Slam poet Lisette Ma Neza receives Luc Bucquoye prize 2021

Slam poet Lisette Ma Neza was awarded VUB's Luc Bucquoye literature prize on Saturday, 7 August. The presentation of the award, worth €5,000, took place at De Grote Post cultural centre in Ostend during the Theater Aan Zee festival. VUB rector and guest festival curator Caroline Pauwels praised Ma Neze at the ceremony. "You represent the tremendous resilience of a generation that has weathered storms close to home over the past year and a half, but also made itself heard with dignity when there was justifiable cause for concern and outrage on the broader world stage. For that hopeful engagement too, which is an essential foundation of your literature, we bow our heads deeply today. And yes, we also pay tribute to the fully literary nature of slam poetry, to the social commitment woven into its DNA, and to its intense bond between writer and listener." The jury's choice of Ma Neza was worded as follows: "In Lisette Ma Neza, we crown not only a new literary voice of our student generation, but also a full-fledged literary genre that deserves recognition." The jury consisted of Ilke Froyen, director of the international literature house Passa Porta in Brussels, Sofie Gielis, reviewer and lecturer at PXL-MAD art school in Hasselt, and writer and columnist Dalilla Hermans, and was chaired by VUB professor Wim Vandenbussche. VUB is awarding two Luc Bucquoye prizes for literature this year.