Speakeasy 29

The guest poets introduced by Pooja Nansi at Speakeasy #29 on 19 October 2016 were Tania De Rozario, Alfian Sa'at and Cyril Wong. 

This was an evening for juvenilia and the poets read from their very early work. Often emotional, cringeworthy,  comic and immature the readings were quite entertaining. 

Tania's work was heartfelt and deeply vulnerable. Pooja's diary entries had so much attitude and energy. Cyril's singing was other worldly, angelic and beautiful, while Alfian was his charming, brilliant self. 

---

All images are copyright Jon Gresham. permission should be sought for any use and should be attributed to ‘Jon Gresham www.igloomelts.com'.

Please kindly email me for approval to use any image, especially if you are a commercial organisation.
 

NTU Creative Writing Faculty: A Reading

NTU’s Creative Writing Faculty held a reading on 7 April at Artistry featuring several writers in residence: Tash Aw (Taiwan/Malaysia/UK), Divya Victor (Singapore/India/US) and Boey Kim Cheng (Australia/Singapore).

Tash read from his new nonfiction book, Strangers on a Pier, and entertained with tales of bourgeois gangsters and ‘bodice ripper’ reading teachers. 

I like the emphasis in his essay on ‘routes’, rather than some fundamental ’root’ at the core of identity. See Stuart Hall.

I will write more about Strangers on a Pier and it’s themes of nostalgia, the frame of narrative and story technique in migrant tales, mixed identities and imposter syndrome in a later post. These thoughts will be written from the perspective of a reluctant ex Yuppie, Eurasian with an adopted and adopting, hybrid identity.

Divya read a selection of her poetry, prose poems and essays including pieces from her forthcoming book, KITH and a prose poem about the Tamil child suicide bomber who assassinated Rajiv Gandhi.

Boey Kim Cheng read The Golden Temple and a stamp poem (after forgetting where he’d put it).

The common theme reflected in the readings and their readers seemed to be the entanglement of national and cultural identities - or perhaps I was reading this into things.

Meanwhile, despite it being obvious to the point of banality that any one individual can have many identities, influences and stories, lately, political and privileged classes have ramped up discourses of bigotry and racism so anything reflecting the complexity of lived experience (we are many not one) should be celebrated.

Examples of discourses of ‘othering’ include:

• in Singapore, Denise Phua MP's comments on migrant workers in Little India,
• in Australia, the treatment of Gold Logie nominees Waleed Aly and Lee Lin Chin, and
• in the US. Trump and the other Republican candidates.

Where is this racism, xenophobia and prejudice coming from? Punching down and a distraction from anxieties felt by the mainstream over the decline in opportunity and privilege? Another topic to be discussed in a later post.

Anyway back to the wonderful evening which may be summarised as follows: 

the sandwiches were decent, and the satays and readings were better.

Burn After Reading with Cyril Wong

Burn After Reading SG, a Singapore collective of young writers, presented a poetry evening with Cyril Wong at Artistry on 22 May 2015.

Cyril shared several of his poems (including one of my favourites First Date) and answered questions. 

Cyril was in good form and talked about growing up on the concrete floor of a small HDB flat, the music in his poetry, darkness, getting to know Terry Jaensch, why he likes the Australian poetry scene, his ‘process’ (handphone note taking and sending SMSs to the self, collecting these wisps in a laptop each evening and letting the work grow from there) etc etc.

Then Cyril sang a Chinese lullaby and we were taken to a completely different space.

No wonder people were turned away at the door.

The next BAR SG event is on 27 July 2015.

Speakeasy #19: Deborah Emmanuel

On 29 April 2015 at Artistry, Speakeasy #19 hosted Singaporean writer, musician and actor, Deborah Emmanuel. 

Fresh from Bali - it was almost as though she’d just caught a taxi from the airport after a budget flight from Denpasar, Deborah read poems from her iPhone and new collection, When I Giggle In My Sleep (Red Wheelbarrow Books).

When she read Hey, Mr Pickpocket Man it reminded me how I have never understood the attraction of ’Schoolies week’.

The herd mentality, the myth of slobber and intoxication as grand ‘coming of age’ ritual. Could these really be the best days of our lives? Now we are grown up, and get drunk, and steal, and shag, and throw our bodies all over the place, until we are spent, and fall asleep on the sand with each other’s vomit as a pillow.

Frankly, I’d rather have been sitting on a rock on a hillside, reading Flannery O’Connor and listening to The Waterboys while sneaking a tipple from a stolen Single Malt. That was a long time ago.

Anyway, I enjoyed the energy and wit of her poetry, especially the beauty and thoughtfulness of her sadder work.

Speakeasy #18: The Valentine Edition

Speakeasy #18 was held at a packed Artistry and featured poets, playwrights, DJs, academics, musicians, teachers and booksellers/publishers/institutions reading their favourite love poetry for Valentine’s Day.

The poetry was eclectic, exuberant and celebratory, and included Pablo Neruda, Dorothy Porter, Arthur Yap, Cyril Wong, ee Cummings, Carol Ann Duffy, Leonard Cohen (Alvin Pang knows him and I understand efforts will be made to get him to SWF this year) etc, etc.

There were several romantic moments including Rene & Kenny’s reading and Philip Holden’s rose for his beloved, not to mention a blow job poem and a couple of lyrical cow pieces.