Deborah Emmanuel

WHO AM I?

Hello friends! Thanks so much for reading this. I'm very grateful for your time and attention; hard things to capture in the modern age. My name is Deborah Emmanuel, a poet, performer and creator from Singapore. My aim as an artist is to make work that is profoundly personal, provocative and passionate while exploring universal questions and my ever-evolving ethics. My aim as an artist is to make a positive impact on other people and my environment. To help.

In the last 10 years of my career, I have worked as an actor on stage and screen, graduated with a degree in Contemporary and Applied Theatre, written and performed abundant poems, collaborations and a one-woman show, published two books (When I Giggle In My Sleep, 2015 - my first collection of poems and Rebel Rites, 2016 - a creative-non-fiction work about my year in the Singapore Prison System as a teenager), featured as an invited poet to global literary festivals (like the Queensland Poetry Festival, Makassar International Writers Festival and Barcelona International Poetry Festival), devised independent theatre and experimental dance theatre, co-planned a literary festival, been on many stages as a professional speaker (including 4 TEDx stages and the Q Berlin Questions conference), recorded and released three albums with my music projects (Wobology, The Ditha Project and Mantravine) and taught a variety of workshops to all sorts of people. 

I decided to follow my creative path early. This is a blessing because I've grown a lot in the last decade...but as usual, when you win some, you lose some. What is gained in a life of fluidity and freedom is lost in stability and financial gain. Sometimes I really worry what next week will look like and wonder if the work is truly worth it. What am I doing and for who? One might say that I should deal with the consequences of my choices independently. Our metropolitan societies are about individualism and attainment...and if I refuse to play the game like everyone else then perhaps I should receive my due punishment. But I am an optimist in my heart and soul about people and possibilities, which has taken me to here and now. 

Clockwise from top left: Invited to address the question What Will Be The Next Social Contract? at the Q Berlin Questions Conference in Berlin, Mid-facilitation at my booked-out workshop for the All In! Young Writers Festival 2018, On stage with Stew Bamrah for our show Unity at the Esplanade Concourse in Singapore February 2018, Performing poems to the other Artists-In-Residence at the Watermill Center International Summer Program 2017 in New York

WHAT AM I ASKING FOR?

I need two things: To fund the cost of printing my next publication and to fund the remaining $500 of return Scoot flights to Germany to play two shows with my band Mantravine. The rest of the band will already be in Europe for other reasons, but I am buying return flights from Singapore in order to be there for the shows in Berlin and Gaggalacka Festival close to Dresden. The festival has given us a small artist fee, not nearly enough to pay for my transportation. As the frontwoman of the band, I have to be there. Mantravine is growing a fanbase both in Singapore and abroad, but we are still in that zone where we have to put money into making the project successful. One day this will not be the case anymore, but for now, we need your help. 

The book I want to print will be professional quality publishing. It will provide one more income stream helping me to continue to work and live. When I am in Singapore, I teach workshops and give talks, perform, do commission work and do weekend shifts as a bartender. As a writer, having a book for sale is necessary. I do not have one right now. Both of my other books are out of print, not to be reprinted in the near future because of cost constraints.

Clockwise from top left: Tears while ending my closing address at The Performance Theatre 2017, Performing at a street party on Circular Road with my band Wobology in 2016, Producer/DJ Kiat and I performing our show Polymorphism at the Barcelona International Poetry Festival in May 2018, Mantravine at our Camp Kilo album launch in January 2018

WHAT IS IN MY BOOK?

GENESIS is a collection of spoken word poems and accompanying images. In the last year, I have been doing deeper exploration with other mediums like visual art and movement. Genesis is that work manifest! The book contains the text of many poems I have been performing in the recent years as well as a few unknown ones. People often ask me after performances if I have my more recent spoken word poems published. I don't. It is about time, right?

Increasingly there are places words cannot reach...So I started looking for ways to express those formless feelings. Genesis is a return to the completely abstract nature of my journey as an artist. I am unable to achieve such non-analytical and visceral expression with my poems. My images are made with oil pastel, ink, marker, charcoal and paint. 

When a poem is performed it behaves completely differently from when it is written. In the written form you are able to create a voice for the poet which is part of your own. You are able to allow images to sit and seep in. The written word gives you the gift of time. That being said, the emotion and tone of the writer sharing their own text can give some words a whole new meaning! Here are the only two videos of text available from this collection of 12 poems.

IMPERFECT

SHE

I need $2000 for printing 500 books (a cautious estimate), $800 for cover and inside design by some trusted friends, and $500 to pay for the rest of my Scoot flight to Berlin for us to play our show at Gaggalacka Festival (http://www.en.gaggalacka.de/festival/gaggalacka-2018/program) for which we are a highlight act. And an extra $33 for protection.

This means $2000 + $800 + $500 + $33 = $3333