See you in:

About

Where is it?
In Szczecin, Stettin or maybe ʃtε'tʃʲin? The name of the city may be challenging, but no worries, we'll get to that.

For now, the most important thing is to save the date and prepare to celebrate Loesje's 35th birthday and have a great congress with us in Poland.

Let's talk and share experiences!
Let's party!
And let's do all the things that Loesje would approve of. ;)

We hope to meet you all at the Congress!


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What you should know?
Costs for accommodation (2 nights) and 2 breakfast are covered by Loesje.
We don't refund travel costs.

Where to eat?

Where to eat during the Congress


Places (including with vegetarian/vegan options)

1. Bar Pasztecik
al. Wojska Polskiego 46 (from RCIiTT: 4 min.; from Hostel: min.)
open: Mo-Fri 10-19 Sat 10-16
vegetarian friendly

2. Fabryka szczecińska - sandwich, hummus, bagels
ul. Księcia Bogusława X 4 (from RCIiTT: 10 min.; from Hostel: 14 min.)
open: Mon-Thu 9-23.45 Fri-Sat 9-3 Sun 10 – 23.45
vegan & vegetarian friendly

3. Pizzeria Piccolo
al. Wojska Polskiego 42 (from RCIiTT: 5 min.; from Hostel: 14 min.)
open: Mo-Sat 10-22 Sun 12-22
The one and only pizza in Szczecin, in the same place for 40 (!) years.

4. Pizza Me Gusta (from RCIiTT: 8 min.; from Hostel: 12 min.)
ul. 5 Lipca 36a
Mo-Thu 10-23.45 Fri-Sat 11-02.45 Sun 12-23.45
vegan & vegetarian friendly

5. Pierogarnia Kaszubska - pierogi
ul. Bałuki 17 (from RCIiTT: 11 min.; from Hostel: 16 min.)
open: Mo-Sat 12-20
vegetarian friendly

6. Kenko sushi
ul. Monte Cassino 6 (from RCIiTT: 7 min.; from Hostel: 11 min.)
open: Mo-Thu 11-22 Fri-Sat 11-23 Sun 11-22

7. Atelier Japońskich Smaków
MUGI Japanese cuisine + manga bookstore
al. Wojska Polskiego 22 (from RCIiTT: 10-11 min.; from Hostel: 17 min.)
open: Mo-Thu 13-21 Fri-Sat 13-22 Sun 13-20
vegan & vegetarian friendly

8. Przymierzalnia - pancakes
ul. Ściegiennego 7a (róg al. Piastów) (from RCIiTT: 4 min.; from Hostel: 14 min.)
open: Mo-Fri 9-22 Sat 10-22 Sun 10-21
vegan & vegetarian friendly

9. Marshal Food - kuchnia brytyjska i kolonialna
ul. Rayskiego 23 (from RCIiTT: 7 min.; from Hostel: 13 min.)
open: Mo-Thu, Sun 12-22, Fri-Sat 12-00
vegan & vegetarian friendly

10. Secesja Cafe– kuchnia śródziemnomorska
al. Papieża Jana Pawła II 19/1 (from RCIiTT: 11 min.; from Hostel: 10 min.)
open: Mo-Sun 12-20
vegan & vegetarian friendly

11. Klimatt - Kuchnia fusion
al. Papieża Jana Pawła II 42/U6 (from RCIiTT: 11 min.; from Hostel: 14 min.)
open: Mon-Thu 12-22 Fri-Sat 12-23.45 Sun 12 – 22
vegan & vegetarian friendly

12. Hormon Cafe - coffee, cake, burgers
ul. Monte Cassino 6 (from RCIiTT: 7 min.; from Hostel: 11 min.)
open: Mo-Thu 17-3 Fri-Sat 17-5
vegetarian friendly

13. Alternatywnie - coffee, bagels
al. Wojska Polskiego 39 (from RCIiTT: 6 min.; from Hostel: 15 min.)
open: Mo-Fri 8-20 Sta 9-20 Sun 10-18
vegan & vegetarian friendly



Vegetarian/vegan places:

Vege Club Amar
ul. Monte Cassino 36 (from RCIiTT: 7 min.; from Hostel: 9min.)
open: Mo-Fri 12-18

Bistro Jaglana (also glutenfree)
Al. Piastów 75 (from RCIiTT: 2 min.; from Hostel: 11 min.)
open: Mo-Sun 11-19

BarFit (also glutenfree)
ul. Rayskiego 23/5 (from RCIiTT: 7 min.; from Hostel: 13 min.)
open: Mo-Fri 7-18, Sat 8-15

Program

Friday (23th November)

From 17.00
checking in at the HOSTEL:Szkolne Schronisko Młodzieżowe CUMA Hostel, ul. Monte Cassino 19A
grabbing something to eat (free choice)

19.30 - 22.00 /where: Hormon Cafe, ul. Monte Cassino 6
Hello beer + networking
22.00 - ... /where: Hormon downstairs, ul. Monte Cassino 6
Dance @ Hormon
[Hormon (eng. hormone) is a Szczecin’s famous bar and club. At first, it was quite an alternative club but now turned to be for almost everyone. As we say in Szczecin: every path leads to Hormon :) ]

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
Saturday (24th November)
09.00 - 10.00
Breakfast at the hostel


10.30 - 11.30 /where: Regionalne Centrum Innowacji i Transferu Technologii, ul. Jagiellońska 20-21
News from Loesje’s groups
It’s time to:
introduce yourselfshare what happened in your Loesje group during 2018what are plans for 2019?what’s new? share some memories or funny stories or anecdote about Loesje

11.30 - 13.00 /where: Regionalne Centrum Innowacji i Transferu Technologii, ul. Jagiellońska 20-21
Loesje answers
We gathered all questions that you send to Loesje and her Founders during #AskLoesje action.
Now it’s time to reveal the answers!

13.00 - 15.00 /where: al. Wojska Polskiego 46
Lunch at Pasztecik Szczeciński or free choice
[Pasztecik szczeciński (pasty/pie from Szczecin) is a traditional regional dish. It is a ruled, fried yeast dough with 3 types of filling: cabbage with mushrooms, mushrooms with cheese or with meat.
This delicacy is made in a machine manufactured for the Soviet army and imported to Szczecin in 1971 from a Soviet demobil. Pasztecik is on the List of traditional products protected by EU law.
Worth noting is also the interior design, where time stopped 20 years ago (or even more).

Pasztecik tastes best with a red borsch from beet (to drink).

1 pasztecik: ~4 zł
1 cup of borsch: ~3 zł]


15.00 - 17.30 /where:
Exchanging experience – workshop

Let's talk about: participants, proposed topics, unusual workshops, hard situations and how to deal with them, your workshop recipe, ideas on how to develop Loesje - new members, activities.

At first we, will work in small groups and then present results to the whole group.

+ at about 17.00 we will skype Loesje Holland and sing together "Happy birthday".


18.00 - 19.00
Dinner (free choice)


19.00 - 20.30 /where: Hostel
Time to prepare for a birthday party!
It's a Black & White theme party – so please be like Loesje’s posters and wear only those two colors on you


20.30 - ... /where: Open Mind Gallery, ul. Koński Kierat 17/1

Black & White Birthday Party
Loesje photo collage, birthday cake, champagne, singinghappy birthday in both Dutch & Polish, quizzes, dancing...

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +

Sunday (25th November)
09.00 - 10.00
Breakfast at hostel

10.30 - 13.00 /where: meeting point at the hostel
Sightseeing + stickin’ tour (almost) all over the Szczecin


13.00 - 14.00
Lunch (free choice)


14.00 - 17.00 /where: Technopark Pomerania, ul. Cyfrowa 2-8
Creative writing with Loesje


after 17.00
Oh no! It’s time to say goodbye!

Ask Loesje

We gathered all questions that you send to Loesje and her Founders during #AskLoesje action.

Here are the answers:

1 Q. How did you join Loesje?
At the time there were many young people out of jobs, and I didn't have a job. I was looking for something
meaningful in life and I saw the Loesje slogans and I ask around, and there was a squat place where Loesje people
lived and I ask them if I can join them. And they said: Ok, strange, but… sure.

2 Q. Do you remember your first outdoor adventure with Loesje texts? If so, how did it go?
My very first action was when I was running around in the streets dressed up as a ghost. Running behind members and screaming “Hold back / Catch the ghost” because at that time, Holland was divided in left and right wing and the left wing had an expression “A ghost goes thru Europe”.

3 Q. What was the main purpose of Loesje at the beginning? How the idea of Loesje change during the time and what Loesje is/should be nowadays?
I don’t think Loesje changed during the time. Basics kept on being the same. Trying to change the world and do this with a humor and sharp, looking at the world through the eyes of a young girl, who is growing up, wondering and asking about the world, not taking things for granted.
You can still ask a lot of questions about what is happening. Maybe the methods changed – because at the beginning we didn’t have an Internet and nowadays you can do a lot with it. But it’s still the same Loesje.

4 Q. Did Loesje really exist? If so - who was she when she called her initiative? How did her fate go?
Yes, she was. But she wasn’t a member. She didn’t belong to the group. There was a group „world newspaper”, they stick newspapers on walls as well. And then Loesje people decided „we need some other way to express ourselves” so they came up with the idea of making slogans. They needed a name and they knew it should be a girls name. If you take girls name it’s more likely people will read it, because it’s more accessible for people. If you put signature of an angry, revolutionary man – people wouldn’t like that, I think.
That’s why we choose a girls name. Then we started to brainstorming – what name it should be, and they came up with Loesje, because someone knew her and they all liked the name.

5 Q. What distinguishes early Loesje from other counter-cultural movements? Was Loesje at the beginning of its existence more closely related to subcultures?
The main difference was that Loesje started in the times of the cold war between east and west. We all thought it’s going to be a war. Activist, they were so negative. They just screamed “we don’t want’ this, we don’t want that” but they couldn’t express what do they want. They didn’t turn it around from negative to positive. And we thought – we should do that, and give people a smile because only then they will be able to make a change.
If you don’t entertain, you can’t send the message. People will walk by this slogan and think: oh, another slogan that says everything is terrible.
But if you read a joke, then you smile, tell your friends and maybe think about it.

Q 6. Why should the identity/genesis of the founding members of Loesje be a secret?
They're not an underground group and they don’t hide from the police. The only reason I can think of that someone has that feeling is this that we used to call each other just with the first name. That has something to do with activist period because when we started, we thought it’s not about me and you, but it’s about slogans that we wrote.

Q 7. What were the first reactions of random people to Loesje posters?
They were surprised. We used to stick up slogans and then stay for a minute beside it and we watched peoples reactions and we asked them what are they thinking about it. And most of the time it was very good, people liked it, they started to think, to talk with us.

Q 8. Did you expect the Loesje initiative will spread abroad? What was your reaction when you found out about it and saw posters in a foreign language?
No, I didn’t expect that but it was very nice. When the wall in Berlin fall down we went for a few weeks on a trip in a small van– and that is when the Loesje International was born. We went on this trip and we took a lot of slogans in different languages (we translated them by our self) and we started to talk with people and another activist groups, make some workshops. And then people started to stick slogans by their self.

Q 9. Do you regularly follow the activities of international Loesje groups? What are your observations on this topic? Do you see any differences in the effects of your actions? Did something surprise you?
The last few years not really I’m afraid.

Q 10. Which of the texts created by the groups from outside the Netherlands do you like the most?
My favorite is “Who wants to be bossed around when you can manage yourself” but I can’t recall whose slogan is it.

Q 11. In your opinion, how do political and ideological views constitute the essence of Loesje (are contained in its DNA)? To what extent should the resulting posters be saturated with world-view issues?
In a way yes, but that doesn’t ruled out that you make something nice about love or make a joke. But the main purpose of Loesje is to make a change.
We need to remember, that when people like the slogan they will read it, when they read it they will think about it. We aren’t here to say them what to do, but we (as Loesje) helping them to figure out what to say.

Q 12. Dear Loesje Founders, please tell us the whole story about the elections in which Loesje took part, in the Netherlands.
It was in 1985 – we wanted to change things, and if you want to make a change and you have the possibility to join – you should try and do that.
So we started the campaign. We stuck slogans all over the Holland. At the end we didn’t have enough votes, but a of of people liked it so much and started to join us. At first, we were only in about 3 towns in Holland, and after election in 120.
But after all we were quite happy that we didn’t win, because then you start to be a political party – which is Loesje not. Loesje is freer than that. But for us those election went well.

Q 13. If you would have known that Loesje would travel the world and become famous all over, would you have considered giving her another name, more easily understandable than hers? Since giving her a name that Dutch people would immediately have certain associations to, worked very differently (quite the opposite) in most of the world outside the Dutch and Flemish speaking countries.
I don’t think so, because we didn’t plan to become an international movement. Our plan was to make slogan full of humor instead of depressing slogans that all the action groups stuck.

Of course we could have make an international name like Anna or Maria, but there was no plan to go to other towns – at the beginning.
A long time ago we were in Poland ‘90 At that time we thought we should give Loesje one name. And we even came up with a polish name – Zosia, because we needed a similar name like Loesje in Holland.
But we talked a lot about it and we decided not to change Loesje name. Everybody’s name is everywhere the same. And we also thought that Loesje could become some kind of a brand and that actually happened. And that is why we stuck with „Loesje” name.

Q14. How independent is Loesje? "She" started small and local, and now "she" is a brand and internationally connecting, which is more expensive. Did this change anything for Loesje in the last 35 years?
Loesje is very independent. The most independent, the independents. She is so independent the United States are put to shame. That is how independent she is.
Recently Loesje Netherlands was asked who their boss was. We answered; there is no boss. But surely there has to be, people responded. No; we don’t believe in hierarchy, was our answer. Who is your artistic leader, take us to your artistic leader, they asked next. Loesje takes no direction from no-one. So, unfortunately, we could not help those people.

But in all honesty, Loesje has never been a brand. She doesn’t try to sell people into a feeling or lifestyle. She just wants people to think for themselves, act kindly and be curious. Loesje is all about self-determination and making your own choices. And that can be done in every country and every language.

Did you know Loesje has been international since 1994? In the beginning, with the little money there was, Loesje bought 5 fax machines. One was placed in the Netherlands, one in Sweden, one in Russia, and two more across the globe. Text selections would take place by fax machine. It was a different way of connecting, in a new technological era. Loesje was also one of the first Dutch organizations with its own website. Can you imagine?

All in all, a lot has changed. Because of the Internet, apps, smart products, we feel more and more connected with the rest of the globe. Everything is at the tip of your fingers, and can be shipped over from China, you can Skype with people in New Zeeland and your fridge will order your own groceries. But Loesje hasn’t changed that much. She still knows the best form of being together is switching off all that technology and coming together once or twice a year in a remote location. Being offline gets you to connect and be creative.

Q 15. What was Loesje's most challenging phase or change in the last 35 years?
With the risk of talking in clichés, every new endeavor is challenging. Loesje’s identity can be fluid, but at the core here values remain the same. Loesje is also a bit stubborn, which can get her into some difficulties from time to time. There have been weird actions, people who had to spend a night in jail for sticking posters, people crossing into active war area’s to give workshops, people having extensive getting lost workshops, people having intensive getting found workshops (Okke), and other crazy things.

What makes things interesting, be it challenging or not, is that Loesje is a vibrant collective of people. Every country that has a Loesje group, has done its own growing up. In some countries, like the Netherlands, Loesje has been around for 35 years. In other countries, she is still in diapers. By growing as a group together, you evolve and adapt and can overcome a lot of struggles. You educate new members, whilst they challenge you. You shape the identity of the girl on the poster, of your own collective and thoughts. And those can change over time. And so do the people. So I guess the most challenging thing is sometimes having to say goodbye to people who leave the collective. Luckily, people never leave not to return, but you might see them less often. That is not a downside, but an effect of an international collective. New people also bring new ideas.

Q 16. Do you remember your first outdoor adventure with Loesje texts? If so, how did it go?
Of course, I remember. It was early 2002, and I went sticking with the group in Tilburg. I grew up near that city in a somewhat small town and took a train to meet up with some people I never met before. But they were really, really nice. We stuck a lot of posters, and nothing eventful really happened.

But, there was one time I went sticking in Amsterdam. I lived about two hours away by train. At this time, we didn’t; always use bottles for glue. So instead, I took a five-litre bucket of glue with me on the train, during rush hour, without a cover on it. It was a great way to start a conversation with people on the train.

Or the time I went sticking in Breda, and I decided to sing a song from atop an electricity box. I cannot sing. I am not aloud to sing at home. I had to lip-sync during official engagements. But here I was, on top of an electricity box, singing. Both the person I was sticking with and I got a ticket, and to this day I am still not sure if it was for the freshly stuck poster or the horrible whale mating sounds I was making.

Q 17. What do you think is more important: creating new posters or distributing them?
Equally important; to write but not to stick is a shame, as you don’t get to share Loesje’s thoughts, ideas and perspectives that could really engage and motivate people. But I also find it very important to keep on writing and have texts that reflect onto current events. Otherwise, Loesje becomes a bit of a nostalgic creature.

Q 18. Where do you think is a border that can not be exceeded when commercializing Loesje?
Making a profit in my eyes should be done very carefully. I do feel Loesje could be more adventurous or creative sometimes when making money. However, Loesje should not become commercial in that sense that she turns a profit and becomes a rich organization. Money can be made to pay people, to pay rent, to expand the organization etc. Peoples motivation changes when money is involved, they might become extremely motivated to join rather than intrinsically or they expect to be compensated (all the time). To maintain the honesty and integrity of the organization is a greater goal in my eyes than making lots of money.

Q 19. How do you see the future of Loesje? Which direction should Loesje develop in?
I would ask Auntie Rita, she is a fortuneteller.

Q 20. What has changed for the better in the world since the beginning of your activity? And what changed for worse?
I joined just after 9/11. And even though for long I liked to pretend that the world didn’t change, it did. Security and safety have been the key goals of society’s and governments, often taken away individuals’ rights. I was also a member during the economic crisis. At times it was nice, because I was unemployed and could join a lot of Loesje activities. But in general those were bad times for a lot of people.
But, in good news, people have become aware of it their own individual rights. The counterculture has become more visible, and a sharing economy is alive and mainstream. In other good news, 14 more countries joined the EU since I joined Loesje, the Dutch Women won the European Football cup and are now aired on national TV. Electric cars are more mainstream, which is good. And sometimes it is the small things. My new neighborhood has flowers hanging from every house, that we take care off together. It makes the world a better place, one pot at a time.

Photo Collage

To honor people who, during all these years, co-created Loesje, we created a beautiful, large photo collage of Loesje members.

Contact

If you have any questions about Congress please contact me:
[email protected]
Facebook/kamila.romanowicz