Growing up in a family of storytellers, Ozan Aydogan (1993) gets fascinated by the art of storytelling at a young age. The bedtime stories from Eastern Turkey that his parents tell him, the old fairytale books that his mother harvests at flea markets and the lively anecdotes that reach his bedroom from the living room, accompanied by the sweet smell of raki and the sounds of the saz. Witnessing all those stories arouses an interest in him that has never shown itself to him before. And so it doesn’t take long before his first works see the light of day. Those are raps at first. But after reading Lord Byron during high school on the advice of a friend, he starts writing poetry. Between those two streams the seed is planted that will later germinate into spoken word. After a few years, through an internship at an arts center, a second love appears before him; acting. While playing in his first theater performance, immediately writing all of its songs and contributing by writing mono- and dialogues, he has his first experiences with playwriting. From that moment on he never stops telling stories to whomever gathers around him to have their hearts charmed by the magic of words. images by Marthe van de Grift artwork by Naomi Jansen & High On Type