A Literary Essay on Night and Nature by Kester Frericks on Silence, Space and Darkness | Soolliner

On Wednesday evening, October 27, Kester Freriks will be a guest at the Humane Society’s Zwolle and Environs section. Kester Freriks (1954) is an award-winning, versatile writer of novels, essays, and nature books. With books rich in illustrations such as bird watching. All three hundred Dutch bird species (2009), De valk (2010), along the IJssel. Nature, Culture in IJsselvallei (2017), Silence, Space, and Darkness. Explorations in Nature (2018) earned him a notable name as a nature writer.

Tonight is mainly about the last book. The central question here is: Why do humans enter nature? Not for greenery, flora, fauna and biodiversity. People are looking for silence, space, or darkness when they go out. But silence is increasingly rare in our country. At night it is rarely dark enough to see many stars. Are there still really quiet places in the Netherlands? And are there areas where you can see a starry sky at night?

In silence, space and darkness, Kester Freriks undertakes a surprising expedition. He seeks and finds silence in nature and art, emerges at night by starlight and traverses the void of Holland in search of our country as it was originally.

Tonight he takes us on his quest. Research continues to this day: Earlier this year, Kester Freriks embarked on an article at NRC with Monique Zondag in Zwolle and explored “the darkest forest in the Netherlands” in Veluwe. You can expect beautiful images of these dark places, the darkness of the night and the starry sky.

We hope to welcome you on October 27!

Location: Stadkamer, Zeven Alleetjes 1A, Zwolle. It starts at 20:00 and entry is from 19:30. Almost pause. 21.00, completion time 22.00. free access.