Hyster-X

Ilke Cop invites 6 Hyster-x writers for a dazzling literary evening. Melanie Asselmans, Uschi Cop, Zindzi Tillot Owusu and Margot Timmermans bring texts inspired by the works presented in Folded : Whites. Yasmin Van 'tveld provides an art-critical introduction and Stefanie Huysmans-Noorts closes the evening with a new performance.

Hyster-x (° 2021) is the Belgian writers' collective for female and non-binary creators. Hyster-x provides a platform for new voices on hyster-x.com and promotes intersectional feminism and visibility of women and non-binaries in the literary, journalistic, academic and artistic fields by organizing literary evenings, book clubs and performances.

Melanie Asselmans (1994) is a Brussels-based poet. She holds a master's degree in Western Literature (KU Leuven) and Gender & Diversity (UGent). Melanie's work reflects on the inherent complexity of human relationships. She writes about being a woman and being queer, about consent, about privilege and boundaries, about love, compassion and compromise. Poetry is for talking about topics that matter in language that is intelligible and universal. Melanie is a member of the inclusive makers collective Hyster-x and works as a project assistant at Dans! Closer! Dance!.

Uschi Cop (1988) lives and works in Brussels. She writes short and longer stories and poetry and regularly performs text on various stages. There are currently several novels ripening in her head. In early 2021, she founded Hyster-x, a feminist Belgian writers' collective for women and non-binary people. She curates literary stages and texts for this collective. She also writes columns for Bruzz. In 2018 she was selected for the Paris writing residency of deBuren. Uschi is part of the talent development trajectory of the Nieuwe Oost |Wintertuin.

Zindzi Tillot (1997) studies word art at the Antwerp Conservatory. Her work touches on themes such as transience and vulnerability, but also the city. She mainly creates prose. Tillot tries to find a way through autofiction to the smaller and larger essences of life.

Margot Timmermans (1999) is a Master in Radio and works as an evening coordinator for Kaaitheater. She writes, presents and creates audio art about the female voice in distortion. With her poetry she searches for linguistic inventions, staggering rhythms and reckless warmth.
Margot has made, wrote and performed before for fABULEUS, Lazarus, Maud Vanhauwaert, Dans Dichter Dans, Vaart!, ZINK and Party of Poetry, among others.

Yasmin Van 'tveld (1989) studied art science at Ghent University and contemporary art theory at Goldsmiths, University of London. She then followed a professional career as an art historian within the contemporary arts, including for Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens and Axel Vervoordt Gallery. Since 2018, she has been a full-time writer, translator and editor on a freelance basis. In addition, since 2016 she has been an image editor and editor of prose at Kluger Hans, a literary magazine that looks for new writing talent and has an eye for visual art and design. In 2018 she also became editor-in-chief of Kluger Hans.

In addition to being a writer, Stefanie Huysmans-Noorts is also an actress, theater maker, director and writing teacher. Since she reached the final of Frappant TXT 2015, she has emerged as a traveling performer. She has already performed on various stages from Antwerp to Amsterdam and Berlin. She wrote theater texts for a youth group in Brussels and for her own productions. She has also published poetry in the magazines Kluger Hans and Deus Ex Machina. She currently teaches at the Academy of Schoten. She is currently working on her debut collection 'w o n d r o o s', the lyrics of which also find their way to the stage. Stefanie has been a member of Hyster-x, a collective for female and non-binary makers, since 2022.