Mahat Arab (born 1996) is the winner of the second edition of ILFU's Storytelling Competition. He won with a spoken word recording titled 'Part-time fathers'. During festival day Exploring Stories, he received the grand prize of five thousand euros, from the hands of ILFU's organisation. More than 700 people participated in the ILFU Stories Competition; 723 stories were entered in five categories. Apart from Mahat Arab, the grand prize winner, there were five more winners in the categories of image, audio/music, prose, prose, poetry and spoken word.
Mahat Arab (1996) submitted a spoken word recording titled Part-time fathers. The jury praised Part-time fathers for its raw narrative voice, integrity and vulnerability. "It is personal and universal, urgent and social. It moved us despite not being technically perfect. It is not always technical perfection that touches our hearts. Mahat's story shows us what every storyteller should dare to do. Integrity over irony, vulnerability over morality. This voice should be heard by all." This year, the jury consisted of actor, rapper and writer Rashif El Kaoui, actress Maryam Hassouni, presenter, journalist and debut author Milouska Meulens, poet and performer Maud Vanhauwaert and director and writer Michael Middelkoop.
Listen to the winning story of the ILFU Storytelling Competition 2021 here:
Five categories
Mahat Arab is a poet and writer and wrote a poem about the experience of his Somali father, with whom he could never talk about his family history. "I think this is a good time for my father to read it too," Arab said on stage during the award ceremony. Arab wins the grand prize (€5000) but is not the only winner of the Story Contest. The contest was open for entries in five categories: image, audio/music, prose, prose, poetry and spoken word. Five entries were nominated from each category, which made up that top 25. The judges then chose the following five category winners, who will each take home €1000:
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Category Audio/Music
Me - Danielle van den Dorpel
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Category Image
The Battle Within - Angelique Rijnsburger
https://vimeo.com/598139926/b4759317c3
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Prose category
Securing the house - Nelson Morus
https://verhalenwedstrijd.ilfu.com/site/2/upload/Tekst_Het%20huis%20beveiligen_251.pdf
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Poetry category
Lift - Tamara de Rijk
https://verhalenwedstrijd.ilfu.com/site/2/upload/Poezie_Lift_.pdf
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Spoken Word category
Non mea culpa - Martje Wijers
https:/vimeo.com/598462288
About the ILFU Storytelling Competition 2021
The ILFU Storytelling Competition was organised for the second time this year. It is the Netherlands' first interdisciplinary storytelling competition, in which storytellers of truly all genres can participate. The theme this year was What Matters, matching ILFU 2021's overarching festival theme: Why Fiction Matters. On the festival day Exploring Stories, where authors such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Roxane Gay, Alfred Birney and Edouard Louis made their appearance, the winner of the Stories 2021 competition was announced. Winner Mahat Arab succeeds Lemuël de Graav, who won the contest last year with his poetic short film I hate poetry.
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ILFU 2021: Why Fiction Matters
Taking place in Utrecht from 23 September to 2 October, ILFU's theme is Why Fiction Matters. Utrecht has been a UNESCO City of Literature since 2017. The ILFU opens Thursday evening 23 September with the Belle van Zuylen lecture and ends with the Night of Poetry. In between, there are numerous programmes: from the YALFU (young adult) to Book Talks with Édouard Louis and Max Porter, among others; from the Storytelling Competition to the Maya Angelou film programme and Who We Are programmes on Moroccan literature; and the not-to-be-missed festival day Exploring Stories.
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