I love the romance of rebellion; I could drink the beauty and glamour of courage for days. But lately, it hasn’t been enough. I don’t think it ever was, for me. I’ve started to think about resistance as slow, banal, steady work – stitch by stitch rebuilding, reworking, remaking. Jahit in Malay means ‘sew’, jahat… Read more
The first story for ‘In The Land That Never Was Dry’, my illustrated journalism project about water issues in Malaysia is now published on Poskod.my. It’s about my trip to Sabah with Lightup Borneo, an NGO working to bring micro hydro electricity to rural areas. ‘I found an inexplicable beauty in this most practical, and… Read more
The hashtag #KitaLawan appeared in February, after Anwar Ibrahim was convicted of sodomy and sent to jail for the second time. In the beginning, I saw both #KitaLawan and #KamiLawan being used, which was interesting. ‘Kita’ and ‘kami’ are collective pronouns meaning ‘we’, but the latter is closer to ‘us’ – an other, i.e. a… Read more
Antid Oto – italian for antidote – was one of Leon Trotsky‘s earliest pen names. I also love the Malay word for it: penawar. A few months ago, I started taking regular walks and making drawings afterwards as a way to deal with worry, procrastination, hopelessness, writer’s block, internet rage, and digital distraction. I’ll post… Read more
You can read the essay version of the talk I gave here. An audio visual presentation and conversation featuring Sharon Chin, Shika Corona, Sharaad Kuttan and Edwin Sumun, moderated by Thilaga, founder of Justice for Sisters, that will explore femininity, masculinity, gender performativity and the diverse expressions and manifestations of gender through art and performance. Read more
