Yahya Hassan - On Poetry, Friendship and Tragedy

"I am on my way to your funeral, Yahya,
how terrible
it is to write that sentence."

These lines opened a poem that Mads Mygind wrote on the day Yahya Hassan was buried in May 2020 - as he walked through the city toward the cemetery to say goodbye to his friend.

The two poets met in 2011 at Rap Akademiet in Aarhus. In this lecture, Mygind paints a portrait of the friendship that began there: the early texts, the readings before anyone knew Yahya Hassan's name, and the turbulent period after his breakthrough, when he suddenly found himself at the center of a heated public debate - celebrated, attacked, and threatened all at once. Politicians from both extremes quoted and used him. In private conversations, he was something else: a young man with a deep love of literature and a persistent drive to understand the world through language.

The lecture is about poetry, friendship, and loss - and about knowing a person whose roaring capital letters have left an indelible mark on Danish literary history.

Mads Mygind (b. 1984) is a poet, holds a cand.mag. in Nordic languages and literature, and works as a writing instructor and lecturer. He made his debut in 2011 with "Before We Have Looked Around" and publishes the poetry collection "The Man on the Street" in May 2026. The event takes place in Salen and is organized in collaboration with Roskilde Teater, which presents the production "The Hassan Family" on November 5 - read more at roskildeteater.dk.