City Talks Amsterdam: A City that Holds Us
In a world where systems often fail the very people they’re meant to support, we turn to the power of care that thrives in communities, friendships, kitchens, neighbourhoods and chosen families. This edition of CityTalks explores how everyday acts of care become radical forces - shaping resilience, belonging, and the possibility of a city that truly holds us all.
The moderator for this City Talks is Lin An Phoa.
Location The Bookshop
Run time 60 minutes
Genre Perspective
Language English
A City that Holds Us
This edition’s theme is loosely inspired by ITA Ensemble’s Prophet Song - a vivid portrait of how fragile our freedoms can be, and how human connection becomes essential when familiar structures feel less certain - playing from 8 until 25 January, 2026.
Founder Humans of Amsterdam
Debra Barraud
Debra Barraud is a photographer and writer, and the founder of Humans of Amsterdam, a storytelling platform followed by over 800,000 people. Since 2012, she has been documenting lives on the streets of Amsterdam, sharing personal stories that reveal the social realities behind everyday life. Her work has also sparked concrete acts of care, with community-led fundraisers raising over €100,000 to help people rebuild, reunite with family, or get back on their feet. Debra recently completed Birds of Paradise, a documentary co-created with Luca Lange and set to be released soon, which follows three extraordinary Amsterdammers as the city changes around them.
Writer, theatre maker & actor
Nabil Tkhidousset
Nabil Tkhidousset is a theatre maker and creator whose work explores care, friendship, and healing. Together with Lev Avitan, he co-created the podcast Echtemannentakkies, which they turned into the stage performance 7sheb 3lik (‘counting on each other’). Through raw dialogue, humour, and vulnerability, Nabil and Lev turn lived experience into collective storytelling. Their work reflects on masculinity, absent fatherhood, growing up in a single-parent household and, above all, the power of friendship.
Initiator & project leader Villa Buitenlust
Eva de Rooij
Eva de Rooij is the initiator of Villa Buitenlust, a social enterprise hidden in the green of Amsterdam’s Westerpark that brings care, rest, and connection together under one roof. Drawing on her background in youth care, she explores how thoughtfully designed spaces can support care and community. Created together with De Regenboog Groep, the villa offers respite stays for caregivers and people in vulnerable situations, alongside spaces for work, gatherings, and celebration. Villa Buitenlust also hosts an ongoing artist-in-residence program, inviting artists to create work in dialogue with the city around them.
Spoken word artist
Ishfarah
As a geographer, media scholar, and spoken word artist, Ishfarah Esseboom is passionate about connecting academic research with creative expression and social engagement. Whether through fieldwork in the Caribbean and its diaspora, critical media analysis, or poetry, Ishfarah seeks out learning beyond the everyday. Her work is driven by community, cultural storytelling, and a commitment to inclusive knowledge sharing, rooted in climate justice and anti-colonial perspectives.
Poet & moderator
Lin An Phoa
CityTalks Amsterdam is hosted by Lin An Phoa, who is a poet, performer and moderator in the cultural field. In her work, she explores vulnerability, resistance, power dynamics and (self-)care culture. Through poetry and conversation, she investigates how to create movement within rigid systems, with the aim to make societal issues tangible, facilitate connection and encourage change.
© Gaby Jongenelen
For bookworms and eager listeners aged 6 and up, we present The Bookshop Kids! Every first Sunday of the month, we transform our soft‑pink Bookshop into a place full of children’s stories where imagination has all the space it needs.
