Lit Where You Least Expect It

What's the perfect venue for a live lit performance? While we've been holing up for readings in galleries and begging an audience to come to us, elsewhere organisers have been taking the live word out into public spaces and reaching a new audience.

Francesca Beard of Apples and Snakes told me about the perils of taking performance poetry onto London buses, when I interviewed her some time back, and how one of her co-poets (is there such a word?) almost got into a punchup with an inspector because he didn't have a valid ticket! Francesca also took poetry to the "creepy crawly gallery" of London's Natural History Museum.

I picked up this story of live lit in the laudromat* from Raman's website and went for a fast spin (geddit?) around the Dirty Laundry website where I found photos of performances, press clippings, an audio recording ... and helpful laundry tips.

The co-founder of the series is Emily Rubin, and the audience bring along their washing, and receive free boxes of detergent. According to Time Out New York:

The evenings are usually broken up into “wash” and “dry” segments, with music in between; the first reading lasts 26 minutes, or the duration of a normal wash. Occasionally, listeners become so engaged, they forget to add Downy to the rinse. Raffles are held at the end, with the winner receiving a laundry bag autographed by the authors. And yes, books are available for purchase.

Now laundromats (laundrettes in British English) are not a phonomena we have here at all in Malaysia where we simply send clothes to the dobi and get them back all nicely washed and ironed. But I'm sure that there ought to be some simularly crazy venues for live lit events in KL ... can you think of any?

Two Must-See Things

Don't forget. Francesca Beard performs 28 - 30th September at KLPac:

Chinese Whispers is a show about identity, set in London, at the start of the 21st century, in a city where daily, over 300 languages are spoken, arguably the most multicultural city in the world. It asks the questions:

'Who am I? Where are you from? Why are we here? What makes us laugh? and Which would you rather be, Hamlet or Buffy the Vampire Slayer?'

"This babelicious city where daily, more than 300 languages are spoken"...

"In Britain today, it's all about your roots, your identity, but there's banana bio yoghurts over there who've got more live culture than me. I've got to get out of this place!"

"We spoke English at home, not because my dad was the big white chief but because English is what you speak when you're all from different places, and in my family we were all strangers, I mean emotionally it was like the bar in Star Wars"...

"So, where could we go from here? We could go anywhere - To the palace of the Jade Emperor, in the rainforest with ipecucuana. Right here, now, me and you, we could open the door, to something new, something no-one else has ever seen before!"

And also worth catching is the latest offering by exciting young theatre group The Oral Stage:

fiftynineminutes.
original short plays and monologues performed within one hour.

“Two friends discover faith, direction and the truth. An actress whom we all like to hate. A bitter past haunts a bitterer couple. A girl finds beauty in ugliness. A man and a woman make love over dinner. A fellow Malaysian makes the country proud. And a group of roommates bring back the dead- all within fiftynineminutes”

When September 28th - October 1st 2006 @ 8.30 pm

Where The Dram Projects, BG06 Happy Mansion Apartments, Jalan 17/13 46400 PJ

Tickets RM10

Ticket contact Louisa Low @ 0163757833

And I'm going to be away and miss them both ...

Looking for Poets!

Want to try your hand at performance poetry? The British Council is offering a free workshop led by leading performance poet, Francesca Beard. Here's the ad I receieved in my in-box just a few minutes ago. Please feel free to pass it on to anyone you think might be interested.

Francesca Beard is back in Malaysia from 28 to 30 September with Chinese Whispers, a performance that combines love and linguistics limbo dancing into a fun-sized hour of poetic dim-sum. And while she’s in town, Francesca will conduct a workshop for poets! Details below:

Date: 30 September 2006
Time: 3.00 to 5.00pm
Venue: The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Sentul Park
Cost: The workshop is F.O.C but spaces are limited.
Who’s it for?: Poets looking to refine their craft and interested in performing their work to an audience, writers or actors with an interest in spoken word.
What you need to bring to the workshop: Some of your own poetry, an open mind and lots of enthusiasm!

If you’re interested, email us at arts@britishcouncil.org.my with your details (name, age, email and contact number) along with a few choice words about you, the poet, and your writing experience. Closing date: 25 September 2006. For more information about Chinese Whispers, click here.

Francesca is Back!

Queen of peformance poetry, Francesca Beard will be back in KL - this time with her show Chinese Whispers at KLPac 28 - 30th September.

And sadly, I will be away in Bali and miss it!

Related Posts:

Of Apples and Snakes (21/3/06)
More on Performance Poetry (21/3/06)
Troubagangers Wayang Kata (30/3/06)
Francesca and the Troubagangers (6/4/06)
Poetry from Pain (17/4/06)
Confession (15/6/06)

Akan Datang from British Council

Sunitha of British Council has been in touch to say that performance poet Francesca Beard will be back in September to perform her show Chinese Whispers in its entirety, and to run a workshop to train performance poets locally.

There will also be a second round of Wayang Kata style entertainment in November, and plans are also afoot to build links with poets from Singapore.

Watch this space, as they say!

Related Posts

Troubagangers Wayang Kata (30/3/06)
Francesca and the Troubagangers (6/4/06)

Poetry from Pain

My article on Francesca Beard is in Starmag yesterday.

How she began performing her work:

Although she wrote poetry for years, she didn’t consider performing it until, after being dumped very painfully by a boyfriend, she lugged her badly bruised ego along to an open mike session where she felt no one would know her. She describes her first experience of standing in front of an audience as being like a bungee jump. But fear took away the heartbreak, and performing her work for an audience quickly became addictive. “When people say that creative writing is a form of therapy, it really was for me.” The anger she felt towards her boyfriend was channelled into a powerful poem called Length of String, which she included in her collection of poems, Cheap, a cyclostyled chapbook that she sells at gigs.

Pain and anger and a desire for revenge on those who cause us greatest hurt can be a terrific boost to creativity! Just sharpen up those knives!

Kitty Kaye has written a very good piece about Francesca, while Ridzwan A. Rahim has penned a very good introduction to peformance poetry for "the opposition"!

I like Ridzwan's suggestion that:

In Malaysia, the closest that we have to performance poetry is perhaps pantun, which is really a battle between poets where the audience is also highly involved.

I agree. I love pantuns and think so much more could be done with them - particularly in performance ...

Pictures from La Bodega

Some photos from the other night at La Bodega, all but the first taken by Arnee of British Council. (My efforts were pathetic - blurry profile images of poets with their eyes closed - blame it on the Long Island Iced Tea ...)

No room for even one more ... have you ever seen a poetry reading so packed?

Kutu guy Fahmi Fadzil reads No Exit ...

The sexy Sharanya Manivannan struts her stuff ...

Rahmat Harun sets the world on fire ...

The incomparable Francesca Beard ...

Francesca and the Troubagangers

Scooted off to British Council yesterday for a lunch-time interview with performance poet Jessica Beard over pizza in the courtyard. (Here pictured with daughter Lola Choo who is learning how to follow in her mum's footsteps.) It was as much a meeting with a friend, because we'd met in Manila last November when I got my first taste of what Performance Poetry is all about in Francesca's workshop sessions.

Then at night the La Bodega gig. Francesca and the Troubagangers – a showcase of local talents. There was something for sure at stake for both parties. This was Francesca’s first ever Malaysian performance even though her roots are here (half-Malaysian, she was born in Assunta Hospital and grew up in Penang).

And our local guys had something to prove too - would their performances flag and sag when put side by side with a professional performer/poet of Francesca’s? As it turned out, it was a totally brilliant evening.

The upstairs of La Bodega was packed to the rafters with an incredibly supportive crowd. (This was Wednesday and this was poetry for heaven’s sake!) Jerome and Yasmin Low compared the evening incomparably. (Though Jerome added me to the list of people to read on the open mic afterwards ‘cos he said I was a heckler! Not good.)

Francesca was totally connected with the audience as she shared hilarious stories about her childhood,her dog Fluffy, multicultural encounters in Tesco’s and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Poetry meets stand-up comedy meets song.

But this is the heart of it - her poems were addressed directly to the audience, drawing them in, in a way that reading them out cannot. One poem was a survey about which way we'd prefer to die if we could choose (being eaten by a lion in KLCC Park, getting chainsawed by a nutter, left to drift slowly into outer space ... ) - a grimly funny piece, which had her soliciting views from the audience. Poetry that talks and lets you talk back.

The Troubagangers were on top form, feeding on the electricity of the occasion. Most of all I enjoyed: Jerome's lyricism, Fahmi Fadzil's No Exit (which he improvised on for the occasion), Ruhayat X performing his piece about the pencil, another dose of Pang's encounters in the dark, Sharanya's very sexy poem about everything wanting to make love to her ...

But it was Rahmat Harun's rollercoaster ride of a performance of Keranamu Malaysia which came closest to upstaging Francesca ...

I came away inspired. Syabas to all who worked so hard to pull the evening together and a special mention for Sunitha Janamohanan of British Council and her team.

(Below - Francesca relaxes with a glass of wine after the performance.)

Troubaganger's Wayang Kata

Performance poet Francesca Beard takes to the stage with Troubagangers (a collection of local poets you know and love - see below) on April 5th at 8 p.m. at La Bodega, Tengkat Tongshin. The performance is given in association with the British Council and there will be an open mic session afterwards for all you poetic wannabes. Admission RM5.

Believe me, this is something special. Don't miss it!

Here's the blurb about it:

Hailed by the London Metro as the “British Queen of Performance Poetry”, British-Malaysian poet Francesca Beard will take you on a journey that breaks down old perceptions of what poetry is with her acerbic wit and cross-cultural takes on life. Spoken word is poetry that is performed; a contemporary art form that is popular yet profound, accessible yet inspired. Francesca Beard does it in her inimitable style, mixing sharp observations with humorous anecdotes, churning them out as only a poet could.

Francesca will be joined on stage by eight of Malaysia’s most exciting young poets, giving you a night of rhyme and word as you’ve never had in KL.

About Francesca Beard
London-based poet Francesca Beard was born in Malaysia and spent the 70's growing up in Penang, before moving to the UK. She is a full-time poet, performing spoken word to audiences all over Britain, as well as internationally.

She has worked as a workshop facilitator in creative writing, poetry and performance for Apples & Snakes, the UK’s leading organisation for performance poetry, and is working on longer term projects with theatres and organisations.

Francesca’s poems have been featured in numerous publications, and she has performed commissioned work for Apples & Snakes, BBC, Chris Ofili and Victoria Miro Gallery, the Arts Council, England, and more. In May 2005, her first radio play, ‘The Healing Pool’ was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 and London Live. Her one-woman show, ‘Chinese Whispers’, produced by Apples and Snakes, has recently been and still is touring, and she is developing a new show supported by the Arts Council, England.

This is Francesca’s first time performing in Malaysia.

For more details on Francesca, visit www.francescabeard.com

About the Malaysian poets
Bernice Chauly has worked as a filmmaker, photographer, publisher, actor, playwright and teacher. Her work as a poet explores subjects including love, history and identity.

Fahmi Fadzil acts and writes when he can, and watches and reads when he can't. He is a member of theatre ensemble Akshen and arts collective Five Arts Centre.

Jasmine Low—publisher, marketing consultant and event organiser—writes stories based on her experiences as a migrant living in between Malaysia and Australia.

Jerome Kugan is a poet, writer and musician. His hauntingly imagistic poems are products of his deconstruction of the nature of perception in a fast-changing world.

Pang Khee Teik is a writer, photographer and editor of Kakiseni.com. His highly frank and amusing stories are based on past and present real-life bedroom adventures.

Rahmat Haron is a prolific young poet and visual artist. He has also worked as a theatre activist, performance artist and supporter of political change in Malaysia.

Ruhayat X is a writer and publisher whose stories and observations of urban life in Malaysia are witty, biting social satires with a sly surreal bent.

Sharanya Manivannan was born in India in 1985. A writer, dancer, painter, activist and journalist, she is currently working on her first novel and collection of poems.

About Troubagangers
Troubagangers is the combined outfit of Troubadours and Doppelganger, together responsible for two regular monthly events nights of live music, original song-writing, poetry and prose by local burgeoning talent in Kuala Lumpur. Doppelganger is headed by Jasmine Low while Troubadours is headed by Jerome Kugan, Azmyl Yunor and Tan Sei Hon.

For more details and to see images of past performances, please visit:

www.webprojx.com/troubaganger
www.troubadourskl.blogspot.com
www.doppelgangerkl.blogspot.com

Related Posts

Of Apples and Snakes
More on Performance Poetry

Of Apples and Snakes

Poetry - seen as stuffy, obscure, unfun - badly needs a makeover to reach a wider audience. Teachers dissect it and exams kill it. How many people open a book and read for pleasure? (Remember Daisy Goodwin's comments?)

Well, in Britain there's been a small revolution. It's called performance poetry. And at the heart of performance poetry, there is an organisation called Apples and Snakes. (So named because they began in a pub called The Adam and Eve.) From humble begining with just three poets and a London base, it now has 15 poets on its payroll and organises events across Britain ... and in India ... and soon ...

Well, don't let me get ahead of myself.

Performance poetry is poetry written to be ... performed (rather than stuffily mumbled by some arty-type, nose glued to a sheet of paper). It has to be immediate 'cos an audience can't spend time puzzling out deeper meanings, while rhythm and wordsound is even more important. It easily incorporates elements of stand-up comedy, theatre and music. It can be performed in any public space - even on buses and in the supermarket ...

And it can be performed by ... anybody ...

(Shock horror gasp from the purists.)

My first brush with performance poetry was last November when Sunitha (of British Council) and I attended a regional Animating Literature workshop in Manila to look at ways of promoting reading and writing in South-East Asia.

Apples and Snakes poet, Francesca Beard, lead some of the sessions - performed her work for us (quite wonderful), took us through writing and performing pieces ...

And she also worked with a group of university students who put on an excellent performance of their work one evening at the Conspiracy Bar with Francesca performing several of her piece! It was all woven together with traditional dance and music and vocal performance. Siege, who drops by this blog sometimes was one of the performers and besides reading his own work, performed quite an amazing duel of words in tagalog with a friend.

So where is this going?

Apples and Snakes director Geraldine Collinge (left) is in town and working out with British Council and local poets how performance poetry can best be brought to Malaysia and a generation of performance poets trained up ... to perform of course, and then to train others, perhaps going into schools and colleges. To start something big and self-sustaining and fun from an apple pip and snake scale.

Lat night the British Council held a reception for Geraldine at Maya Gallery in Bangsar and local poets Jerome Kugan, Bernice Chauly, and Datuk Shan read their poetry ...