CAPTIVATING POETIC JOURNEY OF LITERARY PERFORMANCES AROUND PHYSICALITY
Four unique performers explore the boundaries of language. They question what a body is, how body and language relate to each other, and whether there is a difference between masculinity and femininity. They bring powerful literary texts to the stage in a spectacular way. This program is for people who love to read but haven’t picked up a book in weeks (months?) because they haven’t had the time. For literature lovers who don’t feel at home at literary evenings in a bookstore. For artistic souls who love poetry but find poetry collections expensive and inaccessible.
Dean Bowen (1984) is a poet, performer, and program maker. His work focuses on the dynamics of composite identity and how it relates to the political and social positioning of the individual. His debut collection, Bokman (2018), has been described as lyrical, impassioned, and angry; a personal quest that reveals universal patterns and gives voice to many perspectives. Bokman was published in Italian translation in 2021. In 2020, the chapbook Ik vond geen spoken in Achtmaal was published. It is an intimate exploration of what remains of a person after they have died. In this publication, which was created in collaboration with the literary festival Tilt and the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds – Noord-Brabant, Bowen seeks a way to relate to activist and poet Henriette Roland Holst. For this, he stayed at Roland Holst’s former estate on the Oude Buisse Heide in her former country house.
Moni Zwitserloot is a writer, performer, organizer, and activist. Themes in their work include loneliness, physicality, transformation, and community. The worlds they create/explore contain queer, gore, and magical realistic elements, as well as fungi/decaying things and bodies taken over by nature. Current projects (selection): developing a guided meditation in poetic form, performance as a drag clown, poetry series “The Lonely City,” Queer Open Mic, and Queer Poetry Course in Nijmegen. Moni is in a development program with Wintertuin.
Lena Plantinga (1999) wanted to become both Carice van Houten and Carry Slee as a child. In 2023, she graduated in Writing for Performance, and since then she has been a playwright and (stage) poet, embodying a bit of Carice and a bit of Carry. She wrote plays for Theaterfestival Karavaan, Theatergroep Playback, and Theaterstraat. Her prose, poetry, and essays have appeared in Hard//Hoofd, Het Liegend Konijn, De Optimist, and on stages such as Theater Bellevue, Mensen Zeggen Dingen, and Dichters in de Prinsentuin. She prefers to write about female characters who are loving and dangerous. Under the wings of the Slow Writing Lab development program, she is working on her debut novel about fear, grief, and femininity, guided by an old fisherman’s tale.
Terra van Dorst (2001) is an artist with a focus on language. She writes poetry and essayistic texts and combines these in various ways with visual and audio elements. Her work addresses femininity, physicality, and the sea. The boundaries between different disciplines are fluid in her work. She collaborates within collectives and with various artists, musicians, and writers. For her graduation, she wrote a collection titled “In My Dream I Exist in Pixels” and recently published with Hard//Hoofd and Het Moet.
This evening has emerged from an open call by ‘EKKO Te Koop,’ where we make space for new initiatives in our venue.
