‘Creating in your own language contributes to who you are’

For more than twenty-five years, Arte di Palabra (Papiamentu for wordcraft) has been organizing literary activities and talent development programmes for young people on Curaçao, Aruba and Bonaire. The highpoint is the annual literary story competition on the islands, during which young people recite texts in Papiamentu and Papiamento. Arte di Palabra on Curaçao has received support from the Dutch Foundation for Literature through the grant scheme for Caribe Literature. We spoke to founder Ange Jessurun and project leader Samuel Rosinda about this exceptional organization. ‘If you stimulate schoolchildren, something truly beautiful will often come out.’

Could you first describe how Arte di Palabra came into being twenty-five years ago?

Ange: ‘In 2000 Papiamentu was offered as a subject at secondary schools in Curaçao for the first time. To celebrate, a teacher set up a Papiamentu short-story competition for all his pupils. A couple of their stories were eventually read out on the radio. That moved me to tears, precisely because I was hearing stories in my mother tongue.

‘When I was at school, we weren’t allowed to speak Papiamentu. So it was really a milestone when Papiamentu was recognized as an official language and offered in schools. I was working as a teacher by then, and I had a meeting with all the teachers of Papiamentu. I proposed setting up a similar Papiamentu story competition. Eventually that became Arte di Palabra.

‘We invited all the secondary schools, and class one and class two of middle school. I think around forty to fifty pupils took part. We’ve grown over the years, and more and more attention has been paid to our project. We’ve also expanded to include the other islands. In 2005 Bonaire started a competition of its own, and in 2008 Aruba. We always stress that it isn’t just about winning. It’s also a matter of rehearsing, expressing yourself in your mother tongue and daring to stand up on stage. Many schoolchildren don’t know they’re talented. But when you give them a bit of stimulation, something truly beautiful often comes out.’

In what ways can pupils take part in the competition?

Ange: ‘They can opt to write a story, poem or haiku of their own and recite it on stage. We also have a category for existing poems and stories, where it’s purely about recitation. The jury makes a selection from all the submissions and the best entries and performances gain a place in the final. The haiku competition, by the way, is dedicated to the popular artist and 3 writer Elis Juliana, who introduced the haiku to Curaçao sixty years ago. In that category young adults are allowed to participate as well as secondary school pupils.’

Samuel: ‘Five years ago we introduced rap as a category. The idea is that pupils write the words themselves, create the beat and then present their rap. We make sure there are rappers on the jury. Of course it’s great for those taking part when they get to meet their idols.’

What happens on a competition day?

Samuel: ‘The competition itself takes place every year in a large church on Curaçao. All the schools come with wind instruments and sometimes even brass bands to support the children, because the schools that have done the best job of encouraging their pupils are given prizes too. On a day like that, three or four hundred schoolchildren and other spectators will come to watch.’

Ange: ‘We present a first, second and third prize for the six different categories. And at the end of the day, all the participants are given a certificate and a book in Papiamentu to read. The schools that have won the encouragement prize receive books for their libraries. That means everyone goes home happy. And if the pupils are happy, then so are we.’

Apart from the annual competition, you organize other activities too. Can you say a bit more about those?

Samuel: ‘The original stories read out by the pupils are collected every five years in the Pòtpurí Arte di Palabra, a literary anthology with poems, stories, rap and haiku. We distribute the book to schools, so that future participants can gain inspiration from it. We’ve seen in practice that it stimulates them to start writing something themselves. Recently we’ve also begun working with Wintertuin, and we hope that will be a way to make pupils enthusiastic about writing a book in their mother tongue.’

Ange: ‘Arte di Palabra has actually introduced young adult literature, written by young people, to the islands. For example, there was a schoolgirl who wrote a poem about teenage pregnancy. Her poem is often shared, because of course it speaks to young people all the more as a text written by one of their contemporaries.’

How exactly has the support of the Dutch Foundation for Literature helped Arte di Palabra to grow?

Ange: ‘In the past we really struggled to make ends meet every year. Thanks to the subsidy, our project is now future proof. We’re working on a new website, and we can finally offer the volunteers remuneration and put them in the spotlight. We’ve also been able to print an additional 250 copies of Pòtpurí Arte di Palabra, so now we can distribute the pupils’ stories even more widely in schools.’

Does taking part in Arte di Palabra benefit the participants in the long term too?

Ange: ‘Several former participants have gone on to publish novels and poetry collections. And there’s the young filmmaker Sendion Balentin, who was an Arte di Palabra winner on Bonaire. Since then he’s written and directed two films: Mohada and Mamadu. The second of those will shortly be shown on Netflix in Papiamentu, with English subtitles. In interviews Sendion still says he started out with Arte di Palabra. It makes us very grateful every time he mentions us. Arte di Palabra also simply helps young people to be creative in their own language. That contributes to the shaping of your identity and makes you proud of who you are.’

Samuel: ‘It’s great that Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao are working together on this project. They’re the only three islands in the world where Papiamentu is spoken. From a political perspective we’re different, but the language unites us. When the young people of the ABC islands stand on the stage together, there’s no difference. When it’s over we often keep in touch with each other.’

What are your plans for the future?

Samuel: ‘We’d like to grow, and we hope that Arte di Palabra will become part of the curriculum.’

Ange: ‘There’s also a wish to make a television programme some time, in which we give space to young people who have participated in the past. They’ll be able to say who stimulated them and how they arrived at something to recite. I hope it will persuade more children to take part. Thanks to Caribe Literature, there’s a future for Arte di Palabra.’

Arte di Palabra received a subsidy through the grant scheme for Caribe Literature. From 18 August 2025 onwards it’s once again possible to put in an application.