[Appreciation for Heritage and Urban Spaces]
One of Singapore's oldest public housing estates, the name "Commonwealth" also gestures to the long tail of the British Empire and still-potent dreams of equitable distribution. Theophilus Kwek's Commonwealth uncovers rich seams of history, replete with conquests, tragedies and shared visions of the future. Taking its starting-point as the massive Bukit Ho Swee fires of the 1960s -- an event as deeply seared into the history of the poet's family as the nation's own Commonwealth traces the dislocations and relocations that have come before it, and in its wake.
