Of plants and poetry: #BuySingLit to offer terrarium building with a dash of poetry
SINGAPORE — Local poet Charlene Shepherdson’s Eurasian roots in Singapore may span over five generations, but the 34-year-old is of the opinion that many narratives from her community have been forgotten here.
SINGAPORE — Local poet Charlene Shepherdson’s Eurasian roots in Singapore may span over five generations, but the 34-year-old is of the opinion that many narratives from her community have been forgotten here.
“Growing up you would hear of different (personalities) like Lim Bo Seng, but you never hear about Eurasian heroes of Singapore, and there are quite a lot,” she said.
Of late, Ms Shepherdson has been digging into audio and newspaper archives in search of these stories with the aim of sharing them with Singaporeans through her performance poetry.
Ms Shepherdson is one of the many local authors and poets who will be participating in this year’s #BuySingLit, an industry-led movement that encourages people to pick up local literary works.
"I think what #BuySingLit does very well is that it brings more stories... more minority voices, more stories I might relate to, into the open,” she said.
This is the third year that homegrown publishers, retailers and literary non-profit groups have banded together for this campaign. Its working committee includes independent bookstore BooksActually, The Arts House and Singapore Book Council and is supported by the National Arts Council.
More than 80 events have been lined up from Friday (March 8) and the campaign will run over two weekends this year instead of one.
Unusual events have also been included in an attempt to draw more people who may not have encountered Singapore literature before, said Singapore Book Council executive director William Phuan.
These events include a poetry performance by poet Marc Nair while participants build their own terrarium and an escape room in a bookstore based on a Singapore Chinese picture book, The Unspoken Words.
On March 16 and 17, Ms Shepherdson will join a group of “Author-mated Typists” at Yong Siak Street as they compose spontaneous poems and personalised flash fiction on typewriters based on prompts from participants.
Organised by BooksActually, the two-day event will see the trendy street in Tiong Bahru transformed into a space for other performances, book launches and panel discussions. Fans of local literature will also have the opportunity to have lunch with their favourite authors.
Those who want to read Singaporean bestsellers on the go will also be able to try the new on-demand printing machines during the campaign. The machines will dispense excerpts of these books on a piece of receipt paper for readers.
Installed and managed by non-profit organisation Sing Lit Station, the machines can be found at Our Tampines Hub, Mapletree Business City and Library@Habourfront.
A QR-code at the end of the excerpt will offer readers a 20 per cent discount code to purchase the book from eight bookstores such as Popular Bookstore, Books Kinokuniya and Times Bookstores.
As part of the campaign, ride-hailing and electronic payment app Grab will also allow users to redeem a mystery local book with their GrabRewards points from March 8 to 31.
Ms Shepherdson, who holds writing workshops at secondary schools, was happy to see “a bit of a resurgence” in the local literature scene.
Even vampire novels for young adults have their value if they help develop the culture of reading here, she added.
“If we constantly tell someone that what they are reading is not considered literature, then we are going to turn them off the habit of reading,” said the performance poet.
“Literature can evolve, there’s more to it than what we think. That’s what #BuySingLit does — it shows people that... it’s a living breathing thing, not something that is stuck in Shakespeare.”