In February, Rotterdam welcomed a new youth Poet Laureate: 19-year-old Oumaima Yahiaoui.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the Poetry International Festival, she curates a performance on the festival stage. Because she prefers to share the stage and give visibility to young talent, this program is centered around a \u201cchain performance.\u201d The poets respond to the theme \u201cin my neighborhood\u201d and to each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The performances are enhanced by Rotterdam visuals from city illustrator Christine Saalfeld. The showcase is presented by Jennifer Muntslag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Anissa El Mazouzi\u2019s work moves between observation and emotion, between the personal and the collective. Holding her heart up as a mirror, she gives shape to her words, and prefers to bring them out loud, unfiltered.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Anissa El Mazouzi","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"anissa-el-mazouzi","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-05-28 09:02:55","post_modified_gmt":"2026-05-28 08:02:55","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/?post_type=poet&p=2432","menu_order":115,"post_type":"poet","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2169,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2026-04-14 12:13:58","post_date_gmt":"2026-04-14 11:13:58","post_content":"\n
Oumaima Yahiaoui (19) has been Rotterdam\u2019s Youth Poet Laureate since February 2026, the city where she was born and raised. Since her appointment, she has written two poems in collaboration with city poet Benzokarim: \u2018In die Glittering\u2019 and \u2018Wisselen\u2019. In April 2026, she also published a correspondence with Martijn Simons in his book Beste meneer Simons<\/em>. Themes of autonomy and growing up are central to her work, as she explores what freedom looks like and what it means when a changing sense of self begins to rub against everything around it.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Oumaima Yahiaoui (NLD)","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"oumaima-yahiaoui-nld","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-05-28 09:01:12","post_modified_gmt":"2026-05-28 08:01:12","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/?post_type=poet&p=2169","menu_order":93,"post_type":"poet","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},{"ID":2783,"post_author":"1","post_date":"2026-05-26 10:12:10","post_date_gmt":"2026-05-26 09:12:10","post_content":"\n Lelie Danesh (2003) writes, among other things. She lives and works in Rotterdam. Her work has previously appeared on Samplekanon, De Internet Gids, and in Tirade<\/em>, and has been presented at festivals and venues such as Dichters in de Prinsentuin and the Dichtersmarathon at Perdu.<\/p>\n","post_title":"Lelie Danesh","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"lelie-danesh","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-05-28 09:05:54","post_modified_gmt":"2026-05-28 08:05:54","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/?post_type=poet&p=2783","menu_order":120,"post_type":"poet","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}]},"hosts":"","hosts_source":{"label":"Hosts","type":"relationship","formatted_value":""},"day":"sunday","day_source":{"label":"Dag","type":"select","formatted_value":"Zondag"},"doors_open":"","doors_open_source":{"label":"Deuren open","type":"time_picker","formatted_value":""},"start":"15:15:00","start_source":{"label":"Starttijd","type":"time_picker","formatted_value":"15:15"},"end":"16:00:00","end_source":{"label":"Eindtijd","type":"time_picker","formatted_value":"16:00"},"tickets":"https:\/\/poetry.stager.co\/shop\/festival-2026","tickets_source":{"label":"Link naar tickets","type":"url","formatted_value":"https:\/\/poetry.stager.co\/shop\/festival-2026"},"price_presale":"","price_presale_source":{"label":"Pre-sale prijs","type":"number","formatted_value":""},"price":"","price_source":{"label":"Prijs aan de deur","type":"number","formatted_value":""},"event_route":false,"event_route_source":{"label":"Route","type":"taxonomy","formatted_value":false},"related_events":"","related_events_source":{"label":"Gerelateerde events","type":"relationship","formatted_value":""},"subtitle":"Performance packed with young talent, curated by youth Poet Laureate Oumaima Yahiaoui","subtitle_source":{"label":"Ondertitel","type":"text","formatted_value":"Performance packed with young talent, curated by youth Poet Laureate Oumaima Yahiaoui"},"sidebar_content":"","sidebar_content_source":{"label":"Zijbalk content","type":"wysiwyg","formatted_value":""}},"lang":"en","translations":{"en":1184,"nl":1180},"pll_sync_post":{},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/event"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2899,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event\/1184\/revisions\/2899"}],"acf:post":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poet\/2783"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poet\/2169"},{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/poet\/2432"}],"acf:term":[{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"event_type","href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_type\/103"},{"embeddable":true,"taxonomy":"venue","href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/venue\/266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2150"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"venue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/venue?post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"event_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/event_type?post=1184"},{"taxonomy":"route","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.poetry.nl\/festival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/route?post=1184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}