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About
A neighbourhood containing Singapore's oldest public housing estates, a catchphrase for the dream of equitable distribution, the long tail of the British Empire: the word 'Commonwealth' uncovers rich seams of history, replete with conquests, tragedies and once-potent visions of the future. Commonwealth takes as its starting-point the massive Bukit Ho Swee fires of the 196os – an event as deeply seared into the history of Kwek's family as the nation's own – and traces the dislocations and relocations that have come before it, and in its wake.
Kwek's earlier poetry collections dealt with questions of personal rootedness and larger-scale displacement; still formally adept, Commonwealth is a new departure, drawing on a wide array of documentary and oral history sources to address upheavals of individual and collective lives within one of the world's most densely populated cities.
Kwek's earlier poetry collections dealt with questions of personal rootedness and larger-scale displacement; still formally adept, Commonwealth is a new departure, drawing on a wide array of documentary and oral history sources to address upheavals of individual and collective lives within one of the world's most densely populated cities.