Krusa Laman - Power to the poets - Teatro Luna Blou

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Power to the poets is the title of an international literary programme with readings and debate, led by Mario Kleinmoedig. The social commitment of the writer and the poet is subject of debates with three authors. Gerrit Komrij from the Netherlands (former Dichter des Vaderlands - inoffical poet laureate- , renowned poet, novelist, columnist, essayist, anthologist and dramaturg). Diana Ferrus from Cape Town, South-Africa, became well-known through her poem on Saartje Baartman - the 'Hottentot-Venus' -  a black South-African woman who was forced to tour in circus in Europe. Her remains were kept in a museum in Paris. In South-Africa a campaign was raised to have her remains buried in her home country after all these years. Diana Ferrus' poem played a major role in this campaign. Drisana Deborah Jack, is a poet from Sint Maarten. Het poems show strong commitment to the future of Sint Maarten independence.  The participant from Curaçao is poet/performer Gibi Bacilio. During this evening there are also readings from two other writers: Putu Wijaya from Indonesia, and the Surinamese/Dutch author Clark Accord. Singer Maritza Haakmat will give a short poetry recital. Al readings of foreign authors will be in their mother tongue. Translations into Papiamentu and English will be projected simultaneously on a screen.

Information

Date and time Friday 22 April 2005 from 20:00 to 23:00 hrs
Location Teatro Luna Blou - Curaçao

Line-up

Clark Accord

(Paramaribo, 1961) moved to The Netherlands when he was 17. He studied at medical school and worked for several years at the AMC Hospital in Amsterdam . After that, he studied to be a beautician in Amsterdam and left to live in Vienna for six years. He built a successful career as a make-up artist in several countries and his creations can be seen in magazines such as Elle, Marie-Claire and Elegance. In 1999 he made his debut with the historical novel De koningin van Paramaribo (The queen of Paramaribo) and participated for the first time in the Winternachten festival. In 2001 a musical was made of this succesful book.Clark Accord writes columns for amongst others Man and News Magazine. His second novel Tussen Apoera & Oreala (Between Apoera & Oreala) was published in January 2005.
WN 2005
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Diana Ferrus

(Worcester, South-Africa, 1953) is a writer, poet and activist for marginalised African women. She works at the University of West Cape, where she also participates in a Women's Studies course. Ferrus is a member of WEAVE (Women’s Education & Artistic Voice Expression), an artist's collective in Capetown. She became well known with her poem Tribute to Sarah Baartman. The poem was translated and included in the French governmental documents that were necessary for the transportation of the remains of Sarah Baartman - in nineteen century Europe known as the Hottentot Venus. The remains left Paris and eventually arrived in South Africa in 2002 where they were buried. Ferrus published her first collection of poetry in the Afrikaans language called 'Ons Komvandaan' ('We come from') in 2006 and was the co-editor for a book about fathers and daughters called, Slaan vir my 'n masker, Vader (Forge Me a Mask, Father). She recently released a cd of poetry with music by the band Mamela, called "Never again", "Nooit weer nie".
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Drisana Deborah Jack

(St. Martin, Netherlands Antilles) is a poet and visual artist. Her work currently deals with trans-cultural existence, memory, the effects of colonialism and mythology through re-memory. Salt, the sea and hurricanes reoccur as metaphors in her body of work. In her poetry and visual art she tries to go beyond the parameters of style and genres. Her literature is as much music, dance and art as it is text. For her artwork, which is an expression of a personal and cultural history, she uses paint, video, photography, sound and poetry. She has published two poetry collections, The Rainy Season (1997) and Skin (2006). Her visual art has been exhibited in museums and galleries internationally. Her poetry has appeared in The Caribbean Writer and Calabash and has recited her work in the Caribbean, United States, South Africa and the Netherlands. Deborah Jack is an Assistant Professor of Art at New Jersey City University.
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Gerrit Komrij

(Winterswijk, 1944) was the first Poet Laureate of the Netherlands. He is considered one of the best columnists in the country, a novelist, renowned translator, and an enhtusiastic reviewer of poetry. Komrij is a cat in a Strange Warehouse, as he called a book of collected essays that came out in 2001. The world is never a trusted or obvious place, but if you look good, there's always something surprising around. 'I don't think I'm a no-nonsense guy. There's too much noise inside of me'. Komrij, who has lived in Portugal since 1984, is one of the most productive Dutch writers. Since 1968 he has published several works annually. Recently Komrij's choice of the one-hundred best Dutch poems (2008) appeared, in addition to an anthology of Dutch children's poetry in over 1000 poems (2007) and Kakafonie (2006), an 'encyclopaedia of shit'. In 2005 he published Eendagsvliegen (Ephemera, literary diary entries) and a volume of poetry Fata Morgana.
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Putu Wijaya

(Bali, 1944) after completing his law study in Yogyakarta followed his artistic vocation and became a writer, dramatist, scriptwriter, journalist and essayist. He gained a lot of experience abroad. From 1985 to 1988 he worked as writer and director for various universities in the U.S.A and he taught modern Indonesian literature and theater. He has his own theater group Mandiri, which he founded at the beginning of the 1970's. In his short stories Putu Wijaya likes to shock and desorientate his readers; according to him he places 'mental time bomb's' in the ordinairy life of ordinairy people. Surrealism and absurdism, humor and violence form the foundations of his stories. Putu Wijaya avoids analysing and moralizing; he leaves the end open and the reader confused.
WIN2003



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Merietza Haakmat en Hershel Rosario

The young singing talent Merietza Haakmat was born and raised on St. Martin. In 1989 she left St Martin for Curaçao, where she joined the Broche Company and the very popular Curaçao's Happy Peanuts Band. In August 2001 she left the band and, together with two collegues, started the band RHYDD'M. With guitarist Hershel Rosario they put together a repertoire of Curaçao's songs.
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Mario Kleinmoedig

(Curaçao, 1960) is a mass communication expert who is also an international journalist and socio-political activist. He studied sociology and Mass Communication at the University of Utrecht. In the 1980's and 90's he worked as a journalist for several written and electronic media in Europe and the Caribbean, among others the International Press Agency IPS, which focusses on developmental issues and news and issues from the Global South. Afterwards he worked in Curaçao as an information and education specialist in the areas of schooling, drug-prevention, the environment and nature. The last two years he has worked as international press officer at ILGA (International Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans and Intersex association) in Brussels, Belgium. Presently he is also a supervisor of the Pink Orange Program aiming at emancipation of sexual diverse communities in the Dutch Caribbean. Mario Kleinmoedig is co-founder of the Curaçao Environmental and Human Rights Movements. As writer, actor and storyteller in the 1990's he was part of the storytelling collective Lingua Franca. He published an ecological storybook for children Zum zum di Shinshon, in 2005.
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Gibi Bacilio

(Curaçao, 1950) is a poet and a literary performer. He studied philosophy and theology in Colombia and The Netherlands. In Utrecht he finished his studies at the Academy of Expression, and became a tutor of dramatic expression. He lives on Curaçao, where he is very active in street theatre, especially with the group Grupo di Teatro Foro of which he was the artistic leader during the seventies and eighties. He produced and presented cultural television programs and trained and became an expert in the field of oral literature and written rhythmic poetry. Bacilio writes about the colonial past, the Indians, the slaves and the dominant and confusing position of the Dutch. But there is also tenderness and eroticism in his work. His poems have been published in various collections and magazines. In 2000 his collection of poems Kueru Marká was published.
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