CQT a venue for poetry project “Not Only Lines”

Visitors to CQT can read poetry as they enter our building at the National University of Singapore (NUS) campus. Playing on screen at the lobby is “What it means to be human”, a poem by Singaporean writer and performer Cheyenne Alexandria Phillips.

The piece of poetry is part of project titled “Not Only Lines” by the NUS Centre For the Arts (CFA). It is one of 30 pieces being showcased at 30 locations around NUS from 10 March. CQT is one of the venues for the project. Other venues include University Town, the University Cultural Centre and Central Library.

“Not Only Lines” celebrates CFA’s 30^th anniversary and is inspired by the late Arthur Yap’s poem “only lines”. CFA invited 30 poets who have contributed to Singapore’s literary scene to respond to the poem or the NUS Arts Festival’s theme of Spaces Between. The poems will be compiled as a digital anthology curated by Paul Tan, poet and former Festival Director of Singapore Writers Festival. The collection “celebrates the timeless power of words to create spaces of reflection and connection.”

The project extends a long-standing art-science partnership between CQT and CFA beginning when CQT was a Creative Partner of the NUS Arts Festival 2016: WONDER, presented by CFA.

In other art-science initiatives, CQT has previously hosted writers-in-residence Tania De Rozario and Eleanor Wong and comic-book author Otto Fong. CQT also runs the Quantum Shorts contests for creative works inspired by quantum physics. Quantum Shorts alternates between annual calls for short films and flash fiction. The latest film shortlist was announced in February.