@Huitzilihuitl - here is the quick #sketch I did for Bad Slam Not Biscuit @NotedFestival #Noted17 #poetry #illustrator #workhardplayhard pic.twitter.com/RVqrP2RJAJ

— Shauna O'Meara (@OMearaShauna) May 15, 2017

#artwork for Andrew Galan's poem "Black Sun" at @NotedFestival.@Huitzilihuitl #art #illustration #workhardplayhard #kayaking #poetry pic.twitter.com/1mUf7PfFRd

— Shauna O'Meara (@OMearaShauna) May 10, 2017

An interview with Emily Crocker

In this third interview for the May Salt Room I interviewed Wollongong-based poet Emily Crocker. The interview has been published on the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centre website. The May edition is at 7:30pm, the Gorman main Hall at the Gorman Arts Centre.

The interview questions are found questions, this month taken from a Face to Face interview of Dame Edith Sitwell by John Freeman and an interview of Dorothy Parker by Marion Capron at the Paris Review. 

An interview with Nick Delatovic

The second interview for the May edition of the Salt Room is with Nick Delatovic. Nick created This Band Will Self Destruct Vol. 1-3 and we will be screening Vol. 2. The first volume was screened at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! on 15 March.

The interview questions are found questions, this month taken from a Face to Face interview of Dame Edith Sitwell by John Freeman and an interview of Dorothy Parker by Marion Capron at the Paris Review.

This Band Will Self-Destruct 1.1- Going Home from Luke McGrath on Vimeo.

An interview with Paul Munden

The 5 May edition of the Salt Room features Emily Crocker, Paul Munden, Brentley Frazer and The Band Will Self Destruct, by Nick Delatovic.

In preparation for the event and to learn about our feature acts I have conducted interviews with each. The interview questions are found questions, this month taken from a Face to Face interview of Dame Edith Sitwell by John Freeman and an interview of Dorothy Parker by Marion Capron at the Paris Review.

The first interview is with Paul Munden, poet and program manager of the International Poetry Studies Institute. You can find the interview at the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres website by following this link.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! @ THE PHOENIX PUB

IN HONOUR OF FIRST PRIZES BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! RETURNS TO NOTED FOR THE FIRST LAST AND ALL TIME TO GIVE YOU A MICROPHONE FOR TWO MINUTES WITH NO PROPS NO MUSIC AND YOUR ORIGINAL MATERIAL FOR GLORIOUS FIRST PRIZES.

That’s right→BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is the nation’s Australian Capital Territory Poetry Slam and it wants you on stage in the audience at the bar! For poetry; Or something else!

And to that end we provide you a stage, microphones, sound, audience, poets, bar, toilets, MCs, lights, The Score Adder, coasters, The Master of Conflict and doorways.

And because that isn’t enough we have feature acts! So many feature acts! Including the resplendent David Stavanger, the (in)famous Tessa Rose, the triumphanti̶n̶e̶ Beige Browne, and the Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary!

As well as the mystery we are keeping mysterious.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, it wants your words with you in the Phoenix Pub.

And because you want to know more about our feature acts:

David Stavanger

David Stavanger is an award winning poet, writer, and cultural producer. In 2013 he won the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize, resulting in the release of his first full-length collection of poetry The Special, which was also awarded the 2015 Wesley Michel Wright Prize. At the 2014 Queensland Literary Awards he received a Queensland Writing Fellowship to develop his next two collections. David is also the Co-Director of the Queensland Poetry Festival.

The Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary

Fanciful Fiction Auxiliary is a fictitious amateur writers’ group comprised of miscellaneous oddball characters with ‘ideas’ about their place in the literary world. The various ‘members’ of the auxiliary are devised and performed by a revolving group of established and emerging writers who have been invited to turn bad, go rogue, overwrite, underwrite. 'Do it Wrong.'

The FFA has appeared at Woodford Folk Festival, Bad!Slam!No!Memoir!, the Brisbane Fringe Festival, and the Queensland Poetry Festival.

Tessa Rose

Tessa Rose is a poet and performance artist. She has performed at Brisbane Square Library, Ruckus Slam, The National Folk Festival, and Woodford Folk Festival. She performs avant-Jazzercise with Pascalle Burton in 24-Hour Gym, composes Twin Peaks found poetry, and co-produced the Old Museum’s spoken word open mic night, BAD!SLAM!NO!MEMOIR!

Beige Browne

Beige Brown is Australia’s foremost feminist performance poet. Her permutative sound poetry introduces productive uncertainty into the phallogentric thrust of mainstream literary culture, fissuring the pompous edifice and causing little word-rivulets to trickle out from many smaller openings. A previous participant at Noted, she has been willfully excluded from other larger literary festivals, yet is highly regarded by the discerning amongst Australia’s literary cognoscenti.

The mysterious mystery

And of course there is the mystery we are keeping mysterious!

So, remember, join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! inside the Phoenix Pub, sign up from 7:30pm, poetry slam from 8pm, 1st prizes! glory! 2 minutes! No music! No props! Your original material (unless you’re a rebel, we welcome rebels)!

All inside the Phoenix Pub. All part of Noted. All for your words and teeth.

THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM

On Wednesday 16 March, 8:00pm in the Phoenix Pub, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! launches the Australian Capital Territory’s definitive national anthem, THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM.

THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM

To fix Canberra’s Centenary Celebration’s failure, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! commissioned Canberra’s renaissance person of fitness and music, Nick Delatovic, to compose THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM.

The inaugural singing is at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in the Phoenix Pub, before forever being free online under creative commons.

Find the lyrics in Bill Poetries (as part of the Noted Festival) and in your very own songbook available at the Phoenix Pub on the night.

Be part of history as BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! gives Civic, the inner north, the Australian Capital Territory, Australia, the World what they’ve always needed- THE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL ANTHEM.

Supported by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, YouAreHere and Noted.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

Since 2009, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! has fought for poetry in the Australian Capital Territory! It’ll fight anyone for poetry, even when no one wants poetry fought for. Which is frequently. To that end, with the support of the Phoenix Pub, it runs BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! as the World’s first and last poetry slam in The Phoenix, and with the support of the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres it runs the Salt Room in the Gorman Arts Centre. The Salt Room is the poetry night Canberra deserves. The longest-running team behind BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! contains Andrew Galan, Joel Barcham and Amanda Coghlan, with regular assistance from Canberra’s documentator of Canberra’s Arts Scene, Adam Thomas.

Thanks to Merloc where the recording is taking place, and thanks to Ryan Schipper for his support as one of the producers.

Thanks also to long-time sponsors Impact Comics and The Games Capital.

RIP BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! co-founder Adam Hadley.

Noted and You Are Here 2015

As a producer for Noted and You Are Here I was this year involved in several events, online and live, in addition to the day-to-day running of the festivals.

I curated Letters to the ACT, with poems published on the Noted website and in the You Are Here program. There are poems from Ryan ‘Skip’ Schipper, Matt Hetherington, Emily Stewart, Bela Farkas, Eleanor Malbon & Aaron Kirby, Charles J Quinn and Raphael Kabo. For this project I focussed heavily on Canberra writers with a present connection to the ACT and its live scene, every poet on that list has performed at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! or other venues in our city.

With Farz Edraki from Rip Publishing, and Shane Breynard, Director of the Canberra Museum and Gallery, I put up poetry in the North Building windows overlooking the ACT's Legislative Assembly. The project was titled Do you c what i c and was conceived by Shane. For this one I asked Matt Hetherington for a selection of poems as I knew that he could contribute writing that would capture an aspect of Canberra within the constraints of the limited space provided by the number of windows available for characters.



And I was interviewed by the ABC alongside Ashley Thomson for Noted and wrote a short piece for the You Are Here website that that examined an aspect of what draws You Are Here and Noted together.

I also ran BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! with Joel Barcham and Amanda Coghlan, featuring Nicola Lambert, Inventi Ensemble and the roaring Beige Brown. 

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at You Are Here and now Noted was a highlight for me during the festivals. It is unique night during the festivals that brings together curated artists with self-selected participants and a live critique of art and performance. 

This year BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! also worked with Feminartsy to program the event, to great success and it was heaps of fun. You can read the poem Sweet Skywale performed by Beige Brown as part of her feature set. She captured the audience with this poem and was an excellent programming choice from Feminartsy. We also featured our first classical music group with Inventi Ensemble popping up with a surprise performance, and had our first power-point presentation, coming from Nicola Lambert as part of the (I Hate You) For Sentimental Reasons series presented by You Are Here.

I was also interviewed by a University of Canberra journalism student about BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!- I am looking forward to seeing the results of that talk.

Finally, I brought to the festivals Bo Loserr with his Combat Truck. As a result he hosted theatre, performed a DJ set, and supported the staging of an excellent piece called Dishes on Lake Burley Griffin; all from his ex-Australian Army radio truck.

Bo Loserr's Combat Truck
Photograph by Adam Thomas
and You Are Here

There is still plenty to do to wrap-up both festivals but my next stops are the Australian National Folk Festival, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in April, and then the Henry Lawson Festival.

The You Are Here 2015 team
Photograph by Adam Thomas
and You Are Here

A Noted ABC interview

Ashley Thompson and I talked all things Noted festival with ABC radio on Wednesday 11 March. 

You can read an article that came from our discussions with Adam Shirley on the ABC website.

The Poetry Slam

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!
Photograph by Adam Thomas

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! versus FEMINARTSY versus THE FESTIVALS!

IT IS THE TIME WHEN BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! FIGHTS THE YOU ARE HERE AND THIS YEAR YOU ARE HERE BRINGS THE NOTED FESTIVAL!

AND BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! HAS INVITED FEMINARTSY!

And Feminartsy said yes!

IT’LL BE A BLOODBATH.

You no doubt have many questions, here are answers.

FIRST!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is the poetry slam, your poetry slam, the poetry slam that gives you a stage, two microphones, many audience, poets, The Master of Conflict, a surprising amount of MCs, sound, scores, with score adding, by The Score Adder, plus a sacrificial poet.

ALL FOR PRIZES AND GLORY AND A CURRICULUM VITAE ENTRY AND DRINKING.

ALL FOR YOUR 2 MINUTES OF POETRY!

Second

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! has teamed up with Feminartsy, Noted and YouAreHere in a grand battle of poetry conflict and word showcasing with bonus mystery act!

Third

PRIZES!

Fourth

BRING YOUR WORDS AND YOU TO BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

Five!

FEATURE ACTS IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER

Representing You Are Here as part of I Hate You for Sentimental Reasons is:

Nicola Lambert!

Bare-knuckle boxing's illegal. Corporal punishment's out of fashion. Project Mayhem came to nothing. What recourse is left to a city in need of improvement but to invite its brightest minds to verbally excoriate its flaws? Throughout You Are Here experts are delivering short, bloody, insight-laden calls to arms.

In this episode first Nicola Lambert, artist and arts facilitator, questions the cultural inclusiveness of the ACT's arts programs!

Don't miss this pointed brutalisation of your beloved capital's shortcomings!

From Feminartsy and Noted we have:

BeigeBrown!

Beige Brown is Australia’s foremost feminist performance poet. Her permutative sound poetry ingests uncertainty into the phallogentric project of mainstream literary culture, exploding the big edifice to spurt many smaller openings. A past honoured guest at Crack & Griffringe, she is highly regarded by discerning members of Australia’s literary cognoscenti.

And there will be an additional surprise guest!

WE WILL TELL YOU NOTHING OF THEM.

So remember, your original material, no props, no music, 2 minutes, judges, judging, yelling, prizes, glory, all in a pub! In the Phoenix Pub, East Row, Civic, the poetry slam.

Want to know more about You Are Here, Noted and/or Feminartsy? Then visit them on the world wide web:

You Are Here

Noted

Feminartsy

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

The Poetry Slam in The Phoenix Pub, Canberra

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!