Just my Cuppa CHAI

Instant Cafe Theatre has a beautiful new home in a converted bungalow in Section 6 Petaling Jaya called House of Art and Ideas, CHAI, for short. And and on Saturday they had their grand opening with lots of things going on and art in every corner. (Take the tour here, and just see how much you would like to live in this little house.) Of course there was the official obligatory opening with a local bigshot, and YB*, Minister of Culture and Space (above) tree planting ceremony with YB, Deputy Minister of Space & Tourism filled the role nicely (remember how he was in Bali) ... except as he noted, politicians don't like to be seen with dirty hands, so poor old Zalfian Fuzi had to do the actual spadework. The art on display reflected the theme of Home, and there were installations in all kinds of spaces (even inside cupbaords!). Reza Rosli approriated the bathroom with his underwater theme - he made hanging lamps of fishtanks and had a jellyfish floating in the bathtub. (It was a nice spot to hang out, feet dangling in the water, and everyone who had come to use the utilities now had to hop off and find an alternative.) The bedroom had a story called Bed scrolling across the walls which you had to lie on the bed to watch. I was so happy that my favourite local band Dewangga Sakti came along to play some songs. And there were an awful lot of nice people to chat to. Interesting things will be happening in this space including art, performance, readings, meetings, and I'll be happy to keep you posted. (For non-Malaysians : YB is Yang Berhormat which means The Honourable, and is a term of address for MP's.)

An Evening with Preeta Samarasan

On Friday night MPH held an event called an Evening with Preeta Samarasan at Bottles and Bottles in the Gardens. Yours truly did the introducing and a whole bunch of folks read their work : Kathleen Choo, Reza Rosli, Priya K, MK Ajay reading poetry; Lee Su Kim reading from A Nyonya in Texas; and Ezra Zaid, reading a special message to us from Khaled Al Khamissi and an extract from Al Khamissi's Taxi which Ezra recent published here.


But it was the lady herself we were celebrating and waiting to hear. She read from Chapter 5 this time about the return of Paathi the grandmother, who died under mysterious circumstances in the bathroom ... and reading those lines that make us gasp at their sheer audacity.

The wine (a fruity, smooth Chilean - good enough to marry) was excellent, so thank you Bottles and Bottles for that. And thanks to MPH - especially Eric Forbes and Janet Tay, for organising the event and providing the food.

Adam Lee took some terrific photos of the evening and I refer you to his page on Facebook. I couldn't resisit getting him to take this shot of Su Kim's dinky embroidered nyonya slippers. The lady gets my award for literary sartorial elegance.

Poetry Underground @ Readings

I have so many photos from our Saturday's Readings@Seksan's that I've decided to put them up in a couple of batches.

The enthusistic young poets of Poetry Underground were launching their new collection of poems - Voices from the Underground - and we got everyone (except the very shy Nurul and Pey who is in the UK) reading one of their pieces and proving that this group is going from strength to strength.

Reza was first up and had the audience holding their breath (!) while he read a poem about a diver going deeper, deeper holding his breath. Amazing how this little ploy makes you really concentrate on the words!

Sheena Baharudin read her Dialogue in 3 Tongues - a love poem for God in English, Arabic and Malay.

Catalina Rembuyan.

Evanna Ramly read Emeralds and Sapphires - a beautiful piece spoken by a betrayed woman after the break-up of a relationship.

Hazlan read a powerful piece called Kabur, in Malay.

Kathleen read one of my favourite poems from the book - asking why people are afraid of poetry. Very apt and very true.


George read a poem that was NOT about all the controversial Malaysian issues he wanted to talk about and it ended up of course being about all the great unsaids.

Congrats to Kathleen Choo for getting this project together and for being prepapred to put her own money into the publication. No doubt it will be sold at gigs and I hope you will soon find it in the local bookshops, so do pick up a copy of this limited edition book so they can afford to publish the next one along.

Poetry Underground are loooking from fresh talent, so if you are a poet who would like to work at your craft, both on the page and in performance, please contact Kathleen via the Facebook group.

Opium, Marauding Islamic Gangs, and a Squished Cat

The best laid plans of mice and men gang aft aglee, as dear old Robbie Burns once said.

Yesterday's Readings@Seksan was the one that has given me the most headache, despite the fact that I had thought I had everything pretty well arranged. Two writers had to drop out last minute due to personal circumstances, a third just didn't answer the SMSes and phone calls and was a no show. Three readers down - I felt completely jinxed.

However, the writers who did turn up more than made up for all the difficulties and made the afternoon very worthwhile.

Teoh Choon Ean (who also goes by the pen-name Cean when she writes short fiction) is one of the best-selling local authors nominated for the The Star-Popular Readers Choice Awards for her first novel , which won third prize in the Utusan Group Literary Prize 2005. You may remember she wrote Nine Lives in just six days! Despite the speed with which the book came together, I'd say (after the extract we heard) that the writing certainly did not suffer and I can see this appealing to teenagers looking for a not too difficult and unstuffy read.

Narrated by 15 year old Bee Lian, an orphan living with grandparents, who shares her secrets with the mangy yellow cat which lives next door. Cean read from the beginning and end of the story.

The poor cat got squished on the road. I was so upset ... and am seriously thinking of starting a society for the prevention of cruelty of literary animals. (Will make Peter Carey honorary president!)

It was very special to have Kunal Basu read for us at Seksan's. He asked the crowd what they wanted him to read about opium, art, race or love. They answered in chorus Opium (which makes you wonder a bit!). In my introduction I had talked about how Kunal chooses to write about places he hasn't visited and so he read us part of The Opium Clerk which was set in Kucing. He followed that with the same extract from The Japanese Wife that he had read in the morning - perfect because so self-contained, and yet giving the essence of the whole story.

During the interval there was some lively book selling going on which I am very much encouraging. Sufian Abas was selling copies of the newly released and limited edition anthology Aweks KL which is being snapped up like hotcakes. The guys from MPH brought along piles of Kunal's books and offered a generous 20% discount.

Meanwhile I was asking around - did anyone have a poem concealed about their person that they would like to read, since there was time, and it so happened that some of the good folks from Poetry Underground (a performance poetry group based at Dram Projects) had come straight from a practice! My luck was turning.

I roped them in to do a quick set to start off the second half, Sheena Baharuddin, Reza Rosli, Catalina Rebuyan, George Wilgus, and new recruit Hazlan Zakaria took the floor to deliver just one poem each in rapid succession and they got some hearty applause.


After I'd introduced Peter Brown by telling the audience that he was originally from Essex, Peter began with a very very bad Essex girl joke ("How does an Essex girl turn the light on after sex? She kicks the car door open." Ouch.)

I had called on Peter to read at the 11th hour, and was so grateful he let himself be persuaded because his short story The Last Deejay is one of my favourites in Silverfish New Writing 7 (about which more another day), a story of friendship and loyalty set against the chilling background to a dystopian Malaysia in 2027.

I'm very glad Saradha Narayanan (looking very pretty in pink!) came back to read from The Freedom of Choice and selected passages which she felt gave us an overview of the book. The most affecting part for me was the description of the adoption of the baby.

Kunal rounded off our afternoon beautifully with an extract from his second novel, The Miniaturist, about an artist prodigy in the court of Mughal emperor Akbar.

Thanks a lot to Seksan for the wonderful space, to all those who came, to those who read, to those who helped me set up and clear up, to Shahril Nizam for the blog poster.

I plan the next event for May 24th.

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.

Voices @ Seksan

Our "Readings" event yesterday went really well. I'm always happily gobsmacked at the great support the writers get, so thanks sincerely to all who came. I always ask Reza to estimate the size of crowds because he's good at counting things, and he reckoned there were more than 40.

Azwan Ismail went first. Now here is a very sporting guy! I'd called him up just the night before to ask him to read when another reader had to pull out, and was so happy that he said yes.

Azwan, and engineer by day and a poet full-time, is a regular at open mic sessions (usually wearing his trademark fedora!) and has just published a poetry zine called Mantra, which he was kind enough to give me a copy of. (I promised to pass him a donation for it and forgot. Next time, Azwan.) He read just three poems, two in Malay and one in English. I think the first was called Ada Seseorang Terbakar (There's Someone on Fire) which mixed images of snow and blood, heat and cold. I like this one called Satan & Angel which I found on his blog.

Reza Rosli was next. His first time in front of the microphone, but he grew in confidence as he read his pieces and in the end I think was enjoying himself. Reza has only recently begun putting his writing out into the world, though I've long enjoyed his writing on his blog. He read poems In the Glass House (written from a dream) one about his lovely little blue bubble of a Smart car (almost a love poem, and I don't blame him because it is a dinky little thing that I much envy ... maybe he should sell the poem to the company for advertising? ... earlier version of it here) , and another about kayaking in Thailand with wonderful imagery of the weight of the sky.

He also read a piece of prose Eh, Saya Muslim, Tak Boleh (subtitled Or, How Being A Muslim Saved Me From Getting Buggered) that had its genesis during my writing course (Got to be a proud teacher here!) the story of how he was almost sexually assaulted by a huge fellow in a dark back alley. We were all listening breath with bated breath to hear how he managed to slide out of a potentially terrifying situation with a bit of quick thinking. You can read the piece here, but Reza improvised a little on it, I think! (Which in a sense just goes to show how valuable it is to read work aloud to see how the voice comes through and the audience responds.)


I first met Alina Rastam a couple of years ago when we both gave a talk at Silverfish about reading groups of different kinds and I was very impressed that she was running classes in literature for adult learners ... because there is very little in this country for working folks who want to further their education in a more informal context.

Alina is a freelance writer and editor, and part-time lecturer in literature at Monash and is involved with women's movement in Malaysia. She hs written on literature for various publications including the New Straits Times and Off The Edge.

She read a couple of poems from her first collection Diver & Other Poems which I reviewed a couple of days back: Prayer and Morning Song the first written for a teacher who greatly influenced her life and the second which she wrote for her partner. Both were pieces in which she had poured out her whole heart - and she read obviously feeling the full emotional impact of the poems. We're hungry for more, Alina, so come back another day.

Tinling Choong was next and read to us from her first novel FireWife the story of the extraordinarily generous Zimi who leases her forehead as advertising space. It was so nice to hear the extract read in her voice. Tinling has been nominated for a Henry Miller Award for Best Literary Sex Scene. (As they say, Malaysia boleh!) It makes all of us, I'm sure, very proud to see a local author have a publishing success overseas ... and it says, hey, it is possible after all guys.

After the break (and I always feel such a spoil sport for dragging folks back when they're so busy enjoying the drinks and the conversation) it was the lovely Jit Murad who needs no introduction. Jit wanted to illustrate just how much further a playwright needs to go developing the back story of his characters so that he/she really knows them. He read us the monologues of two of his characters which you will actually never hear in the play he's working on (Mr. Metro) - both with very different voices, the first (Chris Tong who called himself Chris because it was the nearest name he could find to Krystal Carrington). Very enjoyable.

Last ... and the youngest, but by no means least was Priya K. I first met Priya when she did my writing course some time back and was very happy that she chose to read a piece (edgy, dark, mysterious ... almost graphic fiction in words) she wrote for that course, as well as a poem about KL she wrote when she did Jacob Sam-La Rose's workshop which captures the city very well. Priya has also been writing and performing with The Oral Stage, and is a law student.

My biggest thanks ... as always ... to those who read and those who came. (By the way it was lovely to see our Glenda and I do hope she can be persuaded to read for us another day!)

To Seksan for his kindness in letting us use his lovely space.

To whoever painted the intriguing picture of terrorists in diapers which was our backdrop. (It was part of the notthatbalai art festival.)

To La Bodega for generously giving us a crate of wine.

I hope that I can arrange the next "Readings" at Seksans on 25th August when we will have Preeta Samarasan among the guests joining us. Bernice is also organising "Readings at No Black Tie" on 5th August and a special edition for our 50 years Merdeka celebrations on 31st! Details to be confirmed.

There is a poetry jam on Friday night 3rd August at Bau Bau cafe at Central Market as part of the notthatbalai art festival, and on Saturday 4th July the Maskara readings happening again at Rumah Pena.

Don't you feel that lovely buzz of good things happening?

Other Links:

Sufian has some great photos mostly of those informal moments when you did not notice him lurking! Eternal Wanderer wrote the event up for KL Weekly. (Many thanks!)

Reza (aka Madcap Machinist) has written a fantastic piece about how the whole experience of reading. It is a pretty terrifying thing to do, especially for the first timers.

Lovely quote from Glenda:

Yesterday I went to a reading by some Malaysian authors and was impressed by the level of talent. Damn, but there are some good writers out there. And courageous ones too, who aren't afraid to stand up and say: this is what I am and you can't change it with your threats or your self-righteous religiosity...

Amen! Who got the hotline to heaven better than inspired scribblers?

Celebrating Voices

The second of Saturday's literary events was of course, "Readings" at Seksan's. And for me the event was all about ... what is an authentic Malaysian voice?

Yang-May Ooi read first, and poor thing had to compete a little against the rain. Thank goodness we're amplified now.

She decided to use her slot for an experiment. She had brought along a passage from the novel she is currently working on, Tianming Traviata, and she read the same piece written in two slightly different voices. The first very standard English, the second in identifiably Malaysian English. I enjoyed both versions, though the second sounded more natural to me and all but Eric Forbes seemed to agree when we took a vote afterwards.

I told Yang-May later that Shirley Lim had talked about having the same problem when she wrote Sister Swing, and it really is a big deal for local writers. (I do so badly want to write at length on this but haven't yet got round to it.)

Talking about capturing voice, Datuk Shan does a great job of getting Indian voices down to the page and playing with them for comic effect as in the story about Mrs. Sarjit Singh getting teased for her terrible mispronunciations.

Zhang Su Li read us several appetite-whetting short pieces from her travel book A Backpack and a Bit of Luck. I loved the first piece she read about the time she worked in an opticians in Britain and gave a lecture to an old man about the correct way to put on glasses - only to realise that he only had one hand having lost the other in the war. This being Britain, a cup of tea while he told his story put things right. Su Li managed a very creditable northern accent!

Patricia Low is a very talented young lady. My first encounter with her work was with The Oral Stage's Rojak, last year. Two of my favourite pieces were penned by her and she was one of the directors. I sadly missed TOS second production, 59 Minutes, so it was nice that Pat read us a monologue from it - a wonderfully funny satire about the building of a durian tower in a shopping mall. But as I say, Malaysia constantly satirises itself! The scary thing about the piece was that it all seemed just too possible!

I loved the natural way that the voice in the story moved between English and Malay ... this is the reality of voice in the local context, the constant dipping between languages. For convenience. For emphasis. For humour.

Haris Zalkapli (and now I have his name spelt right!) writes columns on pop culture and politics and the interface between. I knew nothing about him before the reading since I had enlisted Raja Ahmad's help in finding good Malay writers, and I am very happy to have "discovered" Haris. He's clearly a writer who has found his niche - his pieces are entertaining and the arguments nicely developed. He read two columns The Stones and the Great Firewall, about The Rolling Stones tour of China and A Lesson in Coolness about Condoleza Rice and other politicians employing pop culture as a campaigning tool.

This was the second time that Eileen Lui has read at "Readings". Her stories have appeared in Silverfish collections, including the book I edited, Collateral Damage. She read a moving piece about a friendship ... which should have been more than a friendship ... about the best friends who became "better friends", but never quite made the transition to becoming lovers.

Thank goodness not everyone is like this couple, or Eileen would be out of a day-job!

Was very happy to see poet Wong Phui Nam in the audience and I think he was very pleased to see so many people interested in writing. I have invited him to read next time!

Many thanks (and you know the litany by now!) all who read and all who turned up to support them. To Seksan for the space. To La Bodega for the lovely wines. To Reza for help with the sound. To all who helped get set up and to Zedeck for washing glasses. Sorry I was so bossy.

I've decided not to hold "Readings" next month as the KL Litfest is on at the end of March and it's better that everyone supports that. But watch this space for April announcements.