Hip-Hop Shop with D’Opus and Roshambo
Free workshop for people under 30 – but you must book through the ACT Writers Centre:
email admin@actwriters.org.au or phone (02) 6262 9191
20 September 2:00-5:00pm
Ainslie Arts Centre
Elouera Street, Braddon

In case you don’t know, D’Opus and Roshambo are some of the best hip-hop performers in Canberra. They’ve played just about every festival here (Trackside, Corinbank, Stonefest) and are getting a huge response overseas – in no small thanks to Triple J’s huge airplay of the track ‘Million Dollar Bill’. Consequently I’m ridiculously excited I’ve managed to get them to run this free workshop. If you’re even slightly interested in poetry and music you should give the ACT Writers Centre a ring on (02) 6262 9191 and book today!

And, just before I go, the winners of the Green Slam:

1. Andrew Galan (of that Other slam)
2. Skip
3. Farida

In case you were wondering where that rather strange Twitter poem is loacted, point your web navigator to the The Longest Poem in the World.

This month I’m very excited to present not one, but two special guest poets.

First up we have young Queensland poet Rhys Rodgers, who has just started on a mini self-funded tour around Australia. This is from his bio:

Rhys Rodgers is a new and exciting performance poet from Brisbane. He won the Love Poetry Hate Racism open mic in 2008, was a finalist at both Nimbin performance poetry world cup and Woodford slam, as well as winning the 2008 SpeedPoets championships in Brisbane.

Next up we have Tobias Manderson-Galvin, who runs the Melbourne theatre company Sample Theatre, and will be sticking around in Canberra for a while to work on an Open House show with Canberra Youth Theatre. From his bio: Tobias Manderson-Galvin is a talented actor and poet from Melbourne whose poetry has previously seen him detained for terrorism by the Federal police, the bomb squad and an Adelaide airport. No stranger to provocation or controversy, Tobias has performed as part of the Dadaist hip-hop act The Hobby Whores and as the titular character Hitlerhoff, the cult comedy fusing of The Hoff and der Führer, which stormed the Adelaide Fringe Festival earlier this year.

So come along, check out some sure-to-be entertaining guest poets and then have ago at performing yourself!

Poetry Slam
26 June 2009 7:30-11:30pm
The Front Café and Gallery
Wattle St, Lyneham

Of course, all of you will be at the slam at that time so you’ll have to set your VCR or catch the repeat Saturday at noon.

The recording happened on Monday – the reporter was sick so the cameraman filmed Heidi answering questions about the slam then Seung Baek, Dennis Wild (runner up of last year’s ACT heat) and I performed a piece each, twice (with the camera at different angles). We did the filming in the National Library’s bookshop against the lovely stained glass windows and I think it went rather well.

People tell me they’ve seen me on the Stateline promo so I presume I’ll make the final cut for the actual show.

*Whose website is gagging for a re-design.