It Was All A Dream at Lab 111

Interview by Passion Dzenga and Liesje VerhaveLaunching in 2021, Echobox has been forging a path for community radio by showcasing the diverse characters and concepts that surround their station. In this feature, we will be looking into one of the broadcasts that you can tune into, so get locked in and don’t touch that dial. Among them is Sophie Straat Hit Squad, a broadcast that feels less like a traditional radio show and more like a personal diary set to sound. Known for her sharp lyricism, multimedia approach and the self-built world of Protest Fest, Sophie Straat doesn’t separate curation from creation. Whether she’s programming a festival at Paradiso, touring across Europe, or stepping behind the decks, the thread remains the same: instinct over formula. Her Echobox residency wasn’t born out of a lifelong radio ambition; in fact, she admits she initially dreaded the idea of “having to listen to music again.” But somewhere between R&B deep dives, themed playlists about “winning,” and rediscovering the pleasure of listening without overthinking, the show became a reset button.Sophie Straat Hit Squad operates in the grey areas, where personal taste meets politics, where pop stages follow DIY rooms, and where a Justin Bieber record can sit comfortably alongside experimental drums or Gnawa rhythms. It’s less about making “social messaging music” and more about standing for something without announcing it. As she puts it, the artists she gravitates toward might not call themselves protest acts, but they represent what she stands for, and that’s enough. In this conversation, we speak to Sophie about rediscovering joy through radio, growing up in De Pijp, building Protest Fest into something tangible, and why identity is never fixed.What made you want to start a radio show, and what space did Echobox give you that you didn’t have before?Well, it was never really my dream to start a radio show. They asked me and I thought it was quite fun to do. What I like about it is that… I’m a musician, so I listen to music differently. Lately, I kind of lost my interest in music because I’m always working. When you listen to music, you’re always actively listening, and I lost the fun in it.I was actually really not looking forward to my radio show because I thought, oh yeah, shit, I have to listen to music again. But then, when it was coming up, I started listening to easy listening music. R&B, soul, indie kinds of places, and then I enjoyed it again. It’s fun. And it’s also like… people always have this image of you as a musician and what you listen to, and it’s fun to show them what you listen to. Do you get what I’m saying?The last show I did, I recorded yesterday, it’s for Thursday because I’m not in town, but I feel like that really represents how I feel now. I feel like every show is kind of like that. The description isn’t really correct, but every show is themed. Two shows ago, it was themed around “winning” because Zohran Mamdani got the win in New York, so I curated a playlist with a winning theme.So it’s both. It’s fun to curate a playlist in different ways, whether it’s something that happened, or how you’re feeling, or whatever. That’s what’s nice about music. When people ask what you listen to, it’s never one thing. It’s a billion things. And that’s what’s nice about curating.You curate in a lot of spaces, including Protest Fest. When it comes to your radio show, are you more open-minded to include things that are just “good music,” even if it doesn’t connect to the social lens people associate with your work?That’s a very complex question because “good music” is not really describable. And also, Protest Fest isn’t really only… what did you call it? Social messaging. When I make music myself, the goal isn’t to make social-message music. I make music, and it happens to be social-messaged. And in a way, the artists I listen to, they could fit into Protest Fest. And the lineup this year is Asma Hamzawi, who’s a Gnawa artist from Morocco, and Able Noise, which is experimental drums and vocals. They’re not really out there to be protesting or something, but I feel like they represent what I stand for. And that could be anything.After half a year of doing Echobox shows, how has the concept evolved for you? Are you more into collaborations and guests now?Yeah, I think next time I’ll take a guest. I’m always open to taking guests. It’s just that the show always comes up, I see it in my calendar and I’m like, oh shit, I have to do Echobox. And then I go up there and I just play the music that I feel like playing. But I was thinking to take a guest next time.Have you ever freestyled a show and it turned out better than expected?Terrible yeah. I’ve had that a couple of times, actually. Most times. Actually, most times. But yesterday I did prepare and it was really nice. So I’m going to do that more often. It wasn’t different than if it would be live because I still had to do it within an hour, but… because I haven’t listened to music in a while, it felt fun again. I tried to listen to music without thinking, and that was really nice for once. Listening to music that’s pleasant and not complicated or complicated in a way, but just… not thinking.What’s your relationship with community radio? Were you listening to stations like Red Light Radio before you had your own show?Not really Dutch or Amsterdam community radio, to be honest. Red Light Radio was always there and I’ve been a couple of times, but I don’t really have like a famous past with it or something.You grew up in De Pijp. How did that shape your taste? Do you play local artists, or are you more interested in the global conversation around music?De Pijp didn’t really influence… I guess. I mean, I’ve been raised by my mom but also by my neighbours and like my best friend’s mom, and she listened to a lot of Dutch hip-hop and rap, and that was the first music I listened to if I think about it. So in a way De Pijp influenced me because we were always over there, but I’m not sure if the neighbourhood introduced me to music I still listen to. But I think it’s interesting that you’re raised not only by your parents but also the people around you, and then after that, you choose the people around you that form you. That forms your musical interest as well. Life passes and you meet people, and those people have an influence on your taste and curiosities. The different lives you have within one life bring insights, music and tastes. That’s what I really like about it.You’re on tour right now. What kind of music do you listen to when you’re not working?It could be anything. And I’m not the only one choosing. It depends on how we’re feeling and what people want to listen to. I’m really looking forward to Jebba’s album; it’s coming out the day our tour starts, so I know I’m going to listen to that on the first day. Usually, when we’re on our way home, either we’re really tired and don’t listen to music, or we’re hyped and then my guitarist, Los, comes in with his awful playlists. It could literally be anything. I don’t know how to answer that.Do you listen to your own music?I listen to it for practice. Sometimes I listen to it with other ears, as you place yourself within someone else, but not really for fun. When it’s not released yet, I listen to it a lot the whole day, on my bike, in the train, I can’t stop. And then when it’s released, I’m like… over it.On tour, who controls the aux? Who’s the dominant one on the speaker?That’s funny you say that because… Justin Bieber actually got me out of that not-wanting-to-listen-to-music thing. I listened to this record, and I was like, oh yeah, I enjoy this again. The latest is Swag 2, which is also a great name. But yeah, I could be dominant, but I guess I’m the most dominant one with the speaker.The tour starts in early March. What are you most excited for?I’m really looking forward to Protest Fest, obviously. And the first week is going to be fun because it’s four shows in a row, so we’ll get into it. It’s always fun, so it’s a good starter. Then… N is always good fun. And then two times Rotterdam, which is also fun. So the first week is going to be a really good start.And we’re going to do two radio shows during the tour, actually, during Rotterdam twice, we’re going to do Operator Radio, and then in Brussels, we’ll do Kiosk as well.Do you have any tour rituals or anything you do before being away and sleeping in strange places?We don’t sleep in that many strange places because we’re mostly touring here and in Belgium. I think we only sleep three times somewhere else: Brussels, Rotterdam and Groningen. But I really like that the only thing I have to think about is getting in the bus. That’s the only thing I’m doing in the month. I’m really looking forward to that, because when I’m not touring, I’m busy with a billion things, and this March is just about performing.You’re a multimedia person, photography, music, video, art school. When did sound become one of your main expressions?When I was at art school, I always loved music, but I think I always used music within projects. I don’t know, I suppose I always used music within projects and I use my other stuff within other projects. It’s one big mess. But if you ask my main medium: music. Definitely. That’s my job. That’s what I do every day.Your album title asks, “Who the hell is Sophie Straat?” So: who is Sophie Straat today?I feel like we’re all not one particular personality or secret identity. We have multiple sides to us. It would be terrible and destructive if we said we only have one part and one identity. We have to go out to our different personalities and not be filtered into one place. You can be one thing one day and a completely different thing the other day, and don’t get stuck in an identity crisis because it’s not you or whatever. I want to embrace that and be someone else when I want to be.This project feels different from your earlier work. What are you looking forward to on this tour? What will feel new?Everything is always different. We evolve, I hope, and don’t stick to one thing forever. This album’s been out for a few months, and we did one tour in DIY places, small rooms, and now we’re doing the big pop stages. So it’s the album again but in a different place, which is fun. It’s going to sound different because the sound system is different, the production is different. And I like how you can play the same stuff in a different place and it can be completely different.You’ve collaborated with everyone from Goldband to the Metropole Orkestra. What do you look for in collaborators and in guests for your radio show?Either they’re people I think are fun and I love them, usually friends, or I think they’re really cool and I want to hang out with them and I see it as a good excuse. It’s one of those.Protest Fest has been at Paradiso for a while, and it donates to charity. Why build that platform?It started out because I had my show there and I thought, I might as well bring some other bands because I have that place. It’s kind of like curating a radio show, because you think your music is cool and you want to show the rest as well. It’s very self-centered, I suppose, because you think you’re cool and you want to let people know what is cool. That’s how it started.Why was donating part of the idea, and why support MiGreat this year?When I’m calling it Protest Fest, I can’t really own all the money that’s given to me. And if you’re owning money, you might as well donate it. MiGreat is doing interesting stuff; it’s very active. When you donate to somewhere, you don’t really know what they’re going to do with it. But MiGreat tells you what you can do. We’re probably also going to do a workshop to be active. People always ask, what can I do, how can I help? and MiGreat really tells you what you can actively do, like marry someone without papers, or they have these examples that are active and solve stuff.Where does the “Hit Squad” name come from? Because you played Punjabi Hit Squad on the show too.Yeah, that’s where it’s from. First I wanted to play that song as a jingle every time I would start, but after a while I stopped doing that. But that’s where it came from.Tune in to Echobox, broadcasting from below sea level every week, Wednesday until Saturday.

Once again, the iconic Patta x New Balance Grey Days party took over Amsterdam. The night heated up with bites from Sichuan Territory, a live performance by Anysia Kym, and new and timeless sounds kept the crowd moving deep into the early hoursBetween chess games, familiar faces and standout moments, the unmistakable Grey Days energy brought everyone together for another evening we won't soon forget. Get familiar with Grey Days as seen by Aryan Hamyani.  

Shubeen returns to Skatecafe on June 6 for another annual gathering where the diaspora comes first. A three-room takeover dedicated to migrant sounds, global bass pressure and the communities that continue to shape nightlife from the margins outward.Created by Murkage Dave and Passion DEEZ, Shubeen is built for the people who grew up between cultures, across borders and inside scenes that never fully reflected them back. It’s a celebration of music as memory, migration and connection from soundsystem culture to club mutations, from leftfield classics to dancefloor chaos.Leading the charge are co-founders Murkage Dave & Passion DEEZ, reuniting after last year’s sold-out edition for a genre-hopping b2b spanning global club sounds, Hotep hip-hop, Dalston kebab-shop anthems and everything in between. Fresh off the release of his album Brut Thoughts and a headline show at Village Underground, Murkage Dave steps back into the booth alongside his club collaborator. Opening things up is Amsterdam-based Garnett, whose sets pull deeply from reggae, dub and dancehall traditions while pushing soundsystem culture into new territory.Flying in from Los Angeles, Bianca Oblivion arrives with the kind of high-pressure energy that has made her one of the most exciting selectors in global club music right now — packed with dubplates, razor-sharp blends and pure movement. Joining her is Yeimy, founder of Popolaclab, bringing a sound rooted in dembow, salsa, cumbia, merengue and reggaeton straight from Mexico.In 1900, dengdeng curates a sweat-drenched room full of rhythm, chaos and community alongside the unstoppable Cata.Pirata. The South African-born multidisciplinary artist and SKIP&DIE frontwoman whose sound travels freely between continents, scenes and identities.Tickets are live now and if you came last year, you already know not to wait for the inevitable Ticketswap panic.

Before Pen & Pixel became one of the most iconic design studios in hip-hop history, it began with a Xerox machine, a storyboard, and a willingness to experiment long before the technology was truly ready for it. In the early nineties, Southern rap was rapidly expanding beyond regional recognition, but visually, the culture still lacked an identity that matched its ambition. Pen & Pixel would change that forever.Shawn Brauch and his brother Aaron Brauch originally entered the world through Rap-A-Lot Records during a period when the label was operating at full intensity. Aaron had been working remotely with Rap-A-Lot founder James Smith while studying at Cornell — something almost unheard of at the time. “He had a laptop in 1990,” Shawn recalls. “That alone was crazy.” After graduating, Aaron moved to Houston full-time to help build Rap-A-Lot alongside James Smith and the rest of the team. Shawn, meanwhile, was working at an advertising agency and doing illustration work independently when Aaron called him with a simple request: could he storyboard a music video?The song was A Minute to Pray and a Second to Die. Shawn had limited experience with storyboards but agreed to try. That opportunity quickly exposed something larger. “I saw there was a deficit in Rap-A-Lot’s marketing,” he explains. “So I started sketching things, putting together album covers with Xerox machines, pen and ink, whatever we had access to.” What started as improvised visual problem-solving soon became a much larger operation. Rap-A-Lot had been outsourcing design work using early Photoshop, QuarkXPress and FreeHand systems at enormous cost. Shawn and Aaron proposed bringing that entire process in-house.The investment was massive for the time. “The Quadra 800 alone was around seventeen thousand dollars,” Shawn says. “The printer was almost three grand. The monitor was over two thousand. People forget how expensive this technology was back then.” Beyond the equipment itself, they also needed specialists who understood how to operate the systems. At that point, Shawn was still learning himself. But the limitations of the technology became part of what shaped the Pen & Pixel aesthetic. “This was Photoshop 1,” he explains. “You had layers, but once you clicked off the layer, it was stuck. There was no undoing things the way you can now. Every move had consequences.”That technical restriction forced a kind of disciplined experimentation. Shawn’s background in photography, illustration and architecture all began feeding into the work simultaneously. “We kept detailed notes on everything,” he says. “What worked, what crashed the machine, what effects you could push further. We were learning while building.” Eventually, that process evolved into a distinctive visual language filled with surreal compositions, metallic typography, explosions, reflections, diamonds, flames and impossible environments that felt larger than life. One of the earliest turning points came with Willie D’s Going Out Like a Soldier, a cover featuring the rapper posed in front of a burning Capitol building. “That was one of the first covers where people really started asking, ‘How did you do that?’” Shawn remembers. “Honestly, sometimes I still look at it and wonder how we pulled that off on those machines.”At the same time, Rap-A-Lot itself was expanding rapidly. The label was producing projects from the Geto Boys, Scarface, Willie D, Gangsta Nip and countless others at an exhausting pace. “It was sixteen, eighteen-hour days constantly,” Shawn says. “Everybody knew there was an opportunity happening.” Eventually, artists began arriving at Rap-A-Lot not just looking for record deals, but specifically asking about the artwork. That was the moment Shawn and Aaron realised the design work itself could become a business.After unsuccessfully pitching a partnership structure to Rap-A-Lot, the brothers decided to leave and build Pen & Pixel independently from their apartment dining room table. They purchased the same expensive equipment and committed fully. “When you’re building a business, the money doesn’t go into your pocket,” Shawn explains. “It all goes back into the company. That’s the painful part most people don’t understand.” For years, they survived by reinvesting everything while living modestly. The apartment quickly became too small. Then the house they upgraded to became too small too. Eventually, Pen & Pixel expanded into a custom-built 5,000-square-foot studio, followed by another 5,000-square-foot building across the street housing a photography studio, CD replication facilities, printing equipment and mastering labs.By then, Pen & Pixel had become much more than a graphic design studio. “People misunderstand what the company actually was,” Shawn says. “You could walk in with a DAT tape and your wallet, and we could take care of everything.” The company handled artwork, mastering, music videos, licensing, distribution, posters, packaging, transportation and security. The infrastructure became so complete that major labels like Universal and Relativity viewed a Pen & Pixel package as a stamp of reliability. “If an artist came in with Pen & Pixel behind them, labels knew the quality and systems were already there,” Shawn explains.Inside the studio itself, the atmosphere was chaotic, collaborative and relentlessly productive. Pen & Pixel was intentionally designed to overwhelm clients visually. Gold records, platinum plaques and posters covered the walls. “People would walk in and immediately feel like they were in the right place,” Shawn says. Artists often arrived with wildly different levels of direction. Some came with fully formed concepts, while others simply trusted the studio completely. Shawn compares the creative process to music production itself. “I’d explain to artists that Photoshop works like making a song,” he says. “You have your lyrics, drums, melodies and layers. We’re doing the exact same thing visually.”The process behind covers like 8Ball & MJG’s On Top of the World reveals just how complex that layering became. The famous cover featuring the Dodge Viper was assembled piece by piece. The car, owned by Suave House founder Tony Draper, was photographed separately in the studio to control reflections. 8Ball and MJG were photographed later while on breaks from touring. Pool tables, cues, reflections and lighting were all composited manually. “People think those covers were random chaos,” Shawn says. “But your eye knows when something is wrong. Everything had to be exact.”Not every project leaned into hyper-surrealism. When Destiny’s Child approached Pen & Pixel through Matthew Knowles, the assignment required restraint rather than excess. “The shoot was already done,” Shawn explains. “They needed retouching, backgrounds, effects. But you don’t need extreme effects when the women are already that beautiful.” The result was cleaner and more polished, proving Pen & Pixel’s range extended beyond Southern rap maximalism.Still, the studio’s most enduring work often came from the personalities surrounding Southern rap itself. Shawn remembers the Geto Boys as a collection of completely different energies forced into one explosive chemistry. Gangsta Nip’s dark horror-inspired persona directly influenced the roughness of his artwork. Meanwhile, Master P emerged as one of Pen & Pixel’s most important collaborators. “If you wrote the word entrepreneur in the dictionary, Master P should be beside it,” Shawn says. P’s relentless business instincts matched the studio’s own work ethic perfectly. Whether creating annual-report-style brochures for No Limit Sports or elaborate album packaging, the relationship was built on speed and trust.Cash Money Records brought another kind of energy entirely. Juvenile, BG, Turk and a very young Lil Wayne frequently moved through the studio while building what would become one of the defining rap dynasties of the era. Shawn vividly remembers Wayne arriving at the studio at just thirteen years old. “He always had this notebook with him,” he says. “He was constantly writing ideas and observing everything.” While others joked around, Wayne quietly studied the business around him. “You could tell immediately he was serious.”That spirit of experimentation extended beyond the covers themselves. Pen & Pixel’s creative process often involved anyone present becoming part of the work. Staff members modelled for covers. Friends became characters. Employees brought bikinis to shoots. For Master P’s Ghetto D, another artist volunteered to portray a crack addict surrounded by burning CDs and tapes. “He knew exactly how to look,” Shawn laughs. “Garbage bag pants, dirty sweater, ashy teeth — he fully committed.” That original version later had to be censored for retail stores like Walmart, forcing the studio to redesign parts of the artwork entirely.As the company grew, Pen & Pixel developed systems that resembled a high-functioning advertising agency more than a traditional art studio. Every client had detailed job folders tracking concepts, production schedules, budgets and revisions. Massive press proofs were printed, hand-cut and assembled before being physically tested inside record stores to see how they competed visually on shelves. “We obsessed over possession,” Shawn explains. “If someone held the cover for more than five or six seconds, the chances of them buying the CD increased dramatically.”That philosophy became central to Pen & Pixel’s influence. The covers were designed not simply to look impressive, but to interrupt people visually. “You wanted someone flipping through CDs to stop and say, ‘What is this?’” Shawn says. “At that point, the job was already done.”When Pen & Pixel eventually closed in 2003, Shawn initially assumed the story had ended. He stepped away from the industry entirely, moved to the Virgin Islands and taught scuba diving for a period. But over time, the imagery began resurfacing online, first ironically and then reverentially. Younger audiences started recognising the craftsmanship behind the work rather than dismissing it as excessive nostalgia. “People would say, ‘I hated those covers so much I bought the CD,’” Shawn laughs. “But the point is — you bought the CD.”Today, Pen & Pixel’s visual language has become inseparable from the mythology of Southern rap itself. Beyond the chrome text and exploding backgrounds, the company represented a moment where regional rap scenes visualised their ambition without limitation. Every cover promised scale, success, wealth, danger and fantasy all at once. Looking back, Shawn sees the work as an extension of something much older: the tradition of iconic album art itself.“When I was a kid, I’d sit there listening to records and staring at the sleeves,” he says. “Pink Floyd, Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp — those covers stayed with you. You’d study them while the music played. One day, I thought, imagine designing something that makes people feel like that. And somehow, eventually, we did.”Check out Wax Poetics' new collection by Pen & Pixel! 

Steve McQueen has always occupied a rare space between artist and filmmaker, moving fluidly between cinema, installation and political reflection without ever fully belonging to one discipline. Whether through the physical intensity of Hunger, the historical brutality of 12 Years a Slave or the deeply human portraits inside Small Axe, his work consistently examines the relationship between memory, power, race and lived experience. Now, De Pont Museum in Tilburg is bringing that vision into focus with ATLAS, McQueen’s first solo exhibition in the Netherlands.Running from 21 March to 30 August 2026, the exhibition presents four major works that together form an expansive meditation on history, space, trauma and perception. At its centre is the world premiere of Atlas (2026), a newly commissioned work created specifically for De Pont Museum, alongside Sunshine State (2022), Untitled (2025) and Bounty (2024). Together, the exhibition positions McQueen not only as one of the defining filmmakers of his generation, but as an artist deeply engaged with the emotional and political dimensions of image-making itself.The newly commissioned Atlas marks a striking shift in scale. Created using astronomical data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia mission, the work transforms scientific observation into an immersive visual experience. Collaborating with davidkremers, Julian Humml and Alejandro Stefan Zavala, McQueen uses machine learning systems to reinterpret telescope data into something both empirical and poetic. The result is less a straightforward representation of outer space than an attempt to confront the vastness of existence itself — a journey through scale, time and perception that feels equally grounded in science and imagination.That cosmic perspective is balanced by Sunshine State, one of McQueen’s most emotionally layered recent works and now part of the De Pont collection. Originally commissioned by the International Film Festival Rotterdam, the multi-channel installation intertwines fragments of film history with McQueen’s own family narrative. The work traces the story of his father, who migrated from Grenada to Florida in the 1950s to work in the orange harvest, while simultaneously reworking footage from The Jazz Singer (1927), the first feature-length sound film in cinema history — infamous for Al Jolson’s use of blackface.McQueen manipulates the archival material through reversals, distortions and altered speeds, creating a fragmented visual language where memory becomes unstable and historical imagery begins to collapse into something more haunting and unresolved. Across the installation, silences and absences become as important as the images themselves, exposing the ways personal trauma and colonial histories continue to shape one another across generations.Elsewhere in the exhibition, Bounty (2024) offers a quieter but equally charged meditation on history and place. The 47-part photographic series documents flowers and plants from Grenada in vivid states of bloom and decay. On the surface, the images appear tranquil and almost meditative, but beneath that beauty lies a deeper reflection on colonial extraction, survival and regeneration. Even the title carries dual meaning: bounty as abundance, but also bounty as plunder.The series will also be accompanied by a newly published catalogue from MACK, featuring Derek Walcott’s poem The Bounty alongside a new text by poet and novelist Dionne Brand. Like the exhibition itself, the publication extends McQueen’s interest in connecting visual language with historical and emotional memory.Taken together, ATLAS feels less like a conventional museum exhibition and more like a series of interconnected meditations on how we experience time, history and physical presence. Across film, sound, photography and data-driven installation, McQueen consistently asks viewers to confront what remains unseen beneath surfaces — whether that means inherited trauma, erased histories or the sheer incomprehensible scale of the universe itself.Few artists move as comfortably between radically different mediums while maintaining such a distinct emotional and political clarity. From the experimental films that earned him the Turner Prize in the 1990s to Oscar-winning cinema and large-scale installations, McQueen’s practice has always resisted categorisation. What connects the work is a persistent attention to vulnerability: the body under pressure, memory under strain, and history as something both deeply personal and collectively lived.With ATLAS, De Pont Museum presents McQueen at a moment where those ideas feel more expansive than ever. The exhibition moves from the intimate to the cosmic without losing sight of the human experience at its centre. In doing so, it offers a powerful reminder that Steve McQueen’s work has never simply been about images — it has always been about what images carry, conceal and reveal.

After the Bijlmer Run, we keep moving. Join us at Bitterzoet for the official Patta Running Team afterparty. A night powered by the community, with Patta Running Team members behind the decks and on the mic. Sounds by Jay B, Lil Vic, Hernsy, AK Soundsystem and Stevie Tune. Please note that this event is ticketed and is 18+, you can get tickets on the door or via Bitterzoet.

The day before the Bijmer Run, we’re hosting a Shake Out Run on May 15th starting from Marineterrein. RSVP via Patta Running Team to participate. Run together. Celebrate together. 

Interview by Passion Dzenga and Liesje VerhaveAs part of our collaboration with the Dutch Sickle Cell Foundation, we spoke to Professor Marjon Cnossen, pediatric haematologist, researcher and one of the driving forces behind the foundation, to better understand the realities of sickle cell disease, why awareness remains so low, and why community-led support matters more than ever. From the outside, sickle cell disease is still widely misunderstood. For many families living with it, that lack of recognition can feel almost as difficult as the illness itself. Through research, advocacy, fundraising and events like the Bijlmer Run, the Sickle Cell Foundation is helping to change that — building not just visibility, but real support for patients and their families.Could you briefly explain what sickle cell disease is for people who may never have heard of it?Sickle cell disease is a hereditary blood disease that mainly affects people of colour, although that includes many different communities. Most patients have ancestors from Africa, but we also see a lot of patients from the Middle East and India. Those are also regions where the disease is very common.The disease developed through something that was originally protective. Thousands of years ago, a mutation in the DNA emerged that helped protect people against malaria, which is common in regions around the equator. If you carried that mutation, you were better protected against malaria, and because of that, many carriers lived longer and passed this genetic trait on to their children. Over time, more and more people became carriers. If two carriers have a child together, there is a one-in-four chance that the child will be born with sickle cell disease.In practical terms, sickle cell disease affects the red blood cells. Normally, they are round, but in sickle cell disease, they become crescent or moon-shaped. These cells can stick together and block the blood flow. Red blood cells carry oxygen, so when blood flow is blocked, parts of the body don’t get enough oxygen. That causes pain, and over time, it can also cause serious damage to organs.What does that mean for daily life?The impact is huge. Patients live with severe anaemia. A healthy person in the Netherlands might have a haemoglobin level around seven or eight, but many sickle cell patients have half of that — around three-and-a-half or four. That means they are tired all the time. They struggle to concentrate. They may not be able to participate in sports or activities like their peers.That’s one of the things I find emotional as a doctor. Sometimes people see these children and say they are lazy or not trying hard enough. But if your haemoglobin level is half of what it should be, of course, you are exhausted. There is a very real reason a child might fall asleep in class.Then there are the extremely painful episodes, called sickle cell crises. These can be triggered by very normal things: cold weather, changes in temperature, stress, fever, infection, dehydration, tiredness. In the Netherlands, that means winter can be especially difficult. Patients often live in anticipation of the next sickle cell crisis.When a severe crisis happens, they may need to come into the hospital for strong pain medication such as morphine, ketamine and other treatments. Sometimes they are admitted for one or even two weeks.And beyond that, there is progressive organ damage. Because blood flow is repeatedly blocked and oxygen supply is reduced, organs can slowly start to fail. We see complications in the kidneys, liver, heart and brain. Patients can have strokes or other very serious long-term consequences.So although it’s a blood disorder, it really affects the whole body.Exactly. It is a systemic disease. It not only affects the blood. It affects the whole life of a patient — physically, mentally and socially. And there is another part people often forget: loneliness. Sickle cell disease is often invisible. If someone has childhood cancer, people understand immediately that something is wrong. They may look visibly ill. But with sickle cell disease, a patient can look “fine” to the outside world, even while living with constant fatigue, recurring pain and serious complications. That invisibility means many people do not understand the disease, and patients often feel very alone.Is that lack of awareness one of the biggest problems?Yes, absolutely. That is one of the biggest issues. Sickle cell disease is not rare globally — around 300,000 babies are born with it every year, and there are millions of people affected worldwide — but in the Netherlands, it is still treated like a rare disease. And even among rare diseases, it receives far too little attention.I also treat haemophilia, and everybody knows what haemophilia is. That shows you something important: awareness is not only about how severe a disease is. It is also about who gets seen, who gets heard, and who has access to influential networks.Patients with sickle cell disease are often too unwell to advocate for themselves. Their families are often working very hard and may not have access to the kinds of systems or connections that help bring national attention. So the disease remains invisible in places where visibility matters.That is exactly why the Sickle Cell Foundation is so important. We want to create a voice for patients and families. We want to make sure sickle cell disease is recognised as the severe and progressive disease that it is.What does treatment look like right now?We provide what we call comprehensive care. Patients are seen regularly, at least twice a year and more often if needed. In childhood, they receive antibiotics because their spleen does not function properly, which means they are more vulnerable to severe infections.From around nine months of age, many children also start a medication called hydroxycarbamide. That can help increase the amount of fetal haemoglobin in the blood, which reduces complications by modifying disease symptoms, making the disease less severe.Some patients also need regular blood transfusions. In more severe cases, especially when there are major complications, we use chronic transfusion programmes or exchange transfusions, where sickle blood is removed and donor blood is given.At the moment, the only curative treatment is stem cell transplantation, which is the same as a bone marrow transplant. The idea is that you replace the patient’s bone marrow — which is producing the sickle cells — with healthy donor bone marrow.That sounds incredibly intense.It is. It can cure the disease, and I have many patients who have been cured this way, but it is also a risky procedure. To do it, you first have to destroy the patient’s own bone marrow with chemotherapy. That makes them very vulnerable. They can get severe infections. The donor bone marrow can also interact with the host (graft versus host disease), causing severe complications. There is also a small but real risk of death. So, although the intervention is very promising, there is also a lot that can be improved.The difficult thing with sickle cell disease is that, ideally, you want to do this treatment when children are still young — before organ damage becomes severe — because the outcomes are better. But at that point, the child is still relatively healthy. It is often very hard for families to decide to put a young child through such an impactful. We as doctors know the disease is progressive, but we cannot predict exactly how severely it will develop in each person. That makes decision-making very difficult.A major part of care also depends on blood and donor systems. Is donor diversity a big issue?Yes, very much so. We need more blood donors from diverse cultural backgrounds. That is incredibly important. The Dutch blood bank Sanquin is actively working on this now, because many of our patients have blood types or blood characteristics that are less common in the current donor pool. The more diverse the donor bank becomes, the better we can care for patients with sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Not everyone is in a position to donate blood regularly, of course, but if you can, it is a very meaningful way to help.So if people want to help in a tangible way, becoming a donor is one step. What else can they do?Talk about sickle cell disease. That is really one of the most important things. Talk about it if you know someone with the disease. Talk about it if you have learned something about it. Share information. Raise awareness. That really matters.People can also support the foundation directly, donate money, support collaborations like this wonderful Patta t-shirt project, and come to events like the Bijlmer Run. These moments are important not only for fundraising but also because they create visibility and community.For us, being in Bijlmer feels very special. Many of our patients and families live there. When we are present there, people already know what sickle cell disease is. They know someone who has it. They come to the stand and say, “I know what this is about.” That feels very different from having to explain it from scratch every time. It feels like coming home.What role does the foundation play beyond raising awareness?We support research, raise funds for better treatment and better care, and help give patients and families a stronger voice. For me personally, the foundation came from frustration. There was simply too little funding, too little awareness, and too little urgency around the disease. We founded the Sickle Cell Foundation in 2017 because we felt something had to change. We started small, but we are becoming more meaningful, and that makes me very hopeful.Are there any key moments this year that people should look out for?Yes! World Sickle Cell Day on the 19th of June is very important. This year, we are organising an event in ITA in Amsterdam for scientists and of course, also for patients! I hope that in the future this event will bring more and more patients together from across the Netherlands. We are growing as a foundation. There is more programming coming. Patients are organising things too. Our new director, Inge, is fantastic. There is a real sense that the foundation is building momentum.Finally, if someone remembers one thing from this conversation, what would you want it to be?Sickle cell disease is serious. It is progressive. It is painful. And it deserves much more awareness than it currently receives. And also: talk about it. Support where you can. Whether that means donating blood, supporting the foundation, buying the t-shirt, coming to the Bijlmer Run, or simply helping spread the word, it all matters. These kinds of collaborations, as we have with the wonderful Team Bijlmer Run and Team Patta, are so powerful because they feel organic. They feel logical. They come from people recognising a shared purpose. And those are always the strongest collaborations.Patta x nijntje T-Shirt available Saturday, May 16th, exclusively at the Bijmer Run.

Together with Ella Ezeike and MOSAIKO Magazine we supported an evening dedicated to women, artists in the creative industry, a space centered on dialogue, exchange, and connection.Taking place at OSCAM what unfolded was more than a panel. It became a room shaped by openness and honesty, where perspectives met, and ideas moved freely between disciplines and experiences.Guided by Shaquille Shaniqua Joy and with contributions from Sonia Ihuoma, Treshna Ballantine, Michelle Hellena Janssen, and Bernice Mulenga, the conversation touched on creative process, authorship, and what it means to navigate and claim space within the industry.What stood out was the energy in the room, a shared willingness to listen, reflect, and engage. It was also important to see a diverse audience present, reinforcing that these conversations extend beyond one perspective and benefit from collective participation.We believe in supporting platforms that create space for dialogue and community. This evening felt like a meaningful step in that direction.

Local and international talents surprised the crowd at Patta Kingsday 2026 and shut it down. Here’s what went down as seen by Dennis Branko. Big up all the artists and see you at the next dance.