Unfortunately, Rosy Carrick‘s workshop (mentioned in my previous post) that was due to take place tomorrow has been cancelled. Rosy’s one of the thousands of people who’ve been grounded by ash from the Eyjafjallajokull volcano. Obviously her other Australian dates have been cancelled too. Quite a shame. Hopefully she’ll be able to schedule another trip soon.
Meanwhile, you may like to check out this review (plus photos!) on RiotAct of Traverse Poetry’s twisted sister: Bad Slam! No biscuit!
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
Another mega slam last night – thanks to everyone for coming out in the cold weather. We ended up with just under 20 poets performing in the slam, plus two big sets from the entertaining Randall Stephens.
Top three poets were:
CJ (with an amazing ‘party’ piece)
Jacinta (aided by a chorus of uncooperative Greek nonnas)
And now for… Judge Judy judging a poetry slam. No it’s not what you think it is (how cool/bizarre/intimidating would that be?) but, rather, a warning to producers of all spoken word events that you make sure you pay your poets!
Next slam is Friday 30 October so be prepared for some sort of Halloween (eve) silliness. Probably.
Yes, these updates have been few and far between. I apologise. I’m moving to a nine-day fortnight this week so hopefully there’ll be some more time to devote to this blog soon.
Meanwhile, a few weeks ago we had another good slam, with a whole bunch of new faces. In fact, our second place winner had never performed before…
CJ (on why he’s too boring to be a poet!)
James Douglass
Anthony
A couple of days later Daniel Ferri, David Finnigan and I ran an enjoyable workshop at C Block. About half the people who signed up turned up but, in fact, we only just managed that number in the time we had, so all was well. Hopefully we’ll see some of these wonderfully talented people at forthcoming slams!
Now, a couple of links readers might find interesting:
Sorry again about the long delay between updates. We had a massive slam last month, featuring great sets from guest poets Rhys Rodgers and Tobias Manderson-Galvin – in fact I think it might have been the largest turnout since we started running slams at The Front. On that note, this month’s slam will celebrate our third birthday!
Look out for some more info about this special slam shortly.
Meanwhile, I’ve been very busy organising a free workshop for people under 30, that will explore the techniques and skills that professional performance poets use and how you can use them to improve your own practice. The tutor is Daniel Ferri (yes the very same Daniel Ferri that appears in the film SlamNation!). I worked with Daniel on a similar workshop last year which was extremely well received by all participants.
Performance poetry workshop with Daniel Ferri and David Finnigan
Free for people under 30 – only limited places: book now! Contact ACT Writers Centre to book: (02) 6262 9191
2 August 2009 10.00am-3.00pm
C Block Theatre @ Gorman House Arts Centre
Ainslie Avenue, Braddon
This workshop will be suitable for all levels of experience so hurry up and book – it’s already half full and it’s less than three weeks away!
Oh, one other thing, Tom posted a review of what looks like an excellent exhibition of paintings by Joabie Lovett over at the Belconnen Community Centre: Symbols of the Dreaming from the Chaos Void. It finishes this Friday so get there quick!
Before I start spruking this month’s slam-ganza (stay tuned) I thought I’d quickly point you to Tom’s review of last month’s slam which managed to create the most controversy (the event, not the review) I’ve seen at a Canberra slam since the ‘freedom of speech’ fight back in ‘o7…
Wow! What a weekend. We managed to fit over 100 into the main room of The Front and were treated to fantastic new work by poets both new to the night as well as old favourites. And Santo Cazzati did a very fine job of taking us through a kaleidoscope of aural worlds.
The next day, the always delightful Vanessa Berry led an excellent workshop on zine making, each of the participants creating a their own one page zine.
On the subject of zines (and there’ll be plenty of news about it to come) I wanted to let you know that Andrew Darragh (who designed the awesome zine fair poster), Gemma Nourse and myself are starting up a zine distro called Long Arm, which will be running out of Smiths Alternative Bookshop. More details available on the Facebook page.
Oh, and, by the way, my A Zine about Canberra is back in print with a lovely colour cover! I’m selling them for $3 (cheap!) and should be getting some stock to Sticky soon, if you’re down south. Also considering making a PDF available if people don’t want to pay for postage.
In other exciting news, Adam Hadley tells me a new poetry slam is starting up on the third Tuesday of the month at The Phoenix. It’s called BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! (I kid you not) and apprently there’ll be cheap beer for poets. Yay! First slam on 21 April. More details to come.
I also hear Hadley is in need of young poets (25 and under) to perform at the National Folk Festival as part of hiJinx, in exchange for a day ticket. If you fit the bill then yank on Mr Hadley’s ear quick smart.
I just wanted to say a quick thank you to everyone who came along to the slam last Friday at Benedict House in Queanbeyan. Despite some weather issues (it started raining so we moved inside and then it stopped raining for the rest of the night) and problems with my amp (crazy freaky shaky clicky sound) it was a wonderful night. And such an amazing venue!
First prize went, quite appropriately, to Queanbeyan boy Omar Musa who did a touching homecoming poem. Seung came second and Hadley, third.
The aforementioned poets, myself and Daniel Ferri had a good meeting on Sunday planning the group piece for Corinbank Festival. The five us (including Fenella Edwards) will each be performing a three minute piece starting and ending with the same line – ‘This is a warning to everyone’ – and including as many of four other lines as will fit easily, and then ending with the five us repeating the five lines together. It should be something splendid to see. Oh, and we also watched a bunch of group performances from US slams, marvelled at the poets’ beat-boxing skills (watch Running a Race for a good example) and learnt from Cicero the perfect way to gesture.
And I have to say a extra special thank you to Julia, who serenaded us with so much beautiful music on Friday night.
You can now view videos of the winners from the ACT Australian Poetry Slam heats performing their poems in exotic Canberra locations… watch and find out how each of them answers tricky questions such as ‘What will you do if you win?’
*Featuring best ever unplanned interruption EVER!
**Thanks for the name check!
***What’s with cranking up the bass when you’re talking about what happens when stuff goes wrong – it’s a damned conspiracy!
I am bitterly, bitterly disappointed that I won’t be going up to watch these fine lads duke it out with the other Australian Slam winners. I just didn’t get my act together in time, and now I’m swamped… speaking of which, check back very soon for exciting announcements for 2009!
At the end of an incredibly tense slam, Omar Musa (last year’s ACT winner, and grand final runner up) and David Finnigan (whose extreme creativity constantly blows me away) drew for first place and then, after each poet performed a second piece, drew for a second time. So there will be three poets – Hadley, Omar and David – going up to Sydney for the grand final!
Omar’s style was very emotional and down to earth, and less hip hop than last year – his delivery is extremely smooth and a delight to hear. Both of Dave’s pieces were, as too be expected, utterly unexpected. The first, a conversation between David (who writes poetry) and David (who gets the credit) and the second, a passionate yet scientific description of how planets and moons are formed.
As I predicted we had a packed final night and a third of the 20 performers were people I’d never seen perform at previous slams. I tried to get around and talk to all of these poets after the competition and most people seemed interested in coming along to slams at The Front. Unfortunately the regular ones won’t start again until late January, so I hope they will stay keen over the new year’s break.
Munro, Jules (Casual Projects) and Ben were a perfect accompaniment to the slam… Heidi commented on how much they reminded her of early Whitlams – and Munro is certainly as enternaining performer as Tim. Such a pity we will be loosing them to Melbourne!
www.traversepoetry.org
