Stephanie Chan is a walking, talking, poetry writing and performing contradiction.On one hand her mannerisms as she talks to her audience in between poems reveal the inescapable insecurity of youth. Still compelled to add the redundant ‘like’ during her narrative, still unable to execute the delivery of funny anecdotes properly, at times sounding akin to an awkward teenager. The performance could be tightened, but as this was her first show she will undoubtedly become more confident in her delivery. Furthermore, the content of these stories could not contradict this perception of her more. Chan, originally from Singapore, has experienced more and travelled further than some people will in a lifetime and when she performs her poetry, the intriguing insights and compelling opinions she has formed become more evident.
Chan is an activist and also a very privileged woman. In trying to set herself apart she unintentionally fits into a different stereotype. Struggling to come to terms with her own hypocrisy and the more dangerous ones that exist around her she has found an admirable skill in writing. Her ability to admit her own contradictions inadvertently makes her wiser than people twice her age. It’s this self-awareness that gives her poems a humorous edge but also allows her to question the paradoxical situations around her. What it is to be a foreigner in Britain, what it is to look western in her home country? What is it to live in a democracy and what is it to be truly accepted? What this has resulted in is an hour of thought-provoking poetry by a very clever lady.
