Najiba Abdellaoui (1981) is a poet, writer, and city poet of Tilburg, born in the Netherlands and partly raised in Morocco. Inspired by the books she read and by hip-hop, she began writing poems and rap lyrics at the age of 11, with which she went on to win several awards. In 2008, she became the first woman to win the Dutch National Poetry Slam Championship.
She has written, among others, Mijn buurvrouw is een ninja, Berkan en de Boze Brievenfabriek, Het Sleutelbos, Lachen!, and Mir en de muusjes (en de mooiste mislukking ooit).
In addition to writing poems and stories, she gives workshops in creative writing and spoken word.
Najiba Abdellaoui responds to the exhibition Quadrilogue. The performance will take place on Saturday 17 December at 3.30pm.
Here is the link to the text she wrote and recited (in Dutch).
This is how Najiba experienced the participation:
It was incredibly inspiring to spend a few hours completely alone with the artworks. I first looked at them, let them speak for themselves, and then started to look at the interplay between them. Driven by my own context, I began to see lines. Associations with origin, memories and personal heritage came to mind. One of the artists talked about roots entering into dialogue with each other, which made me imagine that the artworks were entering into dialogue with each other and with me as a visitor. What would be shared, questioned and left out? That, and the realisation that every visitor creates their own stories with the artworks, enters into a different conversation and that you will never hear or see all the stories, formed the starting point for my Komma. Through my contribution to this exhibition, I now look at themes such as migration, roots, origin and future with a slightly different perspective. These are subjects that concern me and that have now taken on a new dimension. Thank you, PARK.
