Poet & Philosopher Laureate

On the first evening of our festival, we will for the second time organise a discussion programme on two disciplines that go hand in hand: poetry and philosophy.  

For this programme, we are happy to invite poets and thinkers to join the conversation about where these ways of thinking meet and how they go together. What space does poetry offer for expressing the more complex thoughts about the world we live in, and how does language play a role in empowering those thoughts? 

This programme features two very special participants who are absolute experts in their own fields: the current Poet and Thinker of the Fatherland, Babs Gons and Marjan Slob. On 7 June, Babs and Marjan will think aloud about the big questions of life and look at where poetry and philosophy meet - or get out of the way.

Babs Gons (1971) is a writer, performer, host and teacher. From 2000, she organised Palabras, a monthly stage for young poets and writers in Paradiso, for almost ten years. Then, for many years, she was artistic director of the now national organisation Poetry Circle Nowhere, which she co-founded with Lies Aris.  

In 2018, she won the Black Achievement Award for Arts and Culture and in spring 2019, her book Hardop was published by Atlas Contact publishers, a collection compiled by her with the work of 18 Dutch spoken word poets. 

She made her debut in May 2021 with her first poetry collection Doe Het Toch Maar, which was nominated for the Herman de Coninck Prize and the Poëziedebuutprijs. In the same year, she wrote the Book Week poem and won a Poetry Star with one of her poems. She also published a children's book in 2021: Het Begint Met Een Droom (Gottmer). In 2022, she was one of two winners of The Johnny, an oeuvre prize for stage poetry.  

Marjan Slob (Giessenburg, 1964) has worked as an independent philosopher, speaker and essayist for over twenty years. She sees it as her mission to expand insight and understanding without losing touch with reality. This mindset speaks from her columns and essays for de Volkskrant, Philosophy Magazine, and numerous other media, and fuels the work she has been doing behind the scenes for years. For instance, she has helped organisations such as the Delta Commissioner's staff, the Dutch Safety Board, the Rathenau Institute, the Centre for Ethics and Health, the Council on Animal Affairs and the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency to clearly connect scientific and philosophical insights with society.  

Marjan has also written free work. In 2017, Hersenbeest won the Socratesbeker for the best Dutch-language public philosophy book, and in 2022, De lege hemel was awarded the biennial J. Greshoff Prize for (literary) essay. Her latest book, Door de bomen het huis, has been called a test of philosophical journalism.