At just 19, poet and multidisciplinary artist ArunDitha found herself in what was then Changi Women’s Prisonfor drug use.
The prison, now known as Institution A4, often houses young inmates under 21 together. But there were no new female inmates in her age group during her initial holding period, she recalled, so she was held alone for several days.
“They opened the door to the cell and it was empty. I just sat there and cried because I was so afraid,” she told CNA Women.
Her only companion: A large grasshopper that blew in from the window. ArunDitha spoke to it and felt comforted.
When I asked the 37-year-old Singaporean, whose real name is Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel, about a resonant memory from her incarceration, that was the first one that came to mind.
It may seem odd that she would recall an insect after almost two decades. But that was how alone she felt.
“When the grasshopper blew in, I just felt that I was not alone. And that (the loneliness) was the hardest thing,” she said.
“I realised that so much of my behaviour up to that point, all of the seeking and partying, had been a way for me to not confront the deep loneliness that I have experienced my whole life,” she reflected.
Writing became a means for her to find that elusive connection – with others, but most of all, herself. Over the years, she has published four books, won poetry slams (competitions where poets perform original poems on stage), and performed as a poet and singer internationally.
ArunDitha sang The Climb, as well as recited parts of a poem by an incarcerated young man, Darshan, at the President’s Challenge Night on Nov 2, 2025. (Photo: Mediacorp)
On Nov 2, 2025, she performed a moving rendition of The Climb by Miley Cyrus as well as recited parts of a poem by an incarcerated young man, Darshan, for President’s Challenge Night 2025.
Her message: “I wantedat least one voice from inside there to be heard and to be humanised.”
The televised and livestreamed annual fundraising and awareness show produced and presented by Mediacorpsupports a wide range of social causes and vulnerable communities, including incarcerated persons, ex-offenders and their families. The donation drive runs until Sunday (Nov 9).
Since 2019, ArunDitha has mentored around 50 male and female inmates in prison writing workshops.
The poet poignantly remembers a female inmate she met at one of her workshops some years ago. “Her poems are beautiful and she had so much heart. She had lost her son, and was really suffering because of it. And it’s one of the challenges that was probably holding her in a cycle of suffering,” she said.
When this inmate was last released from prison, she sent ArunDitha an email. But because it was during the pandemic and ArunDitha was in New Zealand, she took a while to respond. When ArunDitha finally did, she never got a reply.
However, upon returning to the prison for her more recent poetry writing workshop, she found out that the inmate had re-offended.
“That’s the case for so many of them,” she said ruefully.
“I love them (the inmates). I want them to be free. And I have to help if I can,” says ArunDitha. (Photo: Mehdi Mounir)
She added: “I believe that a lot of the reasons why people remain in these loops of behaviour is because we are so busy trying to escape the trauma that we experience that we don’t even realise that’s what we’re doing – reacting, exploding and running away.
“It’s a cycle, and it cannot be broken without intervention.”
That is why she felt compelled to run the prison writing workshops. Writing, said ArunDitha, is a powerful tool for rehabilitation.
These weekly prison poetry workshops typically run for a few weeks. Inmates learn about constructing image, metaphor, honest self-expression, vulnerability and owning their story, ArunDitha said.
“Writing provides a space where recognition (of trauma and behavioural patterns) can occur, and the patterns can begin to change,” she said.
ArunDitha explained that this is also why she chose the song The Climb for her President’s Challenge Night 2025 performance.
“If we want to be free, we can’t embark on a journey of escapism. It has to be a journey to a mountaintop from which we can have a higher vantage point. And it has to be a journey that we don’t give up on,” she said.
Poetry and prose were how ArunDitha found her way out of her own painful past.
“I was very traumatised from my upbringing and my home environment,” she said. “We didn’t have a home so we moved around a lot. We lived with relatives, and right before I went inside (prison), we lived in a HDB rental flat.
“There was also a lot of financial instability and physical violence at home. It was very hard to be at home.
“I was trying to find reprieve, trying to be free from the pain. And the only way I knew how was to escape. But I didn’t realise that my desire to escape would result in me being caged (imprisoned),” she said.
ArunDitha in the French countryside in 2023, where she was on tour with her band Mantravine as lead vocalist. (Photo: Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel)
An avid poet since the age of 11, ArunDitha said she was not allowed to write anything except letters during her six months in prison. She felt so stifled that when she was finally released into a halfway house, The Turning Point, she could not stop writing stories and poems, she said.
“Writing was always a way for me to understand what was going on in my depths, and share that. It gave me a release that I needed. I poured my whole self into everything that I wrote because it was the only place I could pour myself (into),” she said.
At The Turning Point, she found out about the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology offered at Singapore Polytechnic, and she set her heart on it. But application for that year had closed.
She recalled how Florence Ng, then director of the halfway house, drove her to the polytechnic to appeal. “She really held space for me to kind of believe myself again, which was really hard after being through something like that,” recalled ArunDitha.
At the polytechnic, ArunDitha wrote an appeal letter, covering an “A4 printing paper with pencil scrawls and tear stains”. Even though the application had closed and her results were not good enough, the polytechnic gave her an interview and let her into the course.
From there, a lecturer there sent her for a poetry slam workshop. And at the age of 21, ArunDitha participated in her first poetry slam competition.
She wrote about her mother being taken away by the police. Although this never really happened, creating the scenario helped ArunDitha process her own incarceration. She tied for first place with a friend at the competition.
ArunDitha with Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong’s farewell dinner from the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in May this year. (Photo: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth)
Over the years, writing has helped ArunDitha process her trauma and heal, and she was never put behind bars again. It also gave her incredible opportunities – she has given poetry performances – spoken word performances and poetry slams – in Nepal, the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
On Nov 14, as lead vocalist for her band Mantravine, she will be collaborating with writers from different countries as well as a Kuchipudi (classical Indian) dancer, in a Singapore Writers Festival feature performance called Shapeshifters, where poetry meets music.
She is also currently doing a residency at the National Gallery of Singapore that will culminate in a major performance at the gallery’s Light to Night Singapore 2026 in January.
ArunDitha hopes that other inmates will be given opportunities to find their way as well.
“I feel that we dehumanise those who fall through the cracks because they are unseen,” she said. “But we are all human.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
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The prison, now known as Institution A4, often houses young inmates under 21 together. But there were no new female inmates in her age group during her initial holding period, she recalled, so she was held alone for several days.
“They opened the door to the cell and it was empty. I just sat there and cried because I was so afraid,” she told CNA Women.
Her only companion: A large grasshopper that blew in from the window. ArunDitha spoke to it and felt comforted.
When I asked the 37-year-old Singaporean, whose real name is Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel, about a resonant memory from her incarceration, that was the first one that came to mind.
It may seem odd that she would recall an insect after almost two decades. But that was how alone she felt.
“When the grasshopper blew in, I just felt that I was not alone. And that (the loneliness) was the hardest thing,” she said.
“I realised that so much of my behaviour up to that point, all of the seeking and partying, had been a way for me to not confront the deep loneliness that I have experienced my whole life,” she reflected.
Writing became a means for her to find that elusive connection – with others, but most of all, herself. Over the years, she has published four books, won poetry slams (competitions where poets perform original poems on stage), and performed as a poet and singer internationally.
ArunDitha sang The Climb, as well as recited parts of a poem by an incarcerated young man, Darshan, at the President’s Challenge Night on Nov 2, 2025. (Photo: Mediacorp)
On Nov 2, 2025, she performed a moving rendition of The Climb by Miley Cyrus as well as recited parts of a poem by an incarcerated young man, Darshan, for President’s Challenge Night 2025.
Her message: “I wantedat least one voice from inside there to be heard and to be humanised.”
The televised and livestreamed annual fundraising and awareness show produced and presented by Mediacorpsupports a wide range of social causes and vulnerable communities, including incarcerated persons, ex-offenders and their families. The donation drive runs until Sunday (Nov 9).
WRITING AS A FORM OF REHABILITATION
Since 2019, ArunDitha has mentored around 50 male and female inmates in prison writing workshops.
The poet poignantly remembers a female inmate she met at one of her workshops some years ago. “Her poems are beautiful and she had so much heart. She had lost her son, and was really suffering because of it. And it’s one of the challenges that was probably holding her in a cycle of suffering,” she said.
When this inmate was last released from prison, she sent ArunDitha an email. But because it was during the pandemic and ArunDitha was in New Zealand, she took a while to respond. When ArunDitha finally did, she never got a reply.
However, upon returning to the prison for her more recent poetry writing workshop, she found out that the inmate had re-offended.
“That’s the case for so many of them,” she said ruefully.
“I love them (the inmates). I want them to be free. And I have to help if I can,” says ArunDitha. (Photo: Mehdi Mounir)
She added: “I believe that a lot of the reasons why people remain in these loops of behaviour is because we are so busy trying to escape the trauma that we experience that we don’t even realise that’s what we’re doing – reacting, exploding and running away.
“It’s a cycle, and it cannot be broken without intervention.”
That is why she felt compelled to run the prison writing workshops. Writing, said ArunDitha, is a powerful tool for rehabilitation.
These weekly prison poetry workshops typically run for a few weeks. Inmates learn about constructing image, metaphor, honest self-expression, vulnerability and owning their story, ArunDitha said.
“Writing provides a space where recognition (of trauma and behavioural patterns) can occur, and the patterns can begin to change,” she said.
ArunDitha explained that this is also why she chose the song The Climb for her President’s Challenge Night 2025 performance.
“If we want to be free, we can’t embark on a journey of escapism. It has to be a journey to a mountaintop from which we can have a higher vantage point. And it has to be a journey that we don’t give up on,” she said.
POETRY BORN OUT OF PAIN
Poetry and prose were how ArunDitha found her way out of her own painful past.
“I was very traumatised from my upbringing and my home environment,” she said. “We didn’t have a home so we moved around a lot. We lived with relatives, and right before I went inside (prison), we lived in a HDB rental flat.
“There was also a lot of financial instability and physical violence at home. It was very hard to be at home.
“I was trying to find reprieve, trying to be free from the pain. And the only way I knew how was to escape. But I didn’t realise that my desire to escape would result in me being caged (imprisoned),” she said.
ArunDitha in the French countryside in 2023, where she was on tour with her band Mantravine as lead vocalist. (Photo: Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel)
An avid poet since the age of 11, ArunDitha said she was not allowed to write anything except letters during her six months in prison. She felt so stifled that when she was finally released into a halfway house, The Turning Point, she could not stop writing stories and poems, she said.
“Writing was always a way for me to understand what was going on in my depths, and share that. It gave me a release that I needed. I poured my whole self into everything that I wrote because it was the only place I could pour myself (into),” she said.
At The Turning Point, she found out about the Diploma in Applied Drama and Psychology offered at Singapore Polytechnic, and she set her heart on it. But application for that year had closed.
She recalled how Florence Ng, then director of the halfway house, drove her to the polytechnic to appeal. “She really held space for me to kind of believe myself again, which was really hard after being through something like that,” recalled ArunDitha.
At the polytechnic, ArunDitha wrote an appeal letter, covering an “A4 printing paper with pencil scrawls and tear stains”. Even though the application had closed and her results were not good enough, the polytechnic gave her an interview and let her into the course.
From there, a lecturer there sent her for a poetry slam workshop. And at the age of 21, ArunDitha participated in her first poetry slam competition.
She wrote about her mother being taken away by the police. Although this never really happened, creating the scenario helped ArunDitha process her own incarceration. She tied for first place with a friend at the competition.
ArunDitha with Minister for Law and Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong’s farewell dinner from the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth in May this year. (Photo: Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth)
Over the years, writing has helped ArunDitha process her trauma and heal, and she was never put behind bars again. It also gave her incredible opportunities – she has given poetry performances – spoken word performances and poetry slams – in Nepal, the United Kingdom, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
On Nov 14, as lead vocalist for her band Mantravine, she will be collaborating with writers from different countries as well as a Kuchipudi (classical Indian) dancer, in a Singapore Writers Festival feature performance called Shapeshifters, where poetry meets music.
She is also currently doing a residency at the National Gallery of Singapore that will culminate in a major performance at the gallery’s Light to Night Singapore 2026 in January.
ArunDitha hopes that other inmates will be given opportunities to find their way as well.
“I feel that we dehumanise those who fall through the cracks because they are unseen,” she said. “But we are all human.”
CNA Women is a section on CNA Lifestyle that seeks to inform, empower and inspire the modern woman. If you have women-related news, issues and ideas to share with us, email CNAWomen [at] mediacorp.com.sg.
Continue reading...