A lot has to happen at an event like Bridge to Liberation. Making and executing plans, writing lyrics, choosing the music, you name it. The one responsible for this is Alvin Williams. He is the artistic director of the Bridge to Liberation commemorative event.
“We think about what is coming more than a year in advance,” says Alvin. “For the September 2024 edition, I already decided last summer what we are going to do and what story we are going to tell. How can we make an event from so long ago relevant to today? We come up with a concept but don't color it yet. The current edition will then be performed at the end of September. I am present if there are problems, if we cannot manage something in terms of time or force majeure, if something needs to be changed and to provide strategic input. In principle, my work is already done and I can continue dreaming about the next edition.”
Soon after the event, Alvin, Nazmiye Oral and Victor van Vloten start evaluating and start devising scenarios for the next edition. “How can we beautifully map out the story that I came up with in the summer? Around Christmas, Nazmiye, Victor and I will know which way things are going and what we will work on in January and February. They will tackle this together and then we will present this to all parties involved in April or March for an agreement. We will have a presentation in April or March for an agreement from all parties involved.'
To keep the event interesting, we come up with a new approach every year around the theme. We look at what is going on in the world, now the war in Gaza and a few years ago corona.” In this way, Alvin searches for relevance, a way to tell the impact of war and the value of freedom. “The fact that you are now free is worth a lot,” he says meaningfully.
This is not the only way Alvin uses to find an angle. “When there is a war, there are many people who are affected by it: people who wage the war, civilians, resistance fighters and, for example, parents with a child at the front.” Alvin always knows how to highlight the story of the Battle of Arnhem in a different way and make it relevant.
Connection
“You can connect many people with a social event,” says Alvin. “We are always concerned with each other's differences, but when we communicate with each other we discover that we actually have many more similarities. That is why Alvin tries to focus on the similarities at Bridge to Liberation. “If you share ten things together, the two differences are no longer so bad.”
Of all the moments during the event, Alvin thinks the people pouring in are the best. The first people come in around eight o'clock in the evening and from then on it fills up more and more. “I then leave for a while to wish everyone good luck and then I walk back around ten past eight, through the people and I see families on dresses, young people, basically everything together.”
When it comes to freedom, Alvin believes that safeguarding the freedom of others is very important. “My desire to feel free should not mean that you feel unfree. Freedom means that you can say whatever you want, but if you hurt someone else, I don't want that. Real freedom means that I am able to respect you.”
Commemoration is a moment to take a look in the mirror. “You are busy with life, but at some point you take a look in the mirror. How are we doing? That means marking, looking back, looking forward, looking in the mirror, commemorating. I like to do that, as a society.”
Watch Bridge to Liberation 2024 via the livestream on September 20 from 8:30 PM. Register without obligation and watch on your screen the floating stage where the artists Karsu, SEF, Jaap Reesema, Thomas Oliemans perform their enchanting performances together with Phion, orchestra of Gelderland and Overijssel