WWZ x Writers Unlimited 2020 (featuring a.o. Sticks)

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Performers, poetry, punchlines, music, exhibits, beer & bites in a feel-good setting during this special Winternachten edition of Woorden Worden Zinnen at PAARD in the Grote Zaal. For this special occasion we’ve curated a program with artists from all over the globe. One of the definite highlights was a unique performance by rapper Sticks!

The (inter-)national line-up also included Surinamese writer Cynthia McLeod, composer and singer Jolyn Phillips from South Africa, Turkish poet Çağla Meknuze, the Aruban poet Rosabelle Illes, poet and performer Roberta Petzoldt, poet and performer Jesse Laport, musician and spoken-word artist Guus van der Steen, poet en performer Marco Martens and spoken-word artist Benzokarim. Plus: verses to take home by Quin Kempees, your favourite host Elten Kiene, and tasty tunes by DJ Dagger DX.

Woorden Worden Zinnen is a highly accessible platform and stage night for word art in the broadest sense. It takes place on and at stages and festivals throughout the Randstad and was founded in 2010 by spoken-word artist Elten Kiene and literary organizer Wesley Loos.

This night is powered by GUAP (www.guap070.nl).

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 January 2020 from 19:30 to 22:00 hrs
Location Paard Grote zaal

Line-up

Rosabelle Illes

(Aruba, 1987) is an artist, writer, and performer. She has authored three collections of poetry and short stories and co-authored the multilingual children’s book Hearty. Her work has been published in international journals, and she has performed at literary festivals worldwide, including Colombia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, and New York City. Rosabelle’s art often explores personal enigmas, with meditation revealing insights that manifest as poetry. She holds a PhD in Psychology from Leiden University and is an assistant professor at the University of Aruba. Her upcoming book, Penmanship (2025), blends her passions for psychology and poetry, celebrating the written word in its purest form. Featuring handwritten pieces, the book sparks a conversation about the scientifically proven benefits of handwriting and showcases how poetry can transcend traditional confines of the page to be heard, seen, and worn.
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Çağla Meknuze

(Turkey, 1985) is a poet living and working in Istanbul. She served as a reporter, editor and producer for NTV. Between 2008 and 2011, she was invited to participate in the group exhibition Young, New, Different at Gallery Zilberman. Her poetry series The Body of Ave won the 2015 Varlık Magazine Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Award and was published as a book. Her poems have appeared in many literary magazines, both in Turkey and abroad, including the 2017-2018 World Poetry Almanac, which includes 100 poets from 70 countries. Her poetry series The Body of Ave won the notable category of the 2015 Varlık Magazine Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Award and was published as a book. Her poetry is also available in English, Dutch, Croatian, Kurdish and Hebrew. As part of her selection for Be Mobile - Create Together, Meknuze will be residing in the Netherlands at Writers Unlimited January 2020.
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Jolyn Phillips

(South Africa, 1992) is a writer, poet, composer, singer and activist. Her 2016 debut collection of short stories, Tjieng Tjang Tjerries, received critical praise, was shortlisted for the University of Johannesburg Prize for best debut, and won the NIHSS Prize for best fiction. Phillips herself adapted the stories for the stage. In 2017 she published Radbraak, a collection of poetry in Afrikaans, which won the 2018 UJ Prize for best debut and earned a nomination for the Elizabeth Eybers Prize. She set some of these stories to music. More of her poems and short stories have appeared in various magazines and anthologies. She is currently graduating from the University of the Western Cape with a PhD in creative writing and teaching African literature at the University of Johannesburg.
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Roberta Petzoldt

(Netherlands, 1984), graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, is a transdisciplinary artist. She works from her studio in Ruigoord as a poet, performer, actress and visual artist. She has played two leading roles in Eddy Terstall's feature films. For which she received the 'Best Actress Award' at the Woodstock film festival of 2015. She made her debut as a poet with the Vruchtwatervuurlinie. This collection has been awarded the Cees Buddingh Prize 2019. The Jury wrote: "A poet who looks at the world through a hole in a newspaper, who connects the world of soldier's games in her youth with an American student who, during a ride to the Taco Bell, tells how he will pay for his education by killing Afghans. We watch a peeping, lurking poet, who, according to her, is created by staring, and who not only sharpens her own gaze, but also ours."
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Jesse Laport

(Netherlands, 1991) is a qualified writer, poet, performer, musician, actor, editor, copywriter, organizer and presenter. He studied to become a teacher of theatre and creative writing at ArtEZ. On 11 January 2012 he was named Poet Laureate of Arnhem, still an official title in that city. The province even named him official Poet of Gelderland. Laport is the mouthpiece and presenter of Mensen Zeggen Dingen and an organizer and the face of the Tapschrift open stage. His work has been published in various collections, newspapers, magazines and on walls. He mainly leads workshops for young people, at art academies and in primary schools. The always-dapper Laport (who consistently appears in suit and tie) says that he provokes "laughter and tears, and even more preferably thought, and that he makes an unforgettable impression with his delicate humour and sharp wit".
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Elten Kiene

is spoken-word artist, host, organizer, rapper and workshop teacher. He was a member of hip hop collective Brandwerk and is co-founder and co-organizer Woorden Worden Zinnen (Words Become Sentences), a platform for word art in the broadest sense. As a spoken-word artist, Elten has performed on many stages; in his workshops, Elten prefers to teach young people in secondary school or debuting authors with performance ambitions. Bringing together separate worlds, with word art as the most important aspect, is a recurring theme in all his activities. He likes to share his knowledge and experience and, most crucially, this "professional hobbyist" is always up for a new challenge in the many roles he is able to take on. In 2020 he was awarded the South Holland Culture Prize.
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Marco Martens

(1982) creates performances, plays songs, improvises and recites, and is often called the rap-troubadour of Eindhoven. He likes to mess with genre boundaries, mixing spoken word, rap, poetry and theatre. He addresses big themes in small everyday portraits. In 2014 he wrote the musical HARM; its songs appeared on the album Ieder huis is uit vertrekken gebouwd (Every House Is Built of Departures). His show and podcast series Morgen zal ik thuis zijn (I'll Be Home Tomorrow) is an ode to his ADHD diagnosis. He has portrayed various spoken word artists im magazines, created improv performances with De Cabarapshow and works as a writing coach at Poetry Circle Nowhere and the Herman Brood Academy. Together with Royal and Cheese he created the album Vera, a mix of beats and (narrative) rap with a touch of cabaret. Martens cherishes an unhealthy fondness for bad puns.
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Guus van der Steen

studied English in Leiden and is an actor, musician and spoken-word artist. Together with his brother Frank he hit the stage as the hip hop duo Kern Koppen as well as in the 2018 play Stomp, a special poetic mix of spoken word, rap and movement theatre. In the same year he appeared in the production Aardappelvreters (Potato Eaters), as surreal, primal opera about the demise of a family farm, staged at the Oerol Festival. According to the Volkskrant newspaper, it was a "successful fairy tale with humorous acting and fascinating music". He also performed in the 2017 spoken word-music-theatre show True Colors and undertook a Masters with Maarten van Hinte, director and co-founder of Made In Da Shade. Van der Steen also gives lessons at schools.
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Benzokarim

(1996) is a poet and performer. In 2022, he won the El Hizjra literature prize for poetry and published his debut collection El Ghorba. In it, he talks to his father, mourns his mother and writes poetry about experiences that are recognisable to anyone with a migrant background. His second collection, Ons gaan allemaal (We're all going), has been awarded with the Jan Campert Prize 2025, yearly prize for poetry. As coach of Poetry Circle 070 and editor of Mensen Zeggen Dingen, he is working hard to pave the way for a new generation of world improvers. Benzokarim is Rotterdam's City Poet in 2025 and 2026.

Bekijk de website van Benzokarim
Instagram: @benzokarim_
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Cynthia Mc Leod

(Suriname, 1936) made her writer's debut with Hoe duur was de suiker? (How Costly Was the Sugar?, 1987), the novel that made her the most famous Surinamese writer overnight and was adapted for film in 2013. She was the first to describe the history, the slaving past and the colonization of her country from a Surinamese perspective. As an expert in the field, she lectures about the history of slavery at US and Canadian universities and organizes educational field and city trips. She has written historic novels, including De Vrije Negerin Elisabeth, gevangene van kleur (The Free Negress Elizabeth, Prisoner of Colour, 1992), as well as studies, children's books and children's musicals. Her No kwik in het bos (No Mercury in the Forest, 2017) is a YA novel about a ten-year-old girl and the dangers of mercury in the gold-mining process. McLeod is a daughter of Johan Ferrier, the first president of Suriname.
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Quin Kempees

(1984) mainly writes verse that she often illustrates herself. You can read along with her on her blog. Her verses are snapshots of moments that she considers worth capturing. She creates work for both adults and children. As an improvisational author and performer, she captures what's in the air, in the here and now, using as few rhyming worlds as possible. As a result of her work in youth protection, Kempees wrote Wortelen en groeien Kindplan (Rooting and Growing Child Plan) for parents and children of divorce.
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Dagger DX

is a beat virtuoso, producer and DJ, and would most of all like to tell stories about everything. Audio books have never been so danceable. As the "hardest-working man in show business", he is a resident at the Biergarten Rotterdam, a member of the Los Bangeles collective, a much-whispered underground name, and the author of the long-awaited double LP Sketchbook Archives Vol. 1, appearing on KUTMAH's IZWID label, which also releases Flying Lotus, fLako and Dorian Concept.
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Sticks

(Netherlands, 1982), aka Junte Ulterwijk, is considered one of the most important Dutch rappers. 15 years ago he made his name with Opgezwolle, together with rapper Rico and producer Delic. The albums Spuugdingen op de mic (Spit things on the mike), Vloeistof (Liquid) and Eigen wereld (Own World) became hip hop classics. After the group broke up in 2007, Sticks continued to renew himself as an artist. He set up the Fakkelteitgroep, formed Great Minds in 2013 with Winne, Jiggy Djé and Wu-Tang Clan producer Dr. Moon, and released a 2015 album with Dazzled Kid. In the fall of 2019, Sticks' latest music can exclusively be heard at the Museum De Fundatie in the exhibit Onrust (Unrest), where five tracks can be listened to in as many rooms.
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