Next Friday, 21 November, the 11th edition of Explore the North Festival kicks off in Leeuwarden. The festival shows how literature in its many forms is increasingly taking its place on stage and how writers are broadening their field of work. Explore the North is brimming with premieres, previews, try-outs and work-in-progress presentations and is thus the starting point of many new developments within the literary performing arts. In part, the projects within the festival emerged from Explore the North's own development institution.
Also on stage with Édouard Louis in collaboration with ILFU is one of the most influential literary writers for contemporary theatre, and he will be interviewed by Raoul de Jong and Hans Kesting and Minne Koole will perform solos based on his work.
Finally, the Flemish and Dutch sectors will come together at Explore the North to discuss literature on stage and working in collectives at the mini-conference De Collectieve Verbeelding.
Premieres and previews
During Explore the North, premieres can be seen in many forms. For example, the interactive audio installation Flood the zone with shit by Pauline Augustyn & Veerle Van Overloop (a co-production of Oorzaken, deBuren, Explore the North and ShELFISH) to be seen for the first time as well as the poetic concert with 16-piece drum band by Arnold de Boer of Zea (accompanying his amazing new and already much acclaimed album and book In lichem fol promises).
The three young writers of the collective Drie dagen fris give an ode to the work of Flemish writer Virginie Loveling (1836-1923) and writer and theatre-maker Johannes Lievens performs the Dutch premiere of his solo Only a Miracle which was a great success at the Summer of Antwerp last summer.
The festival will open with the performance with one of the first screenings of Prove we once were a rock, the new spoken word performance by voice of her generation Danielle Zawadi.
There will also be previews of the work of literary creators such as Nicole van den Berg, Teletext, Esmé van den Boom and Joost Oomen & Kruidkoek.
Also appearing during the festival is a reissue of the poetry collection Reade Runes (Red Runes) from 1959 by the pioneering Frisian poet Ella Wassenaer, whose work has been rediscovered by four young northern and Flemish writers. The volume features for the first time a Dutch translation (by Zindzi Tillot Owusu) essays and literary reflections on this important but forgotten work.
Much more programme
Explore the North festival also presents (literary) theatre and music in many forms. Its own acclaimed theatre production (4**** in Volkskrant, NRC and Trouw), Ghosts by The Poezieboys, Joost Oomen and Explore the North takes centre stage in the festival as do productions by Company Marte Boneschansker, Elvis de Launay, URLAND and Funny Bergman.
On the music front, Grammy-nominated ‘blues poet’ aja monet will come to Leeuwarden and top Dutch musicians Naaz, LUWTEN and Pitou will join each other on the Grote Kerk stage.
About Explore the North
Explore the North's festival weekend is a three-day exploration full of stories in many forms. At beautiful locations in Leeuwarden's historic city centre, musicians, theatre-makers, writers and poets take visitors on a journey of quirky stories, performances, concerts and more. This happens in places with a history. In Podium Explore for instance, but also in churches, an old prison, a grocery shop and more. Artists explore for this festival edition themed Hope among the rubble together with visitors where beauty and love can be found in a growling world.
