Poetry and theatre are part of the same discipline, and yet there's often a perceived division between the two. Can we argue that all theatre is, in one sense at least, poetry performed? Seasoned theatre practitioner of KL Shakespeare Players and BFM’s own Lim Soon Heng weighs in on this contentious topic.

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This month on Speak Easy, Elaine Foster invites two poets to do a round-up of the year that was 2017. Azam Rais is a seasoned poet and host of Poet X, an online podcast series of spoken word poetry, while Julian Matthews only discovered spoken word poetry recently. The contrasting experiences of both guests provide a thought-provoking insight into the spoken word scene in Malaysia.

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This month, Speak Easy focuses on how poetry and poetry slam are being used in education across schools and universities in Malaysia to improve things students’ confidence, develop their self expression, and language skills. But poetry in education can do a whole lot more. We hear from poetry educator Yohanna Yusrinal, as well as poet-students Tee Yen, Amanda Lim, Elissa Foong and Taarani Mahadeva.

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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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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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This episode, we talk about counterculture and Beat poetry. Beat poets and the culture they espoused was anti-establishment and non-conformist. Are the hipster poets of the now “beat” in any way? Is spoken word meaningful counterculture? Jack Malik and Azizan Afi weigh in before performing their own haiku/jazz live improvisation, featuring Axam Maumoon on saxophone.

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This episode, we focus on the minority identities of East Malaysia, whose stories, our guests argue, are often hidden, lost in the larger narrative of Malaysia. We learn from them about the issues of representation, and how important it is to have a specifically Sarawakian/Sabahan voice.

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Where there has been a rise in performance poetry events there has also been an increase in stand up comedy events but it’s comedy that has been able to mainstream faster, gaining much larger audiences. The two mediums actually have a lot in common, share a history, and not just in their propensity to sometimes be funny. What can performance poets learn from stand up’s commercial success and how does comedy exploit poetry to get a few more laughs?

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Where there has been a rise in performance poetry events there has also been an increase in stand up comedy events but it’s comedy that has been able to mainstream faster, gaining much larger audiences. The two mediums actually have a lot in common, share a history, and not just in their propensity to sometimes be funny. What can performance poets learn from stand up’s commercial success and how does comedy exploit poetry to get a few more laughs?

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Speak Easy is a monthly spoken word poetry show featuring local talents every first Tuesday of the month. In this second instalment, Elaine Foster speaks to slam experts Jamal Raslan and Yohanna Yusrinal about poetry slam, the competition that poets love to hate. This month’s writing prompt is: “The 7 deadly sins. Greed, Sloth, Lust, Gluttony, Rage, Envy, Pride. Which applies to you? Without using the name of the sins, try to visualise the sins with imagery instead.

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