shortlisted author Murat Isik will interview A.M. Homes about her work. May We Be Forgiven (now adapted into a play by Toneelgroep Amsterdam) is a darkly comic novel of twenty-first-century domestic life and …...
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American pianist Alexander Beyer in New Masters on Tour

February 15, 2018

The American pianist Alexander Beyer will perform at the Concertgebouw as part of the 'New Master on Tour' program. The concert takes place on March 18, at 2:30 pm. Beyer will play this program as well on Monday March 12th, 20.15 uur in the Hoornder kerkje in Den Hoorn (Texel)....
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The Guardian: Black Panther

February 12, 2018

The first teaser of Ryan Coogler’s film, which stars Chadwick Boseman, hinted at a film where action is king but ideas of colonialism and monarchy also feature. The movie will premiere in the Netherlands on February 14th. Ta-Nehisi Coates, author of ‘Between the World and Me’, began writing new editions of the Black Panther comic …...
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Jonathan Taplin

Jonathan Taplin

February 6, 2018

Jonathan Taplin spoke about his book ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ at Pakhuis de Zwijger on February 2nd. Watch the short video of the lecture here. The full lecture and interview are available on Lezen TV....
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Robbert Dijkgraaf & Pia de Jong

An evening on books, academic & family life

Mar 19, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams Institute is happy to announce our upcoming event ‘An Evening with Robbert Dijkgraaf & Pia de Jong’. During this evening Dijkgraaf and De Jong will speak about their work and about academic and family life in the United States. The audience will be given a unique insight in the life and work …...
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AVGO Course – March 9th until May 25th 2018: Amsterdam and the road to the ‘Third Golden Age’

February 1, 2018

Last year our mayor Eberhard van der Laan (1955- 2017) stated that Amsterdam had entered its ‘Third Golden Age’. He referred to two earlier prosperous and successful periods. Amsterdam today is a magnet; even though the cost of living goes up every month, people from all over the country and many expats come to live …...
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The Atomic Soldiers during IFFR

January 29, 2018

Go see the short, moving documentary The Atomic Soldiers by Dutch filmmaker Morgan Knibbe at the International Film Festival Rotterdam this weekend. Morgan collected disturbing testimony from the few surviving witnesses of the American nuclear tests of the 1950s. Read the interview with Morgan Knibbe here (in Dutch)....
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Deborah Tannen

Talking from 9 to 5

Jun 15, 1995, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

On June 15th, 1995, the John Adams Institute presented a lecture by Deborah Tannen, Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. Dr. Tannen discussed her book, Talking from 9 to 5. Deborah Tannen looks at the role played by talk ‘from 9 to 5’, focusing in particular on the differing conversational rituals that …...
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28 January: Booklaunch Gordon Bennett

January 18, 2018

On 28 Jan (4pm) in bookstore Scheltema, Guikje Roethof, a former member of the Dutch parliament, will present her biography of the American newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett jr. Bennett (1841- 1918) was a remarkable personality and a media innovator. He dispatched Henry Morton Stanley to Africa to find David Livingston and funded several expeditions …...
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January 28th: Gordon Bennett! booklaunch

January 18, 2018

Gordon Bennett! On 28 January 2018 at 4 PM in bookstore Scheltema, publishing house Aspekt presents a biography of the American newspaper tycoon James Gordon Bennett jr. The book is written by the Dutch author Guikje Roethof, a former member of the Dutch parliament. James Gordon Bennett (1841- 1918) was a remarkable personality. He send …...
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Interview with Jonathan Taplin

Interview with Jonathan Taplin

January 15, 2018

Jonathan Taplin, author of ‘Move Fast and Break Things’ was interviewed by Katherine Oktober Matthews. Taplin will be our guest on February 2nd, 8 PM at Pakhuis de Zwijger – moderator Tracy Metz. ...
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Interview with Jonathan Taplin

January 15, 2018

‘If you think that disruption is the highest calling – you know, move fast and break things – you have to rethink things.’ Jonathan Taplin is the author of ‘Move Fast and Break Things’, a book about the formation and rise of new technology companies with libertarian ideologies. Focusing on three monopolistic giants—Google, Facebook and …...
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Interview with Russell Shorto

Interview with Russell Shorto

January 8, 2018

Katherine Oktober Matthews interviewed Russell Shorto on his latest book ‘Revolution Song’. Read the full interview here . On January 23rd Shorto discussed his book at the Aula of the UvA in Amsterdam. ...
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Interview with Russell Shorto

January 8, 2018

‘We’re still fighting the American Revolution’ Russell Shorto returns to the John Adams to discuss his new book Revolution Song, a work of narrative non-fiction that weaves together the lives of six people for whom the American Revolution took different meaning and weight: George Washington; a British aristocrat and statesman; an African-born slave; …...
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January 14th – March 4th: American artist Amy Balkin: Mapping the Ground | Grounding the Map

January 2, 2018

For over a decade, the American artist Amy Balkin is creating work in which climate change, the public domain and the commons play a central role. In her ongoing project ‘A Peoples Archive of Sinking and Melting’, she maps a world wide loss of land as a result of climate change. The archive consists of …...
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All about Texas

Tracy Metz' Weekvlog

January 2, 2018

Tracy Metz’ new week vlog about the trip she made with her colleague Maarten van Essen to Texas, where they met with a few prominent Texans – to persuade them to give a talk in Amsterdam. And where they experienced some Texan culture.....
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Jonathan Taplin

Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy

Feb 02, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams is happy to announce a last-minute addition to our program. Jonathan Taplin is the author of Move Fast and Break Things, a bracing account of how the internet has been captured by the big tech companies. Taplin, himself with thirty years’ experience in the music and film industry, tells the story of …...
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National Book Award

Jesmyn Ward wins second NBA for Fiction

December 8, 2017

2017 has been a stellar year for women writers. 15 of the 20 National Book Award finalists were women....
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The War We Would Forget

December 8, 2017

All blog posts in our series “The War We would Forget” on the Vietnam War have now been assembled in a wonderful digital publication for your enjoyment. ...
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A Nation Torn

December 8, 2017

All six blog posts in our series “A Nation Torn” on the 2014 midterm elections have now been assembled in a wonderful digital publication for your enjoyment....
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Introduction Colson Whitehead

by Maartje Laterveer

December 7, 2017

You can read the introduction of Colson Whitehead by Maartje Laterveer here....
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Beautiful Distress: art manifestation on mental illness

November 23, 2017

Thursday 23 November marks the start of the Beautiful Distress Art Manifestation on Mental Illness, an initiative of the Fifth Season Foundation and the Beautiful Distress Foundation....
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Alex Ross

Adventures in Musical Modernism

Feb 03, 2018, 11:30 am - 1:00 pm

The John Adams is partnering with the String Quartet Biennale Amsterdam, which will run from 27 January to 3 February 2018 at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ. On the last day of the festival, the renowned music critic of The New Yorker, Alex Ross, will give a talk in which he will reflect on some of the …...
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IDFA documentary: Behind a Presidential Commitment

November 20, 2017

On Monday the 20th and Tuesday the 21st of November IDFA presents Robert Drew's intriguing documentary about a poignant moment in the ongoing history of racism in the United States....
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Interview Angela Nagle – About The Alt-Right

Interview: about the Alt-Right

November 14, 2017

John Adams director Tracy Metz interviewed Angela Nagle, writer of Kill All Normies, about the Alt-Right movement....
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Jennifer Egan

Manhattan Beach

Feb 21, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

We are happy to announce that Jennifer Egan, who won the Pulitzer Prize for her last novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, will take the John Adams stage to discuss her new novel Manhattan Beach. The novel is set during the Depression and World War II and tells the story of an Irish family …...
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5th of December, Colson Whitehead in Rotterdam

November 8, 2017

You can also see Colson Whitehead interviewed in Rotterdam by Ernest van der Kwast for Boek & Meester on the 5th of December. For more information, see: www.boekenmeester.nl ...
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Ryan Lizza

A Year Of Trump Video

November 6, 2017

Watch the video of our event with Ryan Lizza, who spoke with Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal about the press and the situation in the White House during a year of Trump....
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Russell Shorto

Revolution Song

Jan 23, 2018, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Bestselling author Russell Shorto returns to the John Adams to discuss his much-anticipated new book Revolution Song. In this narrative, Shorto asks what the American Revolution would have looked like if it were told exclusively through the prism of personal lives. In Revolution Song, Shorto paints an intimate group portrait of six extraordinary figures of …...
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Bruce Davidson – American Photographer

October 30, 2017

This fall the Nederlands Fotomuseum is presenting the first retrospective in the Netherlands of the work of American photographer Bruce Davidson (1933). Since the 1950s, Davidson has devoted his time and energy to photographing those for whom the ‘American Dream’ has turned out to be unattainable and who have attempted to hold their own in society. …...
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An evening with Starlee Kine

October 18, 2017

Fans of This American Life know Starlee Kine (1977) from the hilarious story ‘Dr Phil’ where Phil Collins comforts her with her love sickness. In the summer of 2015, Kine started her own podcast Mystery Show, where she solves mysteries the internet cannot solve (such as: How tall is actor Jake Gyllenhaal?). Kine also worked …...
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Ryan Lizza

A Year of Trump

Nov 05, 2017, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

November 8 marks the first anniversary of the election of President Trump. It has been a turbulent year and many people are looking for reflection and insight into today’s United States. We are happy to announce that Ryan Lizza, the Washington correspondent for The New Yorker and on-air contributor for CNN, will take the John Adams …...
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Interview Julia Gruen

Interview with Julia Gruen

October 13, 2017

John Adams director Tracy Metz interviewed Julia Gruen, the executive director of the Keith Haring Foundation, about the restored canvas by American artist Keith Haring, which is again on display at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. Click here for the video....
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Introduction Holly Krieger

October 11, 2017

On the 10th of October Holly Krieger talked with Ellen de Bruin about The Beauty of Symmetry through the eyes of a Mathematician. Ellen de Bruin’s introduction of Holly Krieger can be read here....
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International literature festival: Read My World

October 3, 2017

Read My World is the international literature festival of Amsterdam. Going beyond the commonplace, Read My World explores the boundaries between literature and journalism, between here and there – and draws attention to everything in between. This year’s edition takes place on 12, 13 and 14 October in the Tolhuistuin in Amsterdam North. The festival’s …...
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Interview with Holly Krieger

October 2, 2017

The Creativity and Structure of Pure Mathematics American mathematician Dr. Holly Krieger is a lecturer at Britain’s University of Cambridge and Director of Studies and Fellow in Maths at Murray Edwards College, one of the few women-only colleges of Cambridge. She’ll be speaking at John Adams Institute on October 10 about the beauty of symmetry, …...
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Interview with Holly Krieger

The Creativity and Structure of Pure Mathematics

October 2, 2017

Holly Krieger will be speaking at John Adams Institute on October 10 about the beauty of symmetry, one of the most visibly aesthetic principles of math. We spoke with Holly to learn more about the creativity and structure of pure mathematics....
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Featured Text Box 1: Numberphiles

Videos about numbers and stuff

October 2, 2017

Numberphiles is a Youtube channel where a variety of mathematicians regularly post accessible numbery video's. The Numberphile videos are always fascinating, both for the layman as for a mathematician....
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The Happiest Kids in the World

By Hollis Kurman

September 19, 2017

The introduction to the event of The Happiest Kids in the World can be read here....
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Daisy Khan at the anniversary of Al Nisa

September 18, 2017

On Friday the 22nd of September the American Muslim feminist Daisy Khan will give a talk during the celebration of the 35th anniversary of Al Nisa, the Dutch Muslim Women’s Organisation. Daisy Khan was born in the state of Jammu and Kasjmir, India. At the age of 16 Khan left for the United States, supported by …...
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Thérèse Schwartze, Painting for a Living

September 17, 2017

On Friday September 22, at 5.00 p.m., the book presentation of Thérèse Schwartze, Painting for a Living will take place at Arti et Amicitiae. ...
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Introduction Mohsin Hamid

By Naema Tahir

September 13, 2017

Last night Mohsin Hamid talked with Naema Tahir about his new book Exit West. Naema Tahir’s introduction of Mohsin Hamid can be read here....
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Stephen Breyer – An Apology for the Law

September 11, 2017

On September 23rd, Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice at the American Supreme Court, will give a lecture at the Nexus-Institute in Tilburg. You can find more information (in Dutch) here. ...
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Philadelphia Assembled

September 7, 2017

Initiated by Dutch artist Jeanne van Heeswijk, Philadelphia Assembled explores the Philadelphia's changing landscape and tells a story of radical community building and active resistance....
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Holly Krieger

The Beauty of Symmetry through the eyes of a Mathematician

Oct 10, 2017, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

We are pleased to announce that renowned American mathematician Holly Krieger will visit the John Adams to discuss how mathematics can be used to describe the beauty of symmetry. For centuries, symmetry has fascinated philosophers, astronomers, mathematicians, artists, architects and physicists. It is a prevalent aesthetic theme in the art and architecture of many cultures, …...
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NEW YORK, NEW WORK

August 29, 2017

The Albada Jelgersma Gallery in Amsterdam presents its inaugural exhibition NEW YORK, NEW WORK from September 2 - November 4, 2017, with six New York based artists....
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Photographer of black America

August 14, 2017

As the only black photographer at Life Magazine, Gordon Parks had unique access to the black community in turbulent times. The exhibition of his work 'I Am You. Selected Works 1942-1978' is on view through Sept. 6th at FOAM photography museum in Amsterdam....
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When Home Feels Like a Battlefield

August 7, 2017

Three months in Amsterdam, over and done with. It’s impossible for me to believe how quickly the time has gone by. I love this city, and I’ll miss so many things about it. I’m very excited to be headed home, but I can’t help but feel a sense of dread about the political situation that …...
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Amsterdam Stories

Rob Rombout and Rogier van Eck

Dec 11, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Have the Netherlands left a mark on the US? Come find out on December 11th, when the Belgian filmmakers Rob Rombout and Rogier van Eck show a compilation of their road movie in which they take you all across the continent to visit all the American places named Amsterdam. On their journey through cities, towns, …...
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What Makes Amsterdam Unique?

August 1, 2017

London— what a city. I just visited for the first time and absolutely loved it. The place has an unbelievable energy running through it, so much variety in its neighborhoods, such an invigorating landscape of diversity. Rich contrasts abound—it is sprawling yet walkable, obscenely opulent and deeply gritty, frenetic with pockets of incredible tranquility. It …...
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Featured Text Box 1d

Interview with Rina Mae Acosta

July 31, 2017

‘The Dutch are able to see children for who they are’
Happiness is something that every parent, regardless of country or culture, wishes for their children. As it turns out, the Dutch may be onto something: according to UNICEF studies of child well-being in 2007 and 2013, Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world. But why? In their book ‘The Happiest Kids in the...
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Counterculture and Public Life

Diametrically Opposed or a Perfect Match?

July 25, 2017

People always talk about the ways that company culture affects organizational performance. But for some reason, these discussions rarely extend to the public sector. It’s strange—contrary to common belief, governments are composed of human beings, and these individuals powerfully influence what government actually does. I’m a strong believer in the innovative potential of cities, but …...
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What Makes a City Cool?

July 18, 2017

What makes a city cool? A certain threshold of restaurants and bars with exposed brick walls? Pairs of Doc Martens boots per capita? The percentage of residents who subscribe to the “Hipster Chill” playlist on Spotify? I’d like to think the answer is a bit more profound. Here’s a theory: the coolness of a city …...
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Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad

Dec 06, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Colson Whitehead is the biggest literary sensation of this decade. He was the first author since Annie Proulx to win both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for his novel The Underground Railroad (translated as De Ondergrondse Spoorweg by Atlas Contact). Several prominent figures also declared it their favorite novel, including President Obama. …...
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Dan Brown

Origin

Oct 22, 2017, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

Watch the book trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4brbdYz8qu0...
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Featured Text Box 1b

Co-Founder of Nextdoor

July 17, 2017

Tracy Metz interviewed Sarah Leary, co-founder of the Nextdoor app: "Leary calls the app ‘a lifeline to your neighborhood wherever you go’: “I know here in Amsterdam what’s going on in my neighborhood in San Francisco.”...
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Weekvlog: Lauren Greenfield

July 11, 2017

John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz weekly vlogs about her daily life and all the fascinating and interesting things that she does and encounters. In weekvlog #6 she interviews past speaker Lauren Greenfield to talk about her photobook Generation Wealth, which is both a...
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Weekvlog: Thomas Frank

July 11, 2017

John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz weekly vlogs about her daily life and all the fascinating and interesting things that she does and encounters. In weekvlog #4 she interviews past speaker Thomas Frank about his most recent book Listen, Liberal, which lays bare the essence of the Democratic Party’s philosophy and how it has changed over the years. …...
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Nextdoor: Digital Platform for Neighborhoods

July 11, 2017

Interview with Co-Founder Sarah Leary By Tracy Metz Nextdoor is a free private social network for neighborhood communities. It launched in 2011 in the US and at the beginning of 2016 in the Netherlands, its first European rollout. It has become quite popular: in the US 75 percent of all households use it, and in …...
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Richard Serra – Drawings 2015 – 2017

July 11, 2017

One of the most prominent artists of our time is now on view at museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam: the American artist Richard Serra (San Francisco, 1938)....
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City as Facilitator: Problem Solving from the Bottom Up

July 10, 2017

Every city faces similar social problems. No matter where you go, certain groups or neighborhoods struggle with intergenerational poverty, low educational attainment, poor health, crime, and other issues. National and local policies may reduce the severity of these problems, but there’s a growing recognition that top-down, technocratic approaches to these challenges aren’t doing enough for …...
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Featured Text Box 1

Interview with Rina Mae Acosta

July 10, 2017

According to UNICEF studies of child well-being in 2007 and 2013, Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world. But why? Journalist Katherine Oktober Matthews interviews American writer Rina Mae Acosta about how she broke down the Dutch approach to parenting....
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Weekvlog: John Farrell

July 9, 2017

John Adams Institute director Tracy Metz weekly vlogs about her daily life and all the fascinating and interesting things that she does and encounters. Weekvlog 12 is about the many surprises of Amsterdam: for example a group of people cycling naked through Amsterdam, but also about our wonderful event with Richard Nixon biographer John Farrell …...
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Happiest Kids in the World

Rina Mae Acosta and Michele Hutchison

Sep 18, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Dutch children are the happiest kids in the world, according to UNICEF studies of child well-being in 2007 and 2013. Why is that? Is the Dutch approach to parenting really that different? In their book The Happiest Kids in the World, American writer Rina Mae Acosta and British writer Michele Hutchison – both married to …...
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Thriving, Affordable, and Inclusive: Can a City Have it All?

July 4, 2017

A challenging side of human nature—we tend to distrust people from other groups. Because of this, diversity and social tension are often interlinked. We don’t need to hold hands and sing Kumbaya, but as American and European societies become increasingly diverse, we’ve got to learn to live with one another. How do we make that …...
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If You Build It, Will They Come?

June 26, 2017

Zef Hemel is a man with a plan. A former urban planner for the city of Amsterdam and my colleague at the Amsterdam Economic Board, he has been a vocal proponent of dramatically increasing the population of this city. He envisions a future where Amsterdam is home to 2 million people, more than double the …...
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David Sedaris’ Gestolen voorwerpen

June 25, 2017

This week, Lebowski publishers celebrated the publication and translation of David Sedaris' latest book, Gestolen voorwerpen. ...
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Competition, Supercharged:

Cities, Economic Development and Globalization

June 20, 2017

Talent, investment, and a high quality of life. No pressure, local leaders, but if your city falls short on any of the above, your economy is doomed. Good luck juggling all three things simultaneously—talented people won’t move to your city unless it offers them good employment prospects. Companies won’t invest in your city unless it …...
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Peter Hujar at Fotomuseum Den Haag

June 19, 2017

Until the 15th of October you can visit the exhibition Peter Hujar – Speed of Life at Fotomuseum Den Haag. "Hujar started his career in the 1950s as an assistant to commercial photographers, but became a part of the group of underground artists, poets and musicians who formed the downtown...
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Mohsin Hamid

Exit West

Sep 12, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Mohsin Hamid returned to The John Adams Institute, this time to discuss his new novel Exit West, also translated and published as Exit West by De Bezige Bij. In a country teetering on the brink of civil war, two young people meet and fall in love. The sensual and fiercely independent Nadia and gentle, restrained Saeed. When …...
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American Photography in Naarden

June 13, 2017

JAI director Tracy Metz visited Fotofestival Naarden last weekend: "Laura Morton, George Steinmetz and J Henry Fair show us our tech-driven society and our impact on the planet in ways we have never seen before."...
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American Photography in Naarden

June 13, 2017

A number of American photographers are represented this year at the bi-annual Fotofestival in the picturesque town of Naarden, on through June 18th. This year’s theme is ‘Right Here, Right Now’, a comment on photography’s role as our eyes on the world. Laura Morton, George Steinmetz and J Henry Fair show us our tech-driven society …...
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Who Owns the City?

June 12, 2017

Amsterdam and Venice. Both famous for their picturesque canals and waterways. Both compact, easily walkable, and densely populated. Both overflowing with culture, filled with beautiful architecture, and renowned for offering a high quality of life. There’s only one problem—many parts of both cities are bursting at the seams with tourists. Last weekend, I visited Venice for …...
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The Secrets of Superheroes

June 11, 2017

On June 12th, SPUI25 and the American Book Center will host an evening on Superhero films. Dan Hassler-Forest, former speaker and John Adams Institute moderator, will be one of the ...
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Nicole Krauss

Forest Dark

Aug 29, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Bestselling American novelist Nicole Krauss joined the John Adams Institute to discuss her new novel Forest Dark, translated as Donker Woud by Ambo Anthos. The New York Times described Krauss as “one of America’s most important novelists”, and is best known for her novel The History of Love. Forest Dark is a story about the personal …...
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A Tale of Two Commutes

June 6, 2017

Scenario 1: Biking to work in Washington, D.C. I leave the house, heading west. Soon I encounter Georgia Avenue, one of the highest-capacity roads in Washington D.C. As I wait for the light to change, as many as a hundred cars thunder past me—they’re bumper to bumper, flying by at nearly 40 miles per hour. …...
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I Love Animals: A Book for Children

May 31, 2017

How do we teach children about animals, really? While animals are often much-loved characters in children’s cartoons, books and films, they’re also a part of our food source. This paradoxical ‘love,’ both selective and contradictory, is not a new phenomenon, but one which only gains in absurdity together with the industrialization of food production. As …...
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Howdy, Neighbor:

Happiness, Public Space, and Community Design

May 30, 2017

Everyone needs a bit of personal space from time to time. But ultimately, we’re social creatures—we thrive when we engage regularly with others, and we’re gloomy when we feel isolated. The design of our neighborhoods exerts a powerful influence on our ability to connect with the people around us. Some approaches facilitate contact and encourage relationships. Others set the stage for separation, anonymity, and even hostility....
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Smithsonian Design Museum to Present “Joris Laarman Lab”

May 24, 2017

From 27 September 2017 - 14 January 2018, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City will present “Joris Laarman Lab: Design in the Digital Age", the first U.S. museum exhibition of the experimental Dutch...
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Debate: ‘NATO in the Trump Era’

May 23, 2017

On Tuesday, 23 May, on the eve of the special NATO Summit in Brussels, the Netherlands Atlantic Association and the Netherlands Institute of International Relations ‘Clingendael’ organise a debate on ‘NATO in the Trump Era’....
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Amsterdam Then, Amsterdam Now

May 22, 2017

Hello, readers! Welcome to my blog. It’s great to have you here. Seeing as this is my inaugural piece, I figure that an introduction is in order. I am a 28-year-old American, born and raised in the Washington D.C. area. Up until a few months ago, I worked as a researcher at the Brookings Institution, …...
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John A. Farrell

Richard Nixon: The Life

Jun 29, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

With his book Richard Nixon: The Life, John A. Farrell has written the defining biography of this media-hating president driven by paranoia and pursued by scandals. It is a tour de force, an enthralling biography of America’s darkest president, and has been hailed by critics as brilliantly researched, authoritatively crafted, and lively on the page. It is …...
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Locally Speaking – Slums, Squats & Skyscrapers

May 22, 2017

Students in shipping containers, breweries in former animal shelters and hotels in cranes. Is it too soon to discuss living arrangements? Tonight, May 22nd, Locally Speaking takes you on a walk through the rich history of Amsterdam city planning, social housing and vacancy versus gentrification....
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Dutch Design at Ventura New York

May 17, 2017

From May 20-23, 2017 the second edition of Ventura New York will take place at WantedDesign Manhattan during NYCxDESIGN. The group...
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Cybersecurity in the Netherlands

May 15, 2017

On Tuesday May 16th, de Atlantische Commissie organizes a program on 'Cybersecurity: how can the Netherlands improve?' Four experts will give their recommendations on how to use cybersecurity in a world full of cyber crime and economic espionage. The event starts at 17:30 in de Glazen Zaal, Den Haag....
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Interview Lauren Greenfield

May 15, 2017

Keeping Up with the Kardashians Past speaker Lauren Greenfield on her project Generation Wealth Lauren Greenfield is a filmmaker and photographer whose new monograph, Generation Wealth, brings together more than 25 years of her work on the excesses of capitalist culture. Her biting wit and bright lights spare no one, as she deconstructs the devolution of the …...
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Martin Ford

Rise of the Robots

Jun 21, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

In his book Rise of the Robots (winner of the FT and McKinsey Business Book of the Year Award), Silicon Valley entrepreneur Martin Ford looks at the impact on labor of robotisation and automation. They have made production so efficient that companies can now produce vast quantities of goods virtually without the help of human …...
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Subscribe to the John-Adams mailing list

May 12, 2017

Ready to receive the best and the brightest of American thinking from the fields of literature, politics, history in your mailbox?...
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American sculptor Joel Morrison at Reflex Gallery

May 8, 2017

Reflex Gallery in Amsterdam runs the first solo show in the Netherlands by American sculptor Joel Morrison. The LA based artist has earned international acclaim for his highly polished composite sculptures cast in stainless steel. The exhibition runs from 6 May until 11 July....
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Chelsea Hotel Art Collection in Auction

April 20, 2017

The legendary Chelsea Hotel in New York was a hotspot for the hip and artistic, many of whom paid their bills with their art. On May 16^th, the collection that owner Stanley Bard accumulated this way will be sold at auction....
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Walt Whitman’s Poetry in Concert

April 18, 2017

Walt Whitman’s poem A Child Said, What Is The Grass from his masterpiece Leaves of Grass is being put to music to be performed by a Dutch amateur brass band and a soprano. To that end the band has started a crowdfunding campaign. The premiere will take place on November 12^th in Enschede....
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Branko Milanovic

Global Inequality: A New Approach for the Age of Globalization

Apr 13, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Who are the winners and losers of globalization? One of the world’s leading economists of inequality, the former World Bank economist Branko Milanovic, visited the John Adams to explain the income disparities both within countries and between them, as well as how we got here, and whether there’s a way out. In his book Global Inequality: A New …...
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Interview Adam Alter

April 11, 2017

‘There are times when you should be on your screen, and times when you shouldn’t.’ Adam Alter’s latest book is “Irresistible: The Rise of Addictive Technology and the Business of Keeping Us Hooked”. In it, he describes the problem of rampant behavioral addiction and the calculated techniques of games, apps and other tech products to get and …...
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Lauren Greenfield

Generation Wealth

May 16, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

We are obsessed by the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The acclaimed American photographer and filmmaker Lauren Greenfield, maker of the award-winning documentary The Queen of Versailles, is a prominent chronicler of consumerism, youth culture and gender issues. In addition to her many films, exhibitions and monographs such as Girl Culture, Fast Forward and THIN, she is most …...
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FOAM in New York

April 3, 2017

Photography museum Foam brings its first group of 24 artists known as Foam Talents to the United States. The exhibition is displayed at Red Hook Labs in Brooklyn, New York and will run from March 31 till April 16....
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Stadsschouwburg Focuses on Tony Kushner

March 27, 2017

On April 8th, the Stadsschouwburg honors playwright and Pulitzer Prize Winner Tony Kushner. Kushner is known for his award-winning play Angels in America and acclaimed for tackling themes of gender, religion, and society....
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Adam Alter

My phone, my phone, my irresistible phone: Welcome to the age of addictive technology

Apr 20, 2017, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

We spend more time communicating through our smartphones than we spend talking to our partner. New technology has nestled itself in our pockets, our lives, our habits, our dealings with each other and the rest of the world. This addiction is not just a sign of our own weakness: these products are actually designed to get us hooked. Adam Alter of NYU …...
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Trump’s First 100 Days

With Thomas Frank, Will Englund and Greg Shapiro

May 01, 2017, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Listen, Liberal – or: Whatever Happened to the Party of the People? is the title of the newest best-selling book by Thomas Frank, political analyst and historian. In his previous book What’s the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America (2004) Frank already explored the rise of populist conservatism in the US, focusing …...
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This is Film! Film Heritage in Practice

March 13, 2017

EYE and the University of Amsterdam present a series of public lectures about film restoration and heritage. On April 24, American filmmaker Ross Lipman will talk about his film Notfilm (USA, 2015). On May 1, Christopher Kenneally' s Side by Side (USA, 2012) will be shown....
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Lee Bontecou at the Gemeentemuseum

March 8, 2017

The Gemeentemuseum in The Hague hosts a unique exhibition on the work of American artist Lee Bontecou (1931). She is known for her prints and sculptures. The exhibition runs from February 25 till July 2....
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Las Vegas Strip at Pakhuis de Zwijger

March 2, 2017

On March 8, 7:30 p.m., Stefan Al will present his book 'The Strip.' It tells the story of the development of the famous street in Las Vegas not only as a reflection of architecture and urbanism trends, but also as an influence on developments elsewhere. Free entrance, make a reservation here....
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Paul Beatty

The Sellout

Mar 12, 2017, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

The Sellout, “a caustic satire on US racial politics that puts him up there with Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift,” according to the Man Booker Prize jury. The Sellout (translated into Dutch as De Verrader by Uitgeverij Prometheus) tells the story of a young black man who tries to reinstate slavery and racial segregation in a …...
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Michael Chabon

Moonglow

Apr 11, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Michael Chabon is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Telegraph Avenue, as well as the screenwriter for the hugely successful Spiderman 2 film. On April 11th, this master storyteller returned to the John Adams Institute with his deeply personal new book Moonglow, translated as Maangloed by Ambo Anthos. In …...
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Interview with Amy Webb

February 13, 2017

‘Being a futurist has forced me to live in the moment.’ Amy Webb is a futurist, and founder of the Future Today Institute, which researches emerging trends and tracks them as they evolve from blips on the fringe to big movements in the mainstream. She’ll be coming to speak at the John Adams Institute on …...
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Russell Shorto: How the Dutch Made New York

January 31, 2017

On February 2, at 6 p.m., former JAI director Russell Shorto will give a lecture at Amsterdam University College about the Dutch influence on the foundation of New York, and how that helped shape American culture more than is often recognized....
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Alex Beyer in New Masters on Tour 2016 | 2017

January 26, 2017

The young American pianist Alex Beyer will perform at the Concertgebouw as part of the 'New Master on Tour' program. He will play Beethoven's variations for piano and the incredibly difficult solo La Valse by Ravel. The concert takes place on February 5, at 2:30 p.m....
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Timothy Snyder: can history save us from ourselves?

January 24, 2017

Eminent historian and professor at Yale University Timothy D. Snyder will discuss what we can expect from the Trump-era. Can we - and do we want- to learn from our past? He will speak at de Balie, on January 26, at 8 p.m....
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Amy Webb

The Signals Are Talking: How Today's Fringe Becomes Tomorrow's Mainstream

Mar 17, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

How do you spot the emerging trends in business, technology and culture so that you can distinguish the trend from the trendy? Futurist Amy Webb, founder of the Future Today Institute, visited the John Adams to discuss her new book The Signals Are Talking – about how to predict which of all the seemingly random …...
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Trump Town at Stadsleven

January 23, 2017

Four days after Trump's inauguration, the live talk show Stadsleven (hosted by JAI director Tracy Metz) will discuss what it means to live in 'Trump Town'. Guests will be Maarten van Rossem, Arjen van Veelen, James Kennedy, and others. January 24, at 8 p.m. at de Balie. ...
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Colson Whitehead

January 19, 2017

On January 22, Colson Whitehead will discuss his novel The Underground Railroad, for which he received the this year's National Book Award. Mr. Whitehead will speak at the Bijlmer Parktheater....
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8 years Obama

January 18, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers It might be an occupational hazard, but I have even more respect for Pete Souza sticking to his job for eight years than for Obama. It is probably because I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to be the President of one of the most powerful countries on earth. I …...
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The closing piece

January 18, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers It might be an occupational hazard, but I have even more respect for Pete Souza sticking to his job for eight years than for Obama. It is probably because I simply cannot imagine what it would be like to be the President of one of the most powerful countries on earth. I …...
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Obama and the big exeption

January 18, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers He is excited. Surprised maybe. By the place? By his own bare feet? He is looking straight into the camera. He is clearly not posing, he is still moving. On the picture, he seems to be alone, but on his visits he is accompanied with an entire delegation. So why is he …...
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Obama and his contagious laugh

January 17, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers Smiling is socially desirable. The pictures by Pete Souza, the White House photographer, show President Obama doing it all day long – contrary to what one would expect with such a job. With a broad smile he shakes every hand, he poses for every picture and he opens every state visit. He …...
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Joby Warrick

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Mar 22, 2017, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Two time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Joby Warrick (Washington Post) visited the John Adams to discuss his new book Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS, translated into Dutch by Uitgeverij Q. In this book, Warrick tells the story of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the founding father of the organization that would become the Islamic State. Drawing on unique …...
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Obama and his selfish Selfies

January 17, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers A picture is a split second of reality. How long would the moment on this picture have lasted? Obama is hunched over so far that he seems to have turned around. He could keep on walking, but perhaps he has to go. And the woman in the blue coat, has she already …...
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The First Lady is dancing to her own tune

January 16, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers Her most important mission is the battle against what has become a true epidemic in the United States:obesity. The program is called Let’s Move. Her message is simple: eat healthier and move more. Her target group are children and their parents. That makes her theme relevant and visually attractive. This means vegetables …...
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Obama, his view and his longing

January 15, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers Sometimes it is more a staring in the distance, leaning back, his face towards the sky. At other times his hunched position suggests he really is looking at something. What he is truly looking at, we don’t know. That is what makes these images so powerful. A window suggests a world outside. …...
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Obama and the secret of his love

January 14, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers Every couple knows the difference between affection in private and affection in public. A kiss or a heartfelt embrace feel different when you’re being watched. It often feels awkward. It means that a public display of affection feels more demonstrative, more like a statement. This doesn’t mean that the love is less sincere …...
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Obama and the flying babies

January 11, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers President Obama and small children. They seem to be a perfect match. He hugs them. They like to hug him back even more. He makes them laugh. They are never afraid, sometimes shy. Children can disarm the most powerful man on earth. As well as everyone around them. They endear everyone who …...
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Obama eating a hamburger

January 11, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers Obama likes fast food. Every now and then he stops the whole cortege at a diner to order a hamburger with fries and a milkshake. Apparently he sometimes does this completely unexpectedly, which creates chaos among his PR-team and the bodyguards. You can see the entire ‘hamburger’ collection here. For eight years, …...
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Obama at work

January 11, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers The ceiling is hardly ever visible, but it is essential for each photograph. It is a large white dome, thanks to which the lighting is almost always ideal. No matter where you are standing in The Oval Office, whether it is day or night, you’re always in a big photo studio. You …...
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Frascati Producties presents SONTAG

January 11, 2017

Frascati Producties performs the play SONTAG, written by Naomi Velissariou. It features a larger-than-life dream world, inhabited by demons and icons from the work of Susan Sontag, one of the most striking thinkers of the 20th Century. The play runs until Saterday January 15, at Frascati Theater....
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Obama likes to do (most of) the talking

January 11, 2017

By Sterre Sprengers When the leaders of the world gather to discuss really important matters, they meet in a country retreat (like Camp David). The atmosphere is intimate. The lights are dimmed. They are seated on comfortable couches and around small round tables (with nameplates, not because they don’t know each other, but because there …...
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8 years Obama in pictures

January 9, 2017

Obama eating a hamburger By Sterre Sprengers Obama likes fast food. Every now and then he stops the whole cortege at a diner to order a hamburger with fries and a milkshake. Apparently he sometimes does this completely unexpectedly, which creates chaos among his PR-team and the bodyguards. You can see the entire ‘hamburger’ collection here. For …...
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Rogier van Eck & Rob Rombout

Amsterdam Stories

January 8, 2017

Watch the video of our event with Belgian filmmakers Rob Rombout and Rogier van Eck, who spoke with Tracy Metz about their documentary Amsterdam Stories. A roadmovie in which they take you to all American places named Amsterdam....
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Bernstein: East Side, West Side

An evening with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Feb 01, 2017, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

As a young musician Leonard ‘Lenny’ Bernstein lived in an immigrant neighborhood of New York City, the Lower East Side. He died in his apartment at the prestigious Dakota building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. In cooperation with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, we presented a special program in the West-Indisch Huis which shed a …...
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‘RACE’ by Het Nationaal Toneel

December 28, 2016

Het Nationale Toneel performs RACE, a play by David Mamet which deals with the devastating consequences of (positive) discrimination. Two lawyers, one black and one white, have to defend a white business man who is accused with the assault of a black woman....
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‘Spent’, an exposition by Dove Bradshaw

December 20, 2016

Until January 8, Dove Bradshaw holds an exposition 'Spent' at Zone2Source. Her work shows the workings of atmospheric conditions on different materials, and the relation between nature and culture....
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New Amsterdam Stories: Part Three

By Veronica Baas

December 19, 2016

For this final installment of a three part blog series, The John Adams Institute talked with Ellen Fleurbaay, head of Presentation and Participation at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam, to hear about the Amsterdam side of this project. New Amsterdam Stories is a project carried out by three different partners: the New York City Municipal Archives, the New Netherland …...
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Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors at De Balie

December 16, 2016

On December 20, Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement and initiator of the hashtag #blacklivesmatter, will deliver a lecture on the organization and strategy of the movement. She will also discuss the challenges the movement will possibly face under the Trump Presidency....
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New Amsterdam Stories: Part Two

By Veronica Baas

December 12, 2016

For this second installment of a three part blog series, The John Adams Institute talked with Dennis J. Maika, Senior Historian with the New Netherland Institute, who is one of the scholars who guides the project. ‘New Amsterdam Stories’ is a collaboration between the New Netherland Institute, the New York City Municipal Archives and the …...
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‘Daughters of the Dust’ at EYE

December 8, 2016

On December 17, EYE is screening 'Daughters of the Dust' as part of their Looking for America-series. This film tells the story of black families that meet on the beach before they migrate from the South to the Northern industrial cities around 1900. ...
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New Amsterdam Stories: Part One

By Russell Shorto

December 5, 2016

In this first installment of a three part blog series, Russell Shorto writes about his experience with the New Netherland archives. Since the Dutch founded one of the original European colonies in America, and since its capital was none other than a little island called Manhattan, it might be reasonable to suppose that Americans would …...
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‘Looking for America’ at EYE

November 23, 2016

Until December 21, EYE is taking an inquisitive look at the United States, in the aftermath of the Presidential Elections....
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Sacred

November 22, 2016

Academy Award winner Thomas Lennon presents a new documentary on faith, shot by more than 40 filmmaking teams around the world. John Adams Director Tracy Metz will conduct a Q&A after the screening on November 22....
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Thanksgiving with U.S. Consulate Youth Board

November 20, 2016

On the 22nd of November the U.S. Consulate Youth Board organizes a Thanksgiving event full of stories and gratitude. There will be a discussion panel with guest speaker Anne de Graaf, who will talk about indigenous rights in the U.S. Throughout the night there will be music and storytelling....
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‘Weiner’ at IDFA

November 7, 2016

On November 19 and 20 the IDFA will screen 'Weiner', a documentary that follows the former Congressman during his run for mayor of New York. During this campaign, new evidence of Weiner's sexting becomes available, leading to a major crisis. John Adams Director Tracy Metz will conduct a short Q&A with the director after the screening on Saturday....
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Tracy Metz wins Grote Rotterdam-Maaskantprijs

November 7, 2016

Tracy Metz, director of the John Adams Institute, has won the Grote Rotterdam-Maaskantprijs. The Grote Rotterdam-Maaskantprijs is a biannual life time achievement award that is granted to those who have contributed to the cultural experience of architecture, urban planning and landscaping in the Netherlands. For over thirty years, Tracy has worked as a journalist, author and …...
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The BKB campaign trip – in quotes

October 31, 2016

“ Before bed at night, think about why you get up the next morning. And think about what you eventually want it to say on your tombstone. Nobody says at a funeral: that guy had such a great flatscreen tv. Material possessions are not important. All that matters is how you affect the lives of …...
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DE DAG WAAROP ORANJE GROEN WERD

By Selin Kuscu

October 30, 2016

Deze week stond op de website van De Volkskrant een opiniestuk van Haro Kraak, getiteld: Waarom schrijven jullie hier nou nooit over? “Van complotdenkers en bezorgde burgers tot rechtse commentatoren en dwarse mediamakers – haast iedereen houdt ervan om te zeggen dat de media iets negeren. Maar waarom eigenlijk?” Volgens Kraak besteden de mainstream media wel zeker …...
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WAAROM WE MOETEN STOPPEN MET HET ORGANISEREN VAN VERKIEZINGSDEBATTEN

By Joël Serphos

October 29, 2016

Op 6 februari arriveerde ik met de BKB-academie in de Verenigde Staten. We hadden het toetje nog nauwelijks verteerd, of we werden al in de verkiezingsgekte meegesleurd omdat het grote GOP-televisiedebat in New Hampshire begon. Wie teveel last van jetlag had om het debat te kunnen volgen, kon zich gelukkig laten informeren door de vele …...
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DE SCHRIK VAN LINKS AMERIKA

By Roel Maalderink

October 28, 2016

Denktanks spelen een grote rol in het Amerikaanse politieke spel. En zoals zoveel in de Amerikaanse politiek, zijn ook die gelieerd aan een van de twee partijen. Een bezoekje aan de American Enterprise Institute. Het American Enterprise Institute is de schrik van links Amerika. De Conservatieve denktank publiceert aan de lopende band onderzoeken die de …...
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DOE MAAR GEWOON, DAN DOE JE AL GEK GENOEG

By Svenja van Vondelen

October 28, 2016

Fysiek uitgeput, maar mentaal energieker dan ooit blik ik terug op de onvergetelijke academiereis naar Amerika – Boston, Nashua, Washington. Wat hebben wij veel gedaan, gezien en gehoord. Geïnspireerd, opgetogen en verward schrijf ik deze blog. Waar moet ik beginnen? Wat heeft deze reis met mij gedaan? In wat voor wereld leven we eigenlijk? Welke …...
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Todd Weinstein

October 28, 2016

New York based photographer Todd Jay Weinstein will present his new project The 36 Unknown in Pakhuis de Zwijger, on 8 November. Through this project the artist, who is mostly known for his street photography, explores a group of abstract images based on a Jewish legend of redemption. ...
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THE HEROIN APOCALYPSE

By Shantih van Hoog

October 27, 2016

“It’s time we recognize that our state and federal prisons, where 65 percent of inmates meet medical criteria for substance use disorders, are no substitute for proper treatment — and reform our criminal justice system.” – Hillary Clinton ISIS, veiligheid, wapens, economische ongelijkheid en immigratie zijn leidende thema’s tijdens de debatten en rally’s van de …...
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EMILY’S LIST – LIKEABLE AND STRONG!

By Erkan Ergün

October 26, 2016

“Hoeveel procent van jullie volksvertegenwoordigers is een vrouw?” met deze vraag begon Denise Feriozzi, Deputy Executive Director van Emily’s List, het gesprek. Het exacte antwoord moesten wij haar op dat moment verschuldigd blijven, al maakte haar dat niet veel uit. Het punt dat ze wilde maken is dat vrouwelijke vertegenwoordiging in andere landen nog altijd …...
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ALGORITMES MET MACHT

By Jeroen van Baar

October 25, 2016

Een van onze laatste sessies tijdens de Amerikareis, gistermiddag, vond plaats bij Google in Washington D.C. We bezochten het internetbedrijf vanwege zijn hart voor democratie. Google probeert sinds enkele jaren om informatie over verkiezingen en verkiezingskandidaten te verspreiden en resultaten inzichtelijk te maken, in landen als India, Duitsland en de VS. De search tools van het bedrijf …...
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Uitslagenavond: een dollemansrit naar Warren Road, Concor

By Daniël van Duijn

October 24, 2016

Het is net na achten wanneer de langverwachte verkiezingsresultaten van de presidentiële voorverkiezing binnendruppelen. Nieuwsstation ABC roept Bernie Sanders uit tot winnaar van The Granite State, ongewoon vroeg omdat pas twintig procent van de stemmen is geteld. Mijn hart gaat sneller bonzen en ik weet dat ik maar op één plek wil zijn als de …...
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LOCAL, GLOBAL: DE RALLY VAN TED CRUZ IN NEW HAMPSHIRE

By Joël Serphos

October 23, 2016

Before bed at night, think about why you get up the next morning. And think about what you eventually want it to say on your tombstone. Nobody says at a funeral: that guy had such a great flatscreen tv. Material possessions are not important. All that matters is how you affect the lives of others. …...
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SNEEUW, VLAGGEN EN D.G.G.C.

By Devika Partiman

October 22, 2016

We zijn er: de Verenigde Staten! Om precies te zijn in Boston, Massachusetts. Na een 8-urige vlucht vol films (Clueless!), halfbakken pogingen tot slapen en slap ouwehoeren lopen we de gate uit, recht tegen de eerste Amerikaanse vlag aan. Die blijkt alom aanwezig: hij hangt op het vliegveld, pronkt bovenop gebouwen en wappert in voortuinen …...
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Impakt Festival

October 20, 2016

Originality and authenticity may seem like tidy concepts with fixed borders, but these borders are slowly dissolving. Impakt Festival 2016: Authenticity? will look into these issues with a programme of lectures, screenings and exhibitions, - including several American artists - which will take place at various locations in Utrecht from 26 until 30 October. ...
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Interview Steve McCurry

October 19, 2016

‘It’s all mixed’ American photographer Steve McCurry (b. 1950) has created some of the most recognisable images in the history of photography, including his iconic 1984 image ‘Afghan Girl’. He’s shot photo projects around the world for National Geographic and has been a member of the Magnum photo agency since 1986. At the John Adams …...
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National Park Roads at Architectuur Centrum Amsterdam

October 17, 2016

Timothy Davis, historian with the U.S. National Park Service, will talk about the essential role of roads in the experience and history of National Parks. The lecture will be held on October 20. ...
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Election Night

Presidential Elections 2016

Nov 08, 2016, 9:00 pm - 1:00 am

In collaboration with Paradiso we organised an Election Night event on November 8th. The program switched between CNN, NPO, live speakers and presentations about the election and American history. Kees van Minnen (directeur Roosevelt Study Center en Professor of American History at Ghent University) about the timeTheodor Roosevelt’s spoke at Paradiso while visiting the Netherlands. …...
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Bernie Sanders’ economic advisor Stephanie Kelton in the Netherlands

October 3, 2016

Stephanie Kelton is an economist, and served as an advisor to the 2016 Bernie Sanders campaign. On October 14, she will discuss the proposed policies of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as the 'Euro Dilemma'. ...
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Mary Norris

Between You & Me

Oct 26, 2016, 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm

To celebrate the 50th birthday of our partner Athenaeum Boekhandel, we co-hosted an event with ‘Comma Queen’ Mary Norris. She has spent more than three decades guarding The New Yorker’s grand traditions of grammar and usage. Now she brings her vast experience, good cheer, and finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in …...
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The American Dream by Ciconia Consort

September 28, 2016

Ciconia Consort presents a diverse program of American music. Maarten van Rossem will connect the various musical pieces to the political climate of their time. ...
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U.S. Undergraduate Fair in Amsterdam

September 27, 2016

The Ivy Circle organizes their annual U.S. Undergraduate Fair. The fair will be held at the International School of Amsterdam in Amstelveen on September 29, from 7:00-9:00 P.M....
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Steve McCurry

On Reading

Nov 01, 2016, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Photographer Steve McCurry (1950) is best known for his iconic picture taken in 1984 of an Afghan girl, which was published on the cover of National Geographic the following year. He managed to enter Afghanistan just as it was being closed to Western journalists. The images that he smuggled out of the country showed the …...
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The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie as Memory Play

Sep 22, 2016, 7:30 pm - 11:00 pm

In this collaboration with Toneelgroep Amsterdam, we paid attention to their performance of Tennessee Williams’ legendary play The Glass Menagerie (Glazen Speelgoed). This is the first play directed outside America by rising star Sam Gold. The Glass Menagerie, one of the most powerful plays of the 20th century, is a tale of love, loss and the disparate …...
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Zadie Smith

Swing Time

Nov 11, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

One of the most talented authors of this generation visited the John Adams Institute to speak about her exuberant and ambitious new novel Swing Time – published in Dutch by Prometheus Publishers. Zadie Smith’s star rose quickly with her debut novel White Teeth, which won multiple awards and proved Smith to be a wondrously talented …...
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Interview Lera Boroditsky

September 19, 2016

‘We see the world through the lens of language’ Lera Boroditsky studies the relationship between the mind, language, and the world. Her recent research shows that language holds a much more prominent role in our minds than we suspect. It’s not that we use language to express the thoughts that we have, but rather, the …...
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‘Theatre of Politics’ at Noorderlicht

September 15, 2016

During the run-up to the American Presidential elections, Noorderlicht gallery in Groningen will show four projects that each have a different take on this political process....
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Interview Jay McInerney

September 1, 2016

‘New York is probably ripe for another shock’ Interview with upcoming guest Jay McInerney Since his first novel ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ dropped onto the literary scene in 1984, Jay McInerney (b.1955) has been one of the strongest voices heralding the zeitgeist of New York City. He has just released his eighth novel, ‘Bright, Precious Days’ …...
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StandUp Filosophy at Nieuwe Poort

August 24, 2016

Following the comedy show by Boom Chicago, JAI Director Tracy Metz will be on a panel at De Nieuwe Poort to discuss several themes of the U.S. Presidential Elections. ...
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Toneelgroep Amsterdam provides English surtitles for all her performances

August 17, 2016

This month, Toneelgroep Amsterdam provides English surtitles for all her performances in the Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam....
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Ambacht in Beeld Festival goes New York

August 10, 2016

The annual Craft in Focus Festival spotlights master craftsmanship. The fourth edition in the Netherlands will take place in Amsterdam from 23 to 25 September 2016, and the first NY edition of the Craft in Focus Festival will take place from 11 to 13 November 2016, in Industry City, Brooklyn....
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Detroit: ruin porn or architecture?

August 8, 2016

Can architecture solve the wicked problems of a city like Detroit? This year’s US entry for the Architecture Biennale in Venice would like us to think so. But the solutions offered seem wide of the mark. By Tracy Metz Detroit has the dubious honor of being the symbol of the decline of America’s industrial cities. …...
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The Art of Flying by Jan van IJken

July 21, 2016

On July 29, the Dutch documentary short "The Art of Flying" of Jan van IJken will be screened at the opening night of the Rural Route Films Festival at the Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm....
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Jonathan Safran Foer

Here I Am

Oct 14, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Here I Am is Foer’s third novel, after Everything is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The story focuses on an American Jewish family which is falling apart in a moment of crisis. The story is set against the broader backdrop of political instability and natural disaster in the Middle East. At stake is …...
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Joseph Stiglitz

The Euro

Sep 30, 2016, 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

Joseph Stiglitz, Nobel Prize-winner and one of the most influential economists in the world today, returned to the John Adams to speak about his new book The Euro: How a Common Currency Threatens the Future of Europe. As recent events in the U.K. have shown, unity within the EU has been replaced by dissent. Stiglitz …...
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What Design Can Do Refugee Challenge 2016

July 4, 2016

American architect and Amsterdammer David Dwars, former dealer for office furniture manufacturer and John Adams-sponsor Herman Miller, won a prestigious place as runner-up in the Refugee Challenge organized by What Design Can Do. The Challenge drew 631 entries from 70 countries. His team Architects for Society designed the so-called Hex House, ‘a rapidly deployable, dignified …...
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Hanya Yanagihara

A Little Life

Oct 05, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Hanya Yanagihara’s second novel A Little Life has established her as a major new voice in US fiction. The novel, which is both a dislocating meditation on the trauma of child sexual abuse, and a moving tribute to the possibilities and limitations of adult male friendship and love, was widely greeted as a book of …...
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Obama: Dream & Legacy

Guus Valk and Eelco Bosch van Rosenthal

Sep 05, 2016, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What have eight years of Barack Obama brought the U.S.? Was the change he promised America for better or worse? Two top Dutch experts on changing American society took the stage at the John Adams Institute to explore topics such as the vanishing middle class, immigration and inequality, the decline of many important American institutions, …...
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Jay McInerney

Bright, Precious Days

Sep 13, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

One of the finest chroniclers of the city of New York returned to Amsterdam to speak at the John Adams. McInerney was also one of the institute’s first speakers. It is almost three decades since his coming-of-age classic Bright Lights, Big City, brought him fame and fortune. This account of greed and excess in 1980’s …...
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Stephen Shore – Retrospective

June 20, 2016

From June 10 until September 10 the work of American photographer Stephen Shore is on display at Huis Marseille in Amsterdam. ...
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Andrew Keen FD Lecture

June 13, 2016

On June 30, longtime Internet sceptic Andrew Keen will give a lecture on how to save our civilization in the digital age. There are many positive ways in which the Internet has contributed to the world, but as a society we are less aware of the Internet’s deeply negative effects on our psychology, economy, and …...
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The Schwob Book Club Festival

June 9, 2016

On Sunday June 19th the Schwob book club festival will take place in Utrecht. One of the classic novels you can pick is ‘A lesson before dying’ by Ernest J. Gaines. The work refers to segregated America of the 40s....
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AAA ‘pop-art’: Son Lux, Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest

June 3, 2016

As part of the Holland Festival, American pop artist Son Lux will perform together with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on June 16 and 17. ...
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Lera Boroditsky 

How Language Shapes the Way we Think

Oct 01, 2016, 2:00 pm - 3:30 pm

In cooperation with the DRONGO language festival, the John Adams presented Lera Boroditsky as a keynote speaker. Lera Boroditsky is an Associate Professor at the department of Cognitive Science of the University of California, San Diego. Her research into language and cognition focusses on the theory of Linguistic Relativity, the idea that the way people experience the …...
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Disfarmer – The Vintage Prints

May 31, 2016

Between 1915 and 1959, American studio photographer Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959) made portraits of the residents of Heber Springs, a small town in rural Arkansas. Foam is staging a major retrospective, with 182 vintage photographs until June 5....
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Symposium: Legal Diversity

May 25, 2016

McGill University’s Faculty of Law and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, Leiden University, host a one-day Symposium on the theme of legal diversity and the theory and practice of contemporary international law on June 2....
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Mark Landler

Alter Egos: Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and the twilight struggle over American Power

Jun 21, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The deeply reported story of two supremely ambitious figures, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton—archrivals who became partners for a time, trailblazers who share a common sense of their historic destiny but hold very different beliefs about how to project American power. In Alter Egos, New York Times White House correspondent Mark Landler takes us inside the …...
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The Travels of Kaufmann’s Office

May 23, 2016

By Tracy Metz, Director of the John Adams Institute The director of Frank Lloyd Wright’s 1930’s iconic house Fallingwater recently spoke at the John Adams Institute. Two of our staunch followers, Rick and Marga Donehoo, told me later that they had seen the office that Frank Lloyd Wright designed in 1937 for Fallingwater’s owner, Pittsburgh department …...
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Benjamin Barber at ‘European Culture Forum’

May 21, 2016

Renowned political theorist Benjamin Barber will speak at the 2016 Forum on European Culture on Wednesday 1 June 20:00 in Het Concertgebouw....
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Interview with Timothy Prescott and Andy Tanenbaum

May 21, 2016

‘Few people will be voting for anyone, but a lot of people will be voting against someone.’ Interview with upcoming guests Timothy Prescott and Andy Tanenbaum Big Data and social media are playing an increasingly significant role in the electoral process, from projections on outcome to helping candidates understand where they should best focus their campaign …...
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Jeb Bush at ‘Democracy Today in the USA’

May 15, 2016

Jeb Bush will speak at the symposium Democracy Today in the USA on May 21. It will be his first public appearance since the end of his presidential campaign....
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UBIK Futurosity

May 10, 2016

UBIK Futurosity, an Intergalactic Scifi Bizarro Festival, takes place on May 18-19 and June 9-12, 2016. Highlights include world-renowned US avant-garde act Matmos and award winning US Sci-Fi Bizarro writer, Kevin L Donihe....
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Ian Buruma

Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War

Jun 29, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams Institute proudly presented an evening with journalist, writer and academic Ian Buruma. His new book, Their Promised Land: My Grandparents in Love and War, is an account of a love sustained through the terror and separation of two world wars and the thousands of love letters sent in the darkest hours of …...
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Philip Glass

Words Without Music

Aug 20, 2016, 8:30 pm - 10:00 pm

We were honored to have one of the most influential composers of the 20th century on the John Adams program. Philip Glass is the first composer to win a wide, multi-generational audience not only in the opera house and the concert hall, but also in the dance world, in film and in popular music – …...
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Income Tax Seminar for Individuals

April 26, 2016

How do you manage the burden of meeting your US income tax filing obligations? Limes International offers an income tax seminar to ease the burden of working and living outside the US....
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Introdans: Absolute America

April 25, 2016

Absolute America features four American dance creators, composers and designers, each with a completely individual style, from punk to acrobatically muscled....
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Interview Lynda Waggoner

April 21, 2016

‘It’s a very powerful building, and a moving experience’ Interview with upcoming guest Lynda Waggoner Lynda Waggoner is the director of Fallingwater, a Pennsylvanian house designed in 1935 by the renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959). She is speaking at the John Adams Institute on May 12th at an event hosted at the museum Het Grachtenhuis. …...
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Amerikanistendag 2016

April 20, 2016

On Friday, June 10, 2016, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will host the 22nd Amerikanistendag, the annual student conference of the Netherlands American Studies Association. ...
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How Data Will Determine The Next President

Timothy Prescott & Andy Tanenbaum

May 26, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

As the United States ramped up for the Presidential election, big data and social data to play an increasingly important role. Social data drove the 2008 presidential election and big data drove the 2012 election. Together with data-analyst Timothy Prescott and computer scientist Andy Tanenbaum we discussed the influence of data analytics on the 2016 …...
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Holland Festival

April 13, 2016

On 4 June 2016, the 69th Holland Festival will open at the Amsterdam Stadsschouwburg. The festival features various American artists....
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Lynda Waggoner

Fallingwater

May 12, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Frank Lloyd Wright is regarded by the American Institute of Architects as the greatest American architects of all time, and they voted his masterwork Fallingwater “the best all-time work of American architecture”. Designed in 1935, the house in southwestern Pennsylvania is hailed as a marvel of innovation and daring design that appears to float over …...
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Interview Glen Kendall

April 5, 2016

‘I love books. I’ve loved books my whole life’ Interview with book club coordinator Glen Kendall In continuation of its mission to support American culture in Amsterdam, the John Adams Institute is launching its very own book club. We warmly welcome all book lovers to our circle, members and non-members alike! Glen –Vietnam veteran– is …...
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Skid Row by photographer Désirée van Hoek

March 29, 2016

On April 9, Dutch photographer Désirée van Hoek will talk about her book 'Skid Row' at ABC Treehouse. She worked six years on 'Skid Row' in Los Angeles, one of the biggest homeless communities in America....
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Nigel Hamilton

Commander in Chief: FDR's Battle with Churchill, 1943

May 02, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

In the next installment of the “splendid memoir Roosevelt didn’t get to write” (New York Times), bestselling and award-winning biographer Nigel Hamilton tells the astonishing story of FDR’s year-long, defining battle with Churchill, as the war raged in Africa and Italy. Nigel Hamilton’s Mantle of Command, long-listed for the National Book Award, drew on years of archival …...
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Design & The City – Knowledge Mile Amsterdam

March 17, 2016

Design & The City, partner of the JAI, explores citizen-centered design approaches for the smart city from April 19 until April 22....
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Game of Thrones

Designing the Seven Kingdoms with William Simpson

Apr 24, 2016, 2:30 pm - 4:00 pm

Today’s most popular television series is without a doubt Game of Thrones, in which kings and queens, knights and renegades all battle to conquer the Iron Throne. There are numerous blogs devoted to the series, there are viewing parties in bars and restaurants and it’s the most (illegally) downloaded program. On the day of the …...
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Interview Kate Andersen Brower

March 14, 2016

The Private World of Public Servants In her book ‘The Residence’, former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower looks not to the First Family themselves, but to the staff charged with the running the world’s most famous political household. She spoke with butlers, maids, chefs, florists, doormen and other staff members about their role in …...
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Appel in New York

March 9, 2016

The Amsterdam City Archives present an exhibition about a less-known part of Dutch artist Karl Appel's life – his time in New York in the 1960s....
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Pippin comes to Amsterdam

March 1, 2016

The Broadway musical PIPPIN, winner of 4 Tony Awards® in 2013, is coming to Amsterdam in March and April 2016. ...
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An Irish Songbook 1916

February 25, 2016

On March 19, Paul McNamara and Hans Eijsackers will explore how Irish literary giants such as W.B. Yeats, James Joyce and Thomas Moore saw the relationship between the arts and social and political upheaval in Ireland....
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Requiem for the American Dream

Kelly Nyks

Apr 06, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

In Requiem for the American Dream, Noam Chomsky argues that the collapse of American democratic ideals and the rise of the 1% means that the American dream is harder than ever to achieve. Tracing a half-century of policies designed to favor the most wealthy at the expense of the majority, Chomsky lays bare the costly debris left …...
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Zak Ebrahim

The Terrorist’s Son

Mar 10, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

What is it like to grow up with a terrorist in your home? Zak Ebrahim was seven years old when his father, El-Sayyid Nosair, shot and killed the leader of the Jewish Defense League. While in prison, Nosair helped plan the first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The boy spent the rest …...
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Lecture by Photojournalist Lynsey Addario

February 2, 2016

American photojournalist Lynsey Addario wil give a lecture about her work at Pakhuis de Zwijger on February 9. ...
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About Edgar A. Poe

Lecture at Boekhandel van Rossum

Feb 11, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm

American writer Edgar A. Poe is famous for his literary qualities, however this lecture sheds a different light on Poe: as a foremost man of science. Even though he is admired all over the world nowadays, Poe’s reputation is still scarred by the attacks of his enemies of long ago: Had other circumstances favored, it …...
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Moby-Dick

White Whales: American fictions of monomania, failure, and finitude

Mar 23, 2016, 12:00 am - 12:00 am

The John Adams Institute presented a two day course at Boekhandel Van Rossum on Herman Melville’s famous novel Moby-Dick, taught by George Blaustein, associate professor at the University of Amsterdam. Grand, strange, sometimes nonsensical, occasionally prophetic, and funnier than you expect, Moby-Dick is as subtle as a sledgehammer and yet as elusive as vapor. Why …...
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Kate Andersen Brower

The Residence

Mar 21, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

“Downton Abbey meets House of Cards”. From the mystique of the glamorous Kennedys to the tumult that surrounded Bill and Hillary Clinton during the president’s impeachment to the historic tenure of Barack and Michelle Obama, each new administration brings a unique set of personalities to the White House – and a new set of challenges …...
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Submarine Services of the Netherlands

January 23, 2016

Unknown, unloved? On February 15, The Atlantische Commissie organizes a debate about the usefulness and necessity of the Submarine Service of the Netherlands in the world....
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Joe Alper – Folk and Jazz during the Civil Rights Movement

January 11, 2016

This exhibition presents an overview of the work of American music photographer Joe Alper (1925 - 1968), who became a part of the Freedom Movement. ...
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Special program for International Audiences

January 8, 2016

Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the biggest theatre company in the Netherlands, is organizing a program prior to The Hidden force (De Stille Kracht) on January 11. ...
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In Search of Thomas Pynchon

January 6, 2016

From January 16 to March 8, Nieuwe Vide in Haarlem is hosting the exhibition 'In search of Thomas Pynchon'. It is a project about American novelist Thomas Pynchon, known for his dense and complex works of fiction....
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Wassup?

January 4, 2016

Jan. 4th, 2016 Well, this was quite a year! We here at the John Adams Institute have a lot to look back on and even more to look forward to. Let me bring you up to speed. We hosted twenty-one of the best and brightest from the United States in 2015, including such luminaries as …...
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John Irving

Avenue of Mysteries

Jan 23, 2016, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The John Adams Institute proudly presented an evening with widely acclaimed American novelist John Irving, who returned to the institute to discuss his fourteenth novel Avenue of Mysteries. This novel spins two remarkable tales – both about the central character Juan Diego, a successful 54-year-old international novelist who is embarking on a trip to the Philippines. …...
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Garth Risk Hallberg

City on Fire

Jan 18, 2016, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

The buzz around City on Fire started already two years ago, when Garth Risk Hallberg sold the manuscript for two million dollars. Readers were not disappointed: in a brisk and superb narrative, Hallberg subjects a group of characters living in gritty New York in 1977 to an intimate examination, revolving around the shooting of a …...
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President’s Night 2016

December 15, 2015

For the fourth time in a row BKB and Melkweg are organising a grand event around the American presidential elections. ...
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Karl F. Winkler

December 14, 2015

The War at Home The dawn after the Presidential election in 1968 I was waiting for a med-evac flight in the San Antonio, Texas, Air Force flight service center. I was in my Army greens and captain’s bars with combat tabs. My journey was to Montgomery, Alabama to see my parents before getting orders to …...
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Getronics

December 13, 2015

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Garry Kasparov

Winter is Coming

Dec 12, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The growing rift between Russia and the West represents a conflict between modernity and the past, according to chess grand master-turned human rights activist Garry Kasparov. For over a decade Kasparov has been an outspoken opponent of Vladimir Putin’s growing authoritarianism, but he has also been equally critical of the US and its allies for …...
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Opening of New York Film Academy Cafe

December 3, 2015

On December 16, the New York Film Academy Cafe will officially open in Beurs van Berlage. The Cafe is inspired by New York and Amsterdam in the roaring twenties.The Cafe will also accommodate the New York Film Academy school, to be launched early 2016....
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Public Insight – Against a Perfect Sky

November 30, 2015

On December 16, film producer Jasper Henderson will discuss his travel to Abruzzi and his love for Fante with We Are Public-editor Daniël van der Meer. ...
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Jeff Kinney – Wimpy Kid World Tour

November 26, 2015

On December 7, American cartoonist, producer, actor, author of children's books, and former JAI guest Jeff Kinney will visit bookstore Scheltema as part of his Wimpy Kid World Tour. ...
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‘Requiem For The American Dream’ at IDfA

November 24, 2015

As part of the IDFA program, 'Requiem For The American Dream', in which Noah Chomsky explores the growing inequality in the U.S., will be screened at Tuschinski Theater today. ...
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‘This Changes Everything’ at IDfA

November 12, 2015

The documentary 'This Changes Everything’ by former guest of the John Adams Institute Naomi Klein will be screened during the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. ...
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The Weather Diaries

November 4, 2015

CODA Museum presents The Weather Diaries, an exhibition by American-Austrian artists Sarah Cooper and Nina Gorfer. ...
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Robert Putnam

Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis

Nov 16, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

A groundbreaking examination of the growing inequality gap from the bestselling author of Bowling Alone: why fewer Americans today have the opportunity for upward mobility. Robert Putnam – about whom The Economist said, “his scholarship is wide-ranging, his intelligence luminous, his tone modest, his prose unpretentious and frequently funny” – offers a personal but also …...
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Marilynne Robinson

Lila - SOLD OUT

Nov 15, 2015, 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm

One of the most prominent novelists of her generation came to the John Adams Institute to talk about her new novel Lila, the third and final part of her Gilead trilogy. Readers all over the world had anxiously been awaiting it, among them President Obama who identifies her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Gilead as one of …...
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Laird Hunt

Neverhome

Nov 13, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Lucky Laird Hunt, to get praise like this from his famous fellow author Paul Auster for his novel Neverhome: “This is a spare, beautiful novel, so deeply about America and the language of America that its sentences seem to rise up from the earth itself. Magnificent.” Neverhome is the story of Constance Thompson, a woman …...
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Buffy Wicks

Insights to the US Presidential Campaign

Nov 10, 2015, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What are the odds of Hillary Clinton becoming the next president of the United States, and becoming the most powerful woman in the world? At least she is the favorite candidate in the Democratic primary. But how does the presidential campaign really work? Exactly one year before Election Day, Buffy Wicks, an insider of the …...
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Russell Shorto- You say you want a revolution?

October 17, 2015

On November 6, former John Adams Institute director Russell Shorto will talk about the elites and masses in the American Revolution at the Martinikerk in Groningen. ...
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Toneelgroep Amsterdam – Special program for international audiences

October 14, 2015

Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the biggest theatre company in the Netherlands, is organizing a program for international audiences in the Netherlands on October 18. During this event you will be introduced to the Dutch theatre practice, theatre history and themes of the play in a playful way. ...
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American artist Rasheedah Phillips at Afrofuturism

October 9, 2015

From 14 to October 18, WORM Rotterdam hosts a 5 day festival of modern-day Afrofuturism in the heart of Rotterdam. WORM has invited one of America’s foremost Afrofuturist artists, activists and thinkers, Rasheedah Phillips to co-curate this unique event....
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Marieke Berkers – The Park as Emancipation Machine

October 6, 2015

On Saturday October 10, editor of the Blauwe Kamer Marieke Berkers will give an introduction to the film 'Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America,' screened at the Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam (AFFR)....
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Larry Schaaf on William Henry Fox Talbot & the Invention of Photography

October 5, 2015

On October 6, professor dr. Larry J. Schaaf will give a lecture about one of the inventors of photography: William Henry Fox Talbot. The lecture also includes the unique opportunity for the public to view vintage prints by Talbot. ...
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Notturno Americano (shadows speak softly about the sun) – Emidio Clementi

September 30, 2015

Notturno Americano is a trip to America of the early 20th century through the visionary look of Emanuel Carnevali, the writer who more than anybody else deeply plunged into the obscure areas of the glittering overseas cities....
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VPRO Tegenlicht: TTIP

September 29, 2015

On 4 October, VPRO Tegenlicht will screen an episode on TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership). To understand the possible consequences of such a system VPRO Tegenlicht goes to Canada, which is one of the most sued countries in the world after it had concluded a trade agreement with the U.S....
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Noah Charney

The Art of Forgery. The Minds, Motives and Methods of Master Forgers

Sep 24, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Art forgery has an intriguing place in the world of crime. No violence, no victims and forgers are often seen as cheeky practical jokers. Who doesn’t remember Han van Meegeren, who tricked Herman Göring into buying a fake Vermeer? Also, the benefits for art criminals outweigh the risks they have to take, according to art …...
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Kenneth Cukier

Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

Nov 06, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

The huge amounts of data (this event is part of our technology series) we produce are transforming the world and our daily lives fundamentally. Kenneth Cukier, data-editor at The Economist and co-author of the successful book Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think, compares the impact of big data …...
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Screening of ‘This Changes Everything’

September 17, 2015

On September 26, documentary ‘This Changes Everything’ will be screened at the Hemweg coal power station in Amsterdam. The documentary is based on the newest book of journalist, publicist, activist and former guest of the John Adams Institute Naomi Klein. ...
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Jimmy Wales on ‘Wikipedia and Governance’

September 10, 2015

On November 25, the Erasmus Prize 2015 -that is awarded annually to a person or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to culture, society or social science, in Europe and beyond- will be awarded to Wikipedia at Paradiso....
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AEGON

September 10, 2015

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CSC

September 10, 2015

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US Embassy The Hague

September 10, 2015

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Holland America Friendship Foundation

September 10, 2015

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Joseph Montgomery – Rules for Coyote

September 3, 2015

Dürst Britt & Mayhew present American artist Joseph Montgomery's first solo exhibition at their gallery from 12 September - 31 October. Montgomery’s work has the structure and syntax of sculpture, but it simultaneously has all the trappings of painting....
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Niall Ferguson

Kissinger the Idealist: 1923-1968

Oct 26, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard University and one of the most renowned historians of this age, has returned to the John Adams Institute to discuss part one of his long-awaited biography of Henry Kissinger, former US Secretary of State and foreign policy chief for Presidents Nixon and Ford. Kissinger is widely regarded as …...
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Best of Fringe New York

September 2, 2015

Running alongside the Dutch Theatre Festival, the Amsterdam Fringe Festival presents the works of more than 80 theatre groups that work at the creative margins of the performance art world across the city from 3-13 September....
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Wassup?

August 21, 2015

This is the first installment of my blog ‘Wassup?’. As the director of the John Adams Institute I will post (ir)regularly to keep you up to date on our newstand provide an occasional peek behind the scenes. Feel free to send me your thoughts and reactions: info@john-adams.nl. We did something altogether new this week – well, …...
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‘Magnum Contact Sheets’ at FOAM

August 13, 2015

From September 11 to December 9, Foam presents 'Magnum Contact Sheets' which shows the magic surrounding the all-encompassing “decisive moment'' and how iconic images come to exist. ...
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36.5 / A Durational Performance With The Sea

August 3, 2015

On August 10, Sarah Cameron Sunde will stand in the North Sea for her project 36.5. The performance reveals the dangers that are hidden below a calm water surface and challenges her physical and mental endurance. ...
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T.C. Boyle

The Harder They Come

Sep 05, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

After two decades, one of the paragons of American literature, T.C. Boyle, returns to the John Adams. His newest novel, The Harder They Come, recounts the miseries of a troubled father and son in a resonant meditation on the American frontier ethos. “From the novel’s thrilling set piece of a start … to its pensive conclusion,” The New York Times wrote “The Harder They Come is a masterly — and arresting — piece of storytelling, arguably Mr. Boyle’s most powerful, kinetic novel...
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Jonathan Franzen

Purity

Oct 19, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Jonathan Franzen has returned to the John Adams Institute with an impressive new novel about youthful idealism, fidelity, identity and secrets. Purity (in publisher Prometheus’ Dutch translation: Zuiverheid) is the story of a young girl named Pip (born Purity) Tyler who goes in search of her unknown father. Written with “conversational, enormously intelligent prose that …...
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‘The Hand of Man’ – Photographs by J Henry Fair

August 1, 2015

From June 13 to August 1, Eduard Planting Gallery in Amsterdam presents an exhibition of American photographer and environmental activist J Henry Fair. His work 'The Hand of Man' ironically shows the magic and beauty of environmental pollution. ...
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Woody and the Big Apple

Aug 22, 2015, 4:30 pm - 11:00 pm

This summer EYE was showing ‘The Comedies of Woody Allen . On August 22th, EYE and the John Adams collaborated on a special screening of three Woody Allen films in which New York plays an important role. John Adams-director Tracy Metz gave an introduction on the role the city plays in Allen’s films; sociologist Jan …...
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Anne Wertheim on her work for the John Adams Institute

July 16, 2015

This Saturday, the first director of the John Adams Institute, Anne Wertheim, will feature as a guest on the Dutch morning Radio 4 show ‘Een Goedemorgen Met…’. She will talk about her work for the John Adams Institute, in particular Wertheim will speak about the events with Russian poet Joseph Brodksy and with novelist Siri Hustvedt. ...
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Nina Siegal

The Anatomy Lesson (Invitation Only)

Jun 23, 2015, 5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

The John Adams Institute and AEGON organized a special event at the Mauritshuis in The Hague. We hosted American author Nina Siegal, author of the novel The Anatomy Lesson (published in translation by The House of Books as Tulpen en Terpentijn), based on the famous painting by Rembrandt. Siegal was joined by a panel of experts including Emilie …...
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Michelle Miller

The Underwriting: New Concepts in Publishing

Jun 16, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Sex scandals, power plays, shady trading, and even murder. This is the cluster of elements underpinning Michelle Miller´s corporate thriller The Underwriting, which brings together the different cultures of Wall Street and California in a story about a successful startup in Silicon Valley. The Underwriting, translated into Dutch by LS Publishers under the title De …...
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Senator George Mitchell

The Negotiator: Reflections on an American Life

Jun 08, 2015, 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

This event was part of our ongoing 2016 Election Series. Previous events in the series were Jennifer Lawless and George Packer. During a political career that spans over four decades, George Mitchell has gained a reputation for his skill in finding compromise and common sense in desperate situations and places. In his aptly-titled memoir The Negotiator, he shares …...
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‘Citizenfour’ at Spui25

June 8, 2015

On June 17th, Spui25 will host an evening around Laura Poitras' documentary 'Citizenfour', about whistle-blower Edward Snowden. The evening will include a screening of the documentary, followed by a panel discussion on surveillance, security, and privacy....
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Leslie Jamison

The Empathy Exams

Jun 02, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Beginning with her experience as a medical actor, paid to act out symptoms for medical students to diagnose, Leslie Jamison’s visceral and revealing essays ask essential questions about our basic understanding of others: How should we care about one another? How can we feel another’s pain, especially when pain can be assumed, distorted, or performed? …...
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Jerome Karabel

Who Gets in, What Comes Out: Accessibility & Responsibility of Top Education

May 28, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

At the end of the 19th century, Harvard launched a policy to attract students not only from the elite, but also from public schools. This move resulted in an unwelcome surprise for Harvard: they enrolled too many Jewish students. Harvard quickly took measures that were intended to, as President A. Lawrence Lowell said, “prevent a dangerous …...
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Hudson’s “Halve Maen” in Hoorn

May 24, 2015

From May 30th on, a replica of the VOC ship "Halve Maen," on which Henry Hudson discovered the island of Manhattan in 1609, will be on public display at the Westfries Museum in Hoorn....
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Laszlo Bock

Work Rules! Insights from Inside Google that Will Transform How You Live and Lead

May 21, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:15 pm

Each year, Google receives more than two million job applications from around the world. The company has been rated the #1 Best Company to Work For in the United States and 16 other countries, the 1# top Diversity Employer, and the best company for women in technology. But what makes Google such a widely praised …...
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21 Years of Mockery at Boom Chicago

May 20, 2015

On Sunday May 24th, Boom Chicago, the Amsterdam-based creative group best known for its live comedy shows, presents its show "21 Years of Mockey." The show is a mix of improvisations and scenes looking at the culture clash that happens when American comedians set down roots in Amsterdam....
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Tracy Metz lecture on Woody Allen

May 13, 2015

On May 19th, JAI director Tracy Metz will give a lecture about New York City in the films of Woody Allen. The event is a prelude to the EYE film museum's summer program about Allen's work, which will kick off in July....
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Jess Walter at Book Store Zwart op Wit

May 6, 2015

On May 12th, American author Jess Walter will pay a visit to book store Zwart op Wit in Amsterdam. Walter is the recipient of the Edgar Allan Poe Award, among others, and was a finalist for the National Book Award in 2006....
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Books That Will Save Your Life

May 4, 2015

On May 7th, Spui25, Athenaeum, and study association Etcetera will organize the second edition of Etcetera's English Literary Festival. Featuring authors, scholars and journalists, the festival celebrates seven decades of English literature since the 1940's....
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“RACE” – Urban Theater at De Balie

April 24, 2015

On May 6, 7, 9 and 10, De Balie presents John Leerdam's Dutch adaptation of David Mamet's play RACE, which premiered on Broadway in 2009. The play explores the complex dyanmics of sexual intimidation, power and justice surrounding the highly charged trial of a white man charged with raping a black woman....
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The Great Poetry Workshop 2015

April 17, 2015

On April 25 and 26, the Amsterdam Writing Workshops is organizing The Great Poetry Workshop 2015: For Poets & Writers of Prose. Focusing on both poetry and prose, the workshop is centered around the question: What, in these times, can poetry teach us?...
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George Packer

The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America

Apr 16, 2015, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

This event was part of our ongoing 2016 Election Series. Other events in the series were Jennifer Lawless and Senator George Mitchell. America is unravelling. Within three decades, the land of endless opportunity has become more than ever a country of winners and losers. In his book The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America, George Packer …...
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Round Table Conference on Transatlantic Relations

April 15, 2015

On April 17, the Netherlands Atlantic Commission will organize a round table conference on transatlantic relations under the spell of the Ukraine and Middle East crises. A panel of experts will discuss European and American handling of crises in Russia and the Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, and IS. ...
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Lincoln lecture and screening at FLOOR

April 13, 2015

On April 15th, FLOOR is organizing a lecture and film screening to mark the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's assassination. Dr. George Blaustein will speak on the myth surrounding the president, followed by a screening of Steven Spielberg's 2012 film Lincoln....
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“Love & Lust” at Centraal Museum

April 9, 2015

The Centraal Museum in Utrecht currently houses the first monographic exhibition of the work of Golden Age Dutch painter Joachim Wtewael. The exhibition consists of forty paintings and ten drawings from several European and American collections, on view together for the first time. ...
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Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See

Apr 07, 2015, 8:00 pm - 10:00 pm

“Masterpiece. Tremendous. Wow. Overwhelming”. Just a few characterizations by readers of Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See. And the literary critics were also unanimous: Anthony Doerr has an immense talent for storytelling. His masterful and moving novel about two young people during World War II rapidly became a #1 New York Times bestseller and …...
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Invisible City/ Night Walk Photography exhibit

March 31, 2015

On April 3th, Noorderlicht Fotogalerie will launch the exhibition "Invisible City/Night Walk 1983-1989" by Ken Schles. The exihibit offers a ragged and compelling view of New York's Lower East Side during the nineteen-eighties. ...
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Changing Media Landscapes at Amsterdam Academy

March 29, 2015

On March 31, Amsterdam Academy will host a lecture that takes a broad view of changes in the media landscape. Taking the US and the Netherlands as test cases, the discussion will have a particular focus on the rise of online television through Netflix, Amazon, and Youtube....
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SLAA Presents Jenny Offill

March 25, 2015

This Friday, SLAA presents an exclusive evening with American writer Jenny Offill in the Tolhuistuin. Offill's second novel "Dept. of Speculation," published last year, was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2014 by the New York Times Book Review....
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“Under Construction” in New York

March 16, 2015

The FOAM exhibition 'Under Construction – New Positions in American Photography,' which the John Adams and FOAM co-presented last fall at photo fair Unseen, opened this week at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn....
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“Porgy & Bess” at the Amsterdam RAI

March 9, 2015

Currently playing at the Amsterdam RAI Theater; George Gershwin's groundbreaking folk opera "Porgy & Bess," featuring an entirely American cast and soloists from the New York Metropolitan Opera....
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“Made in the USA” by The Hague Philharmonic

March 4, 2015

On March 6 and 8, The Hague Philharmonic will present their program "Made in the USA". Featuring works by Bernstein, Bartók and Dvorák, "Made in the USA" highlights the work of European composers in a world of Indians, skyscrapers and nostalgia for a destroyed homeland....
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Bill Browder

Red Notice

Feb 26, 2015, 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Bill Browder, founder and CEO of the hedge fund Hermitage Capital Management, went from being the biggest foreign investor in Russia’s stockmarket to being ‘one of the country’s biggest enemies’, in his own words. His battle against corporate corruption led to the authorities declaring him a “threat to national security” and a prison sentence of …...
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Oscar Night at De Balie

February 22, 2015

On Sunday February 22, De Balie and Cineville will co-host a festive, night-filling program surrounding the 2015 Academy Awards. The evening will include an advance screening of the nominated film "Still Alice", a film quiz and an expert panel discussion on the nominees, losers and winners. ...
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“Selma” Premiering in Dutch cinemas

February 11, 2015

On February 19, Ava DuVernay’s lauded film "Selma" hit Dutch cinemas. Set in 1965, the film is a chronicle of Martin Luther King's campaign to secure equal voting rights for black Americans through an epic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama....
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