The writer Frank Martinus Arion gets Sunday evening 22 January 2012 the honorary membership of the Haagse Kunstkring. The Association offers this to him for his authorship and in particular for his magnum opus Dubbelspel [Double Play]. Arion was attached to the Hague and the Haagse Kunstkring during his years in Leiden. The honorary membership is reserved for artists of national interest which have a special meaning for the Hague and/or the Haagse kunstkring.
When Arion studied in Leiden between 1955 and 1960 and later in the beginning of the 1970s he was closely connected to the Hague. He was a member of the kunstkring and he published inter alia in The Hague newspaper Het Vaderland. In the early years in the Netherlands, he founded together with some fellow students Baranka Antilliana . This Antillean society was well known in the Hague.
On 25 October 1974 Frank Martinus Arion held a reading in the Haagse kunstkring about his novel Dubbelspel [Double Play], for which he receivedin the same year the prestigious Van der Hoogtprijs from the Maatschappij der Nederlandse Lletterkunde.
The honorary is pronounced by Ruud Hisgen, the Chairman of the Department of Arts, Theatre and Film of the Haagse Kunstkring. The poet and translator Igma Putte-de Windt (Curaçao 1938) will talk about the poetry of the laureate. The writer Walter Palm (Curaçao 1951) will hold a lecture about the prose of Arion. The Aruban composer and pianist Alwin Toppenberg ensures the intermezzo.
Frank Martinus Arion is born in 1936 in Curaçao. He writes both in Dutch and in his mothertongue, Papiamentu. In 1955 he moved to the Netherlands, where he studied Dutch language and literature at the University of Leiden. Along with Cola Debrot, Arion published his first poetry book in 1957. Between 1961 and 1971 he was back in Curaçao. In 1971 he came back finished his study and then worked at the Institute for Dutch languages and literature of the University of Amsterdam.
Since 1981 he lives in Curaçao, where he’s commited to the education in Papiamentu. In 1996 he received his Ph.d. with a thesis on the origins of Papiamentu. His work consists of novels, short stories, poetry and essays.
Arion gets his great prominence in 1973 with his novel Dubbelspel [Double Play], for which he receives in 1974 the Van der Hoogtprijs. The novel was in 2006 the first book in the successful reading campaign Nederland Leest. The novel has been translated also into Papiamentu. The translation is published by De Bezige Bij. On January 21, the festival Writers Unlimited dedicated an evening to the book under the title Dubbelspel Vertaalspel. In his work Arion wants to make the reader aware of the problems of the people on the Antillean islands. He also wants to introduce the reader to the culture of the Antilleans.
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