The new Dead Ladies Show , w/ Angelo Tijssens + Moya De Feyter + Luanda Casella + Emma Posman + Marieke De Maré + Lies Colman

The evening will be held in Dutch.

Dead Ladies Show 13
For the thirteenth time, organiser Gaea Schoeters is putting together a full-length programme featuring passionate speakers and heavenly music. The presentation is in the capable hands of Marieke De Maré.

programme
- Angelo Tijssens will bring opera singer Julie D’Aubigny to life.
- Moya De Feyter will discuss the British-Mexican surrealist Leonora Carrington
- Luanda Casella will conjure up the American writer​​​​​​​ Octavia Butler ( who was awarded the Passa Porta Nobele Prijs in 2024).
- Lies Colman (piano) and Emma Posman (voice) will pay a musical tribute to two Belgian composers, Jana Vignery en Eva dell'Acqua.

about the authors and musicians
Angelo Tijssens (b. 1986) is a writer and the co-screenwriter of, among others, Girl and Close, both of which won awards at Cannes. In 2022 his debut novel The Edges, translated into five languages, was published; it was nominated for De Bronzen Uil and won the Prix du Roman Gay. His second novel, The End of the Street, was published in 2024. He presented his third book, Beginnen – a personal, hallucinatory essay – in the autumn of 2025, the same year that Julian was released, a film by Cato Kusters for which Tijssens wrote the screenplay. In 2026 two more of his films will be hit the big screen: Dust, directed by Anke Blondé, and Coward, his third collaboration with Lukas Dhont.

Moya De Feyter is a writer of poetry and prose. She studied theatre, film and literature at the University of Antwerp. She enjoys performing and does so frequently, and she is the founder of Klimaatdichters. Previous publications include the poetry collections Tot iemand eindelijk and Massastrandingen (awarded the J.C. Bloem Poetry Prize) and the cross-genre book Een heel dun laagje. She received the PrixFintroPrijs for Dutch-language literature for her work. She published two new books in 2026: her debut novel Soelaas and a new poetry collection entitled Het hart lacht als niemand kijkt.

Luanda Casella is a writer, performing artist and theatre director from São Paulo. She is an artist-in-residence at DE SINGEL. In her work, she explores the deconstruction of language and unreliable narrators. She has been praised as both ‘incredibly intelligent’ and ‘horribly funny’. As an associate artist at NTGent, she has created various internationally touring productions that have been staged at major theatre festivals and have earned her awards and several selections for Het Theaterfestival. She is also a doctoral candidate and lecturer at KASK, and has given lectures at leading international arts and academic institutions.

Belgian soprano​​​​​​​ Emma Posman obtained her master’s degree in voice summa cum laude from the Royal Conservatoire of Ghent, where she studied under, among others, Belgian soprano Hendrickje Van Kerckhove. She was selected for the MM Academy at La Monnaie. Her hybrid voice has enabled her to be cast in a range of soprano roles.

Gaea Schoeters (b. 1976) writes novels, plays and opera librettos. Occasionally (and on the sly), she ventures into poetry. Her critically acclaimed novel Trofee marked her international breakthrough. The book has since been translated into 21 languages. In 2025 Het geschenk was published, for which she received the De Boon audience award and which has also been translated worldwide. Later this year, she will publish Ja! in collaboration with Lara Taveirne, a selection of twenty authors who elevate the female orgasm to the next literary level.

Pianist Lies Colman  (b. 1978) loves a challenge, whether academic or artistic. She is active as a soloist, chamber musician and lied pianist; she performs, researches, teaches and creates. She preferably operates on the boundary between classical and contemporary music, between music and other disciplines, and between art and the social sciences, both on and off the stage.

The international house of literature Passa Porta is a unique, multilingual meeting place in the heart of Brussels for anyone and everyone curious about ideas, texts and stories. It is where readers meet their favourite writers from Belgium and abroad and where they discover new talents. It is where authors and translators have access to a stage or a workspace. And every two years the Passa Porta Festival celebrates Brussels as a city of literature with the arrival of hundreds of writers and artists from around the world.
passaporta.be/nl/