Archive in Residence: Reading Vigil for Free Palestine
An Unwilling Archive
Archive in Residence is an initiative where de Appel invites smaller, often forgotten, remarkable, hidden or extraordinary archives to find shelter in de Appel Archive and open their collections to the public. For this edition, de Appel has invited Reading Vigil for Free Palestine (RVFP). From October 2025 to March 2026, RVFP is in collaboration with de Appel Archive and Duru* to embark on a journey of collective archiving and reflecting. This has resulted in an (unwilling) archive of audio recordings and the full collection of books read so far.
Reading Vigil for Free Palestine is a daily action, ongoing since November 2023, where a group of readers meet every day on Dam Square in Amsterdam between 12:30–13:30 to read aloud from a growing body of literature connected to Palestine. The readings include works by Palestinian writers alongside historical, political, literary, and theoretical texts that engage Palestinian life, history, and struggle. The gathering is a way to strike, claim public space, learn collectively about decolonial/anticolonial history, protest against settler colonialism and genocide, and to stand in solidarity with Palestine. This hour of daily reading is recorded, creating a soundscape of learning, protest and public interaction.
Since the start of the action two years ago, Reading Vigil for Free Palestine has amassed over 800 hours of audio recordings from over 85 books, ranging from monumental works such as Frantz Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth (1961) and Edward W. Said’s The Question of Palestine (1979) to newer books published since the start of the genocide in Gaza, such as One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This (2025) by Omar El Akkad and Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal (2025) by Mohammed El-Kurd.
The archive of Reading Vigil for Free Palestine is now accessible to the public, including audio recordings from the Dam and the full collection of books read so far. The full audio archive of RVFP can be accessed through readingvigil.net, and the books are available for lending in the de Appel Library as a special collection, during opening hours of de Appel.
*For this Archive in Residence Reading Vigil For Free Palestine was accompanied by de Appel archivist Duru Bayramoglu to host, share archiving practices and facilitate regular meetings in de Appel to create an intimate, reciprocal and welcoming space for collective archiving.