SINGAPORE – The spin in this year’s Singapore Writers Festival (SWF) is a strong musical component to the programming.
In keeping with the theme of Plot Twist, which seeks to present the unexpected, the festival features personalities such as Susan Rogers, who was the late American pop legend Prince’s sound engineer, and hip-hop historian Jeff Chang, as well as programmes celebrating 50 years of hip-hop.
Festival director Pooja Nansi, a self-professed hip-hop fan who says Chang was her “nerdy” programming request, says: “It feels like previous editions led us to this point where we feel bold enough to programme weirder and more niche things.”
Hence SWF’s headliners range far and wide, from cult academics to best-selling authors.
Legendary post-colonial literary theorist and feminist critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak will sit down for an In Conversation session at Victoria Theatre on Nov 19, while Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sympathizer Viet Thanh Nguyen will deliver a Festival Keynote and feature in a session of the popular In A Tiny Room series.
More accessible names include beloved Malaysian cartoonist Lat, who will deliver a Festival Keynote, and John Patrick Green, whose InvestiGators comics occupy semi-permanent spots on The Straits Times’ children’s bestseller lists.
Poet-writer Fatimah Asghar, creator of the Emmy-nominated Web series Brown Girls, will also attend the festival.
Early-bird ticket sales open on Monday for SWF, which will run from Nov 17 to 26. It is organised by Arts House Limited and commissioned by the National Arts Council.
This year’s Literary Pioneer exhibition also has a music element as it celebrates the late novelist and cultural entrepreneur Goh Poh Seng.
The exhibition’s name – Tell Bowie He’s Only A Rock Star. I, However, Am A Poet – references Goh’s impresario career.
The line comes from a famous incident when Goh brought the late English pop legend David Bowie to Singapore for a concert in 1983.
When Bowie declined to attend a gathering with classical Chinese musicians in Goh’s home, the latter’s riposte – “Tell Bowie he’s only a rock star. I, however, am a poet” – prompted the singer to show up.
For the first time, the exhibition will go on tour to Punggol Regional Library, Funan mall and Heartbeat@Bedok from Tuesday to Dec 27, extending its reach beyond the festival period.
Ms Nansi says while Goh is widely archived, the SWF is taking “a different approach to archiving his legacy”, having commissioned playwright Lucas Ho to write an essay which will also be available online and as an audio track on Spotify.
She has also invited poets to interpret Goh’s unpublished poems in an event which includes music by Chok Kerong.
“It’s really moving to hear Goh Poh Seng’s words in the mouths of poets of the now. He was a rebel spirit ahead of his time in his hopes for our cultural scene.”
The crowd-pleasing debate will once again open SWF with the topic, This House Believes AI Is The Better Writer. ChatGPT will be the proposition’s closing speaker.
This is Ms Nansi’s fifth and final year as festival director. The Arts House has yet to announce who will take over the position.
She has had a roller-coaster stint, taking over in 2019 and helming the festival through its first digital edition in 2021 amid the pandemic. She has championed youth programming as well as diversity.
The festival grew from 25,600 festivalgoers in 2019 to more than 46,000 attendees in 2022.
Looking back on her time, she says: “Helming a festival of this size gives a perspective about the ecosystems you’re working in – there are big institutional ecosystems like the Arts House and National Arts Council. And because I’m still part of the scene, going to open mics, I see very young poets. That was me once. And I think about how a young poet can helm a festival, what the journey for a writer can be in Singapore.”
Book it/Singapore Writers Festival
Where: The Arts House and other venues
When: Nov 17 to 26, various timings
Admission: From $24 for an early-bird Festival Pass
Info: singaporewritersfestival.com
