ARAB TIMES, FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016

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Authors share memories of hearing their works read aloud

More and better things to see, taste and experience

Alexie and Danticat host evening of words and musicNEW YORK, May 12, (AP): For a reading jointly hosted by award-winning writers Sherman Alexie and Edwidge Danticat, the night began with three microphones and a guitar on stage.

A piano, bass, drums and saxophone soon followed.

Think of it, Alexie told the hundreds gathered Wednesday night at Manhat-tan’s Symphony Space, as a literary version of the old Sid Caesar variety show.

Alexis and Danticat, who have writ-ten fi ction and nonfi ction, for young people and adults, presided over a

two-hour “Selected Shorts” program that included readings and musical per-formances, with some commentary and jokes added by the two featured authors. “Selected Shorts”, a longtime favorite both as a local stage performance and nationwide audio broadcast, pairs liter-ary works with prominent actors and other artists.

FarcicalMarsha Stephanie Blake of “Orange

is the New Black” among other shows gave a spirited reading of Danticat’s “Reading Lessons”, the story of a Hai-tian immigrant teaching at an experi-

mental school in Miami. Jeremy Sha-mos, a Tony nominee for “Clybourne Park”, found laughter and tenderness in Alexie’s “South by Southwest”, a farci-cal and yearning road tale about a white man and American Indian that begins with a robbery at an International House of Pancakes in Washington state and ends with a robbery at a McDonald’s in Arizona.

Music and the spoken word took turns Wednesday. Wesley Stace, some-times known as John Wesley Harding, set Alexie’s picture book “Thunder Boy, Jr”. to a folk rock melody while

the Pauline Jean Ensemble trans-formed Danticat’s poem “Their Blood, Bondye” into a haunting torch song.

Alexie’s works include the young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian”, for which he received a National Book Award, and the novel “War Dances”, a winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award. Danticat’s novel “Breath, Eyes, Memory” was selected by Oprah Winfrey for her book club and her memoir “Brother, I’m Dy-ing” won a National Book Critics Circle Award.

The authors are both returnees to “Se-

lected Shorts” and shared memories of hearing their works read aloud. Alexie acknowledged that he once resisted any outside narrators, especially after a Shakespearean actor attempted one of his stories about Indian reservation life.

“I’d like to think it was ‘King Lear’ ensconced in my story, but I didn’t want King Lear reading it,” said Alexie, who then noted that listening to John Lith-gow, B.D. Wong and other actors read his work at Symphony Space changed his mind.

Performance“Not only do I get star struck, I get to

hear new things inside the story, based on somebody else’s performance,” he said.

Danticat said she liked the feeling of sitting in the dark, taking in her words like any other member of the audience.

“It always sounds better than it did in my head,” she explained. A previous time Danticat was at Symphony Space, Tony winner Anika Noni Rose read her story “Claire of the Sea Light”.

“The audience was not really happy with my ending so I went home and changed it,” Danticat confi ded.

“It might happen again tonight”.

Singapore: Colonial heritage, modern architectureBy Amir Bibawy

At 51, Singapore is shrugging off all symptoms of a midlife crisis and

embracing travelers with more and better things to see, taste and experience than ever before.

The tiny city-state with a living stand-ard the envy of many nations recently celebrated 50 years of independence since being thrown out of the Malay-sian federation. Back then there was no telling what the future held; the nation’s founder Lee Kuan Yew reportedly cried as he announced the split. But Singa-pore has emerged as one of Asia’s most prosperous, multicultural and stable countries. It’s also famously clean, with strict laws against littering.

Travelers have long used Singapore as a stopover en route to more exotic Asian destinations. But there’s enough here for a longer stay. Attractions can be split into neat categories: colonial heritage, con-temporary attractions, ethnic neighbor-hoods, food and shopping. Coupled with stunningly effi cient transportation, it’s easy to plan an itinerary lasting several days.

I started my visit with a walk exploring Singapore’s British colonial past along the city’s quays. Historic buildings here include the Gothic St Andrew’s Cathedral, Victoria Theatre and the Empress Place Building, which houses the intriguing Asian Civilisa-

tions Museum. The famous Raffl es Hotel is a colonial gem that has hosted the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Mi-chael Jackson, while the Fullerton Hotel was the main post offi ce until 1996. Off the Fullerton, I took time to admire the intricate Cavenagh and Anderson bridges, landing conveniently on Boat Quay, a buzzy waterfront of bars and restaurants. As I walked, I snacked on a mango wafer-ice cream sandwich, topping it off with a kopi, a traditional coffee drink made from beans roasted

with butter and sugar, sometimes served with rich condensed milk.

StunningFinish off your heritage walk with

some of Singapore’s striking contempo-rary architecture: the Norman Foster-designed Supreme Court, the Esplanade Theatres or the fl ower-shaped ArtScience Museum, reached via the quirky Helix Bridge, shaped like DNA’s double-helix. The backdrop for all this is the Marina Bay Sands Hotel, one of the world’s most photographed hotels. Designed to

resemble three decks of cards, it’s joined together at the 57th fl oor by a stunning SkyPark with the world’s highest infi n-ity pool, a lounge and bar. Anyone can visit the SkyPark Observation Deck for stunning 360-degree views of the harbor and skyline, but the pool is open only to hotel guests. Rooms are pricey — more than $250 a night even in low season (summer-early fall).

Singapore is extremely clean. You’re not allowed to bring gum into the country, and the US State Department’s travel advisory warns about physical punishment for vandalism. (I unthink-ingly popped a soda open on the subway, then quickly hid it in response to other passengers’ disparaging stares.) But ethnic and traditional neighborhoods are a little less sterile and more colorful than downtown streets.

HeritageChinatown is dotted with temples and

buildings attesting to the rich heritage of Malay-born Chinese who immigrated here in the 19th century. You’ll see fi ne art deco homes on streets like Ann Siang Road. At the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, a tooth ostensibly belonging to the Bud-dha is encased in a 900-pound solid-gold stupa. Little India is a jolting feast for the senses: busy shops selling anything from cellphones to spices, hole-in-the-wall res-taurants with fl avorful cuisine, mosques and colorful Hindu temples.

Singapore’s “hawker centres” are something of a foodie legend. You could spend days shuttling between the biggest ones, sampling from stalls of Singapo-rean, Indian, Chinese, Malay and Indone-sian cuisine. Seating is usually outdoors on shared benches under a canopy. Walk up to a stall and look at the pictures. Then order, pay the cashier and wait for your food (sometimes it will be brought to your table). You can buy different plates from different vendors. Don’t forget fresh juices (sugar cane is a must) and desserts (mango, please!). I ate satay every day. Also great: the ubiquitous, succulent stir-fried squid with onions, scallions and shallots in a spicy tomato sauce. Most dishes cost around $5. Food courts in malls charge a bit more for similar fare, but with air conditioning.

Speaking of malls, Orchard Boulevard is lined with luxury shopping centers, worth a visit for people-watching if not for browsing. Istana, the presidential palace, is at Orchard Road’s southern end, while the Botanical Garden is at its northern tip. (AP)

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If You Go...Singapore: http://www.yoursinga-

pore.com/en.html . Tropical climate, frequent rainfall (heaviest November-early January). EZ-Link transit cards cover public transportation and taxis, as well as many food and drink outlets.

Inuka, the fi rst polar bear born in the tropics, swims in his new enclosure at the Singapore Zoo. (AP)

Continued on Page 26

In this July 2, 2012 fi le photo, Supertrees light up the fi nancial skyline from the newly open Gardens By The Bay during a light and sound show in Singapore. (AP)

Destinations

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EmbassiesContinued from Page 24

Initiative, OIFC (Overseas India Facilita-tion Centre) is scheduled to launch “The India Fellows Programme” in June 2016. This is open to young Indian Diaspora entrepreneurs/professionals in decision making capacity/potential investors and international partners of Indian companies (between 21-39 years of age) who have a minimum of 3 years of entrepreneurial ex-perience. The programme is being offered at a special introductory fee of $5,000 per participant plus service tax. The fee will cover boarding, lodging, programme related learning material, fi eld visits & webinars. The participants will have to bear the cost of travel and local convey-ance. A brief note issued by OIFC in this regard is enclosed.

Selected candidates who complete the programme shall become members of the OIFC India Entrepreneurship Fellows (OIEF) Club, will receive support and fa-cilitation from OIFC for doing business in India. The main objective of this scheme is to help Diaspora entrepreneurs to have an understanding of aspects critical to gaining market entry, practical insights about doing business with India, idea of the legal & regulatory environment, expo-sure to Indian economy and an insight into the emerging opportunities of the world’s fastest growing economy. All those who are interested can remain in touch with OIFC pertaining to their initiatives and programmes through their social media platforms: Twitter: @OIFCIndia and CEO_OIFC; Facebook: www.facebook.com/OIFC.IN

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Albanian Embassy new premises: Albanian Embassy in the State of Kuwait would like to inform on the change of its premises. The new address of the embassy is: Salam Area, Block 7, Street 717, Villa 293, Kuwait. For postal services in addi-tion to the address: P.O. Box 3090, Safat 13031, State of Kuwait. Also, the landline phone number of the embassy is the same one: 25240627 and Fax: 25240628. The e-mail address: embassy.kuwait@mfa.gov.al. The working hours from Sunday to Thursday, 08:30-14:00.

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Brazilian Embassy notice: A Em-baixada do Brasil solicita a brasileiros/as que efetuem e/ou atualizem sua matrícula consular. (formulário na página: http://kuaite.itamaraty.gov.br).

The Embassy of Brazil requests Brazil-ian citizens to register or to update their consular registration (form http://kuaite.itamaraty.gov.br).

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Indian Embassy notice: All India Radio has launched a multimedia website for its external service. The website airworldservice.org is presently available in English, Hindi and Urdu languages. The content consists of rich bouquet of news, current affairs, programmes on culture, heritage, music, art, tourism, health-care, issues relating to economy, investment, development, education etc. The website which has a blend of text, pictures, video and audio components, also features live streaming of radio programmes. It also has a segment of “Radio On Demand”.

The External Services of All India Radio have been broadcasting their programmes in 27 languages (15 foreign and 12 Indian). They are reaching out to more than 140 countries through medium and short wave. Broadcasts are aimed at Indians living abroad as well as others worldwide. The programmes of AIR have wide following as is evident from large number of letters, e-mails received by the different language services. It is mainly for Indian Diaspora and to give the listeners a feel of Home away from home. AIR also broadcast in Bangla, Baluchi, Burmese, Chinese, Dari, Pashtu, Punjabi, Nepali, Saraiki, Sindhi, Sinhala, Tamil and Tibetan for the neighbouring countries. Their objective is to project the progress and policies of India, along with its arts and culture. All Indian nationals living in Kuwait, who are interested to see the ex-ternal service of All India Radio may log to its website www.airworldservice.org

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Czech Embassy notice: The Embassy of Czech Republic in Kuwait is pleased to announce the opening of the Visa Application Centre in Kuwait City.

Starting 15.11.2015 the visa applica-tions can be submitted at the Joint Visa Application Centre in Kuwait.

The Address is: VFS Global. Czech Republic Visa Application Center; 1st fl oor Al-Banwan Building, Ali Al-Salem Street, Al-Qiblah Area, Kuwait City; Submission of Applications: 9:00-16:00 (Sunday-Thursday)

Passport collection time: 16:00-17:00 (Sunday-Thursday)

Further instructions you can get from

Fireworks are released from the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple & Museum in Singapore.

Silhouettes of people line the sky as they stand on a skyway suspen-sion bridge through a Supertree grove at the Gardens By The Bay in

Singapore. (AP)

A street in Singapore’s Chinatown is covered with haze. (AP)