Front Row

With Merdeka and Malaysia Day coming up, we look at some of Malaysia’s rapidly disappearing cultural practices and art forms, and the people who are working to preserve them. In the first of a two-parter, we look at Orang Asli weaving with artist Shaq Koyok, the Awang Batil storytelling tradition from Perlis with practitioner Romli Mahmud, and traditional boat-making from Terengganu with boat-builder Christine Rohani Longuet. Click here to listen to part 2. 

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With Merdeka and Malaysia Day coming up, we look at some of Malaysia’s rapidly disappearing cultural practices and art forms, and the people who are working to preserve them. In the first of a two-parter, we look at Orang Asli weaving with artist Shaq Koyok, the Awang Batil storytelling tradition from Perlis with practitioner Romli Mahmud, and traditional boat-making from Terengganu with boat-builder Christine Rohani Longuet.

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The WVC Jazz Ensemble is back to present a series of concerts, called Music of Words, where different concerts focus on different themes - but all revolving around the coming together of music and literature. And for the first time, WVC will be performing a show entirely dedicated to love ballads. We speak with Tay Cher Siang and Aj popshuvit from the ensemble about what we can expect from the concert series.

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In his latest art exhibition titled “Routine”, Malaysian artist Fazrin Abd Rahman creates contemporary works from materials like aluminium and spray paint, which nevertheless draw on traditional Malay culture and practices. We speak with Fazrin about his work and his inspirations.

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In his latest art exhibition titled “Routine”, Malaysian artist Fazrin Abd Rahman creates contemporary works from materials like aluminium and spray paint, which nevertheless draw on traditional Malay culture and practices. We speak with Fazrin about his work and his inspirations.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most of us know of Francis Light as the founder of the British colony in Penang. And 50 years later, his son William laid out the city of Adelaide in Australia. Using these two generations as a starting point, a theatre production called “Light” brings together creatives from Malaysia and Australia to interrogate history, colonisation, and the stories we tell ourselves - as well as to ask, why do we know so little about Francis’ wife Martina Rozells? We speak with the show’s creators, Terence Conrad of TerryandTheCuz Productions and writer/director Thomas Henning.

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Earlier this year, director and playwright Fa Abdul faced protests and even police reports being lodged against a play she was staging in Penang - ultimately, the show was shut down after opening night. Perhaps aptly, Fa is now back with a play called “Tales from the Scars”, featuring 10 monologues on subjects as diverse as racism, parenthood, adultery, and marital conversions. We speak with Fa about the production.

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Malaysian artist Sharon Chin has been commissioned by the Singapore Biennale 2019 to present an artwork, which is called “In the Skin of A Tiger: Monument to What We Want (Tugu Kita)”. As part of this, Sharon is carrying out the first phase of the project in Kuala Lumpur, as a participatory performance involving 100 volunteers. We speak with Sharon about participatory art, how her work reimagines the idea of a national monument, and what it might have to say about Malaysia a year after the historic 2018 general elections.

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The Free Hand Music Festival 2019 is Malaysia’s first contemporary classical piano composers festival, headlined by pianist Mei Yi Foo, recipient of BBC Music Magazine's Best Newcomer award in 2013. We speak with Mei Yi and the festival’s director Adeline Wong, about the importance of creating space for contemporary classical compositions.

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As part of the arts, poetry is a means to give a voice to the voiceless, to bring into light stories that are left in the shadows. This brings us to the latest project by Project Liberat8, a Malaysian nonprofit organisation that aims to educate and raise awareness of the public on the anti-human trafficking cause. Together with the International Labour Organisation, they produced “Between Two Worlds,” a video that features a collaborative performance between a poet and a domestic worker-cum-pianist.

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