ICONIC WORD ART EVENING RETURNS TO EKKO FOR 40TH ANNIVERSARY
Mensen Zeggen Dingen tours the country with evenings filled with high-quality writers, performers, spoken word artists, and other stage animals. For the EKKO anniversary, they are bringing a prime selection of these artists to hang the proverbial streamers. Come listen and raise a glass!
Host: Teddy Tops
Teddy Tops hosts this anniversary reunion edition of Mensen Zeggen Dingen at EKKO. Teddy is a presenter, interviewer, writer, and program maker, affiliated with NPO Radio 1 and the VPRO, among others. Tops interviews a wide range of guests for programs such as the Marathon Interview, Nooit Meer Slapen, and her own program Een Uur Cultuur. She organizes festivals, evenings, and club nights, and is the outgoing artistic director of Mensen Zeggen Dingen.
Yentl van Stokkum
is a poet, playwright, performer, and swiftie. After completing her Writing for Performance studies, she was selected for various talent development programs, including the Slow Writing Lab and Wintertuin. As a poet, she has performed at various festivals such as Lowlands, Oerol, Zwarte Cross, Poetry International, Dichters in de Prinsentuin, and De Nacht van de Poëzie.
In 2021, her poetry debut 'Ik zeg Emily' was published by Hollands Diep, after which she received the CCS Crone Stipendium. Her second poetry collection, 'Winterbloeiers', was nominated for the JC Bloem Poetry Prize.
Together with Joost Oomen and Stefanie Liebreks, Yentl curates the popular Instagram account poëzieiseendaad. The anthology Voor alle dagen, compiled by them, was published by Uitgeverij Podium in June 2023.
Sabina Lukovic
knows better than anyone how to play the audience with her compelling lyrics. She has performed in just about every city and at every festival, such as Solar, the Gentse Feesten, and Lowlands. Sabina is the queen of the punchline. She always manages to paint situations in such a way that they get under your skin, and your skin cannot prevent it from giving you goosebumps. Her lyrics are about vulnerability, mental health, and rising like a phoenix. She is indispensable to the Mensen Zeggen Dingen army and goes everywhere with them to blow venues away. Because that is what she does.
Dean Bowen
is a poet, performer, and programme maker. In his work, he examines how people's identity relates to society, as evidenced by his multilingual collection Bokman (2018). His powerful delivery earned him the first Van Dale SPOKEN Award; he served as City Poet of Rotterdam in 2019 and 2020. In his *Ik vond geen ghost in Achtmaal* (2020), a nameless figure describes, through diary entries, poems, confessions, and rituals, the search for what remains of a person long after they have died. He has published poems on online platforms SampleKanon and Hard//Hoofd and in magazines such as nY and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen. He teaches performance literature and poetry in the Creative Writing program at ArtEZ. Together with the Flemish writer and musician Joost Hoekaf, he creates introspective hip-hop in the project Vudu Cru. His next collection, Masc:r, was published in January 2026.
Mahat Arab
is a spoken word artist from Arnhem who has since settled in Amsterdam. Many of his texts deal with identity and awkwardness, but also with the humor we can encounter in discomfort. He has performed his texts on stages ranging from small pubs to Lowlands, participated in DeBuren's Paris residency, and won the ILFU story competition in 2021.
MC ReaZun
Ben Hartman, also known as MC Reazun, has been performing as a rapper and spoken word artist in Utrecht since 2003. Ben started rapping in French after falling in love with a French lady at the age of fifteen, and continued doing so when he moved to Utrecht to study law and met other musicians there.
In 2009, he toured Europe and the Netherlands as part of the Kyteman Orchestra. His first Dutch solo album, titled 'Ik Ben Hartman', was released in 2014. In 2018, he launched his second album with John Konatty, titled Lopen en rennen. Recently, he switched back to French and also started singing for his latest single 'Essentiel'.
Tano
Rivers from Utrecht is an (English-speaking) rapping poet with Turkish roots. From a young age, he has been fascinated by expression, creativity, music, and art. With a distinct vision regarding societal constructs, Tano strives for a world in which feminine masculinity is embraced. In this sense, his music functions as a reflection of the state of the world.
