Connect with Writers Connect

Writers - here's somewhere you might like to send your writing.

Writers Connect is an online literary arts portal designed to connect writers to writers and writers to readers. It is owned and managed by Word Forward Limited, a non-profit literary arts company based in Singapore.

It welcomes quality creative works in all genres (fiction, poetry, creative non-fiction, book reviews, essays, and interviews) from all corners of the world but works on and about Asia are especially welcome. Submission guidelines can be found here.

I don't know how this online publication slipped beneath my radar (it could well just be a case of me being as confused as the proverbial cuttlefish ... yes, I knew about WordForward the organisation, knew they had regular gatherings for writers, but hadn't realised they had got this together!).

Anyway, I would like to point you in the direction of some excellent fiction, some of it written by folks who are friends of this blog. The story of the week this time is Elmo Jayawardena's Tsunami. (You may remember this author from his visit to KL last year.) Other contributors you may know include local mat salleh Yusof Martin and Singaporean journalist and blogger Zafar Anjum. More stories here.

I also need to play catch-up with the poetry, interviews and reviews (the latest of which is Zafar's discussion of In Other Rooms, Other Wonders by Daniyal Mueenuddin.)

KL Poetry Slam Rides Again

After a hiatus, the KL Poetry Slam is being resurrected. This message from Elaine Foster came via Facebook, and she's happy to have it passed on to all of you :

Hey guys. By now I'm sure you have all heard that George, Han , Sheena and I are co-organising the KL Poetry Slam with Chris and Word Forward. The event is 99% confirmed to be held at Lepaq in Hartamas on the 25th April. I hope you guys will all consider taking part, if not in the slam it self but in the open mic section. More details will be released soon regarding the theme and feature poets.

Also, George and I are interested to hold a mini slam workshop before the slam itself, maybe the weekend before. If you are interested pls let me know asap so we can arrange space and time. I think if anything, the so-called 'slam workshop' will be a really cool opportunity to get together, practice, see what we've all been doing, polishing up our performance skills and maybe learn something new. Please let me know, oh and please spread the 'word' and 'forward' this message to anyone you think would wanna take part. Fresh blood fresh blood!!!!!!!

Kindest Regards
Elaine

You can contact Elaine Website via Facebook or at theloudgirl at yahoo dot co dot uk

Slammin' the Slammin'

One dark dark picture which if you squint at carefully, you can see the faint outline of performance poet Jacob Sam-La Rose. (The rest of my photos of last night's Green Slam at the Loft, Zouk are so crappy that I'm not even considering putting them up! My little camera doesn't like low light conditions.)

It was really nice to hear Jacob again and revisit some of the poems that had really touched me the last time he was here.

George Wielgus was also on very good form as the mighty Jah-J (his piece about how hard it is to slam and challenging the audience to come up if they thought they could do it better was excellent) and I enjoyed hearing Singaporean poet Pooja Nansi again. Her poem about Singapore was especially good. (But I am so sad I missed Reza Rosli because I left before he read.)

In the first round, I liked Kathleen Choo's poem about dead white poets the best. But I was disappointed overall that so little was made of the night's theme which seems to me to offer a great many possibilities.

I was a bit upset with myself because I wanted to click off the more embarrassing offerings (joining in the spirit of the thing!) I found my fingers just don't make a sound. The carpet muffled any sound of stamping. (Just as well because the rest of the audience were a much politer lot.)

There were some things that annoyed me. I thought it was against the rules to sing? (Though a couple of people did.) It also bothers me a bit that a fakey American accent seems de rigeur. Be yourselves guys, use your own voices!

There were some very nice poems, well delivered, and it makes me very happy to see how well the poets who have been working at performance poetry for some time are developing. It was great to pick up some of the chapbooks produced too.

I only stayed until the second round of the slam because ... (and here I'm going to do a gestapo-like rant for a minute, if you'll excuse me) I do not think my body should be breathing clouds of second-hand cigarette smoke, and because I object to having to go away smelling like an unemptied ashtray when I came into it smelling of L'Occitane Lavender (had you got close enough to notice).

This is one area where (and I hate to admit this) I think Singapore has it right!!!!!!

Well done though to Chris Mooney-Singh and Savinder of Word Forward, and Daphne Lee who made this happen and provide an invaluable space in which poets can learn and grow. We look forward to news of the next slam.

Postscript :

I've nicked Reza's recording of Jacob's performance. (Sorry - I don't know how to stop the video continually replaying itself. I just turn the sound off now that I know the poems off by heart.)

George Slams It Home!

Ahnaf writes about KL's first poetry slam (held at The Loft, Zouk, last Saturday night) in today's Starmag.

The winner was George Wielgus (left) :

... an outrageously gripping and and entertaining performer ...

(who is coming this month to Readings@Seksan!) and the first runner-up was Reza Rosli

... who played the sincere, oh-so-shy underdog ...

which makes me happy no end because I know this guy can really write and am thrilled that he conquered his fears enough to perform.

Well done to the organisers, Chris Mooney-Singh and Daphne Lee, and all the other poets who took part. It seems that a high standard has been ensured already.

Poetic Passions

Ahnaf in today's Starmag does a very good job of providing an overview of what's happening on the live literary scene in KL. Noting that:

Over the past two years, the idea of poets performing their work rather than just writing for themselves or simply reading it aloud has become increasingly popular ...

he interviews local performance poets Priya Kulasegaran and George Wielgus (left - and soon to appear at Readings@Seksan) as well as Bernice Chauly and Chris Mooney-Singh of WordForward who is bringing Poetry Slam to KL.

Priya talks about how audiences for Project OMG have been steadily growing through word of mouth and I think she's right when she says:

Younger people like us are getting involved ... After being fed the kind of music you’re supposed to listen to, and the kind of movies you’re supposed to watch, there’s a kind of reaction.

I'm glad that the piece also highlights the contribution of the British Council and the Wayang Kata events and workshops it organises and also the wonderful irony that the organisation that has done most to encourage a local literary scene is a foreign one.

Bernice Chauly talks about how live literature events have helped to create a much-needed sense of community among local writers, and also how our Malaysian authors doing so well on the world stage, have really done a lot to encourage local writers as well. Bernice says that when Tash Aw won the Whitbread first novel award in 2005:

It was like, ‘Oh wow, Malaysians? Writers? Really? So good, ah? Wow.’

Yeah, that good. Believe it!

Note: Links to the organisers of spoken words events are listed in a side-bar. The email given to contact me about Readings is wrong - please use sharonbakar@yahoo.com if you want to get in touch.

Live Lit KL - Looking Back, Looking Forward

This has been a year when live literature in KL has gone from strength to strength, and in a way we could not have imagined I think, a year of two back. What follows is an overview of what's happened, and then, if you have the patience to read to the end, I want to solicit your opinions about the direction we're headed in.

The British Council have continued to be major movers and shakers of the local literary scene bringing poets (This year Benjamin Zephaniah, Charlie Dark and Jacob Sam-La Rose) out from the UK to perform and run workshops. There was even publication Well Versed containing the work of some of our fledgling performance poets, and Jasmine Low and Jerome Kugan have worked with British Council to organize entertaining evenings of performance poetry and music under the banner Wayang Kata.

There were signs of our own poets "coming of age". Sharanya was brave enough to put on a one woman show before she had to leave for India, and was invited to the Singapore Writers Festival to give a solo reading. Priya, Liyana and Divya appeared with Charlie Dark at the same festival, and the poet said some very complimentary things about the local pool of talent.

Project OMG proved a great forum for young writers, Klue Magazine continued to run their Words and Tunes event this time in conjunction with MPH bookstores.

I have thoroughly enjoyed organising Readings@Seksan's, which as you know, I took over from Bernice Chauly. It has been a challenge to seek out (bully and cajole!) interesting folks into putting their words out before an audience. Where these readings have, I hope, differentiated themselves from the other live-lit events happening in the Klang Valley is in providing more of a forum for prose writing (fiction and non-fiction) along with poetry. I've also aimed for as diverse a collection of readers on any of those Saturday afternoons as possible ... though I don't think that I've done a good enough job tapping into the Malay writing scene, and this bothers me because I'd like to see writers coming together and sharing whatever their language of choice.

Our international "special" at Central Market was for me one of the highpoints of the year, and again, I have to thank British Council for that.

Bernice adopted a second baby this year, in the form of Readings@No Black Tie, held on the first Sunday night of the month, a more "upmarket" version of the Seksan readings held in a more nightclubby setting with some excellent talent on hand to entertain.

Maskara, the monthly readings event focusing on writing in Malay was started by Vovin and friends, and run along similar lines to the Seksan events at Rumah Pena.

All these events look set to continue running and building on their success in 2008, and lets add one more really great thing on top of them.

Some of you will remember our Cross-Causway Poetry Slam, held earlier this year at Seksan. Well, Chris Mooney-Singh and his wife Savinder who run WordForward in Singapore, will be bringing poetry slams to KL on a regular basis, starting we hope in February. We also hope that there will be a lot of spin-off events such as themed slams and workshops radiating out from this.

Now then, my first (multi-part!) question to you - are we in danger of having too much going on in the city, and how do we ensure that events don't clash or crowd so tightly together on the calendar that we steal each others audiences or cause our fans to overdose on spoken word? Or are the audiences totally different for each event so that the question is academic?

This question bothers Bernice and I a lot, and we decided that we would organise only one Readings event each month, alternating between Seksan and No Black Tie. (So Readings@Seksans will be bi-monthly in 2008 rather than monthly as it has been this year.)

This gives me a little more breathing space and also gives me time to plan for some alternative kinds of literary happenings. (News of one to be posted very soon!)

My second question (equally multi-part!) is which live lit events have you attended this year and which did you like best? How could the organisers (inc. me!) do what we do better? (Please do be honest.) What would you like to see happen in 2008?

What I have found particularly heartening this year is the way that the organisers of these events have networked with each other, and the way audiences (without which nothing at all would happen!) have supported live lit events and made them viable.

The Python and the Poets

I have to tell you now that I deliberately didn't organise "Readings" at Seksan's for this month because I was playing "wait and see" with the litfest. I wondered if I could filch some interesting writers and do something with them on the Saturday afternoon. As it happened things turned out just nicely.

Chris Mooney-Singh of WordForward who organises poetry slams in Singapore was down for the festival, but few of our local poets were able to attend the sessions as they were held during the day and the festival organisers apparently could not accommodate an evening event. Chris contacted Sunitha of British Council who contacted me. Yes, yes, I said. Give it to us!

I've been wanting to attend a poetry slam for some time, reading enviously about live literature events and hanging out at Chris' website. Live literature has really been taking off over the last year, thanks in large part to the British Council who have been bringing in excellent UK performance poets, and to our local poets who have been organising spoken word events around the city under the umbrellas of Project OMG and Doppelgangers. But those involved in organising poetry events were wondering ... was KL ready for the competitive sport of a poetry slam yet and how would it work anyway? Would our poets be so devastated if they got voted out in the early rounds that they would never pick up a pen again? Would our judges be terribly cruel and our audiences be baying for blood?

Saturday was therefore what you might consider a safe experiment. Home ground. The supportive folk who turn up month after month for a very mixed bag of writers. Enough wine from La Bodega to sedate the boozers. And Chris Mooney-Singh to gently ease us into the sport and three of his poets from the Lion City willing to be sacrificed to the KL lions!

Among the first to turn up before the slam was a python called Bobby, owned by one of our KL slammers, Fynn Jamal, pictured below with her friend and fellow slammer Sheena Baharuddin.

(You will of course appreciate my artistically blurry pics of the afternoon. Next time I might take some boringly conventional shots with my camera on the right settings!)

Fynn and Sheena were directed my way by Dr. Faridah Manaaf who is at present in the US. Both are her students and I know that she would have been very proud of them.

Before we began, Chris briefed the audience and laid out the rules for us. We were encouraged to cheer and clap and show our appreciation when we were enjoying the poetry, but could click our fingers and stamp our feet when we found the performance dragging. (Audience members latched on to the slam protocol very quickly indeed!)

We had our judges, with their little white boards. (Sorry I cut off Eugene on the far left of the photo ... but he had his face covered anyway!) The qualifications for being a judge? these were the folks who didn't know the slammers, or didn't know anything about poetry, or who watch American Idol and know all about the cruel process of elimination, or in Eugene's case read only poetry on the page. The judges were scattered throughout the audience. The group of young ladies on the far right jointly played the role of one judge as "The Fireflies". They are all TESL students from the University of Malaya. (I made the boo-boo of telling them to help themselves to wine if they were old enough to drink!!) Winnie, sitting next to me, was a particularly exacting judge. ("Well, we ARE supposed to eliminate people," she said.) Boooooooo. Hissssssssss.

Quite so.

Actually we would have asked Bobby the python to be an impartial judge, but he slithered inside Fynn's handbag and spent the afternoon napping.


Chris warmed up the audience with a few pieces including his wonderful The Word Must Rock! a poem about poetry slam (which is podcast here) and some poems with poet Chuck Kramer. Then his group of young slam poets up from Singapore gave us a poem about which they had jointly written in the coffee shop of the hotel where they are staying ...

... and Peter Hassan Brown sang for us, with Markiza providing background vocals.

And then it was time for the slam proper. Each poet got a maximum of three minutes to strut their stuff and names were called picked out at random. Our other valiant slammers were (blurrily):


Tshiung Han See


Jasmine Low (with Chris in the background)


Dato SHANmugalingam with his Fatty Fatty Bomb Bomb poem.


kG ...


Peter Hassan Brown - who won third prize! I think it was his naughty poem Vigorous that did it.

... and Pooja Nansi - her first poem hitting at British stereotypes about India was one of my favourites of the afternoon. She got voted out in the second round but the audience started chanting that they wanted her back. Fat chance - the judges had spoken.

Fynn ... in motion. She has such a great husky voice and a very dramatic style!

Sharanya seduced everyone and came in second.

Sheena ...

... and Bani Haykkal.


Marc Nair was the winner! (Loved his poem about Milo addiction).

So will we do it again? Well, Chris and I parted yesterday evening saying "Next time ...".

Thanks Seksan for the incredible space - it's a debt of gratitude that really can't be repaid. (And sorry Bobby tried to bite you.)

Thanks La Bodega for the wine.

Thanks to the poets - all of you are winners.

Thanks to Chris and Savinder for bringing us this wonderful gift.

Thanks to the great audience who gave their support. (There were 76 of you. Reza counted.)

Thanks Kenny for the blog poster.

Thanks Reza for helping with the sound.

Thanks Peter for the microphone and amp and the music.

Thanks to those who helped to clear up afterwards.

And to Bobby the python for becoming our slam mascot.

Other things to read on slam:

Chris Mooney-Singh talks about Poetry Slam™ in Singapore on the ChannelNewsAsia website. Singaporean student Soh Wee Ling about her experience of taking part in a slam (from the Straits Times). The National Library Board of Singapore have a list of useful books for people who want to know more about poetry slams.

Links to other blogs:

kG suffers literary overload. Leon's pictures are wonderful!

Performance poetry shouldn't be mistaken as anything-goes-self-expression, because as much as this medium allows for various forms of personal creative freedom in language and presentation, poetry is still an art, a craft that carries and draws upon a certain aesthetic sensibility and soul.

says Dreamer Idiot on our Puisi-Poesy blog giving his honest impressions of each performer. He was one of the judges on Saturday.

The New Straits Times also covered the event, and it's also featured in this piece by Bernice Chauly on the Kakiseni website.

Litfest Fringe

So you're not going to the KL Litfest (KLILF 2007) because you're working and feel a bit sick about missing events you enjoy? Or maybe you can't afford the registration?

The good news is that some of the biggest names will be appearing in other venues around town and events are either free or at minimal cost! Yipeee!

British performance poet Benjamin Zephaniah will be appearing at Central Market Annexe on Friday March 30th at 8.30p.m.in a performance jointly presented by British Council, Ricecooker and Bau-Bau Café featuring Wayang Kadbod by the kids from Projek Kampung Seni, local street poet Rahmat Haron and music by Tenderfist and Kuchalana. Admission RM10 at the door, no reservations necessary. This promises to be one of the most exciting live literature events of the year. Don't miss it.

Here's more about Zephaniah from the British Council website:

Born in 1958 in Birmingham and raised in Jamaica and Handsworth, the young Benjamin left school at the age of 14. By the time he was 15, he had developed a strong home town following as a young poet who was capable of speaking on local and international issues.

He published his first book Pen Rhythm at age 22, though it was through performance that Benjamin earned a name for himself. His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system; Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories, contained poetry and travelogue; Too Black, Too Strong (2001) was inspired by his tenure as Poet in Residence at the chambers of London barrister Michael Mansfield QC and by his attendance at both the inquiry into the 'Bloody Sunday' shootings and the inquiry into the death of Ricky Reel, an Asian student found dead in the Thames. His poetry collections include books for children: Talking Turkeys (1994) and Funky Chickens (1996), andnovels for teenagers: Face (1999), described by the author as a story of 'facial discrimination'; Refugee Boy (2001), the story of a young boy, Alem, fleeing the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; and Gangsta Rap (2004).

He has been Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool and Creative Artist in Residence at Cambridge University; has received numerous honorary doctorates for his work in literature, and in 1998, was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education to advise on the place of music and art in the National Curriculum. He has written plays for radio, TV and the stage, and includes several music recordings in his repertoire.

Canadian author Camilla Gibb (left) is going to be appearing at Kinokuniya bookstore in KLCC at 7.30 on the 30th, and also at MPH Mid Valley Megamall, KL 2-3p.m. on 1st April.

Our own Tash Aw, author of the award-winning The Harmony Silk Factory, will be appearing at the Book Cafe in MPH, 1 Utama at 8pm on Wednesday 28th March.

On Thursday 29th, he will be at Borders in Berjaya Times Square (Jalan Imbi, KL) from 4pm to 5pm, and at MPH in Bangsar Village II (Bangsar Baru, KL) from 6pm to 7pm. Later at MPH Mid Valley Megamall, KL, from 8pm to 9pm, there will be a book-signing session with the author. More details in todays Star Two. (But oh - ouch ouch ouch - how I wish they'd drop his price tag off the headlines!)

And then, of course, we've got Chris Mooney-Singh and the Word Forward poets at Seksan's on Saturday afternoon. Not only is the event itself free, but we also have lovely free wine courtesy of our sponsor La Bodega. Now how can you resist!

Update:

Sharanya tells me that on Sunday April 1st at 9pm at No Black Tie there will be poetry by Cyril Wong (S'pore), Bernice Chauly, Jerome Kugan and Sharanya herself. Entry RM15. (Click poster to enlarge.)

The First Cross-Causeway Poetry Slam™

"Readings" (KL) and Word Forward (Singapore)

proudly present

The First Cross-Causeway Poetry Slam™

featuring:

K. L. Poets:

Tshiung Han See
Jasmine Low
Fynn Jamal
Nur Sheena Baharudin
Dato Shanmugalingam
Peter Brown
Sharanya Manivannan

Singapore Poets:

Chris Mooney-Singh
Marc Nair
Pooja Nansi
Bani Haykkal

Poetry Slam™ is the competitive art of writing and performing poetry.

Rules: Contestants should bring 3 original poems to perform, each up to 3 minutes in length. No props, costumes or musical instruments are used during the slam.

“The Points are not the point, the point is Poetry” – Alan Wolf

Date and Time: 3.30 p.m. Saturday 31st March, 2007
Place: Seksan's, 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Lucky Garden, Bangsar. (Click here for map)
Admission: Free!!

"Readings" is the love-child of Bernice Chauly, fostered at present by Sharon Bakar and made possible with the generous sponsorship of Seksan and La Bodega.

For more information visit the Word Forward website or contact Sharon Bakar: sbakar at streamyx dot com and 012-6848835

Please can you pass on this information to anyone or any group you think may be interested?

Our First Poetry Slam?

Remember how I told you I was not going to organise "readings" at Seksan's this month 'cos there would be so much going on for the KL Litfest? Well, it's a woman's prerogative to change her mind!

There's nothing else going on Saturday 31st, and many of you will miss the Litfest events because they are being held during the week and many of you are working. Besides I don't know about you but it is already feeling like a long time since our last afternoon at Seksan's ... and I'm getting withdrawal symptoms!

Chris Mooney Singh who organises Singapore's monthly poetry slam gigs with WordForward is coming up for the Litfest and is scheduled for a couple appearances, one on the Thursday (29th) afternoon, one on the Friday morning (30th), with the group of performance poets and he's bringing with him.

But there is no space on the programme for a proper poetry slam, so Chris asked those of us who organise Live Lit events in KL for help. I felt it was too good an opportunity to miss!

We've never had a proper slam before in KL - our performance poetry scene is fairly new, but the talent and the enthusiasm is there - and now we get a chance to see how we fare in a competitive environment. And also to see if poetry slams work for us and we want to organise more of them.

How does a slam work? Chris describes it as an open mic gently contesting in the name of Poetry. He will be hosting the event with US Slam legend Ray McNiece and promises they will both be as entertaining and off the wall as possible.

Actor-musician Ray McNiece has been a full time performance poet and workshop facilitator for 20 years and has traveled widely and performed with some truly great names such as Robert Bly, Ferlingetti and Yevtushenko the greatest living Russian poet with whom he toured Russia a few years ago.

Chris says:

Some helpful Slam adages: ‘The points are not the point, the point is poetry’ and ‘The best poet never wins’. The Slam has a lot of entertainment value and traditionally draws good crowds especially non-poets who are curious to see poetry as sport. We see the Slam as part of the performance poetry package in a literary scene and every event we hold in Singapore has a mixture of traditional open mic, features, music, dance items, theatre pieces multi-media etc along with a Slam.

Okay, to make this event work, first we need some confident poets who can stand-up and perform their work, and who will not have their egos shattered totally if they don't win! If you are brave enough to compete, please get in touch with me by e-mail sbakar at streamyx dot com. Preference will be given to those who have read at other open mic gigs or have taken part in the poetry workshops organised by British Council.

We also hope to have one or two Singaporean poets taking part ... but this is not a cross-causeway battle!

Each poet needs to have 3 original poems ready. Using a script is fine, but as Chris says, memorization does impress more wherever possible. Each poem should be no longer than 3 minutes or points are deducted. There are 3 rounds.

We will have a team of five judges (who they will be is to be decided). Poets are scored from 1-10 with or without decimals eg 1.1, 9.9 or whole numbers. No props, costumes or musical instruments are used.

Oh yes, and there will be prizes in the form of cash and book vouchers! And if any organisation out there (and hey, I know the bookshop folks and publishers read this blog!) and would like to add some more prizes and have your name up on the publicity, please get in touch.

I will be screaming out to ask certain individuals with some logistical help. And can anyone suggest some reasonably priced accomodation in KL for Chris and his team who are not receiving any sponsorship?

We will revert to out usual "readings" format for April's event and I already have some great names lined up.