Brain a bit frozen this morning. (Too much sangria?) Had a great time last night at No Black Tie when poets, including Malika Booker, took to the stage to entertain.NBT is a great venue (it was the first time I'd been there - I'm lazy as well as unhip!), intimate and stylish. A good crowd turned up, a lot of them students from the International Islamic University. And many of the usual cool dudes you'd expect to find at a gig like this were there too, of course. (Pang, Zedeck, Bernice ...)
There were short readings from Faridah Manaf, American peformance poet Elaine Foster (aka " the loud girl"), Chung Ha Si * and Chris Mooney Singh who organises Singapore's monthly poetry slam. (Take a minute to read about it. We need to make this happen here!)
Jermone and Jasmine compared incomparably, a very slick and funny double act.Malika Booker was up then, after a short break. Lovely to look at as well as to listen too she read poems identity, family and broken relationships - very honest and accessible pieces. I loved too the music of her soft West Indian accent.
I'm sorry the picture I took of her isn't great (her face fades into the darkness) but at least you can appreciate the stylish clothes and jewellery. (That ring! Those bangles!)
Don't forget that Malika will be performing again with Project OMG at the Food Foundry. Hope to see you there.
(*Apologies if spellings are wrong)
6 comments:
Hi Sharon,
Sorry we missed last nite.Was looking for you to say hi but you were already leaving and the room was too crowded for me to run after you.I enjoyed listening and watching Malika and Chris perform too.Chris has promised to return and train our young ones.
Nope, much of the crowd were not students from the International Islamic University (only 3 came..the three boys sitting at the back?)The youngish looking crowd were made largely of Advertising students in PJ.I thot that's really cool that they are into poetry.I hope next time No something like this happens again, I can bring my students and help them get inspired.
i thought they looked a bit hip for IIU students! (not that IIU students probably aren't hip ...). it was lovely to hear you again. please come back and do a full slot at seksen's soon. i liked your poems very much and want to hear more ...
sorry i had to run. as i was telling sharanya, i turn into a glass slipper at midnight!
am really serious about organising a poetry slam or helping others to organise. i wanted to get in touch with chris when i first read about him. wan't he so much fun? i look forward to seeing him onstage again.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/malaysia-events-arts-malika-booker-bios.htm?mtklink=malaysia-events-arts-malika-booker-bios
you can get the names for the others there :P poetry slam? I'd love to see something like that here.
Chris is eager to return.We must get him to run a workshop for us.Just tell him when.
British Council is so generous to do this for us Malaysians (workshops with choice poets) I was at Francesca' too.Now Malika and they have someone from Malika's group coming in March but I would be in New York then (I'll miss it!) Hope you guys will go and share with me later.Malika says it is important we have a poets' community to continue our existence.
I would like to thank Sharon, Jasmine Low, Bernice etc for doing that at the moment for us.I hope they will never run out of energy!
Sharon, thanks for your kind words on my poems.I wrote them not properly trained but with 2 workshops...let's hope the second book will be better? (which won't happen so soon)
Hey Sharon,
Thanks for the mention in your blog. I enjoyed myself as the crowd were really receptive and intense. BTW I am not an 'American' performance poet la! If anything I'm just a local like you...Cheers!
theloudgirl x
hi loud girl ... sorry ... pls excuse the ignorance. had no other point of refernce but your accent. enjoyed your performance very much and hope to hear you again soon. i also organise monthly readings and if you'd like to come along and do a session pls. get in touch
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