15 November, 2025
Doors open: 19:30
Event: 20:00 – 22:00
Location: The Hang-Out 070, The Hague (location to be shared)
Reserve Tickets HERE
Featuring: Jana Romanova, James Parnell, Yun Lee, Naya de Souza
“In conflict with the world, we discover the boundaries of who we are and what we believe”, writes debating world champion Bo Seo, in “The Art of Disagreeing Well”. He makes the argument that in a period of intense polarisation, the issue is not that we disagree too much, but that we disagree badly; we come to discussions assuming bad intentions, blocking us from listening and learning from each other, rendering our arguments painful and useless.
Engaging in generative conflict, on the other hand, allows us to come into a conversation with the intention of gaining greater understanding of different viewpoints and potentially forming deeper connections with each other.
This year, BARTALK focuses on injecting playfulness in the process of engaging in conflict. From reorienting our relationship with gossip to unleashing the political power of comedy, this program aims to use artistic and game strategies to create low-stakes, playful settings to practice our communication skills while engaging in difficult topics.
EVENT FORMAT
At this event, 4 guests are invited to give presentations on different angles of the same theme. These presentations can take the form of a performance, lecture, demonstration, a quick game, and anything in between. Each presentation is followed by a Q&A session.
About the Artists
Jana Romanova is a multidisciplinary artist inspired by misunderstandings. She works with performance and play practices, using photography and video to discover gaps between what we say and do. She takes these breaches in communication as possibilities for being together, whatever that could mean.
Yun Lee is an all round cultural worker; performing, curating, facilitating. As a child, Yun was not allowed to do any martial arts training. As an adult they fell in love with boxing and MMA and have been training for several years. They see martial arts not only as sport or fighting forms, but also as archives and embodied technologies for expression and relation.
James Parnell is a Hague-based curator, teacher, dancer, and zinester who’s work focuses on interpersonal relationships within communities— specifically what helps people stay in communities and what makes people leave them. He explores issues of conflict, apologies, values, work culture, and collaboration through performances, workshops, publications, and curated events.
Born in the Caatinga region of Brazil, and based in Berlin, Naya de Souza has stormed the cultural scene with her multimedia cabaret performances and politically charged stand-up sets. Her online “Bundaskanzlerin” serves as a social media critique of Germany’s exclusionary political/art world, utilizing found footage, video collages, photography and memes to create an “anti censorship” language and tackle censored topics.
“Speak easy in hard times”
Speakeasy is a new BARTALK workshop/play series dedicated to practicing the art of communication in its many forms.
Guests are invited to introduce their communication approaches or experiments for a smaller audience to practice and play with. These methods can come in the forms such as debates, games, intimate 1 on 1 conversations, storytelling, focusing on non-verbal communication etc.
Each event will come with a signature cocktail (also with non-alcoholic versions) created by artist Gökay Atabek to sip throughout or after the event.
poster made by Akash Shehadri
photo 1 and 3 by Cherry Auhoni, photo 2 by Marisel Bongola
Speakeasy: Playfight Club is presented by BARTALK and made possible with the generous support of Stroom Den Haag and The Hang-Out 070
