Hi everyone,

It seems strange to be posting something about my art again during the pandemic times without first saying something about how I feel. Times of unseen worldwide anti-racism protests and of course a worldwide pandemic crisis. Both things we shouldn't ignore.

I don't want to make my page about politics, and I also find it hard to express my opinion about this since it hits close to home, but I also feel like I can't not say anything about it.

Racism has been a big influence in my own life. I'm from a mixed background and I've directly seen a lot of racism in the Netherlands. Racism towards me, my family and my friends. It influenced the way I felt, the way I thought about myself and the world and the way I interacted with people. I know that I myself have only experienced mild forms of racism, and all I can say is that it's one of the most horrible feelings to experience.

I am proud of the Black Lives Matter movement and I hope to see change happening everywhere around us. We sadly live in a world where people can feel unsafe, where people are judged and where people are treated differently only because of the way they look. This leads to horrible evenst such as the murder of George Floyd. And sadly this is just the tip of the iceberg of the injustice that's still happening worldwide.

It’s important to fight and stand together against inequality to make sure all people are treated as equals. Stand together everyone! Black Lives Matter!

And of course the epidemic also hits us all in different ways. For some people it means losing loved ones, for some it means increased workloads, social deprivation or suddenly losing your income. I hope it will stabilize soon all around the world and wish everyone good luck during these times. It's an unknown crisis and we will all slowly have to adjust to a new standard of living.

I have also been struggling with these times, and it's strange to see my country slowly returning to it's normal state, while the worldwide crising is still growing. I wish everyone around the world a lot of strength to fight through the crisis.

I’ve fortunately had the chance to perform some music again for the first time since the corona crisis started. You can listen to a recording of the performance here below.


Love,

Harold