Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word

I have a poem in this forthcoming anthology from University of Queensland Press.

Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word, the title is in all caps on the cover, which is a good thing, this is what UQP have to say about it, “Over the past decade, Spoken Word has established itself as a central part of contemporary Australian & New Zealand poetry. For the first-time ever, these voices are transported from the stage to the page, captured in print so that the spoken-word experience can be shared with a new and broader audience. Solid Air showcases the work of more than 100 performance poets - combining elements of slam, hip-hop and experimental performance poetry - to deliver an unforgettable reading experience that is both literary and loud.”

You can pre-order from the publisher as well as see some of the other names of people who have had work included, the editors are the previous Queensland Poetry Festival Directors, David Stavanger and Anne-Marie Te Whiu.

Australian Poetry Journal 8.2 - Spoken

This month Issue 8.2 of Australian Poetry Journal was launched in Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra, and online. Featuring commissioned work from Pascalle Burton, Steven Oliver, Steve Smart, Emilie Zoey Baker, PiO, Lorna Munro, Ahmad Al Rady, Quinn Eades, Emily Crocker, Tim Evans, Omar Musa, Adam Hadley Eunice Andrada, Eleanor Jackson Laurie May and Candy Royalle, the issue is the first collection of Australian Spoken Word artists in print from a mainstream Australian Poetry Journal. You can also listen to their work on Soundcloud.

The edition was co-edited by David Stavanger and me. We put a lot of thought into who to commission and were grateful for the excitement amongst both the invited artists and those who submitted to the journal. Submissions included excellent work from many poets such as Bela Farkas, Sandra Renew, Maurice McNamara, Scott-Patrick Mitchell and Matt Hetherington, as well as new voices such as Jerzy Beaumont.

You can grab a copy electronically or in print from Australian Poetry and please consider subscribing to support Australian Poetry. And after you’ve grabbed a copy of APJ 8.2 – Spoken please check out some of the other work from all the poets printed in this edition, most have books and other publications.

The Salt Room

On 22 May, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in partnership with the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres launched the Salt Room in the refurbished Gorman Main Hall of Gorman Arts Centre.

Scott Sandwich
Photograph by Adam Thomas

This first event featured the poised performance of Eleanor Jackson. We also had the barely contained grumpiness (wrapped in enthralling performance) of Scott Sandwich. And the finely agreeable Good Ghost Bill closed the night. I also featured, my performance described by Eleanor Jackson as, 'shambolic beauty and battery-acid wit.'

The Salt Room provides a good opportunity to present poetry in its varied forms from across Australia and overseas.

Eleanor Jackson, Scott Sandwich and Good Ghost Bill
Photograph by Adam Thomas

Here is a piece from each of my co-features on the night.

The next installment of the Salt Room is on Friday 19 July, with performances from Melinda Smith, Tim Kent, Danny Wild and Raphael Kabo.

This is a sample of the possibilities of the night from Danny Wild.

Thank you to the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres for partnering with BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! to support this ongoing event. And thanks to Joel Barcham for his smooth MCing in the guise of the Joker, and Amanda Coghlan for managing music, merchandise and the running order of the evening.

18 September Poetry Slam

Welcome to the most recent of

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!’S INVITATION INSTALLMENTS!

‘CAUSE WE WANT YOUR WORDS ON STAGE INSIDE THE PHOENIX PUB!

And to that end we give you everything you need to claim victory, including but not excluding, five judges, two MCs, one stage, The Score Adder, a Phoenix Pub, an audience, two microphones, an ever-growing space-time continuum of first prizes, one sacrificial poet, one sound guy, The Master of Conflict, and a spectacular light display.

So bring words!

And this month we feature Candy Royalle.

Candy Royalle is a performance artist and poet who fuses cinematic storytelling, poetry and unique vocal rhythms with confronting, political and heart thumping content. In the 10 years since her debut, Royalleʼs career has taken her across both the frontiers of poetry, and the world. Sheʼs captivated audiences both nationally and internationally, including Spain, the UK and America. Candy Royalle has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2012 won the “World Poetry Cup” beating 46 other poets for the coveted title and trophy. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies in Australia and internationally. Royalleʼs work has been covered in many major media outlets including ABC, Fairfax, News Limited, CNN and a host of local and street press. (http://candyroyalle.com/)

And this month we have our Brass Knuckle Brass Band brass band house band.

THE BRASS KNUCKLE BRASS BAND is a New Orleans style street funk group from Canberra. BKBB has performed to great acclaim and significant booty-shaking at the 2011 and 2012 Summer Rhythm Festivals, 2011 and 2012 National Folk Festivals and most rooms in Canberra large enough to fit six horns, two percussionists and a singer. (BKBB)

Join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the Phoenix Pub for BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and remember 2 minutes, no music, no props, your original material (unless you’re a rebel, we welcome rebels).

Word Co-op, 21 September

The September Word Co-op is the first of a bimonthly poetry night at the ANU Food Co-op.

This month we bring together feature sets from Candy Royalle, Paul Magee, Aaron Kirby & Bela Farkas.

Entry is by donation.

Photo by Amelia Filmer-Sankey

Here is some background on our poets for the night:

Candy Royalle

Candy Royalle is a performance artist and poet who fuses cinematic storytelling, poetry and unique vocal rhythms with confronting, political and heart thumping content. In the 10 years since her debut, Royalleʼs career has taken her across both the frontiers of poetry, and the world. Sheʼs captivated audiences both nationally and internationally, including Spain, the UK and America. Candy Royalle has been nominated for numerous awards and in 2012 won the “World Poetry Cup” beating 46 other poets for the coveted title and trophy. Her work has been published in numerous anthologies in Australia and internationally. Royalleʼs work has been covered in many major media outlets including ABC, Fairfax, News Limited, CNN and a host of local and street press.

Aaron Kirby

Aaron Kirby makes poetry to understand and explain the world he experiences. Believing the poet requires no particular credentials he presents none.

Aaron Kirby at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

Paul Magee

Paul Magee’s first book was the surrealist ethnography From Here to Tierra del Fuego (University of Illinois Press: 2000). He is author of the eleven-chapter Cube Root of Book (John Leonard Press: 2006), and is currently working on Chapter Twelve (forthcoming 2013), both in verse. In addition, he is on a late draft of a scholarly monograph concerning the meeting point between aesthetics and epistemology, entitled Poetry and Knowledge (forthcoming 2014). Paul teaches poetry at the University of Canberra, and is a chief investigator on the Australian Research Council-funded project Understanding Creative Excellence: a Case Study in Poetry. He studied in Moscow, Melbourne, San Salvador and Sydney. Alongside his verse and his scholarly contributions on poetics, he has published on Marxian thought, psychoanalysis, stagnation, boredom and revolution.

Paul Magee as part of the 

You Are Here 2013 Page vs Stage

Bela Farkas

Serial celebrity name dropper Bela Farkas is a Canberra-based poet. Much of his work has been influenced by popular culture and current events. He has featured at Canberra’s BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and the Traverse Poetry Slam at the Font; at West Word in Melbourne; and as part of the ACT Australian Poetry Slam. As part of the Tragic Troubadours Bela has performed at the Corinbank, Canberra Fringe, National Folk, and You Are Here festivals. Recently published in United Kingdom’s The Delinquent Magazine, Bela also has a degree in Public Relations from the University of Canberra.

Bela Farkas at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

All images unless otherwise specified are courtesy of Adam Thomas.

The Poetry Slam

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! JOINS FORCES WITH YOU ARE HERE FOR THE MYSTERIOUS POETRY SLAM!

(Seemingly there is no reason for these extraordinary intergalactical upsets)

And by mysterious we mean that we know there will be poetry! Your poetry!

Because we give you a stage, two minutes, war rocket Ajax, one MC, a large egg football, a stage, Dr. Hans Zarkov, another egg football, no wait! Two MCS, Dale Arden (My God, we're moving!) an audience, Prince Vultan, The Score Adder, The Sound Guy, a third egg football, General Klytus (What plaything can you offer me today?) The Master of Conflict, Prince Thun— it’s too late for him —judges…five judges, a Lieutenant of Ming's Air Force, a fourth egg football, and prizes, plus General Kala (Charge the lightning field) prizes, and more prizes, and Prince Barin and Princess Aura (Drop this into his glass tonight) and the soldiers that make piggie noises when they get stabbed to death by hair pins and a red singlet with a gold lightning bolt, and

All so you can save the Universe, A-AH, you’ll save every one of us

(This morning's unprecedented solar eclipse is no cause for alarm)

And when BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! says mystery and YouAreHere it means MYSTERY AND YOUAREHERE

Because this month YouAreHere are providing two feature acts and we don’t know what they are…oh the mystery…

(General Kala, Hadley Memorial Slots approaching.)

But that isn’t all

(What do you mean Hadley Memorial Slots approaching? Open fire! All weapons! Dispatch war rocket Ajax to bring back Hadley Memorial Slots body)

Because amongst all that mystery BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! continues its tradition of being the first last father mother stepdad stepmother distant close and third uncle aunt of Canberra poetry by filling the Hadley Memorial Slots.

This month with Amelia Filmer-Sankey!...Oh..Oh........Oh..Oh ................

(Hadley Memorial Slots, Hadley Memorial Slots, I love you, but we only have fourteen hours to save the Earth!)

And remember, no props, no music, your original words, your original words we want them and maybe movements, two minutes, the Phoenix Pub, for prizes, 730pm sign-up.

Did I forget anything?

(The inhabitants refer to it as the planet…earth)

The Poetry Slam, Wednesday night inside The Phoenix Pub

Have you been to BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!?

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is the poetry slam that wants your words on stage for two minutes for 1st prizes.

And to enable this you get one stage, five judges, much sound, many audience, twice the microphone, The Sound Guy, multiple MCs, The Score Adder, very much prize giving, The Master of Conflict, multiplied feature acts, and two minutes on the stage.

That is right, all those things for your words, ‘cause we want ‘em, whatever they are, all of 'em, packed into two entire minutes…

And this month we bring acts, feature acts! FEATURE ACTS.

Feature Act One is STACKHAT [TIM KENT].

Feature Act Two is GOLDEN ORB.

And filling The Hadley Memorial Slots is the poet AK-Pyjamas!

AK-Pyjamas (Photo by Adam Thomas)

So be at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at The Phoenix Pub in the Civic bus interchange, sign-up from 730pm, with your original words, no props, no music, two minutes, for prizes and more prizes.

The Poetry Slam, Wednesday @ The Phoenix Pub

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

A Poetry Slam @ The Phoenix

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in December at The Phoenix Pub

AK-Pajamas at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! ended 2012 with wholemeal bread.

Wholemeal 1st prize at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

And burlesque from Penelope Asterisk.

Penelope Asterisk at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

Who wowed the crowd into silence and generated much cheering.

Penelope Asterisk lifts heavy weight at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

At least one song about being from Canberra, along with plenty of singing and guitar from returned Canberra Son Tom Woodward.

Tom Woodward at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

For part of Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! Tom Woodward is part of what makes the Phoenix part of what it is to be part of Canberra.

Charlie at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

That part thing being the home of competition over wholemeal bread and poetry slam in the Canberra.

We had two 1st prizes of wholemeal bread.
That is how awesome BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is.

That does not make any sense at all!

MC B.B.Farkas

Along with plenty of angry, sometimes rhyming, heaps of arm waving, a bit of pointing, funny voices, one whacky suit, and always sometimes shouting words and a diminishing supply of vest.

Lachlan engages all economists in the room

This person stole a new name for herself.

The new Laura Cordelia

Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! has given up on you having to actually win to steal names, the person who no longer has that name is very upset because she is getting married soon.

A first time BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! performer

Thanks to Adam Thomas for all these photos and all the other photos, thanks poets, audience, The Phoenix Pub, prize sponsors: Impact Comics, The Games Capital, Smiths Alternative Bookshop/Store/Front Organisation, and thanks The RiotACT.

Worthwhile Jones was very very angry
about not winning the magic the Gathering cards

We start next year with poetry from anyone who walks into the Phoenix and gets on stage.

The very 1st December BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! 1st prize

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at The Phoenix Pub on 12 December in Canberra

Poster by Anne Lander

The December BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! will be at the special time of the 2nd Wednesday of December.

So bring your words, your audience, your judges, your to do lists, your fridges, your poems, to The Phoenix Pub for prizes! Because we give you a stage, two microphones, two MCs, The Master of Conflict, The Score Adder, The Sacrificial Poet and 2 Minutes on stage for Prizes.

This December Bad!Slam!No!Biscuit! also brings you two feature acts:

Penelope Asterisk

Burlesque strong-woman Penelope Asterisk is guaranteed to be able to bench press not only more than any poet can, but likely all the poets in the Phoenix.

Tom Woodward

A writer, musician and general dilettante, Tom has been all these things since he was ten. Now twenty-eight his career as a writer, musician and general dilettante turns eighteen. Happy birthday to you, miserable life!

So join BAD!SLAM!N!OBISCUIT! on the 2nd Wednesday of December for the final poetry slam of 2012, for prizes, for glory, for stanza, for the sacrifice of it all, there will be bourbon, oh Bad!Slam! knows there will be bourbon.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! on 21 November @ The Phoenix Pub

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! @ The Phoenix Pub

In November we provide you with a stage, an audience, five judges, The Score Adder, two microphones, and two minutes on stage, for prizes, FIRST PRIZES from Impact Comics, The Games Capital, Smiths Alternative Bookshop, and from underneath the back office desk.

And of course we provide you with the Master of Conflict to arbitrarily judge the poet amongst poets to claim one of our many many first prizes and quite likely the best of the first prizes.

So we want your words on stage to perform poems, be scored, be judged, care or not care about the judges, and drink some cider and or whiskey and or something else.

And this month we have two features acts:

One feature is Emilie Zoey Baker.

Poet and spoken word performer Emilie Zoey Baker is the winner of the 2010 International Slam Review as part of the Berlin International Literature Festival, she also toured and performed in Paris, London and Singapore ending at the 2010 Ubud Writers festival in Bali. She toured North America in 2009 following an invitation to perform at Montréal’s Festival Voix d’Amériques. The tour included New York, Chicago, Toronto, Ottawa and Vancouver.

And returning to BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! as the BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! house band is Bacon Cakes.

Bacon Cakes is a solo thrashing fuzzy headed garage punk cosmonaut! Birds Like Fighting Records describe him and his music as “...perfect for a quick drive downtown, all fitting within the limited 15 minute space on the A side. His charisma on stage (and in life) is carried through onto the tape in this fuzzed out pop love live recorded session.”

Bacon Cakes @ BMA

So join the BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at The Phoenix Pub for poetry, and remember, no props, no music, YOUR ORIGINAL WORDS, on stage, signup at 730pm, for prizes, for glory, for a peg leg.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! Goes to NewActon!

The Score Adder, Me, CJ bowerbird and The Flying V.
Image courtesy of Adam Thomas

THE INVITATION TO THE FINAL OF THE AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY HEAT OF THE AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM IS NOW UPON YOU AS BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! GOES TO NEWACTON!

Drawn from competitions held by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! across the intersections of Civic and the outer north of Canberra’s inner northern streets we bring you fourteen finalists who will take to the stage under the eaves of all the apartments and hotel rooms built around NewActon to do further battle for the second most coveted trophy of poetry in THE CANBERRA!

YES POETRY AND TROPHY AND THE CANBERRA*

That second most coveted trophy being conceptual and being the right to represent the Australian Capital Territory at the Australian Poetry Slam Final in Sydney!

The MOST coveted trophy of poetry of course being one of the broken action figures provided by Impact Comics which we give to First Prize Winners at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at The Phoenix Pub.*

BUT YES THAT IS ALL CORRECT!

THIS IS THE ACT FINAL FOR POETRY!

And when that is all capitalised it can be a bit confusing so here it is with full stops:

THIS IS THE A.C.T. FINAL FOR POETRY!

Bela Farkas
Image courtesy of Adam Thomas

 Still, even without action figures the first prize of going to Sydney to battle it out at their Australian Poetry Slam campfire jamboree for further prizes, such as going to China to the Bookworm Festival and Indonesia to the Ubud Festival and to Sydney again but this next time it being for the Sydney Writers Festival is all pretty sweet. YES PRETTY SWEET! WHEN YOU WIN YOU GET TO GO TO THESE THINGS AS A WINNER, not like the rest of the attendees…

“WHO ARE OUR FINALISTS?”

I HEAR YOU SCREAMING AT SCREENS ACROSS THE TERRITORY AND INTERSTATE AND IN THE FAR FLUNG OLD AND NEW WORLDS!

They in no particular order are:

CMC, Eleanor, Aaron, Isaac, Aiden, Melea, Pete, Azim, Duncan, Fenella, Bernadette, Callum, CJ Bowerbird, John, Gabriella, and Erica… [names may change as contestants correct BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!’s spelling and/or provide a pseudonym and/or stage-name and/or a real name].

Calum and Erica
Image courtesy of Adam Thomas

 For those who can count — yes! there are sixteen names above, BUT TWO DON’T CARE FOR OUR EFFORTS AT VALIDATION THROUGH PUTTING THEM IN FINALS! (or something like that) and have ridden off into the red dawn to seek truth amongst rhyming Cuban paratroopers who wear berets and keffiyehs if that is how you pluralise it or something like that.

So join us at NewActon for poetry, and by us I mean The Master of Conflict who hates poetry but loves poets, Local Yeller Andrew Galan who YELLS, The Score Adder who makes it all work, and our Sacrificial Poet who will be put to the chopper to open proceedings EVEN THOUGH HE DOES NOT RHYME!

All for BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

All for you!

All with FIRST PRIZES from IMPACT COMICS** and THE GAMES CAPITAL** and the NewActon**** and a BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! BACK SHED!***

Remember those rulie rules that can be found here (http://australianpoetryslam.com/rules) how anyone is going to police one or two recognizable pop culture references is beyond BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! SO JUST FLAP YOUR ARMS AND DON’T MENTION JAR JAR BINKS MORE THAN TWICE, OR DO BUT DO NOT ALSO MENTION JULIUS CAESAR AND A KARDASHIAN AND NAPOLEAN AND BILL AND/OR TED ALL IN THE ONE POEM – "naughty, naughty" we will be forced to say!

Or something like that…

The audience at Smiths Alternative Bookshop
Image courtesy of Adam Thomas

 See you at “BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! Goes to NewActon!”

*[In a voice-over voice] Prize may or may not include some form of trophy.

** [In a voice-over voice] Prize guaranteed to be not broken and still definitely awesome at the same time.

*** [In a voice-over voice] Prize not guaranteed to be not broken and still not definitely awesome at the same time.

**** [In a voice-over voice] Prize may include a flight or bus-ride or old pair of volleys to get you to Sydney.

The Nov. Poetry Slam Poster

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BRISBANE POETRY

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.  

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.”

- Lewis Grandison Alexander

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.

When I was in Queensland
I got this photo for you.