The pantoum is often defined as a Malay poetic form where each stanza borrows two lines from the previous stanza—however, not many people know that the pantoum is a French bastardization of the Malay original of pantun & pantun berkait, an oral tradition used as a method of communication—love letters, arguments, proposals, to haggling in markets—brought to the west and stripped off its communicative qualities. In this workshop, you will learn about the historical and cultural context of the pantun/pantoum and take a stab in performing this oral tradition with your classmates—unlocking the power of this poetic form in fostering community.

August 23rd at 6 pm -7:30 pm at 138 S Oxford Street #3B (Alliance of Resident Theatres)

Patricia Kusumaningtyas is an Indonesian poet based in Brooklyn, NY. Their work has been published in Decolonial Passage, Discount Guillotine, Fruitslice, Dead End Zine, and others. Growing up in Jakarta, the pantun form follows her everywhere in Indonesian society, and as all Indonesians and Malaysians do, Patricia lives and breathes the form.