The online portal to all of the upcoming events in the live spoken word and poetry scene, as well as videos, interviews, reviews and opinions. For weekly updates on all the gigs happening straight to your inbox, subscribe to our newsletter. To support the work of this not-for-profit organisation, please consider becoming a Patreon Patron.

Featured Event

Melbourne Spoken Word presents Desireé Dallagiacomo (USA)

When

Saturday, October 12 @ 7:00pm

Where

Brunswick Mechanics Institute
270 Sydney Road
Brunswick

Price

$25/20/15

Has an Open Mic?

Registration Information

Bookings: https://www.trybooking.com/book/event?eid=552585

Melbourne Spoken Word is excited to bring you US poet Desireé V. Dallagiacomo to Melbourne in October. Supported by local spoken word artists to be announced.

Tickets on sale now.

Desireé Dallagiacomo is a full-time touring artist and educator originally from rural California. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and she has been a finalist at every major poetry slam in the USA. Her poems have been featured widely, and a collection of her work was adapted for the Vagina Monologues at Tulane University. She is the co-host of a Southern Poetry podcast, Drawl, and in 2016 she founded an annual writing retreat for working class writers. She has taught and performed extensively across the US, Canada, and Australia. Her first full-length poetry collection, SINK (Button, 2019), is available wherever books are sold.

The Brunswick Mechanics Institute is a fully wheelchair accessible venue, with wheelchair accessible and gender neutral toilets. Please message the Facebook page if you have any specific accessibility requirements.

Spoken Word at Bar Oussou

Bar Oussou

A night for the poetic sweepings of the inner north to degenerate into vitriol and confusion. And rise into revelation, liberating confession and poetic wisps of the sublime. A feast of clashing waters. All in a cozy artsy pup. No features, no list, no limits. Just put your hand up and come on up. Is your piece not really ready? It is for this gig. None of us know what will happen on the night, yet 100% of people performing spoken word here for the first time in their lives have survived so far, and often return for more.

Interviews — July 18

A Waffle On with Waffle IronGirl

By Tim Train

I’m sitting down for an interview with Waffle IronGirl, me on one end of old faithful (Facebook Messenger), her on the other. I’ve – somewhat unwisely – started off proceedings with a list of ‘suggested’ questions from my partner Lexi, all of them uniquely bizarre. For instance:

“How adaptable is the waffle iron as a printing technology?”

Waffle IronGirl shoots this one down:

Waffle Iron isn’t a printing technology.

It’s very adaptable personal weaponry though.

Things are off to a cracking start.

We’re here to talk about performing in Singapore (she was recently a support act in the Singapore poetry slam) and chapbooks (she’s running a workshop on chapbooks for the Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival). But I can’t resist. Where does the name “Waffle IronGirl” come from? ” I once wrote a flash fiction story about a vigilante called Waffle IronGirl,” she explains. “She used a waffle iron to dispatch with those who would violate her boundaries or the boundaries of those she cared about. When I started performing I needed a stage name, and it seemed like she could impart a courage and frankness that I felt I was lacking personally.”

I could pause here to note that Waffle IronGirl is one of the most original performers I’ve seen, and when she featured for us at the Dan, I felt like the top of my head had been taken off and I had a whole range of new weird and wonderful ideas poured in. Instead, I ask about the Singapore slam; what differences between Singaporean spoken word and Australian spoken word did she notice? “What struck me wasn’t so much the difference in style”, she says, “although that was certainly there. From a style perspective, there was certainly a more natural use of multiple languages and accents and dialects within the same

Interviews — July 15

Addicted to the feeling of feelings: Interview with Thabani Tshuma

By Poetpre

What does your name mean?

Thabani means “be happy”.

What makes you happy?

Connecting with people. I enjoy consuming art in all its forms. Art is one of the most connective things in which we can participate.

What made you leave Zimbabwe and come to Melbourne? Is Melbourne home now or is there more to your journey?

I left to study in the US and South Africa and finally Melbourne because I have family here. I just thought it would be beaches and people in swimsuits all day but had a rude awakening!

There is so much more to the journey. The project I’m working on now is about the sense of identity displacement. Even in Zimbabwe, I was not culturally accepted because I went to a lot of “white” schools. I’m still searching for a sense of belonging.

Do you know what this place looks like?

No, that’s why it’s so hard to find. But it’s not about the finding, it’s about the journey towards finding. In fact, I’m content to continuously search and not find it because it’s in the search that the most meaningful interactions are to be found.

You’re a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow. What that does mean to you?

It is a great opportunity. Connecting to other writers and becoming a part of the literary world – that is the most valuable aspect. The biggest growth for me is the discipline – working on one full body of work thematically linked, where the content needs coherent narrative. I’m usually very sporadic and volatile in writing, so it’s been an interesting challenge to get into the frame of mind where I’m still authentically expressing myself but it’s a controlled expressing. Not writing to the feeling, but bringing the feeling and writing to it.

You’re part of the Slamalamadingong National Poetry Slam Team. How do you feel and what are you expecting at the event?

A lot of poetry! It’s great to see people workin

Wiki | Contact Us | Touring Melbourne | List Your Gig