‘It’s hip-hop, it’s Lowlands’: Max Verhaar elected campus poet 2025

A full café Esplanade and a record number of participants. At the end of an atmospheric Open Mic & Poetry Night, student Max Verhaar has been elected Campus Poet 2025. ‘He is a crowd pleaser, in control of language: the form, the rhythm and the playfulness,’ the jury judges.

Unexpected, the 24-year-old master’s student of Communication and Information Sciences calls his election. ‘I saw there was an election and thought: why not? What’s the worst that can happen?’ He has been writing for a while, but this is  the first time that he performs his poems on a stage.

The new campus poet draws his inspiration from hip-hop. ‘My role models are Fresku. And Sef, coincidentally, I was at his gig last week. To be so vulnerable and to throw that into the big world, I think that’s great.’ This did not escape the jury’s notice either: ‘His poetry is a sign of the time. It’s hip-hop, it’s Lowlands, it’s ya-man yeah!’

Poetic commentary

This year’s campus poet competition has 13 participants, a record number since its inception in 2007. Max Verhaar is the 18th campus poet of Tilburg University. The campus poet election started as an initiative of Univers, in 2011 the organization was taken over by Studium Generale, in collaboration with Univers.

The campus poet brings themes such as studying, science and current issues from society to life, in poetic form. During the year, poems will be published in Univers. The campus poet also performs at Studium Generale events. For his poetic commentary, Verhaar receives a stipend of 500 euros.