Poets on Poets

During this program, poets interview each other about their poetic practice. In this special edition of Poets on Poets, they take the lead in the conversation which could end up, well, wherever they want it to. With pre-prepared prompts and unexpected connections, we hope to get to know these poets better outside of their stage presence and the words from their books. Our moderator Alicia Sort Leal will guide the conversation. Both deaf artist Hilde Verhelst and hearing artist Elfie Tromp, poet laureate of Rotterdam, will participate.

Alicia Sort Leal moves in different ways throughout the art world. To start off, she is the director of EL GLOBUS, an organization in Barcelona (Spain) that provides workshops and activities for children and families. In addition, she is the illustrator behind Tais, a deaf feminist character from Tais Illustration (Tais.illu). At our festival, Alicia will be one of our moderators, providing space for new insights during the conversations taking place.

Hilde Verhelst is a deaf teacher who herself is a native speaker of Flemish Sign Language. She has been teaching at a deaf school for many years. Besides teaching, she is also a writer, poet, actress, storyteller and VGT interpreter. Among other things, she tells stories through 't Gebarenhutje, the first Flemish app in sign language for toddlers. She also created a collection of verses in sign language called “Fifteen Fingers and One Head,” which was followed up with “Fifteen Fingers and Two Heads”. She has also written two children's books, Gebarentaal redt together with her brother Filip Verhelst in 2013, and the book Lula, which was published in 2019. The latter book she wrote together with a Walloon writer, Susan Sànchez. She also passionately translates existing Dutch-language children's books into Flemish Sign Language.