We're performing tonight!

I'm talking about ARTS Fission's A Garden Affair 013: Bird Call, of course. Tickets are sold out (well, it's free, but we've got a capacity of 40 and we've got bookings of about 65 each night. So yeah, we're sold out).



Unfortunately the dance studio is not very photogenic:


From left to right: Elysa Wendi (choreographer), Scarlett, Shirley, Mayu, Edwin, Bobbi and Lynn.


Look how they turn the simplest of tasks into an artistic act! No lah; I'm seriously impressed at how the ARTS Fission troupe willingly commits itself to practice, teaching, brainstorming, researching and sai gang. They're a really cool group of people.

I do have a few gorgeous pics, but they'd give away some of the ideas we have. So I'll post them after the show.

Bird Call was in the papers today!

Straits Times Life!. Will scan it in soon.

Garden Affair 013: Bird Call

Next Thursday and Friday, I'm involved in a contemporary dance performance called Bird Call, produced by ARTS Fission group and choreographed by Elysa Wendi. It's centred around the theme of birds, so I might have to do some dressing up in feathers. :)




Garden Affair 013 - Bird Call
Thursday 25 & Friday 26 June 2009, 8.30 pm
Garden Studio, Cairnhill Arts Center
126 Cairnhill Road #01-07/09
Within (tedious) walking distance from Newton MRT

Someone made me fanart!

Her name's Marylyn and this is what she drew, based on my poem "kami/kaze: a correspondence".

I recently participated in KYTV's POP Station...

... thus yielding one of the most embarrassing videos of myself, ever.



The exhibition's showing at the Esplanade Jendela Studio till 29 June.

Oh, and I made a second one, too:

I'm going to Zurich to work on a book about rent-boys.

I'll be gone until 11 May; then on 13 May I'm flying off again to the States for my brother's graduation. I'll only be back in Singapore for a respectable time from 6 June onwards. So don't call my cellphone.


I have of course set up a blog as a diary for my voyage, but it won't be open to the public to read. I'll put up little excerpts on my personal blog occasionally, or maybe I won't. This is the first sentence I've written:

I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m fucking scared.

Complete the short story with the sentence, with emphasis on correct grammar and spelling. (25%)

Poet X Poet X Photos!


That's me squirming while Prof Lee read my early adolescent juvenilia. I eventually retaliated by performing "Prospect of a Drowning" in Singlish.

Ooh, did I mention we had an audience?


They stuck around for two hours - some of them standing! - while we gabbed about each other's poetry (with brief anecdotal excursions about our personal lives, and those of others, for which I sincerely apologise). Very good response, according to Kenny: someone said it was the best Singapore lit event s/he'd been to in a long time.


This was thanks in no small part to our moderator, Gwee Li Sui. (Edwin Thumboo also interjected a fair number of times. He's being hidden by the stack of plastic cups.)

And really, it was a gorgeous place to have the event:


Photos courtesy of Alvin Pang.

While we're at it, why not some photos from the Life! Theatre Awards? Here's Wong Chee Wai/Ng Tze Wei getting his Best Set Design for "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles".



And here's the crowd: (from left to right: Brian Gothong Tan, members of ZingO Drum Group, Fran Borgia, Elizabeth Tan, K Rajagopal):


And our (unnervingly precocious) entertainment:


Now that they've scaled it back to a nominees-only ceremony, it's unlikely that I'll be invited back next year. Ah well, I've decided to concentrate on books rather than drama this year, and there's a price for every venture. (More on that in a later post.)

Now to file my taxes.

BooksActually
presents

“Poet x Poet” series
Session No. 1: Lee Tzu Pheng x Ng Yi-Sheng
Moderated by Dr. Gwee Li Sui

P O E T R Y D I A L O G U E

Date // 3 April, Friday
Time // 7 pm
Venue // BooksActually (No. 5 Ann Siang Road. T / 6221 1170)

Poet x Poet is a dialogue session where two well-known poets are invited to read and critique each other's works. This is a first in Singapore where poets from different generations and practice engage in intellectual critical dialogue regarding their craft. The audience is welcome to pose any questions and/or participate in the dialogue. Moderated by Dr. Gwee Li Sui. Organized by BooksActually.

LEE TZU PHENG:
Lee Tzu Pheng was born (May 13, 1946) and educated in Singapore. She has a Ph.D in English from the University of Singapore from where she has recently retired as a Senior Lecturer in its English Department. She has four volumes of poems to her name; of these, the first three, Prospects of a Drowning(1980), Against the Next Wave, (1988) and The Brink of An Amen(1991) were winners of the National Book Development Council of Singapore (NBDCS) Award. Aside from literary studies, her other interests include children's literature and church work.

NG YI-SHENG:
Ng Yi-Sheng (b. 1980) is a Singaporean writer. He has published a collection of his poems entitled Last Boy (2006) and SQ21: Singapore Queers in the 21st Century (2006). He won the Singapore Literature Prize in English in 2008.

I didn't win anything at the Life! Theatre Awards...

...but I got to pick up the trophy for Ka Fai who got Best Multimedia for Reservoir.


He's in the UK filming stuff for Diaspora (TheatreWorks people never attend the thing anywayz), so I went up, talked about what a great guy he is to work with and that he should be recognised as a director as well as as a multimediator, and then exhorted everyone to watch his upcoming Revolution Per Minute (23 to 25 April).

Ng Tze Wei got Best Set Design for "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles"! And he deserves it. Seriously, that man can spin straw into gold.

Life! Theatre Awards Nominations 2009

I've been nominated for Best Script for "The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles"!



It's also got noms for Best actor (Rehaan Engineer), Best set (Ng Tze Wei) and best costume (Moe Kasim, with later modifications by directors Christina Sergeant and Ivan Heng). "Reservoir" is also nominated for Production of the Year and Best Sound Design (Chong Li-Chuan) and Best Multimedia (Choy Ka Fai).

This time I'm sure I won't get the award myself: hot favourites for both Best Script and Best Production are the fabulous "Gemuk Girls" and "Temple". We might win some technical stuff, though.

The article came out on Sat 19 March, when I was in Italy; that's why I didn't know the news was released yet. (I knew about the noms ages ago, though.)

Here's the full list for your perusal, with productions I was involved in italicised. Prize presentation ceremony on Monday.

Production of the Year:

* Gemuk Girls (The Necessary Stage)
* House of Sins (Dramabox)
* Reservoir (Theatreworks)
* Temple (Cake)
* The King Lear Trilogy (Ho Tzu Nyen)

Best Director:

* Natalie Hennedige (Temple)
* Li Xie (House of Sins)
* Christina Sergeant (The Hypochondriac)
* Alvin Tan (Gemuk Girls)
* Wong May Lan (The Soldier & His Virtuous Wife)

Best Script:

* Natalie Hennedige (Temple)
* Li Xie (House of Sins)
* Ng Yi-Sheng (The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles)
* Jean Tay (Boom)
* Haresh Sharma (Gemuk Girls)

Best Actor:

* Rehaan Engineer (The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles)
* Najib Soiman (Gemuk Girls)
* Noor Effendy Ibrahim (National Language Class)
* Peter Sau (House of Sins)
* Tay Kong Hui (House of Sins)

Best Supporting Actor:

* Oliver Chong (Flare)
* Najib Soiman (Temple)
* K. Rajagopal (The King Lear Project)
* Darius Tan (The Soldier & His Virtuous Wife)
* Sebastian Tan (Snow White & The Seven Dwarves)

Best Actress:

* Fanny Kee (Boom)
* Jo Kwek (Moon Story)
* Noorlinah Mohamed (Gemuk Girls)
* Yeo Yann Yann (National Language Class)

Best Supporting Actress:

* Goh Guat Xian (Flare)
* Li Xie (Temple)
* Judy Ngo (The Vagina Monologues)
* Susan Tordoff (The Office Party)
* Emma Yong (Shanghai Blues)

Best Ensemble:

* Bilik Ahmad (Teater Ekamatra)
* Drift (Dramabox)
* First Light (Toy Factory)
* Own Time Own Target (Wild Rice)
* The Hypochondriac (young & Wild)

Best Sound Design:

* Bang Wenfu (The Hypochondriac)
* Chong Li-Chuan (Reservoir)
* Philip Tan (Temple)
* Zing O Drum Group (Death of a Hero)
* Zizi Azah (Above us only sky)

Best Lighting Design:

* Fita Helmi (Above us only sky)
* Andy Lim (House of Sins)
* Lim Woan Wen (Pinocchio’s Complex)
* Suven Chan (Temple)
* Yo Shao Ann (Shanghai Blues)

Best Multimedia Design:

* Choy Ka Fai (Reservoir)
* Loo Zihan (Gemuk Girls)
* Brian Gothong Tan (Temple)
* Tan Kai Syng (The Vagina Monologues)

Best Set Design:

* Eucien Chia (Shanghai Blues)
* Claudio Girardi (Das Experiment)
* Wong Chee Wai (House of Sins, Apocalypse Live!, The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles)

Best Costume Design:

* Moe Kasim (Beauty World, The Enchantment of Sangkuriang, The Last Temptation of Stamford Raffles, Snow White and The Seven Dwarves)
* Natalie Hennedige (Temple)

My books are now available at Shakespeare & Co.


Yep, the famous bookstore in Paris - You can just drop off two copies and they'll keep them in the catalogue (it's on consignment, though, so you'll have to travel back there to get the money if anyone buys it).

"last boy" is there, and so is "Eating Air". Alvin Pang dropped his books off there too. It's 37 rue de la Bûcherie, near Place St. Michel, within walking distance of the Cathedral of Notre Dame. What joy.

I'm on p93 of Men's Folio, March 2009!

It's weird to be in a magazine where every single other person is sexier than you.

I'm going to Italy for World Poetry Day!

There's a bilingual Singapore/Italy poetry anthology called "Double Skin" that Alvin Pang and Tiziano Fratus edited. Pang, Teng Qian Xi and Toh Hsien Min are going too, with Ethos publisher Fong Hoe Fang to shepherd us around.

Will probably be leaving on the night of the 18th, and I should thereafter be in:

Cuneo, 19 marzo 2009 (h. 6.00 pm), L'Ippogrifo Bookstore;
Torino, 21 marzo 2009 (h. 5.00 pm), Circolo dei Lettori.

And coming back by the 23rd. Can't wait!

'Life Styles: Theatre and Biography Across Cultures'

I'm speaking at this Symposium at the National Museum on Friday afternoon!

Turns out we're getting a bigger space, so space won't be as limited as I thought. Thus I can advertise this with impunity.

BUY MY T-SHIRTS.

I've made a few, available on order at Ministry of Press. Here's one!



MOP itself is a little shop at #04-31, Far East Plaza, and the owner, Arnold Wee, has commissioned local poets to create 14-word T-shirt slogans for Valentine's Day. The shirts themselves are American Apparel, so they're very comfy. Regular shirts cost $39; the poets series is $69.

Poetry Slam at SMU at 5pm, Friday.

I'm reading and judging.

I'm hosting ROJAK 13!

ROJAK 13: Interiors is happening on January 23rd, Friday 8pm at the National Museum (2nd level Concourse)


We have a wonderful lineup for the evening. The ROJAKers are:

1. Lin Weidong, Photography
2. Alecia Neo, Photography
3. Gilles Massot, Art
4. Maxine Chionh, Art
5. Donna Ong, Art
6. Mark Wee, Architecture & Interiors
7. Hans Tan, Industrial/Product Design
8. Larry Peh, Commercial/Industrial Design
9. Raihan Halim, Film
10. Benjamin Tan, Film

Rojak 13 is held in conjunction with Come-in, an exhibition of the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations (ifa) and presented by National Museum of Singapore and Goethe Institut Singapore.
See you all soon!

Er... so. I've had my poem published on the SDP website.

This is gonna do my next grant application a lot of good. :)

See here. (Hey, Dr Chee said he liked the piece. How could I say no?)

New Year's Eve Countdown

I've agreed to speak at this event at 7:30pm. Prob a very short speech though. From Seelan Palay:



Dear friends,

Every year on the eve of the New Year, we do a countdown with MediaCorp on Orchard Road and sing Auld Lang Syne with the President or the PAP Ministers. And every year nothing changes. Can the celebration be any more meaningless?

This year, for the first time in Singapore's history, The Singapore Democratic Party is organising a New Year's Eve Countdown at Hong Lim Park.

* Reflect & Share what went on this year and what's in store the next.

* New Year's Wish Board, we sure will need it next year.

* Freedom songs, lets sing together

* Candlelight display, lets build one together...

* A simple dinner of hot dogs and chips,.enjoy this simple meal together with those who care

REMEMBER JBJ

* Remember JBJ, everything he has done for Singapore.

* His legacy and help make it grow.

* Speakers will pay tribute to the man

* An "open-mic" for those who wish to pay tribute to him.

* Songs of tribute to JBJ, lets sing together.

* Countdown ourselves to 2009 and usher in the New Year

Bring your family and friends. Let us make this a truly memorable and meaningful evening.

Hong Lim Park start at 6 pm on 31 Dec 2008 all the way into the 2009. Tell everyone!

More information here.

Submissions open for Queer Singapore Anthology!

Dear All,

We're now accepting entries for an as-yet unnamed anthology of queer Singapore writing, provisionally titled "PRU: People Read Us"!

DEADLINE: 2nd February, 2009.

Please submit to <ng.yisheng@gmail.com> with "QUEER ANTHOLOGY" in subject heading.

* WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR:

-fiction (preferred, because readers find this most accessible.)
-non-fiction
-poetry

-essays and san wen
-blog entries
-songs
-performance art texts

... in *all* languages. We're especially eager to include Mandarin and (if we can find them) Malay and Tamil texts.

While we're hoping to include mostly queer writers (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual and intersex), we will consider works on queer themes by non-queer writers.

Authors may choose to remain anonymous, or print under a pseudonym.

Longer works are welcome, if you allow us to select an extract for publication.

Works will be accepted from both Singapore citizens/PR and, Singapore residents, as well as once-Singaporeans who have renounced their citizenship in disgust.

*WHO'S INVOLVED:

Openly queer poets Ng Yi-Sheng and Jasmine Seah currently form the core of the editorial board. We have also invited Dominic Chua and Mandarin-language writer Irene Oh to join us, as well as poet/translator Teng Qian Xi.

*HOW IT'LL BE PUBLISHED:

Firstfruits publishing has said it would be glad to publish this anthology.

In conversation, representatives from the National Arts Council have also, amazingly, expressed support.

We're envisioning a work that'll be both readable (thus the appeal for fiction), as well as eccentric and inclusive.

We plan to donate royalties to a deserving charity.

*ALSO:

Please help us to publicise this appeal among your various circles. We're especially interested in showcasing a diverse group of writers, which would include older writers and writers who've migrated overseas.

We're also very open to suggestions for a better title. :)

Many thanks,

Ng Yi-Sheng
B).