Culture alderman Ait Daoud (N-VA) about the restart of Antwerp city poets: “Good” | Antwerp
Last fall, city poet Ruth Lasters quit. The reason was the weighting of her poem ‘Ransom’ by the city council. Not much later, the remaining city poets also gave up. On Monday it will be known that most poets will pick up the thread again. Without the support of the city, this time. Every month they will write a topical poem in ‘De Standaard’ and bring poetry – as in the past – to the Antwerp space.
“Good,” alderman Ait Daoud responds to the restart tonight. “They have not yet been written out and they are given a new platform: their poems related to current political events are published simultaneously in a newspaper every month. In any case, it has the advantage of clarity. The city poetship is therefore organized externally and therefore determined externally. That is a sign of free initiative and cultural entrepreneurship.”
New grant
Ait Daoud reiterates that the city poets speak or write in their own name. “No longer on behalf of the whole city, not in the name of every inhabitant of Antwerp. That story, as you know, was finally closed when the poets themselves were disbanded as city poets. The poets received subsidies from the city to write poems: they removed them in November, but I understand that now – even before the first poem has been written – they are already applying for a new subsidy from Literatuur Vlaanderen for their poetry, and also I applaud that.”
“As a city, we have to watch our money, but I wish them every success with the Flemish subsidy application and in what they do. No rancor, as far as I’m concerned. There is always room for literature in Antwerp, including politically charged poetry. That will not be different in the future, although it will no longer be done under the wings of the city, no longer in the name of every inhabitant of Antwerp.”
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