In the first six weeks of 2015, I was holed up with three of my fellow poets; Marylyn Tan, Charlene Shepherdson and Allee Koh from the Party Action People, preparing for a pretty unique spoken word show.
EleMental came about as a result of Dream Academy’s invitation to be part of the Henderson Project, an eclectic event that brought together movies, music, spoken word and rap. We opened the second Friday of the event. The theme was ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised.’
In a way, we felt that iconic slogan didn’t really apply to our contented masses. Our biggest beefs are bus drivers who drive too slow/fast or what new contraption is being used to reserve seats at food courts.
So we looked to the environment, and in the old cartoon, Captain Planet, we found some inspiration. Naturally, in this post-modern era, Captain Planet is dead. And so went our opening poem. From there, each of us took on a different element. Speaking as either wind, water, earth or fire, we used the elements to talk about war, loss, politics and love; all within a suitably green setting.
Here is a clip of one of our group pieces, with an alphabet song at the end to boot!
