(b) Background of SWF
 |
| The Singapore Writers Festival is one of Asia’s premier literary events. Officially started in 1986, the festival serves a dual function of promoting new and emerging Singaporean and Asian writing to an international audience, as well as presenting the world’s major literary talents to Singaporeans. SWF has delighted book lovers by featuring Singapore writers Shamini Flint, Alvin Pang, Suchen Christine Lim, You Jin, as well as international writers such as Steven Levitt, Michael Chabon, Neil Gaiman, Bi Feiyu, Andrew Motion and Marc Smith. To date, it remains one of the few literary festivals in the world that is multi-lingual, celebrating works in Singapore’s 4 main languages – English, Malay, Chinese and Tamil. Last year's programming and location attracted the record number of over 56,000 people who attended the panels, activities or saw the art installations. With the heart of the Festival District at the Singapore Management University’s Campus Green, this year’s panels, readings and performances will be spread out over 10 days and take place at The Arts House, the National Museum of Singapore, the Singapore Art Museum, the Peranakan Museum and The National Library. |
VISION
A city where writing empowers and transforms lives.
MISSION
The mission of the festival is to not only present the world’s major literary talents to the people of Singapore, but also to promote new and emerging Singapore and Asian writing to a wider public.
2012 theme: Origins
SWF’s 2012 theme returns to the beginning. It evokes the beginnings, heritage and originality of the Singapore's story.
This year’s programming focuses on mainly story-telling, biographies, and historical fiction and traces the source of creative inspiration - understanding the viewpoints and memories of the writers and the significance of the characters that are used in their stories.At the same time, in an evolving world of mass reproductions, new technologies and endless iterations of old stories, SWF shows the reflection on what is truly original.
As Singapore is training the future younger generations, SWF also looks back to the past, imagining the lives of those before us by drawing on shared and individual histories. Origins allows us to revisit our own identities, the multiple roles we assume and the masks we put on. SWF prompt us in pondering about our own origins: "What is at the innermost selves – our ethnic origins, the faiths we profess or the colour of the identity card we carry?"
SWF 2012 promises debate, discussion and insights as they commemorate and challenge the written and spoken word. Formats are designed to facilitate deeper and more sustained examination of contemporary writing, and to foster discussion and participation by the audience.
Highlight of events
At a glance, there are 3 different groups of events that you can go for. Firstly, there is the festival pass events consisting of exclusive talks, panel discussions and meet the author sessions. Secondly, there are the other ticketed events comprising of SWF lectures, literary meals and cocktails, SWF publishing symposium and workshops and master classes. Thirdly, the free events such as "Little Lit!" and "Off the Page", which I managed to attended a few of it. To start off, I'll talk about some events that caught my eye...
Ream to reel: The hours
This is a festival pass event featuring Michael Cunningham of his book "The Hours". Michael Cunningham, widely praised as one of the most gifted writers of his generation, draws inventively on the life and work of Virginia Woolf to tell the story of a group of contemporary characters struggling with the conflicting claims of love and inheritance, hope and despair. The narrative of Woolf's last days before her suicide early in World War II counterpoints the fictional stories of Richard, a famous poet whose life has been shadowed by his talented and troubled mother, and his lifelong friend Clarissa, who strives to forge a balanced and rewarding life in spite of the demands of friends, lovers, and family. The book was inspired into a movie where I have read reviews of many people mentioning that it was one of their favourite movies.
From the trailer, I was already sucked into the plot of the story of the lives of the 3 women handling their different issues in life. It makes me think about how in different stages of life, there are different levels of problems that comes with it. This movie will probably leave a strong impact on people's mind thus, I'll recommend it for those with time to spare to ponder about life and its challenges.
Now, let's go on to a more uplifting topic...
Off the Page: Tell me a story
Professional storyteller Kamini Ramachandran from MoonShadow Stories read off some stories by SWF featured writers. For the session, Kamini draws from "The Scar" by Charlotte Moundlic and "Slog's Dad" by SWF 2012 featured writer David Almond. Both are children picture books and have a common similarity where it portrays the perceptions of a young child, teaching us how to deal with death of a close one. In "Slog's Dad", the book uses descriptive imagery of Slog's dad and how he bid his last farewell. In "Scars", it shows how a young child deal with his conflicting thoughts between the death of his mother and being a source of hope and strength for his father. Through the process, there was a maturity that birthed forth from him.
 |
| Slog's Dad |
I attended this session on 10 November 2012 from 12.30pm to 1pm. I found it very interesting as the storyteller was able to portray out the emotions of the different characters just by the tone of her voice. When she was reading the story "Slog's Dad", there was mainly 3 different characters: Slog, his dad, and his friend Davie, but she was able to vary in the sound of her voice to convey a message from the character. These are some photos that I have taken while she was sharing the stories...
Off the Page: Livehouse featuring Elaine Lam
Gracing the local jazz scene like a breath of fresh air is Elaine Lam. She projects an image of a sunny girl-next-door, yet exudes the sensual sentiments of a pensive soul. She released her first album Jazz EP (a little blue jazz) that was launched on 10 May 2012. Her songs recalls snippets found in our everyday lives. With her voice, her melodies speak of blossoming love and take us back to a memorable childhood.
This session was from 2.30pm to 3pm the same day. During the sessions, she sang her songs along with a keyboardist, Chi Sheng, who was her friend. The first song which she composed was called "I wanna be here". She shared about how this song was first composed 10 years ago, when she first had her first crush. The Second song "Afternoon in May", third song was "Xiao Shi Le" which is disappear in english, fourth was "Apple of my eye" and lastly, "Huai Pi Qi". Before she sang all the songs, she shared about how some of them were composed by her with the lyrics conveying how she feels. For example, in "Apple of my eye", it is about the first feelings you have when you start a relationship where everyday is as bright as the sunshine.
I remember the first thing that came to my mind was: "I thought SWF was all about books. There are songs involved as well?" This session changed my mindset about SWF. More than just the physical book that you see, it is the stories behind it, whether is it books, poems, and even the songs in the lyrics.
References:
No comments:
Post a Comment