Stripdagen Extra Edition 2025
On May 24 and 25 of this year a special edition of the Stripdagen Haarlem took place which was dedicated to 80 years of liberation. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. It is unique that we in the Netherlands have lived in peace for so long.
It became clear that there are dark clouds looming on the horizon during the workshop graphic journalism that Eva Hilhorst had the opportunity to give to group 7 and 8 of the Franciscus Xaverius School in Haarlem, at the invitation of Stichting Kapsalon. Jan van Amsterdam, who was 8 years old when the bombing by mistake of Haarlem took place in 1943, and his wife Henny came to tell how they had experienced it at the time. Some of the children in the class were from Ukraine and for them it was something that is happening right now in their home country. In their visual stories they were able to depict the past, present and future. Those stories were shown in the Newsroom during Stripdagen Haarlem.
Like last year, Drawing the Times was once again allowed to curate a Newsroom, this time at the invitation of Stichting Cultuurkoepel. Six cartoonists talked to six people from Haarlem for whom freedom is not self-evident.
Six comics artists made contact with six people from Haarlem for whom freedom is not self-evident and had conversations with them that they translated into a visual story.
Nova de Hoo visualized the story of Meryem Cimen, a council member in Haarlem, who experienced domestic violence as a child and now stands up for women’s rights.
Micky Dirkzwager interacted with Mark Platje, a man who has been housebound for a long time due to kidney failure.
Farhad Foroutanian made a visual story about Hasan, who, like him, comes from Iran and was unable to live in freedom there.
Melanie Kranenburg met Victoria, a dancer from Ukraine.
B.Carrot had a conversation with Marni Blom, a feminist who has been working for women’s rights since the 1970s.
Menah created a narrative portrait of Layla, a trans woman.
During the master class graphic journalism, participants also worked on the theme of freedom. How can you show what freedom means by visualizing something that symbolizes freedom?
