Celestine Raalte (12 November 1948) is a writer and

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist from

Suriname Suriname (; srn, Sranankondre or ), officially the Republic of Suriname ( nl, Republiek Suriname , srn, Ripolik fu Sranan), is a country on the northeastern Atlantic coast of South America. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north ...

living in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. She was born in the

Commewijne District Commewijne is a district of Suriname, located on the right bank of the Suriname River. Commewijne's capital city is Nieuw Amsterdam. Tamanredjo is another major town, while Meerzorg is the most populated. The district has a population of 31,420 ...

. During the 1970s, she was a member of the Surinamese women's group Sranan S'ma Abi Wan Oso. Her work first appeared in the 1981 anthology ''Tide tamara, Dichten voor het volk''. Raalte moved to

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the fourth-largest city and a municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, in the very centre of mainland Nethe ...

in 1986. In 1989, she published her first collection of poems ''Akwenda / Streven''. That was followed by ''Ma Awitya'' in 1997. Both works also appeared in Dutch. Celestine Raalte has published both in Dutch as

Sranan Tongo Sranan Tongo (also Sranantongo "Surinamese tongue," Sranan, Surinaams, Surinamese, Surinamese Creole) is an English-based creole language that is spoken as a ''lingua franca'' by approximately 550,000 people in Suriname. Developed originally amo ...

. Her work has also appeared in various magazines and in the 1995 anthology ''Spiegel van de Surinaamse poëzie''. Raalte also wrote a play ''Witte de Witlaan 25''. In 1997, she received the Kwakoe Award for her contribution to Surinamese art. She has received the Award twice: once for her fashion designs in 1999 and once for her poetry in 2000. In 2002, she received the . In 2010, she was named an Officer in the Surinamese Honorary Order of the Yellow Star.

References

External links

Celestine Raalte.nl
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raalte, Celestine 1948 births Living people Honorary Order of the Yellow Star Surinamese people of Jewish descent Surinamese women poets Surinamese dramatists and playwrights Women dramatists and playwrights Spoken word poets Writers in Sranan Tongo