Yasmin Namavar
works as a psychiatrist and writes mostly poetry. Poems and essays by her have previously appeared in De Gids, Tirade, Hollands Maandblad, Poeziekrant, Trouw and Medisch Contact, and on various online platforms. She was a finalist in the 2022 El-Hizjra literature prize, poetry category. In December 2024, her essay De dagen van binnen (The Days Within) will be published in Over ziek zijn (About Being Sick) a collection of essays by multiple authors by HetMoet Publishers. Her real debut will follow in spring 2025: the poetry collection verblijf (stay) with Jurgen Maas Publishers.
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Archive available for: Yasmin Namavar
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Speech, Silence
In Speech, Silence, six poets respond to the question: what is poetry's relation to silence? Their poetry readings will include new work, written especially for this purpose. You will see and hear Palestinian-American poet George Abraham, Danish writer and poet Asta Olivia Nordenhof, South African writer and poet Rešoketšwe Manenzhe and, from the Netherlands, poets Pelumi Adejumo, Yasmin Namavar and Maureen Ghazal.
This programme takes it's title from the poem Sprekers, zwijgers by the Dutch writer Lidy van Marissing, published in her latest collection De verwerping van het stilzitten (The rejection of inaction, 2024). Van Marissing's poem speaks of a "language half speaking, half silent, rocking back / and forth in between."
Palestinian-American poet Fady Joudah commented on speaking and silence in a recent interview with The New Inquiry: "We need to learn how to listen in silence to the Palestinian in their silence. So far, when a Palestinian goes silent, it means they are dead or violable, digestible, liable for further erasure or dispossession. English has not begun imagining the Palestinian speaking, let alone understanding Palestinian silence."
Fady Joudah's words make us rethink poetry and silence. Poetry, and our discourse about poetry, always run the risk of degenerating into a domestication of silence, a way of making silence available and digestible to an audience, often in a language that is also used to commit the atrocities producing so many forms of silence.
The poets recite their new work written especially for Speech, Silence in their preferred language of writing. The poems will be simultaneously projected in Dutch and/or English.
Speech, Silence has been curated for Writers Unlimited Festival 2025 by Maarten van der Graaff.
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Book of My Life: Yasmin Namavar in conversation with Abdelkader Benali
Writers tell us about their favourite book: the book that inspires or touches them, that set their artistic, moral or intellectual compass. In short, the book they would recommend to everyone. Interview: Abdelkader Benali.
Yasmin Namavar chose as her favourite book Demian, considered the best novel by renowned German-speaking, Swiss author, poet and painter Herman Hesse (1877-1962). Demian explores the psychological and philosophical journey of the protagonist, Emil Sinclair, as he navigates through the dualities of existence and self-discovery amidst societal expectations.
