Mechelen «-» Lisbon with Herman de Coninck
Poetry by Mechelen’s own Herman de Coninck, 25 years after his passing in Lisbon, is also an essential element of Lunalia Lift Off. Each concert will be preceded by one of his poems. His biographer, Thomas Eyskens, will focus on De Coninck’s love of music at the Church of the Sacred Heart. He will be interviewed by Virginie Platteau, the co-curator of Mechelen’s city theme, Blazing Silence.
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Tribute to Herman De Coninck
On the evening of Saturday 21 May, the young Mechelen-based poetry collective Dichtatuur will perform at Het Predikeren city library with special guest Dominique De Groen. They have been exploring Herman de Coninck’s archives for material for their performance.
On the same evening, pupils at Mechelen City Conservatory will perform poems by Edna St. Vincent Millay, translated by De Coninck, as their final project, led by teacher and actor Isabel Leybaert.
On the same occasion, the travelling exhibition and installation created in partnership with the Letterenhuis in Antwerp will be inaugurated at Het Predikeren. For this, four promising young poets will write a contemporary poetic reaction to De Coninck’s poetry. The theme is ‘Practicing life’. Visual work and poems by high school students from Mechelen will also be on display.
On Sunday 22 May, the main tribute will be held in Mechelen Beguinage Church, with Pat Donnez (Klara radio presenter and Mechelen city poet) as its host and presenter. Joining him on the sofa will be Mark Van Tongele (poet), Daniel Hugo (De Coninck’s translator into Afrikaans), Piet Piryns (friend and journalist), Kristien Hemmerechts (writer) and Eva Gerlach (poet). Their conversation will be interspersed with music by the Marijn Goossens Combo, which has set song texts by De Coninck for the MMT theatre production Jan Rap to new music; soprano May Bonert and pianist Marc Michaël will perform a song from their production ‘Voorslaap’, with poems by De Coninck set to music, and jazz musician Chris Joris will improvise on texts by De Coninck.
Info and tickets at www.paradijsmechelen.be
23.04.2022
15:30 — 16:00
mARTa
Sacred Heart Church
Adegemstraat 95, 2800 Mechelen