From
late-August into early-September I spent just over two weeks in Brisbane.
While
there I featured at SpeedPoets and the Jam Jar Poetry Slam. I also took part in two events at the Queensland Poetry
Festival: a workshop run by L. E. Scott, and a
poetry slam run by Scott Sneddon. And I got to assist Ghostboy
in his MCing of the Page vs. Stage poetry slam at the Brisbane Writers Festival
where I was also the sacrificial poet.
The poetry workshop
L.
E. Scott’s poetry workshop was jazz poetry; it didn’t involve studying, writing
and/or workshopping jazz poetry. No we flowed with the workshop, interjected and
interrupted or were confused, and we all performed at least one poem during the
few hours we had.
The core of the workshop was L. E. Scott’s improvisational exploration of the writing that accompanied the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and he clearly often lost himself there. But, when I got past his calling it “the Black Arts” and me imagining cackling witches around a cauldron, the workshop gave insight into a poetry movement I had not considered and led to writers I had not previously known.
The core of the workshop was L. E. Scott’s improvisational exploration of the writing that accompanied the African-American Civil Rights Movement, and he clearly often lost himself there. But, when I got past his calling it “the Black Arts” and me imagining cackling witches around a cauldron, the workshop gave insight into a poetry movement I had not considered and led to writers I had not previously known.
While
I think at times the workshop struggled to come to grips with his method and
language, all the participants shaped the workshop through verse, questions,
and puzzlement.
“VI
The
poetry of life?
NO,
the picture of my dreams
Flashing
on my heart.”
SpeedPoets
I
featured at SpeedPoets with Trudie Murrell. Set at the deepest end of Brew
in Brisbane’s Central Business District the SpeedPoets venue is a great spot
for poetry.
This
performance meant a lot to me: 1) I was performing to strangers in a strange
city; 2) Graham Nunn, who runs the
gig, is an accomplished poet with many publications, books, and performances; and
3) he is close friends with one of the poets who inspired me to perform, David Stavanger aka Ghostboy.
And
I got to hang out with Hadley who stole
about two-thirds of the cider I thought I was drinking over the afternoon and
evening.
SpeedPoets
has a full open mic that gives a piece of Brisbane’s poetry, and the website
and monthly associated publication that Graham produces for it contain a great
many poems to read. As part of being features Trudie and I decided who would be
the call back poet, that poet has the opportunity to perform more poems on the
night, plus go into a final competition at the end of the year. We decided on
Cameron Logan, his poem IPSWICH
grabbed the entire room. I have seen Cameron perform often in Queensland and
always enjoyed his work.
Jam Jar Poetry Slam
I
could say this is the other end of the poetry spectrum in Brisbane, but it
isn’t and that is a cliché. Jam Jar Poetry Slam is another piece of Brisbane poetry,
this one run by Darkwing Dubs, also known as Scott Sneddon. Darkwing Dubs,
side-by-side with Hadley, is one of the best poets I know to have gone to the
Australian National Poetry Slam in Sydney and prove the saying that “the best
poet never wins.”
So
Darkwing Dubs running it is part of what makes this slam special to me. The
other is that I reckon, as with Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit!,
it belongs firmly in the Genus Poetry Slam due to a basis in what “So What!” should mean to a poetry
slam. To me this is the most important rule of a poetry slam because a poetry
slam is just “a performance space, literally a demarcated and dedicated chunk of space/time"
where you can’t have too much fun.
A
lot of poetry was performed, two rounds starting with twelve poets, and I
really enjoyed the poem and performance of Tim Lo Surdo.
Featuring
here meant a lot and I lost myself in the gig, as I did at SpeedPoets, and came
out of the performance haze at dinner about an hour later. The slam runs without
a mic which I found gave me the same freedom as walking the streets of Canberra
memorising poems. Hopefully I thanked Scott and said goodbye. If I didn’t then
it was because I was somewhere else after that performance and it was a good place.
Page vs. Stage poetry
slam
Page
versus stage is an engaging concept, and getting to take part in haranguing
judges in the crowd about what they made of a poem was great. My favourite
judge, the two-headed judge, stated content didn’t matter, they said it is all
in the delivery and who cares what the poem is about. I performed The Dark Horse of Poetry as the sacrificial poem and the personal high point of this
night was getting to help Ghostboy run a slam.
Thank
you to everyone in Brisbane who made the trip a poetry and food filled
expedition, particularly Harry, Hadley, and Tessa.
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| When I was in Queensland I got this photo for you. |
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