Film, music to bring 19th-century Dutch emigration story to Hope

HOLLAND — Hope College will explore the mid-19th-century Dutch immigrant experience through a multimedia program featuring film, live music, and poetry on Wednesday, Nov. 4.

The free event begins at 7:30 p.m. in Winants Auditorium inside Graves Hall on campus.

The program centers on "From Wenters to Wisconsin," a poetic short animated film created by Dutch artist Udo Prinsen. Inspired by the mass emigration from the Winterswijk region of the Netherlands, the film follows a young woman navigating a treacherous ocean crossing and the harsh realities of resettling in the American Midwest.

"I knew of a story about a group of people that had sailed to the USA and perished in the sinking of a ship close to their goal in Sheboygan," Prinsen said. "I always thought it would be interesting to take that journey of migration to the USA as a topic."

The film incorporates archival footage, historical letters, and quotations from Dutch immigrants. It is set to an original soundtrack composed and performed live by American trombonist Ryan Keberle, whose past artistic collaborators include David Bowie, Sufjan Stevens, and Alicia Keys.

Prinsen and Keberle developed the visuals and music side-by-side to capture the complex emotional arc of leaving a homeland.

"Arrival needed a different kind of sound, but I didn’t want it to tip into easy triumph," Keberle said. "The hope these people found was real, and it was also hard-won and fragile. ... I hope that in the end the audience doesn’t hear a history lesson. I hope they feel some part of what it was to leave and to arrive."

The event is sponsored by the Van Raalte Institute at Hope College in partnership with Dutch Culture USA, a division of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as part of the America 250 commemoration.

Members of the public can contact Van Raalte Institute Director Phil Tanis at tanisp13@hope.edu for details. Accessibility requests can be sent to accommodations@hope.edu, and schedule updates are available online at hope.edu/calendar.

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