Sitok Srengenge

Sitok Srengenge (born 22 August 1965) is an Indonesian poet, actor, and dramatist.

Born Sitok Sunarto in Purwodadi, Central Java, he became interested in literature at a young age and was heavily influenced by his village's strong oral tradition.

When he moved to Jakarta to complete his university studies, he became involved with the Bengkel Teater under Rendra.

Sitok remained with the company for almost a decade, appearing in several plays as he refined his literary style.

Sitok Srengenge was born Sitok Sunarto in Dorolegi, Purwodadi, Central Java, on 22 August 1965.

Though the villagers did not support their children attending school, and elders would chase prospective students away, they maintained a strong oral tradition that Sitok credits with influencing the sonic qualities of his poetry.

As a youth he was active in theatre, and by junior high school he had begun to write poetry.

The work follows a group of common villagers (the Javanese wong cilik) in the period following the coup attempt of 1965.

He graduated from Senior High School 1, Semarang, in 1985.

In 1985, Sitok moved to Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, to study at the Faculty of Art and Literature of the Jakarta Teacher Training Institute.

There he became involved with Bengkel Teater under the poet-cum-dramatist Rendra, who gave him the name Sitok Srengenge, which translates from Javanese as "the only sun".

In his ten years with Bengkel Teater, Sitok practiced poetry, monologues, and acting, and appeared in several of the troupe's plays.

Funded by the singer-songwriter Iwan Fals, this collection was intended as a counterpoint to the rise in religious literature which had become popular in Indonesia in the early 1990s.

In the mid-1990s Sitok became an independent artist, acting under directors such as Ikranegara (Jam Berapa Sekarang) and Ratna Sarumpaet (Pesta Terakhir); he has remained active into the 2010s, portraying the Mahabharata warrior Karna in a 2011 play by Goenawan Mohamad.

He also established his own theater troupe, Teater Matahari, as well as the Keranjang Sampah Kebudayaan ("Cultural Wastebin") discussion forum.

Sitok was a founding member and one of the directors of the Utan Kayu Arts Community Center, serving as the director of its literary biennale and editor of its journal Kalam during the 1990s and 2000s.

His first poetry collection, Persetubuhan Liar, was published in 1992.

Sitok has since published multiple poetry collections, including a bilingual work titled On Nothing and a trilogy of revised editions known collectively as Tripitakata, as well as a novel and serial.

He has presented his poetry in such countries as the Netherlands and Germany, and participated in writers workshops in Hong Kong and Iowa.

His poems, noted for their "laconic, muscular, and musical" poetic phrase, have been adapted to music in a variety of genres.

Sitok published his first poetry collection, Persetubuhan Liar, in 1992.

Sitok was one of the participants in the 1995 Istiqlal International Poetry Reading conference, which focused predominantly on Islamic poetry, and several of his poems were included in its publication The Poet's Chant.

Bulgarian translations of his works were published in Chants of Nusantara that year.

Short stories by Sitok were included in the short story anthology Para Pembohong (The Liars) in 1996.

Publication of the anthology was supported by Sitok's organization Gorong-Gorong Budaya, meant to encourage and support pro-democracy artists.

In the lead-up to Suharto's 1998 resignation, he would often attend underground rallies and discussions, reciting verses of poetry.

In 1999, Asiaweek described Sitok as "Indonesia's best young poet".

In 1999, Asiaweek wrote that Sitok "is considered Indonesia's best young poet [and] often thought ... as contributing to the 'reawakening' of Indonesian literature".

The magazine selected him as "one of twenty leaders for the Millennium in society and culture in Asia".

In 2000, Sitok published Anak Jadah (Bastard), a collection of poems described by Yenni Kwok of the Sunday Morning Post as "a statement about the confusion of his generation".

Explaining the title, Sitok stated that "Tradition and modernisation met in a careless encounter" producing "a generation of cultural bastards".

A second poetry collection, Nonsens, was published later that year by the Kalam Foundation in collaboration with the Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies, Ford Foundation, and Adikarya IKAPI Foundation.

The collection contained thirty-five works, as well as several illustrations by Agus Suwage.

The translator and Indonesianist Harry Aveling, in his 2001 anthology Secrets Need Words, described Sitok as a "pioneer" leading poets out of "the fear that froze the poets of the eighties".

In a 2004 interview, he stated "All I knew was that writing those words that lingered in my head made me happy".

Despite the resistance against education, Sitok obtained a scholarship which allowed him to complete his elementary and secondary school studies in the provincial capital of Semarang.

Sitok published his debut novel, Menggarami Burung Terbang (Salting a Flying Bird), in 2004.

None of these works had been anthologized by 2006.

Beginning in 2007, he served as a curator for the Salihara cultural center until his resignation in 2013.

As a student, Sitok was involved in pro-democracy rallies against President Suharto.