WWZ x Winternachten Festival 2022

Performers, Poetry & Punchlines - the best spoken word artists and poets of the moment all together on one stage!

Information

Date and time Thursday 16 June 2022 21:00 tot 22:15 uur
Location Paard Grote zaal
Price 29,50
15,- (CJP, Students, Ooievaarspas)

Yippee, WWZ was back at Winternachten! We ordered a drink and got carried away by today's top spoken-word artists and poets.

WWZ is a popular platform for authors, spoken-word artists and musicians that has, with energy and a deep love of language, staged the most beautiful performances and loveliest music for sold-out venues for many years. During Winternachten we joined forces with WWZ and PAARD. Besides Dutch poets and spoken-word artists, international festival authors let their voices be heard at WWZ x Winternachten  Festival 2022 in an extra-long, high-profile program. Good vibes guaranteed!

Line-up
During this event you saw and heard performers such as: WWZ-founder and spoken-word artist Elten Kiene, writer and musician Aafke Romeijn, poet Derek Otte, spoken-word artists Kelvin Allison and Amara van der Elst, poet (and former Amsterdam poet laureate) Gershwin Bonevacia, poet Ellen Deckwitz, and Iranian-Swedish poet Athena Farrokhzad.

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.
20211115133130 2

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.
20211103105315 1

Aafke Romeijn

(Netherlands, 1986) is a successful musician, author and journalist. She debuted as a novelist with Concept M (2018). This well-received sci-fi novel takes place in the Netherlands in 2020. A young woman makes sense in a surprising way of her condition of colourlessness, a chronic disease that has grown to epidemic proportions in Europe. She radicalizes and ends up in an organization that carries out attacks. Romeijn has performed as a pop-music artist at festivals such as Lowlands and Noorderslag. With her beats, razor-sharp lyrics and analog synthesizers, she's the uncrowned queen of Dutch-language electropop. Her album M, the soundtrack to her novel and her first self-produced record, was released in 2019, followed in 2020 by her debut poetry collection Leegstand (Vacancy). In 2021 she released the album Godzilla and published 7B, another sci-fi novel set in the year 2040 in Groningen, where military personnel train in a huge complex for a war over natural resources.
20211101112808 1

Amara van der Elst

(Netherlands, 2001) is a spoken word artist, lives in Rotterdam but her home is the stage. Amara heals, connects and broadens, through words, rhythm and movement. She brings fire to stages throughout the Netherlands and abroad. The Netherlands has already seen her shine twice on national TV where, among other things, she impressed with a performance on Remembrancy on Amsterdam's Dam Square. She runs her own spoken word writers' camp called Rhyme & Reason, holds the title of Education Innovation Talent of the Year and studies Creative writing at ArtEZ Hogeschool voor de Kunsten.
20221219095720 2

Gershwin Bonevacia

(The Netherlands, 1992) is a poet, writer and performer. In 2017 he self-published his poetry debut Ik heb een fiets gekocht (I Bought a Bike) and sold more than 6,000 copies "out of his suitcase." As poet laureate of Amsterdam he wrote one poem per month for newspaper publication between 2019 and 2022. Bonevacia managed to make good use of his dyslexia: wrestling with words turned him into an inventive word artist, and a popular guest on cultural programs. In 2021 he translated the children's book Change Sings by U.S. spoken-word artist Amanda Gorman into Dutch and published the poetry collection Toen ik klein was, was ik niet bang (I Wasn't Scared When I Was Young). The latter is an ode to his young fearless self and an attempt to incorporate that person again. In 2023, Bonevacia  appears on stage in Terug naar Prinsenplein (Back to Prinsenplein).
20231102095354 2

Derek Otte

(Netherlands, 1988) is known for his poetic skills, verses, stories, metaphors and spoken word. He writes "wrap-ups" on demand, writing live at events to bring them to a close in rhyme. Otte has published two collections of poetry: Regelgeving (Regulations, 2015) and TOFLOF (2017). He teaches spoken word at the Rotterdam art school (which he himself left prematurely), was the 2017-18 poet laureate of Rotterdam, and founded the Rorschach publishing house for young and controversial talent. His work is characterized by a combination of accessibility and layering. Major themes are love that doesn't quite work out and the ins and outs of the big city. Incisiveness, openness and humor alternate at high tempo.
20181112151710 1

Kelvin Allison

Songwriter and artist, always eager to create synergy and intense experiences with his music. Celebrating joy and sadness together, through harmony, rhytm, songs and melody, that is what Kelvin Allison wants you to experience during his performance.
20220517110654 1

Ellen Deckwitz

(The Netherlands, 1982) is a poet, columnist, critic and presenter at literary events, including Writers Unlimited. For De steen vreest mij (2011), she was awarded the C. Buddingh’ Prize for the best poetry debut. Her collection Hogere natuurkunde (2019) is part travelogue, part myth and part testimony, and the outcome of conversations Deckwitz engaged in with individuals whose roots also trace back to the former Dutch East Indies. In 2022, Eerste hulp bij poëzie was published, an omnibus containing her collections Olijven moet je leren lezen (2020) and Dit gaat niet over grasmaaien (2021). Deckwitz writes columns for national daily newspaper NRC. In her NPO Luister podcast Poëzie vandaag, she presents a Dutch or translated poem every workday morning. She is one of three critics of podcast Boeken FM. Since Autumn 2025, she has been one of the presenters of Nooit meer Slapen, the VPRO's night-time cultural radio programme.

Instagram: @la_deck
20240926100101 2

Discover

20 May 2026

Get your 2027 tickets!

Get your Early Bird tickets for the big festival nights, Friday & Saturday Night Unlimited!