Poets are the stars in blistering #Night17 (why edition 35 was the best)

Don't let the numbers fool you. Sales figures and print runs of poetry collections say absolutely nothing about the popularity of poetry in the Netherlands. This is evident not only from research. You can also just infer it from the fact that there is a Night of Poetry in the Netherlands.

So Saturday 16 September saw this phenomenon turn 35. Of the recent editions in the new TivoliVredenburg, this was also the best. The organisers were able to sell out the hall without having to rely on very big names in music. The poets were already appealing enough. How did that turn out? Whereas in previous editions certainly some of the audience often left remarkably quickly after the surprise act's performance, this time the stands of Hertzberger's arena remained filled until and including the last poet's performance, Vicky Francken.

Greed

That the mega-tight keigave brass band Gallowstreet only programmed at the last minute, just before Vicky Francken, no one knew in advance: the order of the performers is, as always, The Night's best-kept secret. Gallowstreet was one of the unexpected musical highlights though, after earlier the Jussen brothers had wowed the audience with their interpretation of Ravel's La Valse. And then we had Karsu still to come. This delightful mix of Turkish roots, Amsterdam upbringing and American schooling put the audience against the wall around one. What a throat and what eagerness there is in that person.

But that was not what it was all about, during Night Number 35, because the poets were really the stars this time. Not to mention our eternal just-not-noble prize winner Cees Nooteboom. Indeed, his lacklustre performance made it particularly noticeable how readable his poems were. On a stage, they kind of fall by the wayside. How different it was with the work of Astrid Lampe. This Utrecht-based poet has been writing totally incomprehensible and abstract work for years, which invariably does great on stage. She is trained as an actress, which will help. At least at her performance, the audience loosened up, people laughed and applauded in between.

Women strongest

Stage presence is less and less of a dirty word in poetry land. There will still be literary poets who rate the work written and read in isolation much higher than the work recited. During the Night, however, it became clear once again that they are no longer apart in depth and eloquence.

Dimitri Verhulst, Frank Koenegracht, Bart Moeyaert are beyond any doubt, but it was mainly the women who got the audience off their seats. Apart from Astrid Lampe, the audience also went wild for Antjie Krog, and people stood on the seats in front of Neeltje Maria Min. Slam champion Carmien Michels pulled the audience through the wee hours with work that not only had solid content, but was convincing in recitation, especially when she displayed the bravado of the slampoetry left behind.

Writing course

Big surprise was Simone Atangana Bekono. Very young still, freshly graduated from the Arnhem writing school, she showed absolute promise with an impressive poem on refugees and guilt. She was co-trained by Astrid Lampe, I heard in the corridors. It is nice that we not only have writing courses at HBO level, it is even nicer that these courses also pay so much attention to presentation. because, we should really shout it from the rooftops now: poetry needs to be heard.