Lessons from the Lit UP 2010

A notable fact of the recently concluded Lit Up Singapore 2010 Writers and Performance Festival was the participation of school children in National Poetry Slam Competition and National Schools Literary Festival. Unlike a conventional literary festival which would make up of exhaustive academic sessions on diverse aspects of literature, Lit Up 2010 was by and large dedicated to emerging writers and performers. Lit Up 2010 is a second of a series which has been conceptualised and implemented by Chris Mooney-Singh and Savinder Kaur.

Another notable feature of the festival was that within a short period of time, the organisers' ability to draw a large number of participants representing academics, poets, authors, dramatists including a large number of expatriate writers and poets. In parallel with the main activities, several national events such as National Schools Literary Festival, National Poetry Slam Competition were held in order to maintain the momentum.

Apart from performing events, workshops for script writing and short drama production imparted much needed theoretical and practical knowledge in specific areas of script writing and drama production. A prominent aspect of the drama workshops was that the participants were given opportunities to come up with a short play or an exercise based on workshop conducted. Visiting international academics such as Dr. Leslie O'Dell, Professor of Theatre and Film at Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada, generously imparted her knowledge and expertise in the field. Her extremely innovative workshop on Shakespearean drama for school children was one of the successful events of the festival.

Performing poets

Performing poets, young Thato Ntshabele and Andrew Mwini not only represented diverse cultures and linguistic lineage but also an emerging socio-cultural fusion of the East and West. Whilst representing the South and the East of African continent, the two performing poets also exhibited the overarching influence of West and the East. Their poetry was spontaneous, at times brief, yet entertaining. Benjamin Chow was another performing poet from Singapore noted for his remarkable abilities in performing poetry and performed at several events of the festival.

One of the prominent features of performing poetry is its ability to appeal to young audiences who normally consider poetry as something boring. Although some pedagogical practices may have attributed to this notion, performing poetry, apart from enhancing children's presentation and writing skills and has made a sea change in changing traditional attitude on the part of students towards poetry and studying literature. The extensive application of some of the techniques of poetry in performing events such as Poetry Slam have apparently established a firm tradition of poetry writing and performing among the students. Since the sporting platform has been used for performing poetry, poetry performances have invariably become pleasure games for children. It was obvious throughout the festival that the audience in general and school children in particular enjoyed every bit of the performance.

The diverse poetry performances and workshops held in schools during the festival yielded a rich harvest representing poetry from multi-ethnic and multi-cultural student population of Singapore.

International participants

The festival was noted for its international participants. Prominent among the international participants was Prof. Dennis Haskell, Chair of the Literature Board of the Australian Council. Prof. Haskell is prolific author and poet. Dennis Haskell is the author of five collections of poetry, including All the Time in the World, published by Salt in 2006, and 12 volumes of literary scholarship and criticism. All the Time in the World won the Western Australian Premier's Prize for Poetry in 2007 and is being translated into French and Italian. Haskell has been Co-editor of Westerly, one of Australia's oldest literary magazines since 1985 and is Professor of English and Cultural Studies at The University of Western Australia.

Prof. Haskell launched, an anthology of poetry entitled 'Chai - Travel Poems' by Singapore poet, Marc Daniel Nair during the festival.

Dr Brenda Flanagan, was another prominent internationally acclaimed writer of the Festival. A prolific short-story writer and poet, Brenda is known internationally for her dramatic presentations of her stories and poems. She is currently teaching creative writing, Caribbean and African-American literatures in the English Department at Davidson College. Since 2003, Dr. Flanagan has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the United States Department of State. In 2005, she was the first American writer to be sent on a cultural mission to Libya in 25 years.

Other international participants of the Festival included Mike Ladd, Barbara Ryan, Joel M Toledo, Ankur Betageri, Dr. Leslie O'Dell, Arianna Pozzuoli, Cindy Childress and, Perth based Sri Lankan expatriate poet Sunil Govinnage.

International participants who conducted workshops , sessions and performances during the festival not only made it truly an international literary event but also helped exchange ideas and experiences across the frontiers of continents representing East and West.

Investment in future and lessons for Sri Lanka

Sunil Govinnage, a keen observer of Singapore's literary scene for over a decade and a close associate of Singapore writers and poets highlighted that "LitUp 2010 Singapore is not only a significant literary event but also a valuable investment in future poets, writers and dramatists to emerge from Singapore."

Inculcating the habit of writing and performing among the school children is a real investment in future. It is an important aspect often overlooked by Sri Lankan literary festivals. Innovative methods such as poetry slam may be introduced to promote the art of poetry writing and performance in younger generation of new writers in Sri Lanka. For, they will be the future authors, poets and readers. Even if each and every child will not be a poet or writer in future, innovative events such as poetry slam will attract them to literature instead of cheap tele-dramas and FM radio programs expanding like wild-fire in Sri Lanka.

Apart from engaging younger generation in literary activities, performing literature will in the long run change the prototype attitude on the part of the students on literature in general and poetry in particular.