Poetry International x Codarts: Poetic Compositions

In this new collaboration Poetry International connects three Codarts music students to three international poets. Based on the poets' work, the students compose a new and experimental piece of music. On Sunday we witness Manish Lama’s (NPL) presentation based on the work of poet Jean D’Amérique (HTI). 

Jean D’Amérique

Jean D’Amérique is a Haitian-born, Paris-based poet, playwright, rapper and novelist.  

Already with his first poetry collection Petite fleur du ghetto (2015) he caught the attention of the literary world, receiving a special mention from the Prix René Philoctète de la poésie and the Prix Révélation Poésie by the Société des Gens de Lettres. D’Amérique continued this success with his second publication No Way in The Skin Without this Bloody Embrace (2017), winning the Prix de Poésie de la Vocation. After collaborating with the collective Loque Urbaine in setting up the Transe Poétique international festival based in Port-au-Prince in 2019, he published his first novel Soleil à coudre (2021; A Sun to Be Sewn, 2023) for which is he is awarded the Prix Montluc Résistance et Liberté.  

Not afraid to look away from the violence of reality, Jean D’Amérique experiments with new poetic forms and a range of media. He explores political violence and the lives of the marginalized. His intense style is bathed in violence, with the poet himself describing his poetry as created in the red puddle, while also aiming to heal wounds and exorcise pain through his poetry.  

D’Amérique is also a playwright, having received the Jacques Scherer Prize for Theater for his play Opéra poussière (2022). He contributes to several literary magazines, leads writing workshops and released his first rap album Mélancolie Gang in 2023.  

Manish Lama

Manish Lama is a composer, guitarist, arranger, and music educator with a diverse musical palette. His interests span contemporary jazz, new music, electronic music, and hip-hop production, alongside musical traditions from his home country, Nepal. He is currently studying composition at Codarts under the guidance of S’yo Fang and René Uijlenhoet and many other teachers. In addition to leading his own projects featuring original music, Lama works as a hip-hop producer. He has collaborated on several interdisciplinary projects, including performances with dancers