Reaction after winning:
"We feel so grateful to have won the Pitch Night #22 and for the support from the Awesome Foundation to make the 1st Queer and Feminist Poetry Awards by @unwantedwordsproject a reality. This money will be used to cover the costs to make custom-made trophies for the winners as well as marketing expenses to promote the event. After tonight, we will also include a new category for the awards, the Awesome Performer Award powered by Awesome Foundation Rotterdam."

The 1st Queer & Feminist Poetry Awards are a moment to recognize the talent and excellence in our community in Rotterdam. The Awards are a non-for-profit celebration of the best and most outstanding poets and spoken word artists whose works talk about topics of queerness and feminism from a diverse and intersectional perspective, with a special emphasis on BPOC (black and people of color) artists.

We believe that intersectionality is the way to bring our city together. This year has been marked by the feminist protests in Latin America, the Black Lives Matter uprising in the US and the rest of the world and historic breakthroughs in the LGBTQ+ human rights movement. And even though these movements may seem isolated, they bring multiple realities and dimensions of identity that need to be celebrated together.

We host a series of Queer Poetry Nights that aim to be a safe(r) space for the LGBTQ+ community in Rotterdam. Every event has a door policy and house rules based on consent, privacy and respect in order to offer a platform for people to share their art and stories about gender, race and mental health.

To mark a special moment in the growth and strengthening of our community, we want to make the first Poetry Awards that highlights these voices and stories that are often unseen, unheard or unwanted.