This month at Aside we witness a shift on our view of personal expression within the arts. Each presenter will share with us their individual and unique story as an artist, whether it be through drama, prose, music or dance.
This select group of presenters at ‘Aside’ have found inspiration and have in turn inspired others in their field of expertise. They use their art and creativity to spread the possibility of social change. At ‘Aside’, you will have the opportunity to engage in their passion in a more intimate setting, and to experience their work. The purpose? To connect with other people and organizations with similar ideas.
The Performers
Claire Daelin
Bio:
Claire attended a clown school and was named “Extra Stinky, Extra Sticky, the Disaster”. Once upon a time, she was an exam-addict and Taiwan’s superstar test-taker with the highest College Entrance Exam score in the Science category. She studied Electrical Engineering at the National Taiwan University because the national ranking said so. Alas, she graduated top 10 but can’t fix any electronic to save her life. She pretended to research Decision Psychology at Columbia University with a $300,000 fellowship and authored papers which put many insomniacs to sleep. Theater training and performing helped her admit the bloody truth that she is not who she pretended to be. Claire hosted a kids’ TV show (which was why she became allergic to kids). She was last seen at the “normal job” scene as the Director of Innovation Partnership Program and CEO’s special assistant at X PRIZE. To help young people gain courage to pursue their passion and niche, she’s writing School Detox: A Manual for Young Superheroes Learning to Be Awesome. She hosts a web show called My First (where passionate people talk about their “firsts”). She’s building School for the Curious.
Connect with Claire at http://www.ClaireDaelin.com.
About the performance:
Seeking Out Loud is Claire’s first original monologue. It’s an intimate look into her personal search for answers to the age-old question of mortality and the resulting loneliness.
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Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw 桑布伊
About
Sangpuy Katatepan Mavaliyw, comes from Katatipul Village, an ancient Pinuyumayan tribe where mountain meets ocean in southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County. A singer with an immemorial voice hiding in his young shell. When he was a child, the clear, distant sound of his grandfather singing left a deep impression on him and he began to sing the songs of Katatipul.
Face Book: https://www.facebook.com/Sangpuy?fref=ts
About the performance:
When the night has come, the bonfire is bursting, the breeze is softly sweeping through treetops, and the smoke is spiraling with the wind. You don’t need the clamorous music at such peaceful moment, the only thing you need is tranquility. Let Sangpuy’s unique voice bring you back to the origin, and cure your soul.
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Katie Partlow
Bio
Katie Partlow is a theatre artist originally from Washington State in the US. She’s lived in Taiwan since 2001, working as both a bilingual performer, director and writer as well as a consultant on cross-cultural work. Living in Changhua County for her first 7 years here, where she honed her Mandarin and cross-cultural communication skills, Katie eventually moved to Taipei in 2008 to study for an MFA in acting from Taipei University of the Arts. Since then, Katie has worked on many projects with artists both locally and abroad, including being an educator and performer for Song Song Song Children’s Theatre (九歌兒童劇團) and the English editor and translator for the Taipei Fringe Festival. In 2011, she founded her own theatre companies: Solo Taiwan Theatre (說了台灣劇團) and Little Friends Theatre (小朋友劇團). Katie strongly believes that as globalization becomes more and more dominant in our everyday lives, learning how to communicate with and understand different cultural perspectives becomes necessary to improving human life. Performance art grows out of basic human cultural behaviors like dance, song and storytelling, and as such is a hugely useful tool in cross-cultural communication.
About the performance
Katie will be sharing her relationship with performance art and how it intersects with everyday life.
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Rene Kamm
Bio:
Rene Kamm (aka Ren aka Antithesis) is an emcee, poet and producer. He represents one half of the rap duo Ren & Miles and is a founding member of the Legendary Chronic Crew, Coastal Connections Conglomerate and the Rhyme Crookz of Taipei. He has two EPs available for free download at renandmiles.bandcamp.com.
About the performance:
Freestyle: off-the-top, unrehearsed, improvised. Whatever you want to call it. I have no idea what words I’ll be kicking, but be sure that they will rhyme and it will engage. As Rakim said, “MC to me means Move the Crowd.”
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Tina Ma
Tina Ma, Aside4
Bio:
Like most artists, in younger days Tina was a Taiwanese hippy, rebelling against anything that interfered with her free will. She loved playing the guitar and learned American music while participating in all the social movements when Taiwan was seeking its identity in the early 80s.
After 30 years, she knows that the voice and sound must come from her own ground and soil now. Having explored different art forms, she has finally chosen telling Taiwanese stories through songs from the ancient Chinese to current days, and to follow her bliss…
She likes to see herself as someone who uses this ancient musical instrument – moon guitar, to share shamanic spirits from nature and folklore of the mother earth. The instrument is two stringed, but says a lot in a simple ways, as most of life’s wisdom does.
长发披肩步轻盈，
身着彩衣特随性，
出行总会携月琴，
沉醉吟唱起共鸣，
最爱山林我独行，
花鸟鱼虫皆欢迎，
Tina 是她英文名，
中文名唤马丽英。
About the performance:
《彈琴》: 劉長卿
「泠泠七弦上，
靜聽松風寒，
古調雖自愛，
今人多不彈。」
Tang poetry / playing the Guqing: Liu Changqing;
“Emotionless the mood of ‘seven-strings’;
In tranquility, I savor the chilly tone of the ancient melody: ‘Wind through the pines.’;
I am one who loves the ancient tunes;
There are few now who can play them.”
Recently I encountered this ancient instrument, and it has become my love. Although I can not really master the skills I try to learn from the
unknown notes kept from Tang Dynasty, nothing I have seen before.
Love to show you my vulnerability in my limited
control of this forgotten ancient self expression.
EMAIL: taiwanteama@gmail.com
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Lai, Pei-Hsia
- Ph. D Candidate, International Affair College, Jinan University, China
Publisher, Amazing Magazine, Writer
Author, 《回家，The Courage of Coming Home》
Psychiatric Counselor / Corporate Trainer
Musician / TV and Radio hostess / Artist / Photographer
In 1984, Pei-Hsia released her first personal album “Freeze My Love”. Later, she was invited by the Christian Rehabilitation Fellowship to participate in the Rehabilitation Education Promotion Program. In this program, Pei-Hsia had the opportunities to visit many juvenile prisons, adult prisons for men and for women, and halfway homes, throughout Taiwan.
Everyone of these places Pei-Hsia went, had encountered one after another life story of love and tears, that had deeply shocked this young freshman who has just entered the real world. These extra-ordinary life experiences not only opened Pei-Hsia’s perspective of soul, but also led her into a deeper thinking and expectation on the subject of life.
As she got older, her exploring and researching of human nature gets deeper and deeper, and her expectation of it is also getting grander. After all, everyone is longing for “being loved and understood”. With the extra bit of patience, we will be able to help others, and to iron out all the pains and trauma in our life.
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Ayesha Mehta
Ayesha Mehta is a performer and creative collaborator. She is the co-founder of Red Room (Taiwan), a monthly event that brings together local communities to share their voices, and explore the art of listening. Ayesha has a deep connection with Taiwan where she grew up before moving to Australia and still considers Taipei her home.
- Ayesha is a professional vocalist who has performed jazz, contemporary, and experimental sound works in Australia and internationally. Since graduating with Bachelor Degree in Music and vocal performance from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Ayesha has been teaching voice and sharing her passion for music in Sydney, Melbourne, India and Taiwan.
About the performance:
Ayesha will be performing select songs from the Johnny Mercer songbook.
Connect with Ayesha at http://ayamamusic.com
