As Mongo mentions in his outro there’s an interesting interview between Jack McCarthy and John Sands over at Union Station Magazine.

Here’s what the Traverse Poetry High Score Table looks like after last night (and, just to make things interesting, I’m doing the full top 10):

1. CJ
2. Benjamin Keaney
3. Anthony Hayes
4. Tasnim Hossain
5. Miranda Lello
6. Andrew Galan
7. Adam Hadley/Jacinta
8. Ryan Schipper
9. Wes
10. Big/Flying V

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.

Get your set squares and chemistry kits ready – we want to hear your finest haiku on hydrogen, sestinas on sunspots and villanelles on ventricles!

BONUS poetical explosions from Melbourne’s Randall Stephens!

Traverse Poetry Slam: SCIENCE
27 August 7:30-11:00pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham

$3 / free for poets – sign up for a slot in the slam from 7.30pm.

Updated Traverse High Score Table…

1. CJ
2. Anthony Hayes
3. Tasnim Hossain

Traverse Poetry Slam: BIRTHDAY
30 July 7:30-11:00pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham

Traverse Poetry Slam: WINTER
25 June 7:30-11:00pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham

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.

• Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! – 20 April 2010
• Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! – 19 January 2010

Human Rights Poetry Slam
28 May 7:30-11:00pm
The Front Gallery and Café
Wattle St, Lyneham

This month Traverse Poetry has joined with the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival to run a special human rights-themed poetry slam. Come along and perform poems that make human rights accessible, relevant and significant – and win great prizes! Then end the evening dancing to a special set from DJ Boogie Smash!

$3 (free for poets) – sign up for a slot from 7.30pm

See you there!

Plus… we now have 3 new poets in the lead on the TRAVERSE POETRY HIGH SCORE TABLE!

1. John Reid
2. James Douglas
3. Ben Keaney

Meanwhile, you may like to check out this review (plus photos!) on RiotAct of Traverse Poetry’s twisted sister: Bad Slam! No biscuit!

Perform your best poem about ‘hunger’ for the chance to win awesome prizes and a spot on the coveted poetry slam HIGH SCORE TABLE!

Plus… special guest poet David Finnigan performs Sun Drugs!

Traverse Poetry Slam
Friday 30 April 7:30-10:30pm
The Front Gallery and Cafe Wattle Street, Lyneham
$3 (free entry for performers!)
Book a slot in the slam from 7.30pm

Why ‘hunger’ you ask? It’s all about trying to get Canberra’s young writers into print – hunger is also the theme of the next issue of Voiceworks, the fantastic young writers’ magazine published by Express Media. By giving you the same topic to write about I’m hoping that some of our young writers will go on to submit their work to Voiceworks (submissions close 27 June 2010, only for under 25 – sorry!).

What about those of us over 25 you ask? Well, we still get to write stuff about hunger for the poetry slam, which is a rather interesting theme and should make for a rather interesting night!

While we’re on the subject of Express Media, the Melbourne organisation has helped fund what looks to be an excellent new publication from Blemish Books, the organisation started by Greg (who was one of the group involved in the Write in Your Face poetry project in 2008). The book is called Caught in the Breeze and it’s 10 essays on the role of flags in contemporary Australia.

Here’s the launch info:

Caught in the Breeze launch
Thursday 29 April 6:00pm
Smiths Alternative Bookshop
76 Alinga Street, Civic

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!

1. Tasnim Hossain
2. John Reid
3. Ben

Remember: you’ve got to keep performing if you want to stay at the top!

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.