A Singaporean poet at the Olympics. A bunch of local galleries at Art Hong Kong. Your chance to learn from Magnum photographers. Read on.

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We never pegged poet Alvin Pang to be the sporty kind. But yes, he’s taking part in the London Olympics. Woot. Well, actually, it’s the Cultural Olympiad. Specifically the Poetry Parnassus event in June, where Pang will be doing some oral acrobatics with his poetry representing Singapore. The Poetry Parnassus event is a week-long series spearheaded by UK poet Simon Armitage that will see poets from all countries participating in the Olympics do their thing. The list of confirmed poets is up here. And if everyone sends a rep, that’s a whopping 204 poets. Imagine the babel of languages. Other names spotted include Seamus Heaney, and from the region, there’s also Malaysia’s Sharanya Manivannan, the Philippines’ Marjorie Evasco, Cambodia’s Kosal Khiev, Indonesia’s Laksmi Pamuntjak, Thailand’s Chiranan Pitpreecha, and Vietnam’s Nguyen Bao Chan. Congratulations, Alvin!

*** Meanwhile, over at Art Hong Kong, the list of participating galleries for this year’s edition in May is out and we’ve got more Singapore galleries (or at least those with a Singapore branch) participating. Long time Singapore Tyler Print Institute is back and they’ll be showcasing Genevieve Chua (with whom they’re doing new stuff for the fair). You also have Heman Chong again (apparently he’s got an interesting thing going on where instead of paying for a work in terms of moolah, the payment is with your time, i.e., you’ll have to agree not to talk for an hour everyday for 365 days. Nice.) Chan Hampe Galleries (who showed Chua last year) is also back and this time they’ll be bringing Chun Kaifeng. Other galleries include Valentine Willie Fine Art, Gajah Gallery, Yavuz Fine Art and Richard Koh Fine Art—who’ll be bringing Vertical Submarine.

*** Finally, a shout out for the Singapore International Photography Festival 2012. They’ve announced a three-month long workshop, Magnum Mentorship Singapore, from July to October. Yes, that means you get a chance to work with Magnum photographers Alec Soth, Jim Goldberg and Susan Meiselas. Only 24 participants will be accepted (that’s eight to one) so better beef up your portfolio. Tough competition here. Send your application to their website, which should include a max-400-word bio, your latest CV, your portfolio, a short paragraph on what you hope to achieve (“I want to be awesome with a camera”—does that suffice?) and your ranked choice of mentor. There’s a fee of S$2,800. Deadline for application is on May 30. Selected participants will be announced on June 10. For more details and to send applications, go to the fest website here.