Jiye Seong-Yu

Jiye (she/her) is an illustrator and spoken word poet who explores identity, migration, and loss. Based in The Hague, she performs in English (and occasionally, Dutch).

SPOKEN WORD POETRY

Since 2024, I’ve been performing spoken word poetry in the Netherlands and Germany. I explore identity, migration, and loss in the shape of very long poems that seem to make people cry.

I was nominated Poet of the Year at the Unwanted Words 2nd Queer & Feminist Poetry Awards [Nov 2023], and commissioned to perform at Asian Poetry Night (Rotterdam, March 2024), Sonntags Club Berlin (May 2025), and at Kunstverein Stuttgart (July 2026).

Some of my poems will be published in the Queer & Feminist Poetry Anthology Vol.II at Poetry International 2026 in June. Is there a piece you heard me perform and would you like to see it in writing? Send me an email ◡̈

Photo by Unwanted Words

STORYTELLING

I’m one half of Burta Qollective together with friend and artist-researcher Ioana Lupașcu [burta: “belly” in Romanian; bureuda in Korean: “to be full”. It just works]. We explore narratives of migration from a queer feminist lens through ordinary objects, simple language, and a love for (making/sharing) food.

In November 2024, we published our first story, The Case of the Suitcase, in The Spoon, a Rotterdam community newsletter published by Soupspoon Collective. In Nov-Dec 2025, we published our first zine, also called The Case of the Suitcase, at the Riso and Friends residency in Rijeka, Croatia [website | Instagram].

Get your copy at:

We’ve presented (really, performed] our zine at:

  • Feb 21: Soft launch at Blind Date with a Book (Kunstbar, The Hague), organized by The Hague Creators
  • Apr 3: Book launch at Kiosk Rotterdam, together with our publisher Ana Labudović

Fun fact: We met on a dating app but chose to nurture a friendship based on words and drawings.

Photo by Ioana Lupașcu