After spawning his first collection of poetry books, the City is Fireworks, in 2016, this year Anya Rompas re-enliven the universe of Indonesian poetry with his second book entitled Non-Specific. This book "is the history of a depression" according to the poet and cerpenis Norman Erikson Pasaribu, and contains "self-rejected sweet fragments", according to poet Cyntha Hariadi. Divided into three major sections each titled 'Episodes' numbered in the order of one to three, Non-Specific introduces our readers closer to the figure of Anya Rompas as writer, woman, wife, mother, and man. We read a shaking soul, but the soul remains upright and bold.
This book was launched last Saturday, June 17, 2017 at the cafe Pavillion 28 in Gandaria number, Kebayoran Baru. Mikael Johani, literary critic and poet and husband of Anya Rompas, opened the event by recounting the situation of Jakarta's stage of the festival. "There are no regular events that can accommodate poet lovers or poetry writers," he said. "The place for poetry reading is still lacking."
For that reason the Poetry Pavilion stands. The goal of course is to provide a container for poetry lovers in Jakarta. "Poetry is a part of life," says Mikael Johani again. "We can all enjoy and write poetry, it would be nice if fans of poetry in Jakarta can meet each other and dialogue." Later, the Poetry Pavilion will take care of reading and open mic events for monthly poetry on a regular basis, located at Pavilion 28.
The launch of the Non-Specific book became its first event. The launch was accompanied by performances by Gabriel Mayo, Celtic Room and Junior Soemantri bands. Present in poetry readings are names like Utari Intan, Norman Erikson Pasaribu, Syarafina Vidyadhana, Antonia Timmerman, and not miss Mikael Johani, who brings collaborative poems with her daughter and predictive text program on gadgets, as well as a total poem containing only 230 words "I" in the entire poem Chairil Anwar. At the peak of the event, Anya Rompas himself appeared to bring some poems including Allen Ginsberg's World Bank Blues which has been tampered with.
The Open mic then featured volunteers who read the work of their own or other people's poems that night. Even until eleven o'clock at night, every performance still feels stunning, either with gimik or without gimik, either with poetry or mbeling poetry. At the end of the event, Mikael Johani took a brief discussion session of warm poetry.
The poem is actually fun, you know. So for those of you who also want to fun with the art and poetry, please just join the Poetry Pavilion. Event schedules can be viewed in social media accounts of Poetry Pavilion at @PaviliunPuisi (Twitter and Instagram).