March slam + naked poetry (hopefully!)
Quick post to remind you about the next Traverse slam: Friday 26 March at The Front. Following February’s well-attended slam we have the first lot of scores in the High School Table (top three were CJ, Hadley and Sean the Saw [possibly one of the guys who did music for this]). Your scores will grow with each slam you perform at so make sure you get along to each and every one if you want a shot at the BIG EXCITING MYSTERY SECRET EVENT in November.
Traverse Poetry Slam
Friday 26 March 7:30pm-11:00pm
The Front Gallery and Cafe Wattle Street, Lyneham
$3 (free entry for performers!)
Book a slot in the slam from 7.30pm
Meanwhile, if you’re free this Sunday, I encourage you to check out Canberra’s World Naked Bike Ride. The reason I bring it up here is the organisers were hoping to get some poets to perform work at points during the ride. I’m not sure if there are fixed places for people to perform or they want poets on the move – probably the best approach is to get in touch with one of the admins for the Facebook event. The ride is happening on World Poetry Day, so it’s well worth getting involved!
World Naked Bike Ride – Canberra 2010
Sunday 21 March 11:00am…
Meet at Kuttabul Place, Acton – next to the lake, near Northbourne Avenue.
I had thought that the Poetry Slam was an opportunity for poets of all kinds to showcase their work in a friendly and supportive atmosphere. Your mention of ‘dub’ (or is it ‘dud’) poetry does nothing to encourage me to keep coming. I’ve known Omar Musa since he was a baby, and have read his published work with interest, but I simply find it difficult to disconnect this material from kinds of music for which I have no taste, and to connect it with the rich heritage of poetry that’s to be found in English literature from Chaucer to the present. So I think I will be absent from the ACT-Government-supported Poetry Slams until I am convinced that they are for all poets and not just those who believe themselves to be the ‘cutting edge’. I’ve enjoyed most of those I’ve attended.
Malcolm
Traverse poetry slams are events in which poets can showcase their work in (as best as I can manage) a friendly and supportive atmosphere. But they are also a very specific kind of event – not, as I think you may have had in mind, an unrestricted open mic. I do run an open mic prior to my poetry slams but the main event will generally match the Poetry Slam, Inc definition I have on my FAQ page: “a competitive event in which poets perform their work and are judged by members of the audience”. Of course, I do run and help out with lots of other poetry events, such as the dub poetry afternoon you mentioned. Given that this event occurred entirely separately from the monthly poetry slams I’m confused about why they deter you from coming to the slams. Perhaps you consider, because I’m supporting other types of events, my ability to run the kind of event I think you have in mind, has decreased. Forgive me if this is presumptuous, but some of the language you’ve used (“for all poets and not just those” etc.) reads to me as if you have a belief that (other) people *should* provide events that cater to what you want in a poetry evening. Do I really need to point out the flaw? If you don’t like my events and would prefer something else don’t sit and complain about it: go out and do it. Work out exactly what you want in an event and then get other people excited about helping you run it. I’d wholeheartedly encourage you in doing this – the greater quantity and variety in performances and forums for poetry available, the better.
As for your comments about Omar Musa (how, pray tell, did he come into this? I thought we were discussing dub poetry?!) and Chaucer etc. This is such an old, old argument all I’m going to say is that people have different tastes and that times and styles change.
Oh and, since the start of this year, my poetry slams have been funded by myself and the door charge (as they were for a good two years before I applied for any funding).