Ng Yi-Sheng is a poet, fictionist, playwright, journalist and activist. He is the youngest winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (for his debut poetry collection, last boy). His second collection, Anthems (2014), consists of slam poetry works. His other publications include the bestselling non-fiction book, SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century, and a novelisation of the Singapore gangster movie, Eating Air. He also co-editedandEastern Heathens: An Anthology of Subverted Asian Folklore. He has recently completed his MA in the University of East Anglia’s creative writing programme.
Souvankham Thammavongsa has written three poetry books, Small Arguments (2003), Found (2007), and Light (2013), all published by Pedlar Press. Of her most recent collection, The Globe and Mail said “[t]his new collection confirms Thammavongsa’s place as one of the most interesting younger poets at work in the country," and the Trillium Book Award jury, awarding her the prize for poetry, called the collection “a landmark in contemporary poetry.” Her first book won the 2004 ReLit prize. Her second book was made into a short film by Paramita Nath and screened at film festivals worldwide including TIFF, L.A. Shorts Fest, Dok Leipzig and other places.
(Left to Right) Rev. G. Yusef Qualls (reading for his son Yusef Qualls–el), Lori Platt (reading for her cousin Jamie Laufenberg), and Demetric aka Shabazz Shakur (reading for his friend David Armstrong Jones). Video still by Katie Barkel. Image courtesy of the Hamtramck Free School.
In late February, poetry traveled from the prison to the art museum. The Writer’s Block, a poetry workshop held at the Macomb Correctional Facility, hosted a poetry reading at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Writer’s Block has a long history; most recently, the workshop partnered with the Hamtramck Free School, an arts organization that embraces free learning and interaction between peers.
‘The Baroness cut the most compelling modernist figure. She literally wore New York dada, thus inventing it as a pattern of aesthetic costume to be worn so tight that it was her skin, her self. She was, as Irene Gammel puts it in this remarkable biographical study, an “assemblage of paradoxes embodied in one body.” That the Baroness knew and inspired or inspiringly repelled nearly everyone associated with the rise of modernist practice in New York has been already part of the story, but it has never been so richly detailed. In Gammel's presentation the Baroness emerges as far more than an ingenue. She became a mature, self-conscious dynamic artistic force — and remarkably productive in her own right, not despite but because she exhausted herself up from the inside out.’
Margaret Rhee's installation "The Kimchi Poetry Project"
Kimchi, a Korean side dish of fermented vegetables and spices, is perhaps best known as a polarizing condiment, engendering love, hatred, and YouTube videos of screaming children trying it for the first time. It is also serves as inspiration for the work of Margaret Rhee, a feminist new media artist and scholar. In The Kimchi Poetry Project, she asks, "What feminist methods, histories, and stories can we unearth and create through the poetics of kimchi?" (Rhee, "Installation - The Kimchi Poetry Project"). Rhee's innovative work explores the possibilities at the intersections of kimchi, tweets, and poetry.
After publishing her poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi" in the anthology Conversations at the Wartime Cafe (2011), Rhee was invited to a poetry reading where she asked the audience to make "kimchi poetry" with her. The Kimchi Poetry Project was born. Rhee's participatory poetry venture includes a series of multimedia installations and objects.
Ng Yi-Sheng
On performance, queer activism, and speaking through the gag
Ng Yi-Sheng is a poet, fictionist, playwright, journalist and activist. He is the youngest winner of the Singapore Literature Prize (for his debut poetry collection, last boy). His second collection, Anthems (2014), consists of slam poetry works. His other publications include the bestselling non-fiction book, SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century, and a novelisation of the Singapore gangster movie, Eating Air. He also co-edited and Eastern Heathens: An Anthology of Subverted Asian Folklore. He has recently completed his MA in the University of East Anglia’s creative writing programme.
A short interview with Souvankham Thammavongsa
Souvankham Thammavongsa has written three poetry books, Small Arguments (2003), Found (2007), and Light (2013), all published by Pedlar Press. Of her most recent collection, The Globe and Mail said “[t]his new collection confirms Thammavongsa’s place as one of the most interesting younger poets at work in the country," and the Trillium Book Award jury, awarding her the prize for poetry, called the collection “a landmark in contemporary poetry.” Her first book won the 2004 ReLit prize. Her second book was made into a short film by Paramita Nath and screened at film festivals worldwide including TIFF, L.A. Shorts Fest, Dok Leipzig and other places.
The Writer's Block @ the DIA
Guest author: Sarah Fewkes
In late February, poetry traveled from the prison to the art museum. The Writer’s Block, a poetry workshop held at the Macomb Correctional Facility, hosted a poetry reading at the Detroit Institute of Arts. The Writer’s Block has a long history; most recently, the workshop partnered with the Hamtramck Free School, an arts organization that embraces free learning and interaction between peers.
An assemblage of paradoxes in one body
Baroness Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven
Listen to a brief audio biography of the Baroness Elsa von Freytag Loringhoven. And here is a blurb I wrote for Irene Gammel’s biography:
‘The Baroness cut the most compelling modernist figure. She literally wore New York dada, thus inventing it as a pattern of aesthetic costume to be worn so tight that it was her skin, her self. She was, as Irene Gammel puts it in this remarkable biographical study, an “assemblage of paradoxes embodied in one body.” That the Baroness knew and inspired or inspiringly repelled nearly everyone associated with the rise of modernist practice in New York has been already part of the story, but it has never been so richly detailed. In Gammel's presentation the Baroness emerges as far more than an ingenue. She became a mature, self-conscious dynamic artistic force — and remarkably productive in her own right, not despite but because she exhausted herself up from the inside out.’
Tweets, poems, and... kimchi?
Kimchi, a Korean side dish of fermented vegetables and spices, is perhaps best known as a polarizing condiment, engendering love, hatred, and YouTube videos of screaming children trying it for the first time. It is also serves as inspiration for the work of Margaret Rhee, a feminist new media artist and scholar. In The Kimchi Poetry Project, she asks, "What feminist methods, histories, and stories can we unearth and create through the poetics of kimchi?" (Rhee, "Installation - The Kimchi Poetry Project"). Rhee's innovative work explores the possibilities at the intersections of kimchi, tweets, and poetry.
After publishing her poem "A Feminist History of Kimchi" in the anthology Conversations at the Wartime Cafe (2011), Rhee was invited to a poetry reading where she asked the audience to make "kimchi poetry" with her. The Kimchi Poetry Project was born. Rhee's participatory poetry venture includes a series of multimedia installations and objects.