There has been no bigger influence on contemporary poetry than hip hop. It’s difficult to see where hip hop begins and spoken word poetry ends. But despite all their similarities, academics still argue whether rap is poetry. This month on Speak Easy, Elaine Foster speaks to Malaysian hip hop artist, Jin Hackman, and spoken word poet, Sheena Baharudin, about poetry and hip hop.

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In 1967, early in the history of Malaysia, several artists came together and held a group exhibition appropriately titled 'GRUP'. Ilham Gallery has organized an exhibition titled 'GRUP 1957 - 1973', extending the scope of the works covered and to situate these artists in the context of modern art in our country. The co-curators tells not only about the artists and their works but also the kind of infrastructure that aided or obstructed their growth.

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After a play on damaging corporate HR policies, Theatre Sauce takes on clinical depression in” 4.48 Psychosis” a work by British playwright, Sarah Kane. It was her last work. Our guests tell how to present a play that has “has no explicit characters or stage directions.” Kane herself suffered from clinical depression. She died at her own hands.

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The guests share on a family-friendly play--based on a “wittily written”book by Anna Kemp and “cheerily illustrated”by Sara Ogilvie--about a dog, a ballerina. Or more precisely, a dog that thinks he’s one for ballet. Biff like “moonlight and music and walking on his tiptoes.”

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Taking the host of phonetic and linguistic slippages provided by M (Malaysia, Merdeka, Malaya, Malay, and of course, Mama) as entry points, Tan Zi Hao mulls over the delicate relationship between language and nation, between his mother-tongue and mother-nation. The curator, Vincent Leong, points to those slippages and unravels the tensions.

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The artistic director of the company and a practitioner of the Japanese art form gives us a look into the upcoming Butoh festival, which will not only involved dancers but also photographers and painters. He also informs of the presence of a Butoh master, Koichi Tamano who will be here with Hiroko Tamano to run workshops and performances.

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The young musician plays a concert to raise funds for UNICEF and for Bentley Music Academy’s education and outreach programmes. She tells about her journey to become a musician and about the music she has chosen, classical and with some jazz crossover.

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The playwright tells about the evolution of his work, written in 2004, which was first staged in the island-nation south in 2008. Then again in 2011. After more than ten years after the writing, the play comes to Kuala Lumpur in English. In 2016, the play was performed in Mandarin. The actors weigh in on a discussion of performance in English language by tropical bodies.

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The newly formed Cendana has announced that it will start its first arts funding programme in November. The founding CEO Izan Satrina lays bare for the arts and the community, answering questions which will becoming from the community.

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Our guest makes her annual pilgrimage to KL to collaborate with Malaysian contemporary dancers. She tells what she has choreographed on the impulses of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and how the dance is about people without seasons.

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