Fiction, essays and spoken word exploring cultural memory, forgotten women and storytelling.
Education & Mentorship
Alongside her work as a writer and performer, Blanka Pesja has worked for more than twenty years as a lecturer and mentor at the Popular Music Department of the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (Amsterdam University of the Arts).
Her educational practice is rooted in the same themes that shape her literary and artistic work: language, voice, cultural memory and the search for authentic expression. Working across songwriting, performance and artistic development, she encourages students to explore the relationship between meaning, sound and identity.
At the Conservatorium she developed the Trimodus Method for lyricists, an approach that examines language simultaneously as meaning, rhythm and resonance. Rather than treating creativity as a fixed talent, her work focuses on helping artists assemble their own artistic voice through reflection, experimentation and critical inquiry.
Her approach to mentorship is deeply interdisciplinary, informed by her experience in fiction, performance, music and visual art. She sees education not simply as instruction, but as a space for dialogue, artistic courage and the development of independent thought.
Many of her students have gone on to receive national and international recognition, including awards, nominations and successful artistic careers across music and performance.
Reflection
My years in art education remain deeply connected to my current work as a writer, essayist and performer.
What began in 2003 in an almost empty basement at Amsterdam’s Azartplein gradually evolved into more than two decades of teaching, mentoring and developing interdisciplinary artistic practice at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam (Amsterdam University of the Arts).
From the beginning, I approached education not simply as instruction, but as a creative and cultural space where language, music, storytelling and critical reflection could meet. Together with students and colleagues, I developed projects, performances, research initiatives and artistic collaborations exploring voice, identity and expression.
Teaching profoundly shaped my own artistic practice. The dialogue with students — witnessing uncertainty transform into form, language and presence — continues to inform my work today.
Although my current focus lies in fiction, essays, spoken word and cultural memory, the years in education remain an essential part of that trajectory: a living archive of encounters, experimentation and shared creative becoming.