Distance and  Nearness - Poetry in a Time of War

Poetry and music blend in this one-off performance based on the poem collection Ik hier jij daar co-written by Vegter and Almadhoun.

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Information

Date and time Saturday 20 January 2018 23:05 tot 23:45 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - Zaal 1

In spring 2017 the joint poetry collection Me Here You There by Palestinian-Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun and the former Poet of the Fatherland Anne Vegter was published. For Writers Unlimited, they have collaborated with two exceptional musical talents: the Hague-Syrian-Palestinian oud-player and music professor Amer Shanati and singer-songwriter Stefka.

Vegter wrote the following about the creation of Me Here You There: "I first heard Ghayath Almadhoun during an interview with his translator Djûke Poppinga. He said that he fled Syria before the civil war broke out. He asked for asylum in Sweden and wrote the Poem 'I Cannot Be Present' in Stockholm, which articulates his discomfort at the distance between himself and the war in his native country.

As someone born and living in a safe country, my situation is of course much different. The world is burning and I refuse to look the other way. It's easy to do so with a roof over my head. My own discomfort led me to write poetry about war. My war is not his war. Ghayath and I decided to collaborate on a volume of poetry: his voice, my voice, my poems, his poems."

Line-up

Stefka

is the stage name of singer-songwriter Stephanie Ruijsenaars. Stefka studied classical voice and piano in Maastricht and theatre arts and Spanish in Amsterdam and Madrid. She first sang in Spanish. Inspired by the work of poets such as Pablo Neruda and Lorca, she wrote her own songs, which resulted in the 2005 album Del Recuerdo del Amor and the 2008 single-CD "Del Llanto". Later she switched to Dutch, in particular setting to music texts by Joke van Leeuwen, a writer whom she had researched during her studies. These songs are found on the album ...terwijl ik wachtte (While I Waited). She sings about being new to a city, about waiting, and about people she didn't get to know. She created the musical performance Eerst was er Thuis (First there Was Home) together with Syrian-Palestinian oud player Amer Shanati. Stefka frequently works with musicians from all corners of the world and appears regularly in theatre and on radio.
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Anne Vegter

(Delfzijl, NL, 1958) studied at the Akademie voor Expressie in Utrecht. With illustrator Geerten ten Bosch she created the children's book De dame en de neushoorn (The Lady and the Rhino, 1989), followed by her second children's book Verse Bekken! (Fresh Snouts) and poetic debut Het veerde (Something Bounced). She has also written prose, such as Ongekuiste versies (Unclear Versions) and Harrie's hoofdingang (Harrie's Main Entrance), and plays such as Struisvogels op de Coolsingel (Ostriches on the Coolsingel, 2005). She received the Anna Blaman Prize for her oeuvre. Vegter also published poetry: Aandelen en obligaties (Shares and Bonds, 2002) and Spamfighter (2007). From 2013 to 2017 she was the Dutch Poet Laureate; the work she created during that time is collected in Wat helpt is een wonder (What Helps is a Miracle, 2017). In spring of the same year, she published the joint poetry collection Ik hier jij daar (Me Here You There) with the Palestinian-Syrian poet Ghayath Almadhoun.
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Ghayath Almadhoun

(Damascus, 1979) published Weg van Damascus (Away from Damascus, 2015), a Dutch language collection of his poems that was for weeks in the top ten of best-selling poetry volumes, followed in 2017 by Ik hier jij daar (Me Here You There), a collection he wrote with poet Anne Vegter. Almadhoun was born in a Palestinian refugee camp, the son of a Palestinian father and a Syrian mother. He studied Arabic literature and worked as a cultural journalist in Damascus, where he also set up a house of poetry. In 2008 he asked for political asylum in Sweden. Two poetry collections were published there, one of them written with Marie Silkeberg, with whom he also created poetry films. His poetry is imbued with feelings of homesickness and the guilt of a young intellectual who left his native country. His work has been translated into many European languages as well as Chinese.
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Amer Shanati

(Syria) is a Palestinian-Syrian oud player, composer, bandleader and music professor. At the first refugee centre he landed in while seeking asylum, he distinguished himself as gifted musician. Since then, he has performed at the Concertgebouw and been heard on the radio. He lives in The Hague, where he founded The Hague Orchestra for Peace, in which musicians from various countries play music and new compositions with the aim of creating bonds. They see music as the perfect means of attaining peace, because people from differing cultures can easily reach one another with it. Shanati wants to expand his message with his Foundation Amer Music for Peace. He studied at the music institute in Homs, Syria, and at The Hague's conservatory. Together with Stefka (Stephanie Ruijsenaars) he created the poetic musical performance Eerst was er Thuis (First there Was Home), in which four musicians seek a lost home.
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Gerda Dendooven

(Kortrijk, Belgium, 1962) won the 2017 Woutertje Pieterse Prize for her picture book Stella. In it, a drowning person is fished out of the sea and taken in by a foster family. She has been teaching graphic design at the Hoger St.-Lucas Institute in Ghent since 1992. Dendooven is famous for and has won many awards for her children's book illustrations. She received the Gouden Penseel (Golden Brush) in 2000 for her work in De verliefde prins (The Prince in Love) by Ron Langenus. She also writes plays and children's books and illustrates adult books and newspaper columns.
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