BETWEEN THE LINES

LU-SHIEN TAN

Lu-Shien Tan is a self-professed foodie. Lu-Shien has cooked most of his life and became a boutique catering chef, and celebrity chef judge. He was once a yacht delivery and charter captain, corporate trainer, and award winner in professional sales. Today, Lu-Shien is a Director of Admissions for Lincoln Academy traveling the world recruiting international students.He writes poetry and performs art to spotlight the marginalized. Lu-Shien is the co-host and director of Between The Lines, an event powered by Q’s Blue World.

TAKAKI UMINO

Takaki is a rapper and a performance poet in Japan. As an active member of KOTOBA Slam Japan (KSJ), the national spoken word slam championship in Japan, he organizes KSJ’s West Tokyo tournament. He also co-hosts  Tokyo KOTOBA Online Open mic (TKOO), Japan’s first regular open mic event that welcomes performers from all around the world and has gathered more than 250 entries in one and half years from the start.

THE BLUE MERMAID / KEMLYN TAN BAPPE

Kemlyn Tan Bappe, BA Studio Art, MDiv Theology, MA Special Education

Tan Bappe is a multi-disciplinary artist with expressions in print-performance poetry and visual art from Singapore, and a special education teacher in Arizona. She hosts "Between The Lines with Kemlyn Tan Bappe.”. Her poems are published in Singapore and the United States of America. Tan Bappe performs online open mics and programs around the world. She’s toured with two repertory companies, received the VSA Teaching Artist Fellowship in Washington D.C. 2009 and presented at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art. She is the director of Q’s Blue World.

PARA / Miki Ichikawa

Draw a poem, read it. I explore and pursue my own. I think that's what I'm going to keep doing. It is a fun thing to do. I enjoy my work, my life, and my hobbies. born in Tokyo, Japan in 1970, I am a company employee. Best wishes to all.

POET KHAN RAAS FIYAA

She Is becoming.

Born in the Gulf of Mexico now residing in the El Paso Texas, a mother of two Suns.  Shes the author of “ CPR to My Dreams (An Ode to 2020)”& “My Abyss”( I wrote him free), a poetic depiction of incarcerated love. She has works included in 18 anthologies including “Salute to Black Women” and “Salute to Black Men” as well as anthology  “Once Upon a Poem” published in April 2022. Her most recent publications are contributions to anthology “Spark”  and “Fiesty” both  #1  seller’s on Amazon. She hosts events, Open Mics, and assist poets in self- publishing. She is also a jazz poet/ singer. She is peace, love, light and abundance.

JANET HART HEINICKE

Janet Hart Heinicke grew up in Richmond, Indiana. She graduated from Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, and was an art educator in Indiana and Ohio before completing a master�s degree in art education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Later, Heinicke earned a M.F.A. in painting and a doctoral degree in curriculum at Northern Illinois University, in De Kalb, Illinois. From 1982 to 2001, Heinicke worked as chair of the department of art at Simpson College in Indianola, and for thirteen of these years she also was chair of the Fine Arts Division. Though officially retired as Professor in 2001, she taught as adjunct faculty at Simpson until spring 2004. At present she teaches at the Des Moines Art Center and offers lessons in her home.

She is a frequent exhibitor and has more than 70 one-person shows to her credit. Since the early 90's, Heinicke has been engaged in international study, travel and various cultural exchanges and projects. A 1994 trip to Iowa�s partner state of Stavropol, Russia, was a "life changing" experience in which Heinicke says she was struck by the frequent comment of those she met that "we are more alike than different." Since then, she has traveled to Russia for six visits, to Malaysia six different times, to China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, and most recently several times to Tanzania, where she visited and worked at Mwangaza, a teachers' resource center for elementary and secondary teachers.

Shiok Artist Link to the Iowa Women Artist Oral History Project:

http://www.lucidplanet.com/iwa/ArtistPages/heinickejh.php

KOK WEI LIANG

Kok Wei Liang committed prose as a child, perpetrated standup as an adult, met some slam poets along the way, and began combining all three. In his spare time, Kok Wei Liang teaches English while pretending to be a functional member of society.

UNMESH MOHITKHAR

Author of the poetry collection named, 'Light Shadow Life - The Missing Verse of the Soul' available on Amazon from Pune, India.

Part of multiple Poetry Anthologies. His poem was also translated into Portuguese.

Featured poet at multiple international open mics and podcasts.

He has his own open mic ‘Let’s UN-Mesh Life’ every Saturday 8 pm IST, 9:30 am EST.

He has performed at multiple international events like Singapore and San Jose poetry festival.

A regular performer at Nuyorican Cafe, New York.

He writes in 3 languages English, Hindi, and Marathi.

A globe trotter having visited 22 countries.

Contact and Social Media Accounts

Please click on the link below for details:

https://linktr.ee/UnmeshMohitkar

IG-

https://www.instagram.com/unmeshmohitkar/

FB-

https://www.facebook.com/unmesh.mohitkar/

https://www.facebook.com/LetsUnMESHlife

MATT CUMMINGS

Matthew Cummings is a disabled indie poet, and used the moniker Trapped Poets to write and perform his works. He is currently residing in Rockford, Illnois. His works has been published in media outlets such as OpenDoor Magazines, Open Skies Poetry journal and book.

DIANE MURRAY WARD

Diane is a proud New York poet of West Indian descent. Diane’s teaching, modern jazz dance performance/choreographer/and blog talk radio show hosting experience are creative precursors to her spoken word poetry contributions within local, national, and international venues. She mentors writers, guest hosts/instructs writing workshops.

Her works appear within several publications including the Moonstone Arts Center’s International Women’s Day 2022 Anthology and the upcoming “American GraveyardA Call to End Gun Violence, Volume 1 “published by Marissa Prada of Read and Green Books, Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Diane performs at several open mics including those hosted by the International Women’s Writing Guild, First Tuesday Benicia Poets Group hosted by Poet Laureate Mary Susan Gast, Open Minds hosted by Thomas Colvin and BTL hosted by both Kemlyn Tan Bappe and Lu-Shien Tan aka “The dynamic duo siblings.”Diane serves on the National Writer’s Union’s International and Immigration Committee.

LU-SHIEN TAN

January 24, 2023 Prompt is: "FLYING: A Story of Lu-Shien Tan's journey of becoming a drone filmmaker."

LU-SHIEN TAN

An innovative executive who travels the world, recruiting for and curating cohorts of international students, leading his field with cutting edge promotional and marketing campaigns.

A storyteller who evokes senses and emotions through music and movement, filmmaking and videography. If you are lucky enough, you might share a meal with this self-processed foodie and celebrity chef judge.

A man who has lived more lives than a cat. He was once a yacht delivery and charter captain.  Ask him about his adventures on the high seas. Besides sailing, he was also a corporate trainer and an award winner in professional sales.

Lu-Shien is co-host of BETWEEN THE LINES, a call and response online show attracting a global audience every Tuesday at 5 am Arizona time.

Photography by Abraham Cardona, 2022.

FIN HALL

Fin Hall, the New Pitsligo-based poet and artistic organiser extraordinaire. Fin is the host of Like A Blot From The Blue, a poetry and spoken-word event transcending the boundaries of the physical and digital welcoming in hundreds of creatives from across the globe as well as a regular open mic night at The Blue Lamp..Fin is a profoundly experienced poet with a career spanning decades. On-stage, Fin performs with a beautiful sensitivity. He isn't afraid to broach upon themes of old age, hope, love, and loss but reserves a potent and fiery attitude against injustice. Fin is also a filmmaker, collaborative writer, performance poet and this year, as well as adding a second regular venue for his Blot shows, The White  Horse in Strichen, and produced the New PitsLigo Spoken Word Festival.

He has two solo collections , Once Upon A Time There Was, Now There Isn’t, & Solidarity( a short collection of rant political poems ) , 3 Collaborative, Joined Up Writing 1 and 2, and now 3 where over a 200 writers from around the globe are part of it,  and has well over 30 poems and short stories  published both online and in books from Australia, China, India USA, Canada and U.K.   More recently he published a  book by 70 different writers aged over 70, called I Ache In The places I Used To Play and next year he will have another collection out, but this time his daughter will be part of it.

For several years prior to Covid, he produced and ran Everybody Has A Story, a real life, live storytelling event where ordinary people told extraordinary stories. Stories of their real lives.

One show was part of the 2019 Nu Art Fringe.

He is often asked to review books for the sleeve notes of said works. Has had headline spots in various online shows in England and USA. As well as live in Aberdeen at Speaking  Weird and Poetry at Books and Beans and via Video in Singapore.

He also makes poetry films with the help of the worldwide poetry community.

Also wrote and published Flagdown,  back in the nineties, a regular taxi newsletter.

Spent some time as the match reporter for The Aberdeen Voice, online newspaper.

Check out Fin’s projects:

https://youtube.com/@finlayhallone

CLIVE OSEMAN

Clive Oseman is a UK based spoken word artist, comedian, satirist and promoter. Born in and very much attached to Birmingham in the West Midlands, he is currently based in Swindon in Wiltshire. A latecomer to performing, he is a multi slam winner who has three times competed in the UK slam finals and is an established headliner. His third collection, “It Could be Verse” was published in 2020 and a fourth, containing the poems from his one man show “What if they laugh at me?” is imminent. “What if they laugh at me?”, is a comedy very much based on his own lived experience as someone who always dreamed of making people laugh but after a difficult start to life was severely lacking in self confidence, was desperately shy and struggled to find the courage to perform, but ultimately spoken word and comedy transformed his life.

TINA KAY BOYLES BAILEY

DMIN., REV., EXAT., CH.

Dr. Tina Bailey is a certified Trauma-Informed Expressive

Arts therapist, body coach, visual performing artist, anordained minister and endorsed Chaplain working cross-culturally. She hold a Bachelors of fine Arts Degree, Two Masters Degrees and a Doctorate. Her own life experience as a survivor of septic shock, Graves Disease, and melanoma among several other things related to a life in cross-cultural ministry has motivated her to do her own work in healing and to help others heal. She enjoys helping people discover their creative potential through coaching and mentoring.

Tina has used visual and performing arts in response to traumatic situations following the Bali bombings, the Asian tsunami, with West African refugees, with displaced people in northern Iraq and eastern Indonesia. She holds workshops and leads contemplative retreats on creativity and imagination incorporating drama, dance, music, visual arts, improvisation and spiritual formation.

Life in Asia and the plight of women have influenced her approach to visual arts. Tina has exhibited internationally and has multiple works in private collections. Her painting “Forgiven” was featured on the cover of the book “ Letting The Other Speak: Proclaiming the lives of Biblical Women" by Dr. Tracy Hartman.

She helps prisoners to develop skills and process trauma in painting, drawing and dance in multiple arts programs in Prisons.She has over 20 years of experience helping people repair the disconnect between mind, body spirituality and imagination.

She studied dance at the Frances Lea School of Dance and the Margo Dean School of Ballet and has extensive experience in liturgical dance. She performed on stage as a member of The Company theater group from 1991-1995. Since moving to Asia in 1996, she has studied several Indonesian forms of dance, as well as traditional balinese painting, batik and Balinese gamelan music. “Lagu Maria”, a Balinese Gamelan composition for Ballet, was composed specifically for her based on the Magnificat. She regularly performs both together with gamelan musicians and as a member of improvisational formations a group she founded.

She is a body awareness and movement master teacher annually at the Crescendo Summer Institute of Arts in Hungary. She recently also completed level one Qi Gong teacher certification.

TINA KAY BOYLES BAILEY

DMIN., REV., EXAT., CH.

Dr. Tina Bailey is a certified Trauma-Informed Expressive

Arts therapist, body coach, visual performing artist, anordained minister and endorsed Chaplain working cross-culturally. She hold a Bachelors of fine Arts Degree, Two Masters Degrees and a Doctorate. Her own life experience as a survivor of septic shock, Graves Disease, and melanoma among several other things related to a life in cross-cultural ministry has motivated her to do her own work in healing and to help others heal. She enjoys helping people discover their creative potential through coaching and mentoring.

Tina has used visual and performing arts in response to traumatic situations following the Bali bombings, the Asian tsunami, with West African refugees, with displaced people in northern Iraq and eastern Indonesia. She holds workshops and leads contemplative retreats on creativity and imagination incorporating drama, dance, music, visual arts, improvisation and spiritual formation.

Life in Asia and the plight of women have influenced her approach to visual arts. Tina has exhibited internationally and has multiple works in private collections. Her painting “Forgiven” was featured on the cover of the book “ Letting The Other Speak: Proclaiming the lives of Biblical Women" by Dr. Tracy Hartman.

She helps prisoners to develop skills and process trauma in painting, drawing and dance in multiple arts programs in Prisons.She has over 20 years of experience helping people repair the disconnect between mind, body spirituality and imagination.

She studied dance at the Frances Lea School of Dance and the Margo Dean School of Ballet and has extensive experience in liturgical dance. She performed on stage as a member of The Company theater group from 1991-1995. Since moving to Asia in 1996, she has studied several Indonesian forms of dance, as well as traditional balinese painting, batik and Balinese gamelan music. “Lagu Maria”, a Balinese Gamelan composition for Ballet, was composed specifically for her based on the Magnificat. She regularly performs both together with gamelan musicians and as a member of improvisational formations a group she founded.

She is a body awareness and movement master teacher annually at the Crescendo Summer Institute of Arts in Hungary. She recently also completed level one Qi Gong teacher certification.

IAN MACKENZIE

Ian J McKenzie is a retired English teacher from Cumbria. He has been writing Poetry on and off for many years, but only seriously in the last 10.  Ian’s work covers a range of themes and forms, including a series of sonnets; he is particularly interested in the relationship between lived experience and how we negotiate our place in the world. To date, he has had his poems published, in Reading Today, Madras Courier; and a poem, ‘Run Down the Years’ in an anthology on the theme of over 70s: ‘I Ache In The Places I used to Play’, edited by Fin Hall.

MICHAEL KANNISTO

Michael Kannisto was trained as a scientist, and knows firsthand that the most interesting discoveries are usually totally unexpected.  Years of carefully collecting and analyzing data informs his work as an artist; he endeavors to create meaningful and authentic connections with his audience as both an observer and a participant.

ERIC VALLES

Eric Tinsay VALLES recreates home in exile, whether physical or spiritual. He has won a Goh Sin Tub Creative Writing prize for poems in his second collection, After the Fall (dirges among ruins). His first poetry book was A World in Transit. He has won Illumination and ELit awards for his co-edited A Given Grace anthology. He co-edited also the Get Lucky and Get Luckier anthologies of Singapore and Filipino writings, Sg Poems 2015-2016, Anima Methodi, The Nature of Poetry, The Atelier of Healing and Finding God in All Things. He has been featured in & Words, Reflecting on the Merlion, Southeast Asian Review of English, Straits Times, Routledge’s New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing and other journals. His critical essays have appeared in The Asiatic and Writing Diaspora. He has been invited to read poetry or commentaries at Baylor, Melbourne and Oxford Universities as well as Kistrech Poetry Festival. He is a director of Poetry Festival (Singapore).

SKQUIRREL

HANNAH SKQUIRREL JONES. Writer. Poet. Mother. Artist. SkQuirrel is a free spirit in a tired world. She can always be found with a smile and dancing to a tune that only she can hear. Using words, and fire; she transmutes and transforms the energies of the world into light. Flowing through each now as it comes, she is here to set the world on fire. For some seeds, it turns out, can only be released by sacred flame.

CAY BAPPE

Cay is a master’s student in linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In her studies, she has learned that language is not merely a tool for communication; it is a mode of expression; it is a marker of identity and culture; it is boundless and mysterious just as people are. Her current thesis project investigates the perceptions and attitudes that English speakers hold toward speakers of a global dialect: specifically Singapore English. Her hope is that this work will encourage others to appreciate language diversity and question policies and practices that allow for linguistic discrimination.

JENNIFER ANNE CHAMPION

Jennifer Anne Champion is a poet, textile artist, archivist and educator. A Young Artist Award nominated writer from Singapore, Jennifer has been experimenting with musicalising her poems during the pandemic and comes to Q's Blue World with an exclusive set of fresh words, premiering on April 11th, 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EmfSXQsj8A...

COME AND VIBE

Lu-Shien and Kemlyn hosting a session of affirmations.