Hide no more: the inspired now have an outlet, as the KL poetry scene lifts its veil to a surprisingly ready, albeit still stylishly niche, audience. With the increasing popularity of open mic nights, brave singer/songwriters and literary academia amateurs now have the platform on which to hone their art.Whether it’s organising performance poetry (where poets take on a small but captivated crowd and literally wax lyrical), or creating the poetry that’s performed, one thing’s for sure: what once was an individual self indulgent pastime has now been made public. Malaysian poets take it upon themselves to bring their poetry to the masses.
Nicholas Wong and myself got interviewed for a Vision KL article about the growth of performance poetry in KL, and Nic is the cover boy. (Don't let it go to your head!)
The piece is a nice plug for "Readings", and for Inky Hands, and it does give a flavour of what's happening, but it is a terrible shame that the efforts of the British Council in bringing in poets from the UK to energise the whole scene and run workshops and the main movers and shakers: Jasmine Low, Jerome Kugan, Bernice Chauly and Project OMG don't get a mention.
Still it's nice to see local poetry getting some coverage.
12 comments:
cool article!
we've run through the poetry bingo idea before but i'm still blur about how it works.
i'm still wondering if the japan foundation is planning anything... renga anyone?
the poetry bingo - not my idea - took from apples and snakes and asked francesca beard about it. get 20 poets give each a number. give audience bingo cards. call out numbers bingo style. each poet gets 5 minutes. audience fills in their cards as each number is called and someoen wins a prize. it's like a slam but not competitive for the poets and has a fun element. let's do it!
we could talk to the japan foundation y'know ...
cool, cool cover...
P.S. lil ms d gave me the heads up it's International Women's Day, do go to her blog or mine and post up the IWD logo in support of IWD (March 8).
:)
eesh i have been clicking on the link but error page.
YAY!
Yeah, as usual, the media goes in and covers it superficially as something new and cool, without really understanding or getting to the heart of it (their description already betrays some ignorance), especially missing out on the efforts by the British Council, and people like SHaranya, Pat Low, Wong Phui Nam, Cecil Rajendra etc, not to mention, us at puisi-poesy (not that media 'fame' is important, but more people initiated to start reading poetry would be just wonderful)
A big cheers for both you and Nic!!
in all truth, kenny, anything woman solidarityish is a bit of a turn-off for me. don't get me wrong, i love my female friends. i very much value women's voices on their blogs. would fight with teeth and claws (!) for women's right to express themselves.
but i don't think women should be a special case. today or any other. i assume equality with men.
and can't be assed to put the button up. politically correct or not.
am i just grouchy today??
dreamer idiot - i did pass on all the info inc. about puisy-poesy ... i guess it was easier just to quote the two of us
time for more in-depth article i suppose ... might tackle it meself if no-one else wants to
Yeah, I knew you would. The thing for me is that their presentation of the local poetry scene appears to only trivialize and reduce it as something 'kewl' and 'funky', without really delving deeper and giving it the serious consideration it deserves.
Anyway, who's to complain, any publicity is always good, and thanks to the good account you and Nic gave, hopefully more people will attend the readings and be interested in not just in poetry, but literature and good writing as whole.
I think these are exciting times ahead. We'll chat more when we meet on Leon's suggestion of perhaps opening up a publishing opportunities. Let's wait and see.
Well, I always saw it less as women's solidarity and more as an opportunity to raise awareness about women's issues. Ideally, men and women are equals, but how true is this once the real world gets factored in. It's no different from supporting any cause, I suppose.
And it's more than fine not to post the logo up if you don't want. Choice is paramount. And I don't think you're grouchy either. ;)
no. i am a grouch. everyone else is so good and so well meaning. i just want to fight everyone. and i may start sprouting horns!
Nice cover. Vision KL seems to be getting Klue-d up. Or should I wait for the next issue before saying that definitely...
Heh grouchy is good :D or at least entertaining. Poetry is pretty superficial these days anyway, it's not like we're ever going to get another Byron or Dylan or Keats or Shelly.
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