Events
On the occasion of the book launch of The Saga Podcast Transcripts: Fury, Faith and the Fight for Justice in the AWARE Saga!, SQMP invites you to join Corinna Lim and Alexandra Serrenti for an evening of stories by and about the queer contributions at that pivotal AWARE Extraordinary General Meeting in 2009. We will listen to those who were active on the floor and behind the scenes, and invite the audience to share their experiences of that eventful day.
Moderated by Jason Wee and Zarina Muhammad, co-producer / co-author Jasmine Ng will also be present.
Click Here to Register
Background
March 2009. When 100 strangers arrived at a run-of-the-mill meeting for Singapore gender-equality group Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE), long-time members sensed that something was wrong. Who were the mysterious women wresting control of this respected volunteer organisation? And what disturbing secrets united them?
What happened next became the stuff of national legend: starting with an astonishing coup and culminating in an extraordinary demonstration of equality and justice.
First released in 2020 as an award-winning long-form narrative podcast—the first ever in Singapore—Saga captured the social and political reverberations, and electrifying plot twists, that defined this chapter in Singapore civil society history. Now The Saga Podcast Transcripts brings together in print the voices of those who lived it—the activists, observers and members of the public who found themselves swept into the storm.
This is more than a record of events. It is an intimately human story of power and resistance, courage and community—and a reminder of how fragile, and how vital, civic life can be.
Co-produced, co-authored by Kelly Leow and Jasmine Ng, with Bharati Jagdish as host of the podcast and narrator
Listen to the podcast:
About the Speakers
Corinna Lim is an Advisor to AWARE (the Association of Women for Action and Research). She served as AWARE’s first Executive Director for 16 years, helping transform the organisation and strengthen its impact on gender-equal workplaces, gender-based violence, and support for single parents and lower-income women. She was previously a lawyer and was appointed the 8th S R Nathan Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies in 2021 in recognition of her contributions to advancing gender equality and positive social change.
Alexandra Serrenti is a counsellor, philosopher, educator, and adventurer. She has lectured in philosophy and psychology departments in the Asia Pacific and now uses her expertise to support individuals therapeutically to gain insight, meet their fears, and, achieve peak performance in private practice at Canopy Counselling. She remains engaged in community initiatives, including providing supervision for community health professionals in Australia and working with LGBTQI+ community in Singapore
About the Moderators
Zarina Muhammad is a Singapore-based artist, educator and researcher whose practice unfolds across installation, performance, moving image, sound, and text.
Working through coastal landscapes, port-city histories, and ritual ecologies, she explores the entangled relationships between myth, environment, and multispecies worlds. Her work has been presented internationally across biennales, museums, and exhibitions.
Jason Wee is an artist and a writer. He’s on the ExCo for Proud Spaces.