Keti Koti 2026

Keti Koti means “the chains are broken.” On 1 July 1863, slavery was officially abolished in Suriname and the Dutch Antilles, but the weight of that history is still felt today. In our communities, in our culture, in our streets. Keti Koti is the moment to acknowledge that, to remember it, and to celebrate what was built in spite of it: the resilience, the creativity, and the joy that never left.

Hip-hop is itself a product of that resilience. Born in Black communities as a response to oppression and neglect, it grew into one of the most powerful cultural movements the world has ever seen. Keti Koti and hip-hop share the same roots: resistance, community, and the refusal to be invisible.

On Saturday 27 June, HipHopHuis brings its own programming as a partner of Theater Rotterdam’s Keti Koti 2026. From a talk to a film screening to a community market, ending with a brass band leading you straight to the block party.

Program in Hiphophuis

13:00 Doors open and community market
13:30 – 14:30 Talk: The history of the block party (Maarten van Hinte)
14:45 – 15:45 Film screening: Changá (Double Game)
15:45 – 16:30 Discussion and closing
16:30 Brass band to the Keti Koti Block Party at TR

Talk: The history of the block party
13:30 – 14:30 | Free

How does a street corner with DJs and big speakers become a political space? Theatre maker and writer Maarten van Hinte traces the history of the block party how these gatherings emerged, what they meant, and why they still matter. In Black communities, block parties have always been more than entertainment. They were spaces of black joy and resistance, right in the middle of the fight for equality. After the talk, we live it together.

Free entry. Note: this event takes place at HipHopHuis, not at Theater Rotterdam.

Film screening: Changá (Double Game)
14:45 – 15:45 | Free

Everybody comes to the table. You get a hand. And then you have to play it. Changá is a film of approximately 50 minutes following the lives of Antillean and Caribbean Dutch people in the Netherlands, using the game of dominoes as a philosophical starting point. How do you navigate belonging, identity and opportunity with the cards you’ve been dealt? A discussion follows the screening. In collaboration with Black Soil.

Community Market and Expo
13:00 – 16:30 | Free

Throughout the afternoon, Hiphophuis hosts a community market and expo organised by Glemiël Polak. All proceeds go towards building a skatepark in Suriname. Come through, look around, and support something that matters.

Part of Keti Koti 2026
Hiphophuis is a partner of Theater Rotterdam’s Keti Koti 2026 programme. The full line-up across 26 and 27 June including dance workshops, Dresi fu yeye and the Keti Koti Block Party is at theaterrotterdam.nl.