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“Let Nature be your teacher.” ~Wordsworth
Weeks have flown by and the Singapore Youth Festival 2024 #syf2024 has come to a spectacular conclusion. Being part of SYF these past few years brings me back to my childhood-- starting a decades-long journey of singing in church and primary school, a succession of choirs, vocal ensembles and co-founding an a capella group as a young adult. I'm so grateful to mark this enriching milestone in my pilgrimage as a chorist, poet, lyric-writer and intercultural artist. This year I had the privilege to watch some of the 135 primary school choirs in action at the SYF ('live' and on video), and I must say I enjoyed every moment! I loved the children's pure and exuberant voices in harmony, their colourful costumes and choreographed presentations, and especially how they showcased traditional folk songs and "new" songs from Singapore and the "global neighbourhood" such as Japan, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hawaii, the US and the African continent. The cherry on top was all the choirs presenting "First Light", a festival set piece commissioned by the Singapore Academy of the Arts and co-composed by Dr Kelly Tang and me. The song is about a child who awakes and starts the day in the early morning with a sense of great possibilities. My collaborator Kelly (he is a master of the resplendent musical line) and I worked on this #ecopoetics song over many months. Of the song's imagery Kelly says "there is a tranquil wisdom in the trees who simply ARE". We were so glad to offer this song as our heartfelt gift to the children of Singapore, our "City in a garden" and urban kampung that we call our HOME. It is gratifying to hear that "First Light" has been received into the hearts of many Singapore student chorists and become one of their favourite songs. Even before the festival was over, some parent friends reached out to share with me about how choral singing has enriched their child's personal life, character and education journey. To all the SYF student chorists, conductors, musicians and music educators, cheerleaders, families and school communities represented: you were simply wonderful! Thank you for your beaming smiles, for lifting your voices in unity, for your sense of wonder and kindness to one another! Each and everyone of you is a testament to the SYF's raison d'etre-- children getting to celebrate and be themselves, while we are reminded of our inner child – the essence of who we are: "Who do you see when you look at me?If I had one wish, what would it be?" Hearty thanks and kudos to the Ministry of Education's SYF organising team -- you lead the way for all of us with your sense of mission, your ethos and always serving with the spirit of excellence. See you next year! More pics of #syf2024 at the SYF Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SgYouthFest
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Mahalo nui loa (thank you) Team USA and the community for having us at this fabulous sporting event! Kudos to the organisers, volunteers, paddlers and friends and supporters who created an amazing atmosphere with aloha, fun, sportsmanship and camaraderie. We were so blessed to be part of the Country of Origin outrigger canoe race 2023 hosted by Team USA! Mahalo nui loa Ke Akua from whom all blessings flow. Mahalo nui loa to our Kumu, Kumu Hula Leihiilani Kirkpatrick who has passed down to us her Singapore Hālau extension her lineage from Kumu Loea Lehua Kawaikapuokalani. Aloha Nui Aloha Nui Aloha Nui! See Xavier K's video of that fabulous day here! - Alaka'i Namiko HAPPY YOUTH DAY!
Thrilled to attend the SYF 2023 concert celebrating the culmination of nearly two years of hard creative work by many good folks! The exuberance and spirit of excellence displayed by all the young performers tonight in the disciplines of dance, instrumental music, song, drama and film, was simply spectacular. They all, and their mentors and creative coaches deserve a ton of accolades. I'm honoured to have been commissioned once again to create a new choral piece for SYF, this time with the brilliant Americ Goh. He composed a polyrhythmic, mixed meter, thoroughly modern piece of music that successfully evokes the complex realities and untapped potential of young people in the present day. I managed to catch many of the 130 or so school choirs in SYF competition in March, and was blown away by their sensitive expressions and creativity in their presentations of "Morning Rain". They all rose to the challenge of mastering a demanding song. I pray each of them will always keep a song of hope in their hearts as they grow up, enter society and lead us someday. Warm thank you to the MOE's Desiree, Adeline, Marilyn and the ever-inspiring Kelly Tang, for inviting me to this enriching project. "Hope will make thee young, for Hope and Youth are children of one mother, Love." ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley Celebrating the 30th anniversary of NUS Centre For the Arts, 'Not Only Lines' is a poetry project inspired by the late Arthur Yap’s poem only lines published in the collection of the same name in 1971. The poem, in Yap’s characteristic cryptic tone, reminds us how words and lines can be endlessly configured to reveal new meanings. Similarly, Not Only Lines will feature poems from 30 NUS alumni who are prominent literary figures in Singapore, displayed at transitory spaces around NUS, and compiled as a digital anthology to offer whimsical opportunities for playful engagement.
Curated by Paul Tan, poet and former Festival Director of Singapore Writers Festival, this collection of writings celebrates the timeless power of words to create spaces of reflection and connection. The artworks all over the NUS campus will be available for viewing until 2024 Artists: Aaron Lee, Azhar Ibrahim, Boey Kim Cheng, Carissa Cheow, Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips, Christine Chia, Cyril Wong, Desmond Kon Zhicheng- Mingdé, Eleanor Wong, Felix Cheong, Grace Chia, Gwee Li Sui, Heng Siok Tian, Jason Wee, Jollin Tan, Jennifer Anne Champion, Lee Tzu Pheng, Loh Guan Liang, Liang Wern Fook, Marc Nair, Paul Jerusalem, Pooja Nansi, Robert Yeo, Sa’eda Buang, Shawn Hoo, Wong Koi Tet, Yeow Kai Chai, Yong Shu Hoong, Sithuraj Ponraj and Tan Chee Lay
The music and words of David Kawika Kahiapo says it all. And it doesn’t get old.
By His wounds we are healed. By His blood we are washed clean. To remember Easter, the hula dancers of the Hawaiian hula dance school, School of Hawaiian Hula Singapore - Ka Pā Hula Ka Lei Maile Hi'ilani presented this hula called Hoʻomana as our tribute. Mahalo nui loa e ke kumu, Kumu Hula Leihiilani Kirkpatrick, for teaching us this beautiful hula. Hula haku by Aunty Pua. Music by David Kawika Kahiapo. We hope it blesses many people. O Lord You’re beautiful, your face is all I see. And when Your eyes are on this child, Your grace abounds to me.
What a privilege to listen to these interviews of Kumu Hula and hear their stories. Hula is not just a dance form but it is a way of life, a life that has honor and respect as it’s foundations. Mahalo nui loa to our kumu, Kumu Hula Leihiilani Kirkpatrick for teaching us with so much aloha, so that this culture and way of life is not hidden or opaque to us. Mahalo for explaining everything to us so that we can grow in hula, your Hālau extension across the oceans. - Alaka'i Namiko
Ke Ao Mālamalama o Ka Hula: The Enlightenment of Hula is a talk story series featuring some of Hawaiʻi's most celebrated and accomplished kumu hula hosted by world renowned songwriter, kumu hula and Windward CC lecturer Frank Lehua Kawaikapuokalani Hewett. Intimate talk story and panel discussions offer a deeper understanding and appreciation for the traditional ways of learning hula and “becoming” a kumu hula. In Kumu Hula Talk Story Panel Part One | Ke Ao Mālamalama o Ka Hula: The Enlightenment of Hula Ep. 3-B, Kumu Kawaikapu sits down with three of Hawaiʻi’s most seasoned and accomplished kumu hula for a talk story session on hula knowledge, hula stories, and hula lineages. Each featured kumu hula has a unique story with connections to Hawaiʻi’s most legendary mentors and hula masters such as Pilahi Pākī, ʻIolani Luahine and Vickie Īʻī Rodrigues. Leimomi Ho is the kumu hula for Kealiʻikaʻapunihonua Keʻena Aʻo Hula and carries the teachings of her kumu hula Vickie ʻĪʻī Rodrigues. LLeialoha Lim-Amina is the kumu hula for Hālau Nā Lei o Ka Holokū which she started under the guidance and blessing of Pilahi Pākī. Maelia is a former Miss Aloha Hula and kumu hula for Ka Pā Hula o Kauanoe o Waʻahila which was started by her late grandmother and hula master Aunty Mae Ulalia Long Loebenstein.
We had a wonderful time presenting these hula for you! Merry Christmas to one and all!
Thrilled to do my part with fellow writers Zhou Decheng, Okky Madasari and Cho Dharman (and Minister Josephine Teo too) to help launch the National Library Singapore's Read! Fest 2021, celebrating our national reading movement that started in 2016.
This year's edition of Read! Fest has the theme "Reboot". When asked what "Reboot" means to me, I offered my view that it is a timely opportunity to nurture our 'offline self' by reading a good book. To Indonesian pengarang Okky Madasari, "Reboot" means "to pause, to come back again, start afresh with more clarity". Sinophone poet Zhou Decheng says it is a reminder "to return where we came from and gives us courage to venture". Sahitya Akademi awardee Cho Dharman said simply and wisely, "start living a life in harmony with nature, and everything will be possible". Read! Fest 2021 is anchored by 12 key books and topics, and hosts more than 60 programmes. Check it out here and jump right in: https://www.nationalreadingmovement.sg/readfest/main Honoured to have been invited to present and share perspectives at 'Landscapes Lost and Found: 1990-2010' -- one of five panels at the Nanyang Technological University's Singapore Literature Symposium 2021. This panel had a stated aim to "take stock of how a new generation of writers, growing up in newly-independent Singapore, was confronted by a changing landscape - altered beyond memory and recognition in tangible and intangible ways." The other two panelists were Ann Ang and Alvin Pang (also moderator). In the symposium summary, NTU's A/P Cheryl Julia Lee (co-organiser) wrote: "Our second panel consisting of Dr. Alvin Pang, Ann Ang, and Aaron Lee offered us a thought-provoking look into the HDB and the heartland as a contested space that both reinforces and resists the imperatives of national development. This tension within the space was discussed in terms of the Gothic, and its relationship to nostalgia. The panel also discussed the fraught relationship between nature and the urban, which is foregrounded in the image of Singapore as a Garden City, a City in a Garden, and a Biophilic City. Dr. Pang and Aaron also reflected on the process of putting together No Other City: The Ethos Anthology of Urban Poetry, which attempts to capture the dynamic interplay between people and places caught in the throes of a new urban reality, wrought within one generation of independence. The anthology traced the development of the idea of the city as one determined by loss, to one involving coming to terms with the urban as a fact of life and not replacing the rural, to finally a new way of looking at the city in the 2000s as a thoroughly modern and urban space that does not begin from a sense of loss."  (Singapore, 7 April 2021) - Cosy up in a regenerative seed pod, immerse in soundscape and song atop a grass mound, or unveil new meanings through literal shifts in visual perspectives. From now till 6 June 2021, the public can encounter 14 larger-than-life art installations along the 36km-long coast-to-coast trail, commissioned by the Public Art Trust (PAT) under the National Arts Council (NAC). Titled Rewritten: The World Ahead of Us, this first-ever public art showcase installed across eight nature parks from Punggol to Jurong sees our artists draw inspiration from Singaporean writers and works in the conceptualisation process. Read the rest of the article here! [D]uring the pandemic... the arts provide essential relief and have a role in improving emotional and mental wellbeing.
-- Tay Tong, Director, National Arts Council |
