Great Writing Tips no. 428 - Remember to Eat!

I met my young friend Siege, aka Carlos Malvar, when I attended the British Council's Animating Literature conference in Manila a couple of year's back and he made an impression as a performance poet and really nice guy. Now he is the author of two best selling young adult novels, and he's started a rather good blog called Not So Unreal.

I really like what he wrote about writing and eating! :

Tip to all budding writers out there. Before getting elbow deep into your work, make sure you’re well fed. Never face the blank page on an empty stomach. Hunger pangs are distractions. You don’t want to think about what you’re going to eat while you’re figuring out how to express your character’s fears in 50 words or so using graphic descriptions and gothic settings. Writing is hard work. You’ll get hungry. Eat, eat, eat.

Also, do you know that thinking burns calories? Usually, I watch what I eat. I came from a family cursed with the fat genes on my dad’s side, and with the short genes on my mom’s side… which makes me a hobbit, especially now that I have curly hair, and furry feet. Anyway, I watch what I eat because I tend to get fat more than the usual person, and usually, I try to squeeze in some jogging in my moderately busy lifestyle of watching videos. BUT, when I’m writing intensively, I let myself loose and basically feast on junk food, loads of carbs, heaps and heaps of sugar (via coffee, iced tea, Coke), and whatever I can munch on. It’s OK, I’m writing. I’m running full speed on my mental threadmill.

When you’re writing, you will get very very hungry. This is because you will experience bending time while writing. While you agonize over three paragraphs where nothing happens in your “narrative time” except for one of your characters making himself some coffee, an entire hour may have elapsed in real time. A single page of manuscript may detail nothing but a fleeting moment in your narrative timeline, and you didn’t notice it, but four real time hours have gone by!!! That’s what it’s like to be a writer.

Siege was one of the performance poets invited to take part in the British Council and Apples and Snakes' Speechless poetry project last year, along with others including our own Priya K and Singaporean Pooja Nansi, and under the tutelage of Jacob Sam-la Rose and Malika Booker.

Siege's more personal blog is here. Yeah, he's nuts. So?

Maybe if we all shout loud enough he will be forced to come over to Malaysia and read some of his work for us.

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.)

The Green Slam

This weekend catch the second KL poetry slam, which this time has a green theme :

Venue: Zouk KL, 113 Jalan Ampang, KL
Time: 7-11pm
Door: 1o RM
Dress: Smart Casual, no sandals.

Hosted by Tshiung Han See and Chris Mooney-Singh
Feature Poets: Jacob Sam La Rose (UK) and George Wilegus
Slam: 3 rounds including one 'green theme' round; open mic.

Jacob's Back!

Poet and mentor Jacob Sam-La Rose is going to be back in town and running workshops. Here's the blurb from the British Council :

We’re really happy to welcome back British poet and writer, Jacob Sam-La Rose, to Kuala Lumpur from 21 to 26 March.

A former Poet-in-Residence at BBC London, he has taught creative writing internationally, and has facilitated and taught workshops and extended projects through institutions such as the National Theatre, the Arvon Foundation, Spread the Word, the Roundhouse, the Barbican, as well as a range of schools across England.

Jacob will be running workshop sessions with teacher trainers, trainee teachers, secondary school students and officers from the Curriculum Development Centre. And for you poets out there, fear not as Jacob will have some time to work with you too.

PERFORMANCE POETRY FOR FIRST TIMERS
Jacob will be holding workshops for aspiring and first time poets and performers. For ages 16 and above.

Date: 24 & 25 April 2008
Time: 7.00 pm – 9.30 pm
Venue: British Council Kuala Lumpur

PERFORMANCE POETRY: MASTERCLASS
For all you poets who’ve been busy making the Klang Valley a more literary place - come raise the bar with us!

Date: 26 April 2008
Time: 10.00 am – 6.00 pm
Venue: Dram Projects, BG-6, Happy Mansion, Jalan 17/13, Petaling Jaya, Selangor

Spaces are limited and pre-registration is required. To register for the workshops email us at arts@britishcouncil.org.my

Here's Jacob reading a poem called Gravity at Wayang Kata III.

Jacob Sam-La Rose Rocks It!

Jamie Khoo talks to poet Jacob Sam-La Rose in StarMag. He says he finds the teaching of poetry in schools:

... somewhat backward. Students are usually forced to read very ‘heavy’ poets. ... I was a geek at school so when we had to study the works of poets like Seamus Heaney and John Keats, I enjoyed it. But even then, I was looking for something relevant to me. ... What we need to do is to start with poets that do engage students. It’s a matter of presenting poetry as something that is wild, fresh and new. Then once you get their interest, once you get them to understand why you play with form and metre, once you get them writing, then you refer them to Shakespeare and Heaney.

On the healing power of poetry, he says:

I’ve seen poetry save people’s lives. Some kids have been in danger of being excluded from the school system and were brought back into school through poetry programmes. Now, they are teaching English and passing on to others what they had gained.

And on performance poetry:

It’s not about reading the poem back to the page but making a connection with the audience and communicating with them.

Kate Owen (now British Council Malaysia's Acting Director) also shares her thoughts on promoting performance poetry in Malaysia.

Food Foundary Poets

Saturday afternoon at the Food Foundry, the young poets came out to play. Two workshop sessions with Jacob Sam-La Rose (above) resulted in new pieces and an increased confidence of delivery. Each young (at heart in Datuk Shan's case!) poet read three pieces - two old, one new, none borrowed, some blue.

Jacob introduced them, encouraged them, made us laugh, elicited cheers and applause, and read some very fine pieces of his own.

We listened, and let in whatever had the right shape and dimensions to slip inside our ears and lodge in our hearts. That wasn't everything, but whenever these poets were able to move far enough out from their self-conscious selves, and give us what had really touched them so that it could really touch us ... magic happened. Enough magic to make the afternoon very worthwhile.

Priya K is blossoming as a writer and reader of her work. Her poem about KL captured the city very well.

Liyana Yusof wrote movingly about a breakdown, about two souls in a salt-shaker ... but the best piece was a tiny poem about her grandparents.

Catalina Rebuyan read a few nights earlier at No Black Tie and impressed me. Her first poem was about controversial Sarawakian blogger Sixthseal. She also read the poem about the road through the hill that she has read at NBT, but I actually preferred her delivery of it there - it seemed more natural, more her.

There's one poet I forgot to photograph altogether, I realise now, putting this up. (Guilt!) It was Chan Sow Ping, who says about the workshop that she was "pushed to dream in words".


Datuk Shan captured during the interval. He read Mamee's Talk, Green Revolution and Rolling in But Kicking Out.

A better pic of Jacob.

Nicholas Wong, much teased for his lovely (natural) curls. His first poem made the most impression on me - a journey in a red sports car and a conversation about black holes ... inspired by his lift in Reza's lovely Lotus after NBT.

Divya Jiwa read Changing, and The Ways of You, and one as yet untitled piece.

Zalikha Harun is a lady with a big personality and a lot of style. She warned us that her poems were abstract and read to us Aries/Sagittarius, a poem about "jangling memorabilia", and about how people underestimate the power of widening vocabulary.

Sharanya Manivannan read a poem she had written in Jacob's workshop about hair - his and hers. Sexy stuff.

This photo is the most telling of the lot, perhaps. After the event, after most of the audience had trickled back home, Jacob sat with the poets for a very detailed post-mortem of their readings. It sounded like tough love.

I admire Jacob's commitment and all the hard work both he and the poets put in for this afternoon.

Poetry: An Exploded View

First a note to self: Sharon, if you want to be a truly great liblogger, don't forget to charge the battery in your camera before you venture out to a spoken word gig. Silly me. No pictures of Wayang Kata III last night at No Black Tie with Jacob Sam-La Rose. Will try to link the blogs of more together people who did remember to charge theirs.

It was fun. How could it be otherwise with Jerome Kugan and Jasmine Low at the helm doing their witty double act?

"Jacob wants to know if there is a poetry circle here in KL," Jerome said as an opener "There's certainly a fraternity of people who love poetry, and the poets here are starting to come out of the closet".

A big cheer from the large and enthusuatic audience.

Roy (aka Fairul Nizam Ablah) took the stage first. He's grown in confidence since his first readings at Seksan's and Indie Scene Cafe. He read a poems about sexually abused kids, one written after a break-up, and his poem about the corrupt traffic policeman. He finished with i carry your heart with me by e.e. cummings.

Catalina Rebuyan, currently doing her Masters in English Lit at Universiti Malaya and part-time tutor, is poet to watch out for. I really enjoyed her poem about the way the hills were cut for a road and how the layers of earth looked like a cake.

Jacob Sam-La Rose read (among others) Bacchanal, about the Notting Hill Carnival:

Carnival nights, it was all too easy to get caught:
caught in the current of that river.
A river of bodies that flooded the streets
streets anchored to system sounds of floats ...

another about having a crush on a girl he saw on the bus each day but never had the courage to actually speak to (and who couldn't identify with that?), another about the absence of his father from his life. He had such a warm, easy manner that his poems were like a conversation with a friend.

After the interval Jerome read some new work: a poem entitled How the Statue Became a Poet, and An Exploded View of a Woman's Torso (complete with hammed-up reverberation!), before Jacob came back for a second set.

Jasmine and Jerome had him answering questions from the audience first though.

"What's the one book on poetry you must read?" asked someone. The book he recommended is American Poetry: The Next Generation.

Jacob had the audience joining in with the refrain in I Want to Be ... then went on to read a hip-hop poem, then his poem Framents:

Have my fingers traced the same curious paths
as others that have known the glazed skin
of the thin scar on your left thigh?

Does the way you arch your back
belong to me?

a poem called Algebra written at the back of a maths class in Chicago (he was accompanying the winners of The London Teenage Poetry Slam) and falling into the same kind of daydream he used to fall into during his own school days:

... I daydream that

maybe there's music in these numbers.
If x were a tree, and y were a sound,
negative a over b might equal

the Chicago wind, a bow string of air
making me sing. ...

before ending with a love poem for his mother (because he said, if he read a poem about his dad and not one about his mum, and his mum got to hear about it, she would be mad with him.)

Jacob certainly created the kind of magic that had the audience exploding with a spontaneous "Yay" of approval for the more upbeat pieces, or sighing a sympathetic "ahhh" for the sadder ones.

There was an open mic segment next. I'm a bit blur here as to who the first two young chaps actually were (one extremly expensive cocktail too many, Sharon?), the first told me later he has a band called Marionexxes (he read a very strange piece Great Expectations in a weird voice), the other wrote his name in my notebook as Imrul Kamal (is that right?).

By this stage the lights kept going out, and some poets had to read by candlelight.

British Council's Reezal Esa read about how it is to love someone who doesn't love you back. And if Reezal was deliberately joking around, I reckon it was a counterbalance to the pain and rejection in the poem.

Bernice Chauly read some new work, poems about nursing her mother sick with cancer, watching her slip away. (Could identify with that too.) Then Azwan Ismail read but after poem four I slipped out to get a taxi home. Escaped with my unread poem in hand.

If you missed last night you have another chance to see Jacob on saturday afternoon at The Food Foundry, and you can also enjoy some of his poetry online.

I bought his chapbook capable of kissing scars. (I do like this chapbook idea.)

Performance Poetry Workshops

I just got an email from Patriana at British Council who tells me that there are still some places for the Jacob Sam-La Rose Performance Poetry Workshops for "young (ish) and new talents". Details as follows:

Venue: Dram Projects (BG-6 Happy Mansion, Jalan 17/13, Petaling Jaya).

Fri 9 March

5pm-9pm Session 1: writing and editing poetry / performance

Sat 10 March

10am-1pm Session 2: Performing poetry

4pm -6pm Performance at Food Foundry (by participants of the workshop)

Please email arts@britishcouncil.org.my or call 2723 7988 to register.

Jacob's Manifesto

I unashamedly nicked this from the British Council website, knowing that it will disappear in a few days time. This is Jacob Sam-la Rose's poetry manifesto:

It has to be music.
Has to scream out from the shelves and never allow dust to settle.
It has to shake loose from the page,
stop conversations at the bar,
leave trails of itself hanging in the air
like ribbons of spot-lit cigarette smoke
It must be capable of writing itself on walls,
able to paint city skylines in glorious technicolour, or
a million shades of gray.
It has to take root in the cracks between paving stones
and spread its fingers out against the canvas of the sky.
It has to keep rhythm,
everyday rhythm.
It has to keep time.
It has to make news rhyme with actual fact
and truth rhyme with beauty.
It has to speak
Has to put words in peoples’ mouths
Make new shapes for tongues to hold
Open tired eyes to new ways of seeing.
It must birth its own language with lips capable of kissing scars
and it must stand
It must stand as testament to the fact
that words can draw blood
and make that blood sing

A Poetry Double!

British Council is flying in not just one but two top UK poets this month.

The first is Jacob Sam-La Rose - poet, writer, playwright, performer and educator - in town from 7-11 March.

From the British Council:

Described as “the backbone of the London poetry scene", Jacob worked alongside Roger Robinson (here just last month and read at Night of the Living Text) and Malika Booker (who was in Malaysia last November and performed at Wayang Kata II), to help establish Malika’s Poetry Kitchen, an adult writing workshop and community.Poetry is back on the menu as we welcome British poet and writer, Jacob Sam-La Rose, to perform and conduct workshops in Klang Valley from 7 to 11 March.

A former Poet-in-Residence at BBC London, he has taught creative writing internationally, and has facilitated and taught workshops and extended projects through institutions such as the National Theatre, the Arvon Foundation, Spread the Word, the Roundhouse, the Barbican, as well as a range of schools across England.

Jacob is also the Artistic Director of an annual teenage poetry SLAM project that works across London schools. Check out Jacob’s website and note the dates below to catch him performing alongside Malaysian poets!

WAYANG KATA III: AN EVENING OF SPOKEN WORD
Wayang Kata returns with a fresh line up to include Jacob Sam-La Rose alongside several Malaysian writers and poets..

Jointly presented with the Troubagangers, this event has grown in popularity with fans of spoken word and newbies to the local poetry scene. Come and be converted!

Date 7 March 2007
Venue No Black Tie, 17 Jalan Mesui off Jalan Nagasari, KL
Time 9.00p.m.
Admission RM5 at the door

SPOKEN WORD AT THE FOOD FOUNDRY
Enjoy a slice of Food Foundry’s famous ‘Mille Crepe cake’ and show your support for new talent as Jacob and participants of his performance poetry workshop take the stage at the Food Foundry.

Date 10 March 2007
Venue Food Foundry BG-8, Happy Mansion, Jalan 17/13, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
Time 4.00p.m. - 6.00p.m.
Admission Free

The second poet is, of course, Benjamin Zephaniah, who will be here at the end of the month for the KL Litfest. More on him later.

For more information on any of the events above, email us or call British Council 2723 7931/7988