John Englezos / In Step

Australian Poetry Slam Victorian Heats

The search is on for Australia’s 2018 poetry slam champion.

Speak, scream, howl, whisper or even sing your poems, stories, lyrics or monologues in this live event where the audience is the judge. Two finalists from each state will receive prizes and a spot in the National Final in October. The national champion wins an international writers festival tour prize pack!

MC Joel McKerrow is an award-winning writer, speaker, educator, community arts worker and one of Australia’s most successful internationally touring performance poets.

The top two from each heat go onto the State Final. The top 2 from the State Final go on to the National Final in Sydney. APS rules at 2 mins with 1 point deducted every 30 seconds, no grace period. Poems must be your own original work written in the last 12 months. No props, no costumes, no instruments. Registration is 30 minutes prior to heat start.

For APS rules see: http://www.australianpoetryslam.com/rules/

Review: If The World Were Upside Down by John Englezos

I like to think that every poem or collection has a ‘hook’, or a ‘way in’ that reveals itself gradually to its reader or listener. When reading John Englezos’ collection If The World Were Upside Down, it seemed important to honour that John is a poet whose words need to be heard as he performs them, rather than to be read off the page.

Thankfully, there’s lots of clips online of John performing many of the poems in this collection. I wanted to start with the one that personally ‘hooked’ me in – ‘The Proper Way to Make a Cup of Tea (YouTube)’:

I admittedly giggled cheekily at the beginning words, because I am a tea-lover, and also may still fall in love with not-just-men:

Young man

If you wish to learn the proper way to make a cup of tea

meet a girl

fall in love

and get married

John preempts the feelings this might bring up in the reader/listener – perhaps ridicule, amusement, excitement, inward groaning as the poem continues:

Hear me out

In an age where gas was lit and fire burned

a kettle would whistle to you the constant reminder of its boiling brew

Now he’s captured our full attention, and we feel like we need to know what has to follow – he’s mentioned things that are common to many of our everyday lives, and we want to know: what does making tea well have to do with love, with care, with intentional acts shared?

This collection is full of poems that celebrate the wonder in the ordinary, in those things we might take for granted in our lives. I especially like that ‘The Proper Way to Make a Cup of Tea’ can also be taken as an exercise in mindfulness. From a mental health perspective, the act of listening to or of reading a poem that talks to you the way John does is incredibly comforting, or downright amusingly raucous.

An example of his playful, more surrealist take on life is in the title poem ‘If The Worl

Rhiann Isaacs / Taking Back the Neighbourhood

Rhiann Isaacs performed ‘Taking Back the Neighbourhood’ at the Slamalamadingdong New Shit Slam at The Melba Spiegeltent.

Rhiann Isaacs is an outspoken Afro-Guyanese poet that has nurtured a love for words and storytelling from a young age. Rhiann’s pieces are explorative narratives that mainly centre around identity, Pan-African issues and mental health. As a rising artist, she brings energy and passion to the stage as she treats each poem as living art pieces that deserve to take up space. Expect transparency and straight forward expression from beginning to end.