RSVP Early: 2020 Singapore Literature Festival in NYC (Oct 1-3)

 Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here.

Singapore Unbound is holding our 4th Singapore Literature Festival from October 1-3, 2020. To be held online for the first time, this independent, biennial festival brings together Singaporean and American authors and audiences for lively conversations about literature and society. All events are free and open to everyone.

The theme of this year's festival is "The Politics of Hope." Singapore Unbound wishes to respond to this fraught moment not only in Singapore and the USA but also around the world. Everywhere, democracy, human rights, and social justice are facing existential threats, and we want to provide writers and thinkers a platform to speak to the current global turmoil.
 
Check out the full festival program. RSVP early for the Zoom link and extras (excerpts, interviews, updates).
 
Festival highlights
 
Timely, Pertinent Topics
The festival is bookended by a pair of important talks. The Opening Address "Is There Hope for Democracy?" by historian and New Naratif's Managing Director Ping Tjin (PJ) Thum will examine the prospects for global democracy. The Closing Address by scholar, poet, and activist Jackie Wang (Carceral Capitalism) will address a pertinent question in these times, on the necessity and future of prison abolition.
 
Engaging Panels and Programs
Artist Melinda Lauw will debut an ASMR performance that translates the works of festival authors into soothing sensory experiences. Look out also for a reading and discussion of "Revolutionary Family Histories" by novelists Elaine Castillo and Meira Chand. And a panel, headlined by Sonny Liew (The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye) on drawing political cartoons in an authoritarian state.
 
Book Launch
The Festival will also see the U.S. launch of Tania De Rozario's hybrid memoir And The Walls Come Crumbling Down.

Join us to hear what writers have to say about their work as it relates to our world.

Jee Leong Koh
September 3, 2020

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