KVS

RISE UP: POETIC MEMORIAL 2020

Gioia Kayaga / KVS
Sat 21.03.2020 18:00
KVS, Brussels
KVS BRAZZA
21.03.2020
18:00
Past event

The interactive poetry project Rise Up started out with a question in the lead-up to the first anniversary of the Brussels terrorist attacks: can poetry play a part in discussing what has happened, and in healing together? It became a story of many layers, that we gladly keep writing year on year. Poem by poem we are building a Poetic Memorial in which a multitude of voices resound. Poetry – simultaneously vulnerable and powerful – as a means of dialogue between people who inhabit the same city, but seldom come into true contact with one another.

Rise Up stands for the city’s resilience, strengthened by encounters. After a trajectory of pre-workshops in various neighbourhoods, organisations and associations, participants from all sorts of backgrounds unite for a weekend-long multilingual poetry workshop, led this year by slam poetess Gioia Kayaga. The results of the workshops can be witnessed on 21 March in the intimate setting of our Brazza-bar.

Gioia Kayaga – aka Joy – might be a familiar face for KVS audiences after We Orchestrate Words (with the Brussels Jazz Orchestra) or SLOW#04 (with Rojo Cordova). The slam poet has had a fulfilling career thus far. In her creation Tram 25 she follows the tracks that connect trendy Elsene with the workingclass neighbourhoods of Schaerbeek, outlining the human mosaic of the city without overlooking beauty or hidden vices. In March 2019 she dropped the album L’art de la joie. Gioia is also the driving force behind Slameke, an organisation that produces open mics throughout Brussels.

© Tom Bruelemans

Credits

WORKSHOPS / ATELIERS Gioia Kayaga CONCEPT & DRAMATURGIE / CONCEPT & DRAMATURGY Kristin Rogghe PROJECTONTWIKKELING / DÉVELOPPEMENT DE PROJET / PROJECT DEVELOPMENT Sukina Douglas, Hajar Ibnouthen PUBLIEKSWERKING / MÉDIATION CULTURELLE / CULTURAL MEDIATION Delphine Somers PRODUCTIE / PRODUCTION KVS