Searching for the soul of the city
CityPoem 40 - Antwerp (5)
By Hans Karssenberg
27-03-2007 /views: 1204 in past 12 months.
A poem about being a stranger living in Antwerp. Put on 30,000 door hangers and spread all over Antwerp.
Part of the Antwerp CityPoem programme, and written by the Antwerp CityPoet Bart Moeyaert. The third of 7 Antwerp CityPoems this week, ending in an in-depth interview with the people behind the Antwerp programme.
Antwerp CityPoem: Nieuwstad 14, Bart Moeyaert
Bart Moeyaert’s debut as Antwerp CityPoet was Nieuwstad 14. Bart Moeyaert: “My first CityPoem Nieuwstad 14 is on a door hanger in six languages: Hebrew, General Arabic, French, English, Polish and Dutch. A door hanger is usually seen in hotels, and then it says ‘do not disturb’, or ‘clean please’. This is how the door hanger was meant. The poem asks to be allowed inside. A poem can clean your thoughts, because all of a sudden, it gives you a new insight.”
Twenty years ago, Nieuwstad 14 was Moeyaert’s first address in Antwerp. Actually, Nieuwstad is a row of houses next to the theatre square and the city theatre.
Moeyaert: “For me, the address itself was already important: Antwerp was my new city, and my street (Nieuwstad is Dutch for New Town) appeared to agree.”
The poem with Moeyaert’s personal experiences was written against the context of a city struggling with the right wing extreme party Vlaams Belang attracting many voters. Antwerp houses 165 nationalities.
The poem was printed on 30,000 door hangers by the local newspaper Gazet van Antwerpen, and spread all over the city by volunteers.
Nieuwstad 14
I was a guest who stayed too long and sounded different,
but went quite nicely with the room. Not unlike
a floor lamp that eventually received the key.
I was not unsociable, and surrounding me
the table was less empty. But still no one refrained
from sometimes pointing to my tongue, my ground.
Then unexpectedly they called me other,
sent me packing, when I'd just begun
to grow accustomed to the air and thinking
that I'd won a heart as well. But nothing could be
further from the truth. From time to time
my chair was looked at, sounding out if I
had started to take root. I didn't speak and thought
the screeching of the gulls an ill portent. What was it
that I sat inside and yet still stood outside.
> Podcast of ‘Nieuwstad 14’ by Bart Moeyaert on the Stadsdichterpodcast.be (in Dutch)
About the author
Bart Moeyaert (Brugge, 1964) is a Flemish writer. He first lived in Brugge, then in Brussels, and in 1987 moved to Antwerp. There, in 2006, he became the Antwerp CityPoet for two years time.
Whereas his CityPoems are all related to Antwerp (‘Woman and Child’ on tragic murders, ‘Choose’ on the 2006 elections, ‘First Readers’ on the Book Fair, ‘Light House’ on the Antwerp icon building Boerentoren), in his other poems the central theme usually is love. Physical, emotional, love for a partner, a brother, a subject, in short, life.
Very important in Moeyaert’s poems is his lust for life and the lust for writing. He is pure and driven, honest and real. Characteristic to his poetry, he frequently uses enjambments.
Original text in Dutch
NIEUWSTAD 14
Ik was bezoek dat langer bleef en anders sprak,
maar ik misstond niet in de kamer. Een beetje
als een schemerlamp die op den duur de sleutel kreeg.
Ik deed niet ongezellig, en in mijn buurt was het
aan tafel minder leeg. Maar nog liet niemand na
mij af en toe te wijzen op mijn tong, mijn grond.
Dan noemden ze mij onverwacht weer anderman
en zonden mij naar huis, terwijl ik juist begon
te wennen aan de lucht en onderhand ook dacht
dat ik een hart veroverd had. Maar niets was
minder waar dan dat. Op tijd en stond werd
naar mijn stoel gekeken, gepolst of ik al wortel
schoot. Ik hield mijn mond en vond het krassen
van de meeuwen geen goed teken. Hoe kwam
het dat ik binnen zat en tegelijk nog buiten stond.
See also:
- Antwerp (1) - Boerentoren in love
- Antwerp (2) - on the river Schelde
- Antwerp (3) - Nasr on poverty
- Antwerp (4) - on 500,000 beer mats
- Antwerp (5) - on 30,000 door hangers
- Antwerp (6) - UtopiA
- Antwerp (7) - ZOO
- Antwerp (8) - train station
- Antwerp (9) - soul of Antwerp
And check the presentation of Michaël Vandebril of the City of Antwerp who is behind these projects on the Inspiring Cities CityPoems & CityPoets Salon of 2006, including video presentation about the projects of Antwerp.
Inspiring Cities Museum of CityPoems
Inspiring Cities has collected many citypoems over the years, as well as organized salons with citypoets and cities doing special projects. We have two criteria for what a citypoem is: the intention must be poetic, and it must be in the public realm of cities. Shapes, form and locations can and do differ.
The Museum of CityPoems has citypoems from cities all over the world. From Alhambra to Zonnebeke, from Taipei to Lima.
Got one yourself? Mail us your pictures (free of rights) and description, and we will publish.
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