Last night at Slamalamadingdong, at the Bella Union Hotel, Luka Lesson returned to the Melbourne stage with new poems, and closing off the chapter of ‘Please Resist Me,’ he released a video of the title track off the album. The video features many familiar faces from the Melbourne spoken word scene.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on August 24, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/08/24/video-verse-please-resist-me-by-luka-lesson/
Overland’s first issue featuring ‘audio poetry’ is online at overland.org.au. Edited by Maxine Clarke, it features seven pieces by Jacky T, Juliana Qian, Benjamin Solah, Omar Musa, Eleanor Jackson, Sean M Whelan and Dominica Nicholls.
Other than Going Down Swinging, Australian literary journals have been largely devoid of aural poetry.
Maxine Clarke said:
With Audio Overland, a major Australian literary journal has found its way to publishing a literature previously beyond its scope. That there is a new venue for great Australian literature is something for all writers to celebrate. That the literature in question is aural text, in a country where so few opportunities exist for the creators of aural poetry to be recognised in terms on par with their less vocal poetic comrades, makes the occasion all the more significant.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on August 6, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/08/06/audio-overland-is-now-online/
Sunday, August 5 @ 5pm – Egg Gallery, 66a Johnston Street, Fitzroy – Facebook event
Egg Gallery along Johnston Street in Fitzroy have begun regular spoken word nights to complement their art exhibitions, which is an exciting new collaboration between the wordy and visual. They’ve been happening roughly monthly and the third night will take place on Sunday, August 5 from 5pm and feature seven poets doing ten-minute sets including Amy Bodossian, Amanda Anastasi, Benjamin Solah, Anna Fern, Emilie Collyer, Annerliegh Pappos & Steve Smart. It’s also hosted or ‘DJ’d’ by Santo Cazzati.
Previous performer Randall Stephens on the new event said,
“Melbourne poetry at it’s most basic, comin’ in from the cold off a busy street in a dive part of town, performing for mostly non-poets, sitting on a dusty concrete floor, drinking out a cask being passed around, an arm’s length from the speaker/audience. Nowhere to hide. Loved it.”
Other upcoming performances include Koraly Dimitriadis vs Ben John Smith in a poetry war at Polyester Books on August 3 as well as West Word in Footscray featuring Santo Cazzati and then George O’Hara on August 12 and 26 respectively. As always, keep up to date with upcoming events and features on the left sidebar or at our dedicated page.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on July 23, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/07/23/third-spoken-word-night-at-egg-gallery-on-august-5/
The Poetry Bomb is the New Yarn Bomb with street cred or so I’d like to think. On the 23rd of June, the Peninsula Poets Society set off on a journey to paste the walls of Frankston with their words to mark the event Poetry Bomb: Show Your Voice. Participants were instructed to come armed with home-made glue (the recipe is on our YouTube channel if you’re interested), a paint brush and printed poetry. It was freezing, the flu was caught, videos were made and many a wall was splashed with poetry. There were zines, haiku, longer pieces, political bombs, odes to lost lovers, philosophical musings, laugh out loud bombs and even some spoken word along the way.
Backed by the Frankston council and the local library, the day began by bombing the library, the walls of a motorcycle shop already lit up with awesome local street art, gallery lane and the walls leading to the Peninsula’s one and only Poetry Slam event location B’Artiste where the poets translated their bombed work onto words for the stage.
Brigitte Lewis is a Melbourne poet based on the Peninsula and an organiser of Peninsula Poets (check them out on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter). She has featured at Passionate Tongues among other venues and is the author of the erotic lesbian poetic verse novel, Rubbing Mirrors.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on July 9, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/07/09/poetry-bombing-the-peninsula/
Melbourne Spoken Word dot com was created to promote and document the Melbourne spoken word and poetry community. And how better to promote the scene than with some spoken word poetry by a whole bunch of Melbourne poets. Let us create words together about Melbourne, poetry and how it all fits together.
We are calling for submissions of not poems, but video clips of lines and verses for a collective poem. The theme is on the Melbourne spoken word scene so send us lines or verses about the poetry community, the venues, faces, or understanding Melbourne poetically or how Melbourne affects poetry. We’re open to any style. Even better if they’re performed in iconic Melbourne locations or classic poetry venues. Be creative and unique!
Submit and upload the video clips in a .mov file via this link. Please keep the clips to 20 seconds or less, if not shorter, so we can fit as many poets in as possible. If they’re too long, we won’t be able to include it. Include your name/pseudonym and your suburb. Submissions close Sunday, the 2nd of September at midnight. I will select the best ones and edit them together into one video, including the poets’ names.
Then we can share it around to showcase the amazing poetic talent we have in Melbourne and the website where they can find out all about it. What do you all say?
Posted by Benjamin Solah on July 4, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/07/04/submit-to-the-collective-melbourne-spoken-word-video-poem/
Brisbane’s Darkwing Dubs is “set to put a fire under Melbourne spoken word’s cold winter ass” with a live show and two-day workshop from Friday the 13th of July to Sunday the 15th. The host of Jam Jar poetry impressed Melbourne poetry events with shows last year at Slamalamadingdong, Sweetalkers, and Passionate Tongues. He’s definitely one of the most unique and engaging performers in Australia mixing the moving and amusing, spoken word, hip hop and theatre.
Institute of Postcolonial Studies in North Melbourne, he will be doing a special half an hour set on Friday, the 13th of July with added performances by Tariro Mavondo, Randall Stephens and Sista Zai and hosted by Steve Smart followed by a two-day workshop on Saturday and Sunday. And it’s all hosted by the fabulous ‘Stillwaters Women’s Storytelling Collective.’ More information at their Facebook event.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on July 1, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/07/01/darkwing-dubs-comes-to-melbourne-for-a-show-and-workshop/
Social Media, Twitter, not so much Google+, but definitely Facebook have been awesome for the Melbourne poetry scene. It only helps to keep in touch with everyone, but to reach new people too. When I first got involved, it was the Facebook Groups of all the regular gigs that kept in the loop and finding out more.
MSW loves social media too and we love promoting Melbourne poets and poetry. It’s why we put so much effort into keeping our Facebook Page up to date with all the upcoming gigs, our latest articles and the videos going around the web. We’ve almost reached 400 fans and it continues to grow!
But it’s not all perfect. Facebook has been screwing around with Pages a bit and we’ve recently become worried that less than half of you are receiving updates via the Facebook Page. Whether that’s because Facebook is not showing everything or because you’re not online every day, or all the time, we’re not sure but we’d hate for you to miss things.
On the right side of the website, there’s an option to subscribe to our website via email. We would love for as many people as possible to subscribe. We promise not to go overboard with the website updates. But we are thinking of publishing a regular post at the start of each month with the upcoming gigs for that month. Which makes letting me know early about Features more important. As always, we love feedback so leave a comment on whether you think that’s a good idea or if you have other ideas of what you’d like to see. We’ve got a video interview with Santo Cazzati coming soon! And perhaps we might do some giveaways to subscribers.
But we need your help with the Facebook stuff. Sharing this post with a message urging people to subscribe via email (and like the Page too) would help a lot, especially given we don’t think everyone’s seeing the posts. But also ‘liking’ our updates, sharing the articles and the upcoming event pages helps the wider scene, supports each other’s gigs etc. It tells Facebook that not only do you want to keep seeing our updates, but if we get lots of likes it gives them the hint that other people want to keep seeing this too.
We really appreciate all the help. And hope to see you around at a gig this week.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on June 18, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/06/18/keep-in-touch-with-melbourne-spoken-word/
As part of the Northern Exposure Visual Festival, Annerliegh has organised for some Melbourne poets to take to the streets and become a real metaphor on the tour of High Street. Poets are part of the furniture. Or should be.
On Friday the 15th of June, six street poets will take their place at three street venues as part of the Visual Art Tours. The tours start at 6:30 and then again at 8pm beginning at the Northcote Uniting Church, then onto our first poet who will perform on the steps of the Town Hall. The second poet will perform outside the Peacock Hotel, with the final poet waxing lyrical at the tram stop next to IGA. If you hang around you might see some freestyling by these artists throughout the night.
Poets will include Meena Shamaly, Brigitte Lewis, Lana Woolf, Kirsti Whalen, Benjamin Solah and Santo Cazatti.
A further night of street poetry will occur next week – watch this space for details.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on June 13, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/06/13/melbourne-poets-take-to-the-streets-of-northcote/
Saturday August 18 @ 6pm / Bella Union, Trades Hall: Level 1, Trades Hall, Corner Lygon and Victoria Streets, Carlton (entrance off Lygon Street), Melbourne
Launched by Cate Kennedy.
Kevin Brophy teaches creative writing in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne. From 1980 to 1994 he was founding co-editor of the national literary journal, Going Down Swinging. In 2005 he was awarded the Martha Richardson Medal for poetry. In 2009 he was co-winner of the Calibre Prize for an outstanding essay.
Nathan Curnow is a writer, performer and past editor of Going Down Swinging. His books include The Ghost Poetry Project which was based upon his stays at ten haunted sites around the country. In 2010 he was winner of the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on June 12, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/06/12/nathan-curnow-and-kevin-brophy-to-launch-joint-collection-radar/
Abe Ape is a new face in Melbourne poetry and after making a big impression at Slamalamadingdong a few months ago, has already produced his first video. It’s pretty special.
Please support Melbourne poets and share around their videos.
Posted by Benjamin Solah on June 8, 2012
http://melbournespokenword.com/2012/06/08/video-verse-my-apology-by-abe-ape/
MSW is run for free by Melbourne spoken word artists and has no funding so relies on donations to promote and keep afloat. You can donate at our ChipIn page.
All proceeds of any items sold go toward Melbourne Spoken Word.
Also available in person at many events.
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