(born Deborah Arunditha Emmanuel, 1988)

Poet · Performer · Multidisciplinary Artist

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ArunDitha is a Singaporean poet and shapeshifter whose practice explores language, body, and sound as active vessels for remythologising. Her work investigates the relationship between the individual and the collective, the human and the non-human, the self and the unseen.

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Through a process she calls poetic reworlding, ArunDitha educates through psychospiritual, somatic, and creative technologies to illuminate new pathways for the future. Her performances often move fluidly between poetry, music, and ritual — seeking to open a shared field for regeneration, connection, and freedom of expression.

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Her work has been presented at platforms such as TEDx Singapore, The Esplanade, the Barcelona International Poetry Festival, Wonderfruit (Thailand), Literarisches Colloquium Berlin, and The Watermill Center (New York), where she debuted her first performance art piece, Hush. She has toured with or opened for international artists including Sarah Kay, Luka Lesson, Anthony Anaxagorou, and Alok Vaid-Menon, and has won poetry slams in Singapore, New Zealand, Australia, and Germany. She is currently a performing artist-in-residence at the National Gallery Singapore until January 2026.

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ArunDitha is the author of three books — When I Giggle in My Sleep (2015), Rebel Rites (2016), and Genesis: Visual Poetry Collection (2018) — and her writing has appeared in publications by The Straits Times, Math Paper Press, Ethos Books, and Penguin Random House (India). Her most recent release, Rib/Cage, is a folio published by Afterimage Press in collaboration with Rosaly Putchechary and Zeha.

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Beyond the page, she has released multiple music albums and sound works with collectives such as Mantravine and Polymorphism, performing internationally across Europe, Asia, and Oceania.

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In recent years, her research and practice have been influenced by feminist and political theory, spiritual inquiry, and contemporary and indigenous poetics. Her current explorations engage looping, movement, and voice as methods of deconstruction — where poetry becomes sound, and sound becomes body.