Cannabis Culture Award 2008
Dutch Poet Laureate Simon Vinkenoog accepted the 2008 Cannabis Culture Award from Ben Dronkers during the opening ceremony of the Hemp Gallery. He was a lifelong advocate of cannabis legalization, and many of his poems mention the plant. His impassioned readings and performances stirred and inspired his audiences wherever he appeared. He was a contemporary of Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs, with whom he performed at the International Poetry Incarnation at London’s Royal Albert Hall in front of 7,000 people on June 11, 1965.
Simon Vinkenoog (b. July 18, 1928, Amsterdam – d. July 12, 2009) was a Dutch poet and writer.
He was the editor of the anthology Atonaal (Atonal), which launched the Dutch “Fifties Movement.” In 2004, he was chosen as Dichter des Vaderlands, or “Poet Laureate,” for the Netherlands.
Vinkenoog was also Holland’s best-known advocate for the legalization of marijuana.
The use of cannabis for recreational purposes really didn’t become widespread in the Netherlands until after World War II. After jazz, and later the hippie influences, marijuana smoking spread from America. In 1962, Vinkenoog, the Dutch liberated poet, wrote: “In ten years, this will be as common as drinking whiskey or beer, or just as normal as an ordinary cigarette. And it doesn’t give you lung cancer.”
In November 2008, Simon Vinkenoog received the Dutch Cannabis Cultuur Prijs from the hands of Ben Dronkers of the Marijuana Museum in Amsterdam. He was presented with the award in the newly opened wing of the museum, the Hemp Gallery, in the heart of the city’s Red Light District.
(image: Hemp Gallery Amsterdam)
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