Who's Afraid of the Female Future?

An intimate program for poetry lovers, about the relationship between poetry, womanhood and dystopia.

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 June 2022 19:30 tot 20:45 uur
Location Paard Grote zaal
Price 29,50
15,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Dystopia and poetry - with Iman Mersal, Athena Farrokhzad, Ronelda S. Kamfer (online) and Widad Broco

Dystopia: we know it primarily as an imaginary society with various grim features. A terrifying image of the future, and a rewarding starting point for literature, where speculative stories and science fiction have long since claimed their place. Who's Afraid of the Female Future? was not about "typical" dystopian genres, but dealt with the relationship between dystopia and poetry. Because is poetry not the ideal genre in which socially critical ideas and dreamworlds find their place?

For women, daily reality can already feel dystopian. A grand, glamorous science-fiction tale is not necessary for a personal dystopia; poetry is the genre in which female poets feel at home. In this event you met Egyptian-Canadian poet Iman Mersal, Swedish-Iranian poet Athena Farrokhzad and South African poet Ronelda S. Kamfer (online). What is the relationship of these poets with "dystopia"? How do they imagine the future in their poetry? And is "the house" still a safe space in their dystopian-poetic world?

An intimate event for poetry aficionados, with music by poet/performer Widad Broco, the first female rap artist of the Arabic world, also known for her part in the internationally successful electro-urban music group N3rdistan. Poet and programmer Nisrine Mbarki, who put together this event, defines "dystopia" in the following way: "I see dystopian images of the world as critical images, as alarm signals of what we humans fear. Dystopian images deserve attention and space because they represent a critical voice and can shake us awake. They are a form of commentary on our current society, which is based on the liberal and capitalist system of prosperity, and therefore also the exploitation of people and the earth. We had better listen closely to such commentary."

English spoken.

Line-up

Iman Mersal

(Egypt, 1966) studied at Mansura University and was co-founder and editor of the feminist magazine Bint al-Ard (Daughter of the Earth). She is one of Arab world's most acclaimed contemporary writers and a professor of Arabian literature in Canada. These Are Not Oranges, My Love (2008), is a selection of her English-language poems; her poetry has also been translated into other languages. In How to Mend: On motherhood and its ghosts (2016) she tells a new story of motherhood, switching between diary fragments, readings and photos in order to question old and new conceptions of motherhood and the unconditional love, guilt, personal goals and traditional expectations that come with it. These stories show that we are greater than our individual experiences, sorrows, worries and fears, and that they are hardly unique. She published Home, New Arabic Poems in 2020.
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Athena Farrokhzad

(Iran, 1983) is a Swedish poet, playwright, translator, literary critic and feminist. Her family escaped Iran in the eighties. She is an important voice in Scandinavian societal debate. Her debut collection Vitsvit (2013) was an international success and translated into 12 languages (into English as White Blight). It gives a voice to several members of a refugee family and shows how themes such as migration, integration, racism, revolution and war influence their lives. Farrokhzad also published two anthologies, Manualen with Tova Gerrge and Ett tunt underlag with the poetry group G=T=B=R=G, both in 2009. She was editor of the queer poetry collection Omslag with Linn Hansén and organized literary events such as Queerlitt, Demafor and World Poetry Day. The collection Trado, which she wrote with the Romanian poet Svetlana Cârstean, was published in 2016, followed by the collection I rörelse in 2019. She is also the literary critic of the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.
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Ronelda S. Kamfer

(South Africa, 1981) is one of today's most important South African authors. She writes in Cape-Afrikaans, a spoken language containing English words and slang. Her work has been translated into Dutch, French, Greek, Italian and English. Her first poetry collection Noudat Slapende Honde (Now Then Sleeping Dogs, 2008) paints a sharp picture of poverty. Santekraam (2012) contains stories in verse about a fishing village that must make way for a military site. Mammie (2017) is a loving as well as raw ode to her mother. Chinatown (2021) is typically hard-hitting. Kamfer's poems, as controlled as they are intimate and darkly humourous, tackle violence, the position of women, love and parenthood. Her first novel, Kompoun, was published in 2021. She compiled Die maan is swart (The Moon is Black, 2022), a collection of poetry by Adam Small, and has translated two of Kirsty Applebaum's Princess Minna children's books into Afrikaans.
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Widad Broco

(1983) was born in Morocco and has lived in the the city of Perpignan in the south of France since 2002. Together with Walid Ben Salim she forms the special musical duo N3rdistan. Inspired by everything from (ancient) Arabic poetry to Massive Attack and Portishead, this republic of nerds offers a wonderful mix of sometimes unsettling texts in English and Arabic, rap, electro, mysterious song and compelling rythms. She is seen as one of the first femal Arabic rappers. These pioneers of Moroccan hiphop and alternative music have performed in Morocco, France, Lebanon, Cape Verde, Dubai, Canada and Estonia. The first eponymous album appeared in 2019.
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Canan Marasligil

(1979) is a writer, literary translator, publisher, podcast maker and curator. She works in English, French, Turkish, Dutch and sometimes Spanish, in the Netherlands and abroad. She has translated works by, among others, the Kurdish poet Bejan Matur and the Turkish author Perihan Mağden. Canan is committed to greater diversity in the arts and is interested in challenging official discourse and fighting for free speech worldwide, through a range of creative projects and activities, from literature to films and comics.
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