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Jo van der Spek

Radio artist and media activist Jo van der Spek has travelled all over the world before starting ‘Radio Ruisriet’, a stream of stories and intimacy, from The Blue House. Point of departure is that living means moving and migration the destination of every person.
The idea for starting the radio show came after the Schiphol fire in the detention centre of Schiphol airport Amsterdam in 2004 where 11 people died. The radio is also meant for the 500 survivors to stay in touch and tell their stories.



Every Friday from 19.00 to 22.00 p.m. there is a live radio studio at the ground floor of The Blue House. Inhabitants, migrants and others can stop by and join the program. There is music, conversations, tales and stories. The program is named ‘Radio Ruisriet’ after the last stop of tram 26 near The Blue House. Jo van der Spek makes ‘Radio Ruisriet’ in cooperation with Cheikh 'Papa' Sakho, a survivor of the Schiphol fire. Together they are also the driving forces behind the ‘Vertrokken Gezichten’ campaign on how migrants in are being treated in The Netherlands.

br. The Blue House guests were always invited to participate in the radio shows and M2M Radio combined all news of migration, Blue House guests and IJburgers together. For example the youngsters of IJburg taking part. Beside the radio shows M2M Radio organises a yearly commemoration for the survivors of the Schiphol fire. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 The Blue House offered hospitality to the survivors to stay and come together in the house.

After two years in The Blue House, M2M Radio is since January 2009 working independently becoming a mobile radio station.

www.m2m.streamtime.org

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Cheikh Sakho

Cheikh Sakho is a visual artist whose paintings tell among other things the situation of women in Africa and Arab countries and the right to freedom for women. Originating from Senegal he is one of the survivors of the Schiphol fire. On October 26 2005 he was as an illegal immigrant in the detention centre Schiphol awaiting his forced departure from The Netherlands when the fire started that killed eleven people. Sakho lived in The Blue House for five months awaiting the 'generaalpardon'. During this period he started painting again and worked together with Jo van der Spek on ‘Radio Ruisriet’ and the ‘Vertrokken gezichten’ campaign. At October 26 2006 they organised the memorial with other survivors of the fire in The Blue House that was live broadcasted at ‘Radio Ruisriet’. In 2007 Sakho gave three months free djembe lessons to children of IJburg every Wednesday in The Blue House. Sakho will work together with Frida with Sonia Boyce for the project ‘Sing for your supper’ in 2009. http://m2m.streamtime.org/

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