Poetry from Indonesia and Malaysia

20050224132505

Information

Date and time Friday 21 January 2005 21:35 tot 22:20 uur
Location Theater aan het Spui - kleine zaal

Malay and Bahasa Indonesian are closely related languages. In recent years writers and poets from both countries have worked with one another regularly. For instance the Javanese poet Agus Sarjono and his Malayan colleague Eddin Khoo. They will discuss this relationship and read from their work, together with the well known Indonesian Sutarji Calzoum Bachri. In his innovative poems Sutarji 'liberates' the words from their original meaning. Last October he stole the show with his impressive poetry recital during the Winternachten tour in South Africa.
English spoken

Eddin Khoo

(Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 1969) is writer, poet and translator. He studied political science and Islamic philosophy at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, and Asian Arts and archeology at the University of London. Khoo is very interested in the traditional Malaysian culture. He is the founder and director of Kala, a publishing house that specialises in foreign literature translated into Malaysian. Alongside this he is also founder and director of Pusaka, a study and documentation centre for Malaysian theatre, a traditional art form that is in danger of disappearing from North East Malaysia, since it has been banned by the Islamic party of Malaysia.
WIN2005
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Agus Sarjono

(Java, 1962) writes poetry, short novels and essays. He studied Indonesian Language and Literature at Bandung and finished his postgraduate program in 2002. Sarjono works as a lecturer at the Faculty of Theatre at Bandung’s Art College. He is editor of the literary journal Horison and the Program Director of The Jakarta Arts Council for the periode of 2002-2006. His work has been published in several media, including the literary journals Horison and Dewan Sastera, as well as the newspapers Jawa Pos and Kompas. His poems have also been included in several anthologies. His work consists out of the collections of poems Kenduri airmata (1994) and A Story from the Country of the Wind (English edition 2001), his essays Bahasa dan Bonafiditas Hantu and Sastra dalam Empat Orba (both 2001)and his drama Atas Nama Cinta (2004).Sarjono has performed at Winternachten 1999, and at literary manifestations in Indonesia, Malaysia and Germany.
WN 2005

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Sutardji Calzoum Bachri

(Rengat, Indonesia, 1941) is a poet and editor. In the early seventies Bachri shook the Indonesian literary world by publishing poems in which the words - according to his own creed - were freed from their original meaning and the appearance and aura of the words became important. This has made him one of the leading figures in the modern Indonesian literary world. Bachri has performed in places such as the Netherlands, Iraq and Colombia an has been awarded many literary prizes. Alongside poems and articles he also writes essays and short stories.
WIN2004
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Chris Keulemans

(Tunisia, 1960) is a writer, essayist, traveller and popular panel moderator. He has published fiction and non-fiction; was the director of the debating platform and venue De Balie; and was founder of the literary bookshop Perdu and the cultural centre De Tolhuistuin (all in Amsterdam). He performed with Enkidu Khaled in their jointly created documentary play Bagdad. Due to his curiosity about how artists recreate their cities after a crisis, he travelled to Sarajevo, Beirut, Tirana, Algiers, New York, Kiev, Jakarta and Qamishlo. At the invitation of PAX, he wrote Srebrenica & PAX 1995-2020, an overview of 25 years of support to the Association of Women of Srebrenica by the IKV and PAX in response to the genocide in Bosnia. In 2021 he published Gastvrijheid (Hospitality), in which he explores the art of hospitality through a mix of travel stories, observations, memories and imagery.
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