Women on the edge: Singapore’s drag kings, rocker chicks celebrated by N.O.W. fest

Promotional e-poster for Festival of Women: N.O.W. 2020
Promotional e-poster for Festival of Women: N.O.W. 2020

Explore the lives of drag kings, women navigating long-distance divorces, and Singapore’s underground female rockers at a virtual festival starting tomorrow.

Kicking off Wednesday, the Festival of Women: N.O.W. 2020 will shine a spotlight on female stories from the fringes very few Singapore women talk about through a dozen online events streaming online through Aug. 2.

The (mostly) free events include a three-part virtual dialog led by local personality Anita Kapoor as she speaks to women about their personal stories, struggles, and causes. They are among 35 people to be featured in a digital exhibition.

Singapore drag kings Southside Tingles and Aloysius D.
Singapore drag kings Southside Tingles and Aloysius D.

If you’re into tapestry weaving and embroidery, watch social media influencer-artist Ginette Chittick and Hazel Lim in action as part of a performance highlighting the “unseen and unpaid labour of care and intimacy performed by women.”

There is also King, an online play by local actress Jo Tan, who portrays a soon-to-be-proposed PR executive turned drag king. Understand what it means to be a drag king in Singapore through the Fit for a King live discussion by kings Tan Liting, aka Southside Tingles, and Stephanie Chan, aka Aloysius D.

Singapore hardcore band Radigals.
Singapore hardcore band Radigals.

Get to know Singapore’s women rockers in the Carving Space Underground live-streamed talk featuring female hardcore bands Obstacle Upsurge and Radigals, or dive deeper into the complexities of non-citizen women going through transnational divorces in the Entangled Intimacies reading performance.

The event is organized by art company TWorks and directed by Noorlinah Mohamed. 

More stories on the art scene on Coconuts.co/Singapore 



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