Shakespeare club is back!
From 28 July to 3 August 2023, the COC will again organize the Shakespeare club. All this to celebrate our freedom, volunteers, members and all the people of the rainbow. Sign up for one of our fun events and come along!
Look for programming on the homepage.
COC’S SHAKESPEARE CLUB
The Shakespeare Club was founded in 1946. The very first meeting with an attendance of 150 people was a first for the Netherlands. Before that time, there had never been so many pink men and women in the Netherlands. The name has since been changed to COC (Culture and Relaxation Centre). Since Europride in 2016, the Shakespeare Club has been revived during the cultural program of Amsterdam Pride, in the form of the COC’s Shakespeare Club festival.
COC’s Shakespeare Club was created in 2016, during COC’s previous anniversary year in Amsterdam and at the same time as EuroPride, as an event with the aim of increasing the visibility and empowerment of the LGBTQI+ community in Amsterdam and its surroundings. This first COC’s Shakespeare Club was a collaboration between COC Amsterdam e.o., COC Nederland, the Amsterdam Museum and IHLIA. The title Shakespeare Club refers to the original name of the COC, a pseudonym for gatherings of people who were not allowed to be who they are. After 5 editions, COC’s Shakespeare Club in Amsterdam has become a socio-cultural phenomenon where precisely that is central: a safe and cheerful place to be, and to show who you are.
COC’s Shakespeare Club is a co-creation of COC Amsterdam e.o. and the Amsterdam Museum. The activities of COC’s Shakespeare Club are developed together with, by and for the most marginalized groups within the diverse LGBTIQ+ community, especially the communities of people of color and trans people.
In 2021, COC’s Shakespeare Club will be part of the Visibility & Pride alliance programming for the first time. Within an alliance of 22 Amsterdam LGBTIQ+ organizations with different interests and positions, from grassroots to established order, we will work in the next 2 years against racism, sexism, validism, transphobia, Islamophobia, intersexphobia, afrophobia, xenophobia and queerphobia, and for a community in which every LGBTIQ+ Amsterdammer can be themselves.
COC AMSTERDAM E.O.
COC Amsterdam e.o. focuses on personal empowerment, connection and mobilization around sexual orientation, gender identity & expression and gender characteristics, summarized by us in the term “sexual and gender diversity”.
COC Amsterdam e.o. is part of a broad social movement where change comes primarily from (jointly) doing. Within COC Amsterdam e.o. personal initiative, motivation and respect for each other are central. Our core values are: initiative, visible, together and grounded.
COC Amsterdam e.o. is an association with 1700 members and 120 volunteers active within the municipalities: Aalsmeer, Almere, Amstelveen, Amsterdam, Diemen, Landsmeer, Ouder-Amstel, Purmerend, Uithoorn and Waterland.
www.cocamsterdam.nl
THE AMSTERDAM MUSEUM
The Amsterdam Museum is the place to get to know Amsterdam – for both residents and visitors who want to know more about the Dutch capital and its history.
The city of Johan Cruijff, Rembrandt, Ajax, the Red Light District, the Dutch East India Company and marijuana. The city where the first “gay” marriages were concluded. A trading city that is a thousand years old and has a special relationship with water, entrepreneurs, creative people and free-thinkers.
From the monumental building on Kalverstraat, the Amsterdam Museum brings the city to life for everyone.
COC’s Shakespeare Club 2020 was created with, by and for smaller groups within the large LGBTQI + community, in full collaboration and co-creation between:
And through subsidy and sponsorship from:
