Flemish and Dutch poetry event

This 2010 video is about Flemish poetess Sylvie Marie rading her poem Kabouter Wesley.

On Sunday 4 November, Flemish and Dutch poets read their poetry in a pub full of people in Leiden, the Netherlands.

First on stage: Gideon Roggeveen’s poetry.

The poems were about love, rain, wind and shark fin soup.

Upperfloor was supposed to come now. But she had not arrived yet. So, Marijn Baas read his poems, on atoms and clocks.

Then, Roel Weerheijm, about a terrace.

After Roel, from Flanders, Xavier Roelens.

This is a Xavier Roelens poetry video.

This time, his poems were about Apple computers, a traffic accident, and the sun.

Then came Rian Evers, vocals and guitar.

This is a Rian Evers music video.

She sang this time self-written songs and Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right, by Bob Dylan (with “boy” substituted for the “gal” in Dylan’s lyrics).

From Flanders, more precisely from Gent, came David Troch.

This is a video of David Troch reading poems.

This time, he read a poem on the death of his grandfather.

During a pause, I saw, from Rotterdam: Upperfloor, visual artist and poetess. She had arrived after all. This time her hair was shorter than last time I saw her. Contrary to David Troch, whose hair had grown.

After the pause, first Flemish poetess Sylvie Marie. Her poems were about love and about cars. An unusual subject, she said, as many poets don’t have a driving licence. But editors of a literary magazine had said it would the subject for the next issue, and after some time, she had made something fitting that theme.

After Sylvie Marie, Upperfloor.

This is a video of Upperfloor reading poems in Rotterdam.

This time, her first poem was on Belgrade after NATO had bombed it in 1999. It reminded her a bit of her own Rotterdam, bombed by Hitler’s Luftwaffe in 1940.

Her second poem was on Internet dating.

After Upperfloor, poetess Tessa van Breeden.

Then, Dorit van Amsterdam, the youngest poet in the Netherlands, eight years old. She read from her booklet De Grommetjes, about small, mysterious beings. She got the most applause of the whole afternoon.

Dorit’s dog and her younger sister were present.

Then, stand up comedy by Björn Ciggaar.

Finally, Dorit’s mother Nathalie van Amsterdam, a doctor. She sang a song about male circumcision, while Gitta Petri played accordion.

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