Instagram story viewer> @learningfromthemargins> Tagged

learningfromthemargins

@learningfromthemargins

6.5K

followers

2328

following

Abolitionist community organiser based in Singapore. @transformjustice.sg @workersmakepossible 🍉🇵🇸

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

From late Oct to early Nov, we held three days of events as part of our #StopTheKilling campaign—a people's movement calling for a moratorium on the use of the #DeathPenalty in #Singapore.

From panel discussions to letter-writing sessions, we examined the ways capital punishment affects us all and explored different perspectives on the death penalty.

We would like to thank The Projector, speakers, performers, volunteers, TJC members, and people who attended the events for creating a space for the voices of prisoners on death row and their loved ones.

👉 Learn more about Stop The Killing and how you can help to #AbolishTheDeathPenalty in Singapore via the link in bio.

#ExecuteJusticeNotPeople #AbolishDeathPenalty #CapitalPunishment

237

0

Finally put my frazzled thoughts on this year's @sgwritersfest into a post for the Asian Books Blog! Shoutouts to the panels I took part in and attended (including a detour to @yishkabob's #NSFW fringe, hosted by @singlitstation), plus a final couple of paras on the @migrantwritersofsingapore Slam Poetry Festival - which, as expected, wowed us all.

Thanks to everyone behind the scenes at @theartshouse, especially @pnansi, @schmalll and the rest of the team - hope yall can have a proper lie down now!

http://www.asianbooksblog.com/2022/11/the-fringe-and-fabulous-personal.html

51

1

Writing as Activism was the second & final event of NSFW: Not the Singapore Festival of Writers, & it was a blast! Great chemistry between the panellists—Kokila Annamalai, Alfian Sa'at & Subhas Nair—& loads of audience members, super-engaged, asking endless questions.

Topics covered included histories of censorship, self-care, the importance of drawing wisdom from elders & energy from younger activists, the root problem of SG (for us, authoritarianism more than colonial capitalism), & whether activist is a "dirty" word—SWF features plenty of activists but doesn't label its events as such; some folks in the audience don't feel they deserve to call themselves that when they haven't done enough. & so much laughter, so much community, even when we spoke of the heartbreak of the death penalty & the danger of upcoming sedition trials.

We began by honouring someone who couldn't be there: Zakir Hossain Khokan, a Bangladeshi construction worker, poet, photographer & journalist whose work permit was suddenly denied in 2022 after 19 years of working here, in direct response to his protest poetry against treatment of migrant workers under Covid. At his suggestion, we collectively read his poem "First Draft".

& unexpectedly, we had the opportunity to end w a reading by a visiting writer, Sandra Nicole Roldan, who read from her children's book "At the School Gate", about her memories of family persecution under Ferdinand Marcos's martial law in 1980s, & shared how the election of Bongbong Marcos has led to a rise of death threats against her.

Thanks to everyone who gave generously of their resources, time and attention for #notthesingaporefestivalofwriters — it was a crazy little idea of mine, & I have no current plans to do it next year, though I think it'd be awesome if someone else took it up. We all want space for our voices to be heard, & to hear what more conservative institutions might regard as unsayable.

(Photos 1, 7 & 9 by @joshuaipwriter ; photo 8 by @nicyeozh ) 💕 #singlit

103

3

Pics from my reading on Sunday at @transformjustice.sg 's Open mic, open hearts, part of the Free Them, Free Us: Events for World Day Against the Death Penalty. Couldn't get a photo of myself, so here's one of the audience!

I chose excerpts from my story "Garden", which features the 14th C concubine Dang Anom using time travel to flee her unjust execution. (As I noted to the crowd, SG has historically had a bad relationship w the death penalty for over 600 years.) Turned out to be a good follow-up to @theneokelelims ' pre-recorded ukulele performance of "Just a Little More Time", which Lim Kay Siu composed for SG's first HIV-themed play, As If He Hears, in 1988.

Also poetry & music by newer artist/activists like Opus, Khasyir, Kristi, Nusha & Qistina. Plus, I pre-ordered a pink T-shirt saying Let Me Be Perfectly Queer: I Oppose the Death Penalty ✊️ #yishwrites

63

0

There's no need for debates with foreign billionaires. Come on down to Projector X Riverside this Sunday afternoon if you have time to hear from people affected by the death penalty and everyday people who got involved in death penalty work.

The first panel will feature students, a funeral director, and the sister of a death row inmate. After that, there will be an open mic session featuring various artists, poems, and people who want their voice to be heard.

Tickets are free, and you can get them at the door too. This event is organised by the tireless volunteers at TJC @transformjustice.sg so do consider getting a paid solidarity ticket if you can ✊️🙏

See you there!

265

3

This coming month, I'll be organising NSFW: Not the Singapore Writers Festival! It's a small-small thing lah, consisting of just two panels: Queer Writing After 377A on Sat 5 Nov & Writing as Activism on Sat 19 Nov (full info below), both at 9pm at Sing Lit Station. Hope to see you there!

As you've noticed, 12 Nov is empty, cos I'm busy that night. But if someone else wants to organise something then, why not?

WRITING AS ACTIVISM

Sat 19 Nov 2022, 9-10pm
Sing Lit Station, 22 Dickson Rd, Singapore 209506

There's a long worldwide tradition of writers pushing for social and political change... and a violent history of Singapore writers getting persecuted for it, as in the case of the ISA detentions of Kuo Pao Kun and Wong Souk Yee. But what's the relationship between literature, media and activism for us today? How can the worlds of activism and writing draw strength from each other?

Join us for a panel discussion at Sing Lit Station, featuring Alfian Sa'at, Kokila Annamalai and Subhas Nair, moderated by Ng Yi-Sheng, and held amidst the revelry of an unofficial SWF afterparty.

https://www.facebook.com/events/666592358519368/

#singlit #singaporeliterature #queerliterature #notthesingaporewritersfestival

397

9

If you're free, head down to the Projector at Golden Mile Tower tomorrow (26 October 2022) evening to find out more about the death penalty in Singapore for yourself. Free tickets are available at the door and on Eventbrite. Head over to @transformjustice.sg to find out more! See you tomorrow at the Projector!

118

0

Here are more exciting updates about the first day of our #StopTheKilling events coming your way this month, including speaker profiles!

There'll be mini-lectures and discussions on the death penalty, and readings of letters, poems and more from prisoners on death row.

26 October 2022, 7–10pm at @theprojectorsg. Don't miss it!

You can get tickets via the Eventbrite link in our bio!

114

0

4 headlines from the past year.

Is this a sign that our ridiculous approach towards one-man assembly (an oxymoron) may finally change?

Freedom of assembly is a basic constitutional right that every citizen in a democracy should enjoy.

Follow @wakeupsingapore and visit wakeup.sg for more alternative perspectives

2k

18

So pleased and honored that SNOW AT 5 PM: TRANSLATIONS OF AN INSIGNIFICANT JAPANESE POET has won the Singapore Literature Prize in the English fiction category. I am donating the prize purse of S$3,000 to the Transformative Justice Collective for their life-saving and challenging work in helping prisoners on death row and their families receive justice, mercy, and comfort. You can find out more about their work on IG and FB.

Big thanks to the Singapore Book Council for organizing the awards and to the judges for honoring my book in this wonderful way. Thank you, Thow Xin Wei, for collecting the award on my behalf. Thank you, Kim Lim, for your excellent copyediting. And thank you, GH, for designing the cover. ❤

#transformativejusticecollective #singaporebookcouncil #abolishdeathpenalty #AbolishTheDeathPenalty #snowat5pm

90

15

i'd already put together this week's Climate Joy news but it just didn't feel right posting it. i want to give space to Nazeri bin Lajim - a drug trafficker who was hung by the state yesterday morning - as well as Singapore's recent spate of executions.

honestly speaking, i'm still working through my own stance on the #DeathPenalty, but @kixes's recent posts have really prompted me to read deeper into the issue. i've collated this list of resources for those who, like me, are still trying to figure out your own views on this! (lmk if you want the direct links for the articles)

3

4

Nazeri Bin Lajim has been laid to rest today. He was sentenced to death under the misuse of drugs act for drug trafficking in Singapore. He had been in and out of prison for several drug related offences including drug use prior to this.

The people that the law sentences to death to are crying for help. Even before Nazeri was sentenced to death, when he was going in and out of prison for drug use, the government should have stepped in and helped him get help. Instead our country has failed yet another one of our sons by executing them.

The death penalty is inhumane and goes against human rights. Justice and reform is supposed to help our people and serve justice. The death penalty goes against that. There is a lot to explore. Please join me in my project to make change, any kind of change, towards being a more compassionate and empathetic society in Singapore.

#abolishdeathpenalty #transformjustice #thereformprojectsingapore #justicereform #abolishthedeathpenalty #stopthekilling #notinourname #deathpenalty

5

1