BY GABRIEL LIHAN & LILY SHERYN
KUCHING: HAUS Kuching will organise a community-powered arts festival which focuses on women.
Called ‘Seni Kita Weekend’, the venue is at the HAUS KCH, City Square, with the times and dates set for 9 am to 10 pm today (March 18) and tomorrow (March 19).
HAUS Kuching co-founder and director, Syed Rusydie, said they would celebrate women by featuring a stellar cast of women producers, chefs, musicians, speakers, and artisans.
“We are also going to have a bunch of workshops, and also talks by collaborators from Penang, Kuching and also the UK.
“Besides that, we also have music — the Prodigy String Ensemble’s classical and original music on the rooftop, and after that, there will be an open mic session with Reening Lau as well as an RnB live sessions by JayC Ho featuring four women singers, Roxy Ixzy, Florianne Juseng, Dania Elysa and Ila Damiaa from Kuching,” he said.
Elaborating further, he said that the quartet will perform tomorrow evening, featuring a Jazzy interlude by the 18-piece ‘The Band Lab’ with Steff Fleur on vocals and Farouk Kamil on guitar.
When he spoke about these at a press conference at the HAUS KCH, City Square on Thursday (March 16), he also said that a pet adoption drive will be held today (morning).
Two days are also set aside for a culinary show by Chef Achang Libat together with three other women chefs – Roazane Isabell, Denise Lim and Ooi See Bee who will welcome the visitors with RM30 set meals.
Visitors can enjoy chubby sausage ‘nigiri’, the first of its kind homemade ‘kacangma sausage’ with heirloom highland rice, and also ‘linut creme brulee’, with a flavourful sago crème plus a dash of housemade ‘gula apong’ syrup.
Visitors can also eat vegetarian curry bruschetta and the mouth-watering beefcake dessert.
Rusydie said 20 vendors will sell their art products at the art market.
The ‘Seni Kita Weekend’ which coincides with the International Women’s Day is the first event of the year, followed by one in May focusing on mental health, another in September, focusing on sub-culture and one in December which is still in its planning stage.
It will be HAUS KCH’s first event held at its venue after previously using the Old Courthouse.
“The challenge is to organise the event on all four different floors. We hope that everyone can participate. Usually, when we do it at HAUS we can help collaborators run their events,” he said.
He hoped that the event would benefit future talents and that more people would know more about HAUS.
