The Tundish Review

I have a poem in the latest edition of the Tundish Review, apparently it is sold out.

But you can make sure you get a copy of the next edition by submitting, they are currently accepting work for issues 9 and 10. They can be found on Facebook or go directly to their submission page here.

Support small poetry publishers. 

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in the Phoenix Pub on Wednesday 16 August

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! WANTS YOU IN THE PHOENIX PUB FOR POETRY SLAM

Yes you read right! BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! wants you in the pub for Poetry Slam!

In August!

Be there for the 1st prizes, the glory, defeat, the barflies, the yelling, cheering, the heckling and poetry!

And because this is poetry slam we have rules! 2 minutes, no props, no music, your original material, all for 1st prizes!

1ST PRIZES

And we have judges, five, from the audience, to judgment the poetry or whatever they feel like judgementing!

JUDGEMENTING

And we have The Master of Conflict who will challenge the poets to conflict!

CONFLICT

Because poetry slam!

POETRY SLAM

And we have feature acts!

FEATURE ACT A: Sierra DeMulder

Sierra DeMulder is an internationally touring performance poet and educator, a two-time US National Poetry Slam champion, and a four-time published author. Her work has been featured by National Public Radio, Huffington Post, Nike, To Write Love On Her Arms, and more. In addition to performing, Sierra is also the curriculum director of the Slam Camp at Indiana University, an annual writing summer camp for high school students, and one of the founders of Button Poetry, the largest digital distributor of spoken word in the world. Her latest full-length collection, Today Means Amen, was released in 2016 by Andrews McMeel Publishing.

FEATURE ACT G: Petre out

Petre Out is folk office punk Canberra.

So join The Master of Conflict, The Score Adder, The Sacrificial Poet, Andrew Gayland, the audience, the poets, the judges, and be the BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in the Phoenix Pub in the Civic Bus Interchange that you want to be!

Sign up from 7:30pm or when the Score Adder demands it!

Poetry Slam from 8pm!

Victory and/or defeat!

It is all over by 11:30pm!

Andrew Galan with Okinawa Girls jam session, 19 February 2017

I’ve been jamming with Okinawa Girls for our shows at the National Folk Festival coming up in April this year. In preparation I’ve been going to their gigs as well as those of the Blade Winner (who is one half of Okinawa Girls). I’ve taken notes on the performances, on the song lyrics, as well as the vibe of what is going on. I’ve also been listening to one outtake that was sent to me by Laura Milkovits (the other half of Okinawa Girls) and discussing the songs with the band. The result is a poem called Tuesday: the Definitive Cherry Blossom, which I am still writing. Here is a small section of it recorded during our first jam session.

#PoetrySlam

#PoetrySlam

Articles about BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

There is an article about the 18 January BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in both the Age and the Canberra Times. You can also read a short take on the upcoming poetry slam in the City News. Thanks to Adam Thomas for the photograph used in the articles.

Pressure Gauge Press, Issue Four

The green streets of Canberra City was written for an exhibition at the Photography Room in June 2016, you can now read it in Pressure Gauge Press, issue four. Thanks to the Photography Room for the opportunity and to Pressure Gauge Press for publishing the poem.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! IN FEBRUARY

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

The Salt Room - 20 November

The Salt Room - Friday 17 July, 7:30pm @ Gorman Arts Centre

Stackhat

Brought to you by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in partnership with the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, the Salt Room is the poetry and performance night the Australian Capital Territory deserves.

Bringing together local, national and international writers and performers it showcases some of the best that poetry can be.

For this event we have brought together Melinda Smith, Stackhat, Danny Wild and Raphael Kabo.

All MCed by Joel Barcham and Andrew Galan

Read below for more information about each of our performers and follow this link for information about the event

Melinda Smith

Canberra local Melinda Smith won the 2014 Prime Minister's Literary Award for her fourth poetry collection, Drag down to unlock or place an emergency call (Pitt St Poetry, 2013). This year she has performed at the Sydney and Newcastle Writers' Festivals, and the National Folk Festival. Sometimes her poems are funny, sometimes they are about being female, and sometimes they contain adult themes. At least one of them is all three. Some text installations of hers are currently on show at the Museum of Australian Democracy at Old Parliament House. She tweets as @MelindaLSmith and is definitely #notboring.

Stackhat

For over a decade I’ve been actively involved in the Australian music scene, exporting my experimental hip-hop style from my hometown of Queanbeyan to Sydney’s Inner-West and even parts of Brooklyn NYC.

Staying true to my DIY roots I do all my own producing, scratching, beat boxing, singing and rapping at home in my small bedroom studio.

In 2011 I was commissioned by The Redroom Poetry Company to score a soundtrack for ‘The Analogue Crusader’, an animation that won ‘Best Short Film’ and ‘Best Sound Design’ at the Lucky Film Festival and later went on to be screened at the Museum of Contemporary Art. As a direct result of the animations success, I was then asked to design a syllabus for The Redroom’s Unlocked Initiative, a program teaching poetry in federal prisons around NSW with a direct focus on Hip-Hop. An opportunity which also helped me secure my job as curator/host of Sydney’s longest running mobile spoken word event Caravan Slam.

Since then I’ve been featured on underground mix-tape ‘Free the Beats’, collaborated with world-renowned street artists Jodee Knowles and Anthony Lister, written feature articles for German Hip-Hop magazine HHV, had tracks used by T-World Magazine NYC and in recent times set up a regular live music program at Villawood Detention Centre called 'Rock the Boats'.

Danny Wild

Danny Wild is a visual artist living and working in Canberra, Australia. Danny has a multi-faceted practice that spreads across audio, video, installation and performance. Repetition, routine and suburban life is at the core of Dannys practice. Recently, Danny has presented a number of site specific performances as part of You Are Here and Art, Not Apart art festivals, undertook the 2014 Canberra Contemporary Artspace Studio Residency Program and was a recipient of the Australia Council ArtStart Grant, with which he toured an audio visual performance work to New York and Canberra in late 2014.

Raphael Kabo

I am a performer, writer, and reader of poetry, an author of short stories, a traveller, a wordsmith, a slam poet, a web designer and itinerant coder, a collector of mental paraphernalia, a maker of zines, an incubator of brain eggs, a very good cook, a rubbish actor, a passable playwright, a writer of love letters to cities, an excellent editor, and an ardent believer in the power of Shakespeare to cure all ills.

Photograph by Adam Thomas

THE POETRY SLAM INSIDE THE PHOENIX PUB, CANBERRA

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! WANTS YOU ON STAGE BECAUSE BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! IS THE POETRY SLAM THAT GIVES ANYONE TWO MINUTES WITH A MICROPHONE AN AUDIENCE MANY MCS THE MASTER OF CONFLICT A SCORE ADDER JUDGES TOILETS FEATURE ACT(S) ACCESS TO ALCOHOL HOUSE BAND AND A STAGE ALL FOR MORE FIRST PRIZES THAN ANY OTHER COMPETITION ACROSS ALL TIME AND SPACE.

AND WHEN WE SAY POETRY WE MEAN ANYTHING THAT’S POETRY!

Did we mention feature act?

We have one.

EUCAPOCALYPTS NOW

Eucapocolypts Now

‘Eucapocolypts Now starts from the premise that we need to be prepared for a future in which human life is no longer the center of the world. The capacity of the world to fulfill our material desires is being rapidly depleted, particularly in Australia, and we are concerned to think through a particularly Australian response – a wave of eucalypt breaking over our cities and towns; tarmac cracks and blisters and the mallee begins its long march back over abandoned farmland. How are we to process this? Will we go mad? Or can we develop new myths and philosophies which complement the sour taste of sap?’

Did BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! mention house band?

We have one.

BACON CAKES

Bacon Cakes
Photo by Adam Thomas

This is what Bacon Cakes says about them(it)selves(self).

‘ 12 slices bacon

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 (9 ounce) package white cake mix, batter prepared as directed on package

1 teaspoon maple flavored extract

1/4 cup maple syrup’

Finally! Because Robot Zombie Hadley appears to have arisen to walk among the living in Brisbane we are filling the Hadley Memorial Slots with Charles J Quinn!

Join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, 7:30pm East Row, The Phoenix Pub in the Canberra in the Australian Capital Territory.

And remember, no props, no music, and your original words, for first prizes!

FIRST PRIZES

Letters to a Suburb from You Are Here

One of the projects I managed as a You Are Here co-producer this year was Letters to a Suburb.

Image credit: Pascalle Burton and Sarah Kaur

The project involved commissioning writers and artists with a connection to Canberra to write to a suburb within the Australian Capital Territory. I generally kept the terms of reference as vague as that for each of the people I asked to be involved, though sometimes I called specifically for a poem, or wanted a writer and artist to work together. 

The project got a great response at the independent publishing fair on Sunday 23 March. We set up a letterbox from which people could collect a letter and 90 copies were taken by visitors to the fair.

A small portion of the
independent publishing fair.
Image credit: Adam Thomas and You Are Here

The festival also posted one-hundred copies to random addresses within the suburbs to which the letters were addressed. I hope the recipients enjoyed the work they received.

Letters to a Suburb

You can check out all the work online on the You Are Here website by following the link above.

The letters commissioned come from David “Ghostboy” Stavanger, Pascalle Burton, Adam Hadley, Good Ghost Bill with Paul Summerfield, Duncan Felton, Matt Hetherington, Tessa Rose, Fiona McLeod with Aaron Kirby, and Zoe Anderson with Raphael Kabo.

The Poetry Slam on 21 August

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! vs. Australian Poetry Slam

AND WE WANT YOUR WORDS ON STAGE!

August BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! brings you a stage, two minutes, cheering, two microphones, yelling, five judges, heckling, the audience, arm waving, The Score Adder, pointing, a first feature act, two MCs, a sacrificial poet, a second feature act, prizes, The Master of Conflict, and the Hadley Memorial Slots, all for poetry, all for glory, all because BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is the Poetry Slam in the Phoenix Pub!

And this month we plan to send poetry to the ACT Australian Poetry Slam Final.

Or not, we won’t make poetry go, that's up to you, but poetry can go if the ACT Australian Poetry Slam Final Spots are claimed.

And these spots are not to be confused with The Hadley Memorial Slots, this month, in loving memory may he rest in peace, the Slots are filled by Ryan Schipper.

And because poetry, slots, spots, in memoriam, and arm waving are somehow not enough we bring you feature acts:

Ell Bella

Ell Bella is a Melbourne based MC, street performer, juggler and acrobat. Her solo street shows have taken her around the world and around her home country of Australia. She regularly MC's at Melbourne's 'Variety Collective', and in her own show Ell Bella's Late Night Variety Assortment, as well as in a number of one-off events. As a corporate juggler she is one of Australia's finest, performing solo or with other circus artists.

And to clearly demonstrate that Bella and Bela are not pronounced the same we bring you a second feature act.

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.

So join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! on 730pm at The Phoenix Pub with your words for poetry, yes poetry, POETRY.

And remember no props, no music, and your original words.

Also, there are some special rules for this heat as it is part of the Australian Poetry Slam. They are here: australianpoetryslam.com/rules.

(All photos courtesy of Adam Thomas)

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!

The ACT Australian Poetry Slam Heat Number Two - The Hadley Memorial Slam

THE PRESENT CRISIS CALLS FOR HEAT NUMBER TWO OF THE ACT AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM HEATS!

This time at Smiths Alternative Bookstore/shop/frontage/wine bar/cafe...

With words, bring your words, and your renga, and your haiku, or your tanka, and your hokku, or even your renku, ‘cause it’s a crisis time I tellsya, crisis, and only poetry can save us if we wave our arms to the sky and say WORD! or

Yes, word.

And no you don’t have to restrict yourself to the above list of poetry forms, really, we will take anything.

But there are special rules for this poetry slam heat, find those rules by following the next link on this page, because preparation is your Uncle, as they say, and your Uncle is Mad: Australian Poetry Slam!

Now no poetry night would be complete without a feature act.

And our feature act for this evening is the all kinds of wonderfully special Drew Walky!

Drew Walky’s music has been described as “original and lyrically rich, with a folk-psychedelic edge” and “personal puzzles…delivered in an alternative folk style with a very ‘hippy hippy shake’ flavour.”

Read more about Drew Walky here: BMA Magazine on Drew Walky and then listen to him live at Smiths Alternative Bookshop on Saturday night.

CRISIS ALMOST RESOLVED!

In the invite for Heat One we mentioned the MASTER OF CONFLICT. The Master of Conflict was unfortunately turned into a vampire that night so who KNOWS IF HE WILL MAKE IT TO THIS SLAM, but clap and hope he is going to be there for us is all we can say and do, CLAP IS ALL THAT CAN SAVE HIM, CLAP! You may just bring him back from the dead, or as the undead. And you do want him there, 'cause he brings prizes, YES PRIZES!

CLAP, CRISIS!

And then, as written earlier, bring yourself and your POETRY SPRUIKING GUNDAM to Smiths Alternative Bookshop for poetry, and prizes, and glory.

CRISIS NOT RESOLVED!

CLAP!

Thanks to our sponsors IMPACT COMICS, THE GAMES CAPITAL, THE PHOENIX PUB, THE RIOTACT and NEWACTON.

And remember, there is one more heat after this, it is on 17 October at The Phoenix Pub and it shall be known as Heat Number Three, and then there is the final at NewActon on 3 November, it shall be known as…

The Final

Remember, crisis… clap...

The ACT Australian Poetry Slam events are brought to you by:

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! which can normally be found in The Phoenix Pub on the third Wednesday of every month!

The Australian Capital Territory — Australian Poetry Slam

Australian Poetry Slam ACT Final

Time	12 November · 19:30 - 22:00
Location	Smiths Alternative Bookshop 76 Alinga Street Canberra, Australia
More info	You are invited to the sausage-fest final of the ACT heats of the AUSRALIAN POETRY SLAM TWENTY -TEN. TEN FINALISTS The Flying V, CJ Huet, Michael Klapdor, Raphael Kabo, Josh Inmania, Will Small, Malcolm Coller, Gerard Atkinson, Barry McGloin & Darian Issac will be judged by you who decide who will represent Canberra’s BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and Front Slam at the 2010 AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL POETRY FINAL. Be there JUDGE THEM Cash Prizes for the winner and runner-up donated by the ACT Writers Centre and the Audiences of BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and Front Slam! A door prizes for you to win too. And with special guest YES SPECIAL GUEST Sacrificial Poet and Feature Performer JACINTA! Be there, 730pm... “The secret we should never let the gamemasters know is that they don't need any rules.”