Making Space in Singapore: Pooja Nansi's Story

In this episode of The Brown Box Podcast, we sit with Pooja Nansi, poet, educator, and former director of the Singapore Writers Festival.

In this episode, we talk about:

* Pooja's childhood in a creative household and her mother's sacrificed dreams as a classical dancer

* How poetry found her—from writing about her math teacher to discovering Sylvia Plath's intensity

* The electric energy of hip-hop clubs and slam poetry venues 

* Mustafa Centre, Mysore Sandalwood soap, and the everyday spaces that mean everything to immigrant communities

* Literary gatekeeping and making space for all storytellers at the Singapore Writers Festival

* The exhaustion of constantly explaining yourself, of not fitting into neat CMIO boxes

* Navigating controversy with nuance—from the Books Actually incident to tensions within her own Indian community

Listen to this episode if you believe in the power of poetry, the importance of communal spaces, and the possibility of loving a place deeply while demanding it be better.

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