Thirty-five years of Savannah Bay

This month, bookshop Savannah Bay's celebrated her thirty-fifth anniversary. She celebrated this last year with various projects and events with the theme Transforming Stories. On behalf of Utrecht University, Dr Marijke Huisman (History and Art History) collaborated with the bookshop on various projects.

Anniversary book

Together with a team of dedicated young researchers, consisting of Suzanne Balm, Suzanne van der Beek, Timo Houtekamer, Onessa Novak and Lex van Rens, Huisman wrote a history of Savannah Bay in honour of her anniversary. The result of this, Savannah Bay. History of a special bookshop, 1975-2019 is a collection of stories from different perspectives. The book sheds a new light on the development of feminism and literature and shows that Savannah Bay has always been more than a bookshop, which is still of inestimable value to the city of Utrecht today. The historical overview is enlivened by personal stories of volunteers and other friends of the bookshop. The book was presented during the Transforming Stories anniversary celebrations in Tivoli on 6 November.

Short film

During Transforming Stories, a short film about the history of the shop was shown, made by Femke Niehof (Department of Communication UU) and Suzanne Balm (intern at Savannah Bay). Over the last few months, they have interviewed all kinds of people, including Huisman, who told them what the shop means to them and how they see its value for Utrecht. Savannah Bay: Where stories meet is both an introduction to the eventful history of the bookstore and a familiar story with and for friends of Savannah Bay.