The annual Ubud literary festival is just around the corner and the commotion in the festival’s office on Monday was not unlike an army platoon on high alert.
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| Symbol of attainment: This year, the Citibank-Ubud Writers and Readers Festival is to bestow the MasterCard-Saraswati Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement — created by Wayan Bener of Sebatu using Cempaka wood, Chinese coins and Prada Gede gold lacquer — to a senior Indonesian author. JP/Kadek Purnami |
A group of volunteers was busy sorting invitations and placing information sheets in the writers’ goody bags, while in a nearby room the festival’s co-director, Sarah Tooth, stared intensely at the computer monitor as emails flooded in.
“Things get so hectic that everybody is now juggling with priorities and deadlines,” she said as she lit another cigarette.
Despite the frenzied atmosphere, the festival team was clearly upbeat about the upcoming gathering.
After all, things weren’t as bleak as last year’s festival, when the team had to fight an uphill battle to stay afloat following the 60 percent decrease in sponsorship due to the global economic crisis.
“Now, we have Citibank as our main sponsor and its generous contribution has eased a lot of the burden financially,” the festival’s sponsorship manager, Roberto Aria Putra, said.
The sponsorship deal has given the festival its new official name Citibank-Ubud Writers and Readers Festival 2010 (www.ubudwritersfestival.com).
Citibank will help promote the Ubud Writers & Readers Festival in 12 countries, attracting international audiences to a global-minded festival.
“It is a pleasure to support this unique festival that embraces passion, art and expression on our beautiful island. Bali has always been a place where people from all nationalities come to enjoy life to the full, and we believe it is time that Bali became an international meeting point,” said the card business head for Citibank N.A. Indonesia, Irfan Ahmed.
Citibank’s support wasn’t the only reason behind the festival team’s upbeat spirit. Festival community development manager Kadek Purnami, who oversees the Indonesia Program, offered another reason.
“For the first time in the festival’s history, and we are entering our seventh year now, we have the resources to show our respect to those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of Indonesian literature. This year, we will present a literary award to Pak Sitor Situmorang,” she said.
Sponsored by MasterCard, the award is named after Saraswati, the Hindu’s goddess of knowledge and the arts.
The Saraswati Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement will be presented to Sitor Situmorang during the festival’s gala opening on Oct. 6 in Ubud Palace.
“We are very proud that Sitor Situmorang is the recipient of the inaugural lifetime achievement award.
Situmorang’s contribution to Indonesian literature has been both prolific and significant and we honor his belief that literature is a movement for liberation and that freedom of expression is a basic human right,” festival’s founder and director Janet de Neefe said.
Born in 1924 in Harianboho, North Sumatra, Sitor Situmorang is one of the most important writers and poets of the “Angkatan 45”, the literary generation who came of age during the struggle for Indonesian independence.
A critical journalist and prolific writer, he passionately believed that literary works must play an active role in the struggle for social justice and human rights.
His Sastra Revolusioner (Revolutionary Literature) essay, his past involvement in a cultural institution affiliated with a fading political party, and his general resentment toward the New Order regime’s strongman Soeharto resulted in his eight-year-long imprisonment without trial in Salemba Prison.
He wasn’t allowed to bring pens and paper into his cell, but that measure failed to kill “the wandering bard” inside Sitor.
During the ensuing two-year house arrest, Sitor published two works he composed in Salemba.
In the following decades, Sitor spent most of his time in Paris and in Holland, where he lectured at Leiden.
He penned numerous poems, short stories and essays during that period. For him, writing is a sport that keeps his body fit.
Now, in his mid-eighties, Sitor is still writing poems. In 2006, a two-volume anthology of his works
was published.
The anthology contains more than 600 poems written between 1948 and 2005.
“Pak Sitor is very grateful for this honor and I am very pleased with this initiative, which comes at a good time. Hopefully, Pak Sitor will be strong enough to attend the whole program of the festival,” Sitor’s wife Barbara Brouwer said.
Sitor will not be the only Indonesian literary “titan” who will appear in the festival.
The eccentric Sutardji Calzoum Bachri, who has single-handedly liberated words from their meaning and transformed modern Indonesia poetry in the process, has confirmed his participation.
Another “titan” will appear posthumously in the festival. Abdurrahman Wahid, affectionately known as Gus Dur, will be remembered in the festival’s Tribute Night.
“He was the country’s former president, former leader of the moderate Nahdlatul Ulama, and an influential thinker, but, above all, he was the staunch defender of the country’s multiculturalism and an outspoken advocate for religious tolerance and minority rights,” Purnami said, adding that Gus Dur was the perfect icon of the festival’s major theme of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity).
Gus Dur’s youngest daughter Inayah Wulandari and his biographer Prof. Greg Barton will speak on his legacy. Bali’s famed poet and dramatist Cok Sawitri has prepared a dance drama to show her respect of the great man.
Titled Conversation between Sunya and Nirwana, the dance drama is inspired by the classical dance drama Gambuh and the ancient Javanese text Sutasoma, from which the nation’s slogan Bhinneka Tungga Ika was derived.
“Now you know why we are so excited and upbeat, there will be so many great events and great writers in the festival,” Purnami said, before rushing to her room to answer another wave of emails.
From Oct. 6 to Oct. 10, the festival team will be responsible for organizing around 150 events in 40 venues across Ubud, Denpasar and Singaraja. They certainly have a valid reason to be in a rush.
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