Poets and poets, Drenthe knows them. But a platform for poets, that died during corona. Not in beauty, but in silence. That silence is broken at the end of January, when the poet’s stage Het Hooge Woord returns in Hoogeveen.
“We don’t have anything like that here. Literature evenings for poetry, stories and music, for creative minds of the spoken word, we no longer have that. You have to go to Zwolle for that,” says poet Jurriën Bodaan, who, together with Bart van der Vinne and Delia Bremer has breathed new life into the poets’ platform.
“We also want something like this in this region, because we have the feeling that it is alive. I had to look for it myself recently. This platform makes it easier for creative people to find each other.”
The poet’s platform Het Hooge Woord was created in September 2020. At the time, Delia Bremer was the founder of this oasis for lovers of poetry and music. Both experienced poets and newcomers were welcome. But during corona, Het Hooge Woord was lost. Bodaan: “Physical meetings were no longer possible due to the lockdown, so the initiative disappeared. In the spring we knocked on the library’s door again for a literary evening. That’s where the ball started rolling.”
The initiators’ aim is to give a group of creative minds space every month. Not in the library, as before, but every fourth Thursday evening of the month between 8:00 PM and 10:00 PM in Het Podium.
“The Podium gives the feeling of a brown café, very cozy,” says Bodaan. And that is exactly what the platform wants to be. “We are an accessible platform where everyone is welcome. We hope for many young talents. It is a place where poets and artists can make themselves heard and the public is also very welcome.”
Secretly, Bodaan is already dreaming further. “We want the community to grow into a platform where artistic minds can give free rein to their creativity. And if we have a nice club, we could perhaps be guests at a larger location or perhaps go on tour. In Hoogeveen, in Drenthe or perhaps even throughout the Netherlands.
The first open evening of poet platform Het Hooge Woord is on Thursday, January 25 in Het Podium.