On December 1, we reflected on the history of the former Calvijn College, the building where art centre de Appel was housed between 2017 and 2023. What are the stories and memories of this part of Amsterdam that are in danger of being rewritten and forgotten? Moderator Soumaya Bazi (Nieuw-West in Verzet) wants to see 'fireworks' at the farewell of De Appel from the Calvijn College. 'We are in a place with a long and tumultuous history. Anyone who comes from Nieuw-West has stories to tell about the Calvijn College,' she says.

De Appel is moving from Nieuw-West to the Tolstraat in the Diamantbuurt. From 2024 on, the building will be transformed into a complex with expensive residential housing and mid-priced rental properties. A development that does not stand alone. Throughout Nieuw-West, the existing social infrastructure must make way for the influx of wealthy people, the process which is called gentrification.

Nordin Lasfar is eager to join the conversation, and starts with a correction. 'This is not Calvijn, this was the Pascal Lyceum, my old high school. Calvin stood a little further away, around the corner where there are now owner-occupied homes.'

Lasfar says that Calvijn was a completely different school, an LBO-Mavo school. Pascal was a school with Mavo, Havo, VWO. 'Calvijn was more of a ‘black’ school while Pascal was whiter. Calvijn had a bad reputation, the police would be around every so often. Many students who did not pass Pascal were dumped at Calvijn,” says Lasfar. Lasfar did Havo at Pascal. 'I did my Havo here, I repeated one year, so it took me six years. I have plenty of stories, but I don't know if I can repeat them here,' says Lasfar with a grin.

Balçik, who got married a few weeks earlier and just returned from his honeymoon, is reminded of his brother's henna party in 2009/2010, which took place in this space. 'As with any traditional Turkish festival, drinking took place in the parking lot. And we did the same with my brother's henna,’ he says. Balçik, unlike Lasfar, knows the building where we are this evening as 'Calvijn'. In the public arena, Calvijn became an icon of Nieuw-West. To put it bluntly, it was a gathering place for stupid immigrants who still had to integrate.'

The fact that the buildings in this block have often changed names is testimony to a turbulent history. From 1969 to 1999 this was called the Christian Pascal School Community (Christelijke Scholengemeenschap Pascal). It then became ‘Calvijn Junior College’, a school that was frequently in the news in the 2000s. In 2015, the school received a brand new building on Calandlaan, and it served as a refugee shelter for a short time before the building became a ‘broedplaats’ for artists in 2017. Balçik mentions a video made by journalist Rutger Castricum for the ‘Geenstijl’ platform.

"I have mixed feelings, on the one hand this building has hosted precious moments of our communities, and on the other hand it became iconic for the dominant, negative discourse about Muslims and immigrants, in which we are becoming even more deeply trapped with the results from the recent election," he says. According to Balçik, the rise of the PVV started with such videos from 2008 and 2009, "and today racism has been so normalized that it has been able to nestle in the center of power."

Then Bazi pulls out her phone to play a voice note from her uncle. He attended Calvijn College in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 'Calvijn was infamous for incidents. We were not really in the top 10 of nicest schools.' Uncle Bazi says that he mainly learned how to deal with people, instead of studying. 'It was the black sheep or black school after all. We weren't in a good position. But in the end everyone got their degree there.'Uncle Bazi says that his father kept an eye on things by being the interpreter for the school. 'If something was wrong he would be called in, in addition to the fact that he translated for many people who were unable to speak the language. We did what we could and it all ended up well in the end.' Bazi also explicitly asked him for a high and low point about the school, but he did not want to say "dangerous things." He confirmed that there were stabbings, thefts, fights and stink bombs in the classroom.

Why were the young people so rebellious? Uncle Bazi quickly had an answer to that: 'Because we were the black sheep. Pascal was the elite. We were the trash,” Uncle Bazi told her. “So it indeed matches what you just said,” says Bazi, pointing to Lasfar.

Are these stories lost now that this building has also been surrendered to the process of gentrification? What is the need to hear the stories of Amsterdam residents with a Moroccan or Turkish background in order to combat the process of gentrification? What does social justice mean in this neighborhood?

The second part of the evening was all about thinking together about the so-called 'Master Plan' that has also been set up for Nieuw-West. Together with guests Saundra Williams, Younes Douari and Soumaya Bazi as moderator, the discussion was held about the importance of a 'People's Plan' for our neighborhoods. How can citizens be involved bottom up?

These are questions that Tayfun Balçik continues to explore in his research.