Remember: top 3 poets receive a Marvellous Magical Secret Surprise at the November event (26 November @ The Front). Next chance to raise your ranking: 24 September.
This month marks four years of poetry slams at The Front! We’re celebrating with a free, birthday-themed poetry slam. There will be the usual open mic and poetry slam (bring your birthday/anniversary-related poems!) plus cake (hopefully) and extra silly merrymaking (definitely). Sign up for a slot from 7.30pm.
Winter’s here and rather than shivering at home we’re ditching our snuggies and oil heaters and heading to The Front for a blizzard of winter-themed poetry! Warm up the crowd with your best poetry about snow balls, ice skating and polar bears and win very cool prizes!
$3 (free for poets) – sign up for a slot from 7.30pm
Current TRAVERSE HIGH SCORE TABLE:
1. CJ
2. Tasnim Hossain
3. Anthony Hayes
Oh, and while you’re planning your snowy masterpiece, you may like to have a listen to these podcasts from the Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! third-Tuesday-of-the-month slams (next one’s 15 June) at The Phoenix produced by Leon. Warning: they contain a great deal of aimless rambling and abundant colourful cursing. Good fun.
I also need to tell you about a very special workshop for 15-25 year olds being run by British poet Rosy Carrick, who is out here on tour (unfortunately Rosy’s not in Canberra at the time of the next Traverse poetry slam: 30 April):
Writing selves youth workshop
Friday 23 April 4.30-6.30pm
ACT Writers Centre
Gorman House, Ainslie Avenue
Braddon ACT
The workshop costs $30 ($24 for students) and you can book through the ACT Writers Centre.
If (like me) you’re outside of this age bracket, fear not! Rosy will also be doing a free performance that evening from 7 to 8pm, in the Bogong Theatre (also at Gorman House).
And, finally, please give a big hand for the current top three on Traverse Poetry’s High Score Table!
Tasnim Hossain
John Reid
Ben
Remember: you’ve got to keep performing if you want to stay at the top!
My mate Raf has enlisted my help in rounding up some poets for a dub poetry event, happening 14 March at The Front. I’ve always wanted to find out more about dub poetry so I took this opportunity to do a bit of research.
The origins of dub poetry begin somewhere between the dancehalls of Kingston and London and the work of poets such as Kamau Brathwaite. Unlike traditional poetry, dub poetry emphasizes sound (repetition, rhyme, and word play) rather than sense (imagery, metaphor, simile) to convey themes of social (in)justice. Besides the subtle racism and class warfare that greeted their work, the earliest pioneers of dub poetry, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Oku Onoura, Benjamin Zephaniah, Malachi Smith, Mutabaruka, and Mikey Smith, confronted resistance, especially in Jamaica, because it was thought that sense (imagery, metaphor, simile) was sacrificed to sound. However, in the best dub poetry there is a fusion of sound and sense that is emotionally stirring, and many who have been trained to mistrust their emotions often find these sensations uncomfortable. At its worst, there’s a monotonous obedience to sound that produces the same effect as poems that rely only on sense—boredom in the audience. In many ways, dub poetry resembles the chanting style of dancehall deejays, but whereas the deejay is bound to the riddim track, the dub poet experiments with words/sounds (almost like a jazz musician) and transcription to the page aims at reproducing the effect of the beat.
I also found a few videos that are pretty impressive (well, the poems are – the recordings: less so). First up: Oku Onuora. This is a very short but good example. I presume the piece he’s performing is ‘Wi a Come’.
Next: Lillian Allen’s ‘Riddim an’ Hardtimes’ (jump ahead two minutes to get the uninterrupted full piece) unfortunately you don’t get to see Allen in action but at least the sound is reasonably clear:
One last poem for now: Linton Kwesi Johnson’s ‘Inglan is a Bitch’. I would have liked to include a musical version, but the rhythm is so strong in this piece I think it stands very well on its own.
Hopefully this is has sufficiently piqued your interest to come and check out the RockSteady event:
Raf asked me to try and round up some performers, so if you want to the chance to perform your poetry at the event (with a DJ and drummer!) please let him or Joshua know:
I just thought I’d take a moment to reassure you all that Traverse poetry slams will be back at The Front this year. I’ve updated the events page of this site with all the dates for the 2010 slams, which (fingers crossed) won’t change.
The first slam at The Front for 2010 is on Thursday 25 February.
Meanwhile, I also wanted to let you know about a couple of interesting poetry websites I’ve been to recently. The first, myslam.net, is a slam community set up by Wolfgang, a German slammer, with excellent coverage of slams around the world, particularly ones in western Europe. I’ve done my bit and added the Traverse slam to the map (I’ll flesh out the details page soon). The site seems like it could be very useful for connecting slammers in Australia (particularly touring poets) so I recommend you join up and pass on the details on to other slammers.
The second site, Poetry, Pure Poetry, is more geared to online collaboration and has some very exciting features to assist in running poetry groups. It’s all very new and fresh at the moment but looks like it could be an excellent tool for the poetry community – check it out!
Despite what you might have heard, last week’s quiet poetry slam was not the last Traverse Poetry slam. The ACT Government grant that has supported this project will finish at the end of 2009, but slams will continue in 2010. The first slam for the year will be Thursday 25 February and then, from March, they’ll be back on the last Friday of each month.
So, we’ll be ending 2009 with an absolutely massive event at the National Museum of Australia: a water-themed poetry slam, to help launch the new exhibition, Water: H2O=Life.
Other than the theme, what’s so special about this event? We have an absolutely wonderful guest poet, from Sydney, called Sarah Mae. ACT poetry slam fans may remember her first set in Canberra back in 2007, when The Front slams were just getting started. Those who don’t know her work should be prepared for a jaw-dropping performance exploring identity, myths, fairy tales and everyday observation through spoken word, song and the rhythms of the subconscious.
Plus, we have the always delightful Cathy Petocz playing music, and huge prizes — $200 cash from Traverse Poetry and a $100 gift voucher from the Museum!
Poetry Splash!
12 December 7:30-10:30pm
Friends Lounge, National Museum of Australia
Lawson Crescent, Acton Peninsula
Free entry!
You must book a slot to perform: email poetry DOT slams AT gmail DOT com or phone 0403 885 873 – we’re very nearly at capacity for the night so if you want a shot at the prizes make sure you book now!
As in previous years, the range was quite a bit different from the monthly gigs at The Front, with a much stronger focus on hip hop. We also had some much younger poets (including one 11-year-old rapping about illegal street racing… hmm…) and a few more ‘random’ (for want of a better word) performers, in particular a guy reading some gorgeous haiku off an iPhone.
There were too few women performing again. I’m hoping next year’s slams (and perhaps another all-women night sometime in the year) will encourage some more ladies to get behind the mic – there’s so much talent in our town!
Last year’s overall winner, Omar Musa, also did a smashing performance of the piece he did with Hadley, Seung, Fenella and I at Corinbank earlier this year.
So, this month we have a more low-key event, not really a slam at all (let’s call it a ‘sham slam’ shall we?) and more of an open mic:
Traverse Poetry Night
Friday 27 November
7.30pm-10.30pm
The Front Gallery and Cafe
Wattle Street, Lyneham
Free entry for everyone!
And, before I go, I need to plug the launch of issue 9 of Block journal, this week at Smiths:
Block 9 launch
Thursday 19 November
6.00pm-7.00pm
Smiths Alternative Bookshop
76 Aligna Street, Canberra City
As in previous years you’ll need to book a slot by calling the library on (02) 6262 1271.
For the benefit of those who haven’t attended an Australian Poetry Slam before, the rules are slightly different to the slams at The Front. The time limit is 2 minutes, not 3. Also, there will be five audience members judging you out of 10 with the highest and lowest scores disregarded. If there’s a draw (as there has been on the previous two occasions) we’ll get you to perform a second piece – so make sure you prepare for this possibility!
Meanwhile, you’ll be able to practice your pieces at the Halloween Slam next week:
Halloween Slam
30 October 7:30-11:30pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham
We’ll be doing some special fun things for this slam, including awarding a prize for the scariest poem of the night!
It’s possible that this month’s slam may be the last one at The Front for the year, given that the ACT heat is next month and December’s slam will take place at the National Museum of Australia (more on that later).
I’ll be gauging people’s interest in a November Front slam next Friday so speak up if you want it to happen! Note that if it does go ahead it will probably be quite a low-key event.
www.traversepoetry.org
