Video: Erik Jan Harmens Reads “I Want You to Want but You Don’t Want”

On April 17th Erik Jan Harmens and other Dutch poets came to Pittsburgh by invitation of City of Asylum Pittsburgh. They read in four different homes in the Mexican War Streets and the Northside branch of the Carnegie Library and then, together, at the Allegheny Unitarian Universalist Church accompanied by Living Room Chamber Music Project.

Erik Jan Harmens is a novelist, poet and performer. In 2002 he was crowned the first Dutch National Poetry Slam champion. In 2003 he published his first collection of poetry In menigten (‘In crowds’). The English language played an important role in his 2005 collection Underperformer which was awarded numerous Dutch poetry honors, followed by Gospels en Psalmen in 2008. His first novel Kleine doorschijnende man (‘Little Transparent Man’) was published in 2007. His second novel and fourth collection of poems will be published in 2012.

In the video Erik Jan Harmens reads “I Want You to Want but You Don’t Want.”

The event was presented in collaboration with the Pittsburgh Cultural Trust’s “Distinctively Dutch” festival, the Consulate General of the Netherlands, the Dutch Foundation for Literature, Kleine Revolutie Producties, and Lira.