Photography by Andrea AmponsahThis past Sunday, August 9th, we had the pleasure of hosting the legendary Tiwa Savage at our Patta Amsterdam store for an exclusive meet-and-greet. Patta Amsterdam served as a vibrant bridge that brought together different circles and many new faces into the store. It was a unique opportunity for the community to connect with a global Afrobeats icon and one of Nigeria’s most influential artists in an intimate setting. As the first woman to win the MTV EMA for Best African Act, Tiwa Savage continues to shape the sound of a generation, and seeing that energy reflected in our space was a true victory for the Patta community. Thank you to everyone who came through and made this afternoon special. We look forward to continuing to expand our community and connecting with you all through more moments like this in the future.

Education stands as one of Patta’s core pillars. The reality is that Black and POC perspectives are often excluded from mainstream narratives, yet they are vital to understanding history, culture, and identity. Reading is power, and access to diverse stories is essential. That’s why Patta is launching Patta Open Source bookshelves, a literary collection curated by Team Patta in collaboration with Athenaeum Bookstore, that centers the voices of those too often overlooked.We’re not just putting books on a shelf. Patta Open Source is making room for stories that challenge the way we think and push us to see the world from different perspectives. Some books will spark curiosity, others will raise difficult questions, and many will offer inspiration. But most importantly, they will all contribute to a broader conversation, one that breaks old narratives and builds new ones. Each One, Teach One.Express YourselfTourmaline : The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. JohnsonMarsha P. Johnson was more than an icon of the Stonewall uprising — she was a living symbol of radical joy, resistance, and humanity. In The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson, artist and activist Tourmaline brings her story to life with equal parts tenderness and fire. Johnson’s voice, so often drowned out in official histories, is finally given the space it deserves. This is not a conventional biography, but a poetic tribute to what it means to live freely in a world that keeps denying that right. Tourmaline writes with rhythm and warmth, celebrating both the flamboyant and the fragile. The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what it truly means to be yourself — in full color, against the current.Must Read Ta-Nehisi Coates: The MessageWith The Message, Ta-Nehisi Coates returns as the clear, uncompromising voice of contemporary Black consciousness. Best known for Between the World and Me, Coates here explores what remains of hope, truth, and community in a world so often divided. His writing is lucid and lyrical, probing what it means to stay human amid noise and regression. Coates traces the legacy of hip-hop, politics, and spirituality as forces of both resistance and beauty. This is no manifesto but a meditation — fierce and tender at once. The Message is a book to read and to feel: a call for dignity, nuance, and resilience.His StorySudhir Hazareesingh: Daring to be Free: Rebellion and Resistance of the Enslaved in the Atlantic WorldSudhir Hazareesingh reminds us that the history of slavery is not only a story of oppression, but also of defiance. In Daring to Be Free, he recounts the courage and rebellion of the enslaved across the Atlantic world — from Haiti to Brazil, from Cuba to the United States. He shows that freedom was never granted, only fought for. Drawing on testimonies, songs, and diaries, Hazareesingh weaves a powerful tapestry of human dignity. This book is a tribute to the men and women who revealed the foundations of the modern world — not as victims, but as thinkers, dreamers, and revolutionaries. Daring to Be Free is history that breathes, glows, and inspires.Non-Fiction Be The Real Hip HopRobin Givhan: Make It Ours: Crashing the Gates of Culture with Virgil AblohIn Make It Ours, Pulitzer-winning journalist Robin Givhan pays tribute to the incomparable Virgil Abloh — designer, visionary, and bridge-builder between street culture and haute couture. Givhan traces how Abloh rewrote fashion’s codes and cracked open the doors of white institutions. This is no glossy portrait but a sharp, affectionate essay on creativity as liberation. She frames Abloh’s legacy as an act of cultural reclamation: from Off-White to Louis Vuitton, from Chicago to Paris. Make It Ours is a celebration of Black brilliance — and of the right to define beauty on one’s own terms.Brand New FunkZadie Smith: Dead and AliveZadie Smith is at her best when she writes from the inside out — about art, life, and the fragile boundaries between them. In Dead and Alive, she explores the fine line between creation and destruction, freedom and fear, identity and form. Smith reflects on the artist’s role in times of crisis, and on the constant reinvention of self in a shifting world. Her prose is, as ever, supple, witty, and layered — attuned to both rhythm and thought. Dead and Alive is a meditation on surviving with style, on the moral duty of beauty, and on how art keeps the human heart in motion.Music PleaseAnnie Zaleski: Queens of Disco In Queens of Disco, Annie Zaleski revives the glittering history of disco — this time through the women who made it legendary. Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Grace Jones: their voices became the soundtrack of freedom, sensuality, and pride. Zaleski writes with energy and insight, but most of all with love for the music and the subcultures it nurtured — from the ballroom scene to New York’s queer clubs. Queens of Disco shows that disco, often dismissed as kitsch, was in fact a revolution: a stage for expression, a celebration of identity. A sparkling, rhythmic tribute to the power of beat and self-liberation.The Patta Open Source Bookshelf will appear as a recurring feature in the Patta Magazine, showcasing a curated selection of titles available at our bookshelf at Athenaeum store in Amsterdam.

Interview by Violette Esmeralda | Photography by Anna Dekker Orkestra isn’t easily defined, and that’s exactly the point. Orkestra is a kaleidoscope of practices as diverse as a healthy ecosystem. It’s core is centred around ecology, art and wildlife. Founded by artists Aukje Dekker and Kristian de la Riva, Orkestra is less a destination than a reciprocal system: what you bring shapes what you receive. Located in Asturias, a region of northwest Spain, set within dramatic coastlines, ancient mountains, and a powerful river, Orkestra uses artistic thinking to challenge how we relate to the living world around us, posing a quiet but radical question: what might happen if we stopped trying to control life, and instead learned how to collaborate with it? How would you describe Orkestra? What can people expect when they visit? Orkestra is the name we came up with to bring together all the things we’re fascinated by: from animal-tracking courses, art interventions, fermentation masterclasses, artist residencies, animal communication, Rewilding leadership programs’, festivals, foraging and a sculpture garden. We have a hotel with twelve full-board rooms, a small cabin, a big vegetable garden, sheep, dogs, chicken and are surrounded by untouched nature and a pretty impressive river. The place itself is a breeding ground for all kinds of projects and radical encounters. The views are ridiculous. The coastline is pure drama, and the mountains are ancient. This year, we are planning wolf snow tracking in Slovakia, a special solar eclipse expedition, and more. There’s also talk of hosting a Patta Academy here. And of course: Patta Asturias, Goat Socks Edition. Underneath it all is a desire to radically shift how we interact with and understand the living world around us, one of the biggest challenges our culture faces in these times. How do you define permaculture, and how is that important to Orkestra’s practice? How can people apply those principles in their own communities? Permaculture is a way of re-seeing landscapes: not as resources, but as living fountains of biodiversity. There are many methodologies within permaculture, but we approach it with trial, error, play, and fun. That mindset takes away the pressure of needing to know everything. Instead, you learn by experimenting. The essence is simple: if the birds eat all your berries, don’t try to get rid of the birds; plant more trees. You can’t really do it wrong. Just engage. If you care for more than yourself, it works. Always perennial over annual. How do your backgrounds influence Orkestra? What do you each bring to the project? We were classmates at Central Saint Martins in London and are both grounded in artistic education. Art school taught us how to look and observe, to read patterns, subtleties, and relationships. Together, we use art as a tool to create new ways of relating to the natural world. What has surprised you most since moving here and building Orkestra? Living with the seasons and the realisation that there are more than just four. In Japan, they recognise seventy-two. We reduce things to understand them, but life is messy and complex. When you spend more time outside, there are new forces at play. If you’re quiet enough to listen, there’s still so much to learn about managing time and energy better. At the end of the day, we don’t know shit. Nature teaches you humility if you let it. What are you currently working on that you’re excited about? We are working on our Sculpture Garden of Decay. Ranging from nine-metre-high carved wooden sculptures to oil paintings, every piece lives outside with no upkeep. Insects, weather, mould, everything becomes an active collaborator. The whole process will be visible on our website.