The usually dormant halls of Pasir Panjang Power Station lit up last night as local literature movement #BuySingLit took over the historic building in a power move.
Surrounded by glowing light bulbs, spoken-word poet Deborah Emmanuel regaled an audience with stories of those who worked at the now-decommissioned power plant as part of Modern: Resonance II, a work that she, visual artist Alecia Neo and sound artist Li-Chuan Chong co-created.
The night took a haunting turn with Glorious, Monstrous, Hantu Tales From Singapore, an eerie performance by Cake Theatrical Productions that wove together words from novels such as Nuraliah Norasid's The Gatekeeper (2017), Sharlene Teo's Ponti (2018) and Lee Jing-Jing's How We Disappeared (2019).
The fourth edition of #BuySingLit, an annual industry-led movement that aims to promote Singapore literature, runs this weekend and next, with over 60 programmes islandwide. Its line-up includes literary tour Uncanny Yishun and LitBus, which will see local authors reading their works aboard the Singapore Biennale shuttle bus as it travels from National Gallery Singapore to BooksActually in Yong Siak Street.
Owing to the coronavirus outbreak, 35 events, including the Singapore Malay Book Fair, have been postponed, while others have been cancelled.
At the planned events, measures such as temperature taking will be taken. Participants who are feeling unwell, are on a leave of absence or have been to China in the past two weeks are advised not to attend.
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35
Number of events postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak
• For more information, go to buysinglit.sg
