LITERARY TOUR OF KL AND ITS MIGRANT COMMUNITIES KRISHEN JIT ASTRO FUND: THE OTHER GRANTEES
liography of literary works that involve KL, and I want to put KL on the literature map like Edinburgh in the UK, which is a City of Literature.
“My friends and I will be organising tours of various parts of KL which we have marked to appear in literature, and we will also have readings of works about these places next year,” says Zikri who has 12 literary works on his map of KL on www.literacitykl.com.
THEATRE RESEARCH AND PERFORMANCE
Johorean Fasyali Fadzly Saipul Bahri, who has been active in Malay theatre since 2006, is working on a theatre research and performance project that involves migrant worker communities from Indonesia, the Philippines, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Nepal among others.
He says: “These are workshops where actors conduct research on the folklore of migrant communities in KL. The stories we gather will lead to the staging of performances in public spaces, and these will be documented by video recordings.”
Fasyali, who will get help from nongovernmental organisations that deal with migrant workers, is a lecturer and theatre practitioner from Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), and has directed plays such as Kotak Hitam (2011) and Teater Juta-Juta (2011).
He will also help Zikri to promote LiteraCity and is preparing to stage two new plays, Tengku Infariah Awang and Barah at the National Arts, Culture and Heritage Academy (Aswara) next year.
“My six-month project is the country’s first to involve literature from migrant workers. It’s my ‘thank you’ to them for their services, and my hand of friendship in getting to know their literature,” says Fasyali.
The projects of Zikri and Fasyali (who received RM7,000 and RM6,500 respectively) are two of six to receive grants worth a total of RM33,000 as part of the annual Krishen Jit Astro Fund.
The fund’s initiator, Five Arts Centre’s founder member and manager Datin Marion D’Cruz says: “Together with Astro, we established the fund to invest directly in the arts, and it is our effort to discover promising artistes and their new, outstanding works.
“The Krishen Jit Astro Fund has been used for various training, workshops, attachments, residencies, experimental productions and for the creation of new works in literature, music, dance and theatre.”
IMMENSE CONTRIBUTIONS
The fund is inspired by and in memory of Five Arts Centre’s late founder member and respected arts activist, the late Datuk Krishen Jit, for his immense contributions to the local arts scene. • Harold Reagan Eswar (RM7,000) is working on a documentary seen from the perspective of a 12-year-old rural girl, Marmi. She lives in a forest reserve which does not have a school, roads or electricity.
• Sunitha Janamohanan and Janet Pillai (RM6,500) will conduct workshops for community engaged arts practitioners. These workshops are in English, Malay and Mandarin.
• Liew Kungyu and Koe Gaik Cheng (RM5,000) will organise the
Little Door Festival for youths aged 4 to 14.
• Manesh Nesaratnam (RM1,000) wrote the screenplay Bumi about a terminally ill army officer who gets snubbed for a long-deserved medal.
The grants were presented by Marion to Zikri, Fasyali, Pillai,
Liew and Koe at the Five Arts Centre in Taman Tun Dr Ismail recently. Amy Lim represented Manesh.
A project to map the capital in literary terms and discover migrant workers’ folklore are among the projects of the Krishen Jit Astro Fund recipients, writes Dennis Chua
There are five selection panellists for the fund this year, namely National Department for Culture and Arts director general Tan Sri Norliza Rofli, Astro senior assistant vice president for corporate responsibility and community affairs Jolyn Gasper, Sunway University performance and media department head Leow Puay Tin, and Five Arts Centre representatives Ravi Navaratnam and Mac Chan.
“We received 45 applications for projects in dance, film, theatre, video publications, visual arts, music, animation, education, training and interdisciplinary work, and six were selected.”
Since 2006, the fund has disbursed RM329,000 for 44 Malaysian artists.
dchua@nst.com.my