Antwerp was the first Flemish city to have a city poet. Since 2003, the Municipal Executive has appointed a city poet who wrote at least twelve poems. In total, Antwerp had ten poets who eventually held that literary position: Tom Lanoye, Ramsey Nasr, Bart Moeyaert, Joke van Leeuwen, Peter Holvoet-Hanssen, Bernard Dewulf, who died unexpectedly last week, Stijn Vranken, Maarten Inghels, Maud Vanhauwaert and seckou.

Some of their poems are still visible in the public space to this day. Think of the poem on the bottom of the London Bridge, against the scaffolding of the cathedral tower on the outer wall of theater house HetPaleis or near the Droogdokkenpark. When a piece of poetry threatens to disappear, it invariably triggers emotions. Remember Tom Lanoye’s poem on the Boerentoren and Peter Holvoet-Hanssen’s poem on the quay wall. But these urban poets also unexpectedly came up with poetry that has long been continued: a poem that was sown in the park and rose in the spring, the word ‘Macht’ that appeared in large, often inflatable letters on the Conscienceplein and swelled and was released again.

City Poetry 2.0

That tradition has now ceased to exist. Of in its current form anyway. “We are going for a 2.0 city poetry”, explains alderman Nabilla Ait Daoud. From 2022, the city will collaborate with a group of poets who will write city poems on commission. “Ant Boekenstad every year many requests from the city, districts, organizations and residents to write poems for occasions. There are also regular requests to praise poetry in public space,” said the aldermen. “In order to give more poets a chance to collaborate and to be able to focus more on new and diverse talent, we are now opting for a group of maximum five poets that the city can request.”

Poets can apply by e-mail. Deadline is Poetry Day on January 27. This pool will be renewed every two years.

lose freedom

Former culture alderman and councilor Caroline Bastiaens regrets the city’s decision and imagines the question of future future developments. “The city poets create a special dynamic in our city. During the two years she was given the time and space to give shape to the city poet, to feel what the Antwerp resident needed and to feel what was going on. That was the power of the city poet, it mattered something.”

“Naturally, all city poets work on commission and also write poems about the restoration of the cathedral, for example,” says Bastiaens. “There is nothing wrong with working, if there is also the freedom to implement the urban density yourself. I fear that the new poets lose some of that freedom. They will write about things the city brings. This is how you play the unexpected, the critical publication. And that is an essential part of the freedom that is inherent in art.”

Former city poet Maarten also hopes that future poets will retain a certain degree of autonomy. “Looking back on my period as a city poet, it was a fantastic opportunity to develop my own practices within the boundaries of the city. Your assignments, of course. For example, I wrote a poem on the occasion of the reopening of the Plantin-Moretus Museum. But I mainly started a lot myself around themes that I found interesting. I wanted to break into people’s daily lives with my poetry.”

Inghels did this, for example, by having a poem printed on fabric handkerchiefs. “I then put those handkerchiefs in a number of coat pockets during a theater performance, in the cloakroom”, he continues.

Also ten of Antwerp residents each have a line of poetry tattooed on him. These lines together form one poem. “I hope that that autonomy will be preserved, that the new city poetship will even be surprising and that it will not be seen as a way to city ​​marketing to do. But I also understand that concepts have to change. I have no opinion on the fact that a group ruling will be chosen.”

Ait Daoud that it will also allow the new poets to write what they want. “We are not going to hold their pen. The budgets also remain the same. We will indeed work with assignments, but when an idea sprouts within that group and the poet in question knocks on the door of Antwerp Book City, then those goals will be given to realize that urban poem.”