Arts...Travels...Writing

Another grassroots poetry writing activity came into the literary scene recently via Text in the City, an Arts House and NAC campaign "to boost the awareness and appreciation of Singapore poetry." Among poetry fora, Text in the City is unique in that it has a corresponding App, which in today's tech-driven world makes participation relatively easier. I checked out the site and found out that the only requirement is for the poem entry to be about places in Singapore, and that the poet has to be a resident of Singapore (Citizen or Permanent Resident). So I penned a couple of poems and shared them using the app. You can click on the links below if you'd like to read them: https://textinthecity.sg/poems/565 http://textinthecity.sg/poems/438 As of today hundreds of poems have already been posted - after SingPoWriMo, here's another testament to the fact that Singapore poetry is truly alive! and this number will only continue to grow as the activity ...

Singapore Poetry Writing Month or SingPoWriMo is a curious phenomenon in the literary scene: it started out in the virtual world (a Facebook group set up in April), where members/poets of every stripe, young and old, veterans and emerging were challenged to respond to daily prompts during the "cruel month of April" aka Poetry Month. Many of the prompts were deeply challenging: Day 1 for example involved the use of 6 words including debauched, trade, exclusive, Day 4 encouraged the use of one-syllable poems, Day 16 was the writing in a different language and dialect, and so on . Clearly these kept the poets engaged as new poems cropped up everyday in response to the prompts. By the end of the month, the group eventually grew to more than 450 members, collectively producing hundreds of poems.  Apart from the sharing of poems, there was too a lively exchange of thoughts on the site - many members were actively engaged, going beyond mere "liking", and responding to o...

Inspired by the black and white challenge on Facebook, I thought I'd put together some of my favourite black and white photos and share them here: Looking out into the Indian Ocean - Bali From inside a temple in Chail, a hill station near the Indian Himalayas Truly a great wonder - Taj Mahal, Agra in India This could be anywhere...but it is actually in front of the Jim Thompson House, Bangkok It mentions the Philippines? The facade of a hotel near La Rambla, Barcelona The serrated mountains of Montserrat, Spain Barcelona Winter Somewhere in Shanghai...why am I not surprised ;-) A man passing by a church (?)  in Shanghai Sun-salute in Maldives On the shores of Maldives...I could spend the rest of my days here...with a good book of course Windows along Madison Avenue -out here they seem to close shop early -it was not that late in the afternoon when I took this photo..or maybe I'm just used to the loooong hours in Asia ...

I am a museum person, to the consternation of my husband and daughter. I make it a point to check out a museum exhibit whenever I visit a new place, and naturally I would drag my family with me when we travel together :-) In terms of richness and expansiveness of collection, The Met, MOMA, Rijks, Musee d'Orsay, and the Vatican/Sistine are at the top of my list; the Louvre too, but to a lesser extent - it was too crowded when we got there, and the pushing and rushing probably clouded my impression that I don't remember my visit with so much fondness. In terms of location, feel and the atmosphere of laid-backness though, I do like the Peggy Guggenheim in Venice, Miro in Barcelona, and the Getty in LA. Long before I became a resident of Singapore, I would go to the Singapore Art Museum and the Asian Civilisation Museum whenever I came to visit - I remember seeing my first Rodin exhibit at SAM. For some reason though, I had never stopped by the National Museum, until recently. ...