Readings at Seksan's - 29 Sept 2012

For those who enjoy creative writing, poetry and prose, music, this is simply not to be missed. Even for first timers like us who went without any expectation, it's a feast for the eyes and ears.

"Readings at Seksan's" is a monthly gathering of writers or aspiring talents to give them a platform to read their work and mingle with like-minded people. This is not exactly a gathering in the ivory tower - we never knew "readings" could be so much fun! I will post some examples & videos below. Even my children were very engrossed.


Seksan Gallery at 67, Jalan Tempinis 1, Lucky Garden, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur. 
The venue was a beautiful place, especially for those who are familiar with Seksan's landscape designs including the many Sekeping retreats. 

Sharon Bakar, the organiser, giving her welcoming speech... The Readings has an audience of 30-40 on average. They welcome everyone - including "children"!

We're so happy to have Az Samad, the famous guitarist-composer to accompany some of the 'readings'!! Davina was very animated and lively, not surprisingly we enjoyed her readings tremendously. Watch this video!
Both Az Samad and Davina Goh were very compatible partners, and together they performed 4 readings from serious to funny themes. 

The September Readings was a mixture of the established and newbies, fiction and non-fiction, published and not yet published, in Malay and in English including Debra Paul-Burgess from Trinidad, a writer and Uthaya Sankar who read from his new novel.

Elizabeth Marshall presented some "funny whimsical pantun" and ghazal. Her use of food as a metaphor was brilliant, making it such a delight to listen to her. And she has no published work todate and writing is her passion.


In particular, we wanna share tis 2 pieces of her poetry and ghazal:-

Sajak Rojak Memberontak

Freshly cut cucumbers
Gleam at the top
A single silver sits sourish soft
White wits of sengkuang seek below
A snowy of saltish shower
Gives the bower a sourish bath
Thick and tangy and tawny
Sink and soak
Few melons colored fellows
Oozing sweetish bloodless juice
Then
Cucumbers grow ugly horns
The mangoes sprout angry thorns
The sengkuangs slip and slide
They all sink and sink
A small soft ugly urgent voice says
We refuse to be
Yesterday had been
Today we refuse to be
Your Malaysian rojak!

Sexing Coffee

Stiff and marble like when she stands before sprays of coffee and tea 
like a water feature he looks at her hard,
knowing she only says Nescafe Nipis dark liquid poured into a plastic translucent bag, 
an arch of black straight into a see-through bag,
and endless stream of soft frothy milk,
just the right touch then the sound of a crushing of a bag, 
pregnant with a brew of Nescafe.
A side-glance later, he ties-up the neck of the bag with a piece of red raffia string, 
a magical moment of precision, with a sudden jerk he pulls the neck of the bag together, stifling killing a thought.
The deed is done, the brew bagged and bereft, handed to her, a chronic gesture that belies him.

Light refreshments were served and provided some light moments for the guests to mingle freely.... The event ran from 3.30pm until around 6.00 pm.

Before we ended the day, Az Samad performed a piece of his work..... I read that he took up guitar late, after much persuasion from his father, the national laureate A Samad Said. Enjoy!


Comments

  1. Az Samad18 October 2012 at 01:15

    Thank you so much for the blog post & the support!!! So happy your kids were there too. =)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Honey4Boyz18 October 2012 at 13:24

      Wow - how did u find the blog!! We're honoured. We've a rich time enjoying the music & readings and hope to see u performing again soon!

      Delete

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