A recording of the 18 April BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

This is the 18 April BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at Smiths Alternative. 

Thanks to Bevan Noble for his effort in recording the event.

Part 1

Part 2

Poetry Slam @ the Phoenix Pub

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

The Salt Room interviews – Joshua Bell

For the September 2017 edition of the Salt Room at the Gorman Arts Centre I interviewed each of our three performers, Joshua Bell, Sarah Rice and Tahi Atea. The interviews were to provide insight into their practice and themselves.

The questions were taken from A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg, by Harvey Kubernik. My second interview is with Joshua Bell.

An interview with Joshua Bell

(Interview by Andrew Galan)

Q: Didn’t you see The Beatles play, and there’s some poem you wrote about the event?

A: I saw the Beatles play once when I was little. I used to watch Ants follow each other too. It always struck me - this mess of a thing, this absolute chaos. But it was so calm and ordered as they went about their lives. The fact that they have lives. I used to try and imagine what it would be like to be a Beatle, or an Ant, or for that matter a Caterpillar. Really all of my poems are trying to capture that again. Like flying over a city. I don't think I've succeeded, or maybe ever will?

Q: You still read from text on stage, from a book or typewritten.  Do you ever read from memory?

A: There are only two poems of mine which I've memorised. But I find being with the physical poem comforting. I'm holding it in my hands, and I can trust it. My memory is faulty, and like a sieve. The words though? They are unchanging and loyal.

Q: Subject specific answer required:  You write something on a piece of paper.  Other people, musicians, come invited to participate and collaborate.  Does the original intention become a different trip once there is music and other elements involved?

A:

Firstly, I've never written anything down on a piece of paper - so how dare you?

Secondly, musicians are what poets wish they could be. It's less obtuse, and more abstract. You can really hit people in the feelings with music. Get to the stuff which can't be said with words. Words that are always just an approximation of meaning. You know that the reading will be different from the writing. And I suppose that's the magic of words. They're just full of so much potential.

Joshua Bell

Joshua Bell is a poet, nerd, and long-time performer in the Canberra theatre scene. His particular interest is experimental and improvised theatre. His most recent efforts are being one of the creative minds between pub theatre show, Roll For Intelligence, a live and improvised performance based on everyone’s favourite tabletop RPGs, and contributing his poetry to Canberra Youth Theatre’s production, poem every day.

You can find Joshua Bell as part of pub theatre show Roll For Intelligence as well as the Lightbulb Improv troupe.

The Salt Room

The Salt Room presents poetry in its many forms. Featuring national, international and Territory poets alongside performers from varied disciplines. Organised by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and curated by Andrew Galan, the event is supported by the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and runs from March to November.

The Salt Room interviews - Sarah Rice

For the September 2017 edition of the Salt Room at the Gorman Arts Centre I interviewed each of our three performers, Joshua Bell, Sarah Rice and Tahi Atea. The interviews were to provide insight into their practice and themselves. 

The questions were taken from A Conversation with Allen Ginsberg, by Harvey Kubernik. My first interview is with Sarah Rice.

An interview with Sarah Rice

(Interview by Andrew Galan)

Q: Didn’t you see The Beatles play, and there’s some poem you wrote about the event?

A: Yes, in fact I am the walrus – really. No, not really. But I could imagine doing it. Theatre was in fact one of my first loves – probably because my mum was an actress in her early life, and my sister and I were brought up doing acting classes – and I even studied a year of theatre in Norway which I loved. I also used to teach music theatre programs for kids in Canberra. Theatre is one of the best ways of combining all the Arts in one place – music, song, dance, spoken word, poetry, action, design, etc. So in a way it is a good starting point for my life now – which involves art, poetry, music, song, craft etc etc.

Q: You still read from text on stage, from a book or typewritten.  Do you ever read from memory?

A: Actually most of the time I ‘read’ from memory. For one, my eyesight is very poor and it is tricky to concentrate on the words on the page as well as performing them to the public. The other thing is that once the words are a part of your body, your breath, your very cells, you can focus on the expression and the connection with your audience. When I am reading work I haven’t already recited, I try to do a mix of memory with bits of prompting – and in a busy schedule and with more and more readings to give to keep the work fresh, I can’t always take the time to memorise the works – but that is my ideal.

Q: Subject specific answer required:  You write something on a piece of paper.  Other people, musicians, come invited to participate and collaborate.  Does the original intention become a different trip once there is music and other elements involved?

A: Definitely – I have learnt this over and over in many of the collaborations I have taken part in – particularly with visual artists. Perhaps the most recent and most concrete example of this was my collaboration with a glass artist to turn my poetry into neon (for the You Are Here and Noted Festivals last year) – that was certainly a fun trip! – but it was also a marvellous lesson in minimalism and round-the-corner thinking – I had of course assumed at the start that I would write a poem and she would simply work the magic of turning the words into little lit glass tubes – that is until I tried it myself! Just making one letter was impossible – I had to completely rethink the structure of the poem, the content, the visual mode of it and work with simplified repeated elements. I think that for a successful collaboration, each person’s contribution needs to remain quite loose and open in order to have as many possible ways of intersecting. That way what is created is a completely new ‘third’ thing.

SARAH RICE

Sarah Rice won the 2014 Ron Pretty Poetry Award and the 2014 Bruce Dawe poetry prize; co-won the 2011 Gwen Harwood; and was placed third in the 2014 FAW Shoalhaven Literary Awards. She was also shortlisted in the 2014 ACU, 2014 Axel Clark, 2013 Montreal, 2013 Tom Howard, 2013 Jean Cecily Drake-Brockman, 2011 CJ Dennis and 2011 Michael Thwaites poetry awards. Her limited-edition, art-book of poetry Those Who Travel (prints by Patsy Payne, Ampersand Duck 2010), is held in the National Gallery of Australia and other institutions and libraries. Publications include the Global Poetry Anthology 2013, Award Winning Australian Writing and Best Australian Poetry 2012, Long Glances: A Snapshot of new Australian Poetry 2013, The House is Not Quiet and the World is Not Calm: Poetry from Canberra, Island, Southerly, Contrappasso, and Australian Poetry Journal.

You can find Sarah's latest book, Fingertip of the Tongue, at UWA Publishing.

The Salt Room

The Salt Room presents poetry in its many forms. Featuring national, international and Territory poets alongside performers from varied disciplines. Organised by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! and curated by Andrew Galan, the event is supported by the Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres and runs from March to November.

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!

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

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

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. 

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

The Poetry Slam

The Newcastle Writers Festival

I am part of the 2017 Newcastle Writers Festival. As one of the people who created and runs BAD!LSAM!NO!BISCUIT! I was invited to be part of the Slam! Poetry and Performance panel on the Saturday. The panel includes Australian Poetry Slam founder Myles Merril, and Sarah Mansour from Bankstown Poetry Slam. David Grantham will be the host. I am looking forward to the discussion and learning about some of the different poetry slams that are run in Australia.

On the Sunday I will be performing some of my work alongside Michael Aiken, Magdalena Ball, Joanne burns, Eileen Chong, John Foulcher, Judy Johnson, Sara Mansour, Ravi Nagaveeran, Philip Salom, Berndt Sellheim, Melinda Smith and Maggie Walsh as part of Port of Newcastle – Poetry in the Place.

I lived in Newcastle for about ten years, mostly in the East End, Cooks Hill and Bar Beach but I haven’t been back since one of the early This is Not Art festivals, so I am looking forward to seeing how much it has changed. The Newcastle Writers Festival runs from 7-9 April, the events I am part of are free, come along and check them out.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! IN THE PHOENIX PUB, 7:30PM WEDNESDAY 15 MARCH

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! IS THE POETRY SLAM

AND BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! GIVES YOU 2 MINUTES ON STAGE WITH YOUR ORIGINAL MATERIAL NO PROPS NO MUSIC ALL FOR FIRST PRIZES!

Yes, Judges, audience, sound, music, yelling, murmuring, bar, bar staff, toilets, back alley dumpster, new door, old door, feature acts, MCs, score adding, Score Adder, sacrificial poets, stools, lounges, lighting, poetry, negative infinities, conflict, tens, The Master of Conflict, random introductions, poets, BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! wants it all and gives it to you for POETRY SLAM!

AND WE HAVE FEATURE ACTS

This Band Will Self Destruct Vol. 1!

Nick Delatovic spent 2016 forming bands. Each band only existed for one day. Every song they wrote got it's own music video complete with costumes, sets and a story. Every song was played live, and then never again. These 12 music videos chart a doomed attempt to make sense of the world through pop music.

THIS IS PART 1 OF THREE PARTS, LOOK FOR MORE ANNOUNCMENTS IN THE FUTURE

And!

Nick Delatovic will be singing the BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! Canberra National Anthem Live!

And!

Georgina Vallance

Georgina Vallance is a lawyer by day and by other times the 2016 BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! CANBERRA NATIONAL POETRY SLAM CHAMPION and the ACT Australian Poetry Slam Champion. Georgina is a Council Member of the Australian National University Young Alumni and a purveyor of fine smoked meats. Much of Georgina's poetry is focused on improving visibility and understanding of mental health issues faced by LGBTIQ people, the trials and tribulations of working in the legal industry and amusing true-to-life depictions of living in the wonderful city that is Canberra.

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

Victory! Prizes! Poetry Slam! Poetry!

Join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! for the Poetry Slam in the Phoenix Pub. East Row, Civic Bus Interchange, Civic.

Sign up from 7:30pm for poetry!

Poetry Slam from 8pm for poetry!

It’s is all over by 11:30pm for poetry!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

#PoetrySlam

The Salt Room, 7:30pm Friday 3 March, Gorman Main Hall, Gorman Arts Centre

Brought to you by BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, in partnership with Ainslie and Gorman Arts Centres, the Salt Room presents poetry in its many forms. Featuring national, international and Territory poets alongside performers from varied disciplines, this is a night that combines experiments, entireties and fractures.

Featuring Shane Strange, Jacqui Malins, Sandra Renew and Paul Heslin.

$15 full /per event $10 concession /per event $50 for 2017 series pass (5 events)

 

Shane Strange
Shane Strange’s writing has appeared in various print and on line journals, including Overland, Griffith Review, Burley, Verity La, foam:e, Cordite Poetry Review, and Axon: Creative Explorations. He is currently studying at the University of Canberra, where he also tutors and lectures in Creative Writing.

Jacqui Malins

Jacqui Malins is a performance poet and visual artist. She was the ACT Poetry Slam champion and an Australian Poetry Slam finalist in 2015, won best walk-up poet at the Woodford Folk Festival 2015-16 and took second place in the State Library NSW Sonnet Slam 2016 to commemorate the anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. Jacqui has featured at Poetry in the Pub, Newcastle, and supported poets including Good Ghost Bill (Moran) and Candy Royalle at Word in Hand, Sydney. Jacqui is also the co-founder and organiser of Mother Tongue Multilingual Poetry events in Canberra.

Sandra Renew

Sandra Renew’s poetry is informed by her many years working in war zones, in Indigenous communities and on the fringes of heterosexuality. Her poetry comments on contemporary issues and questions: war, environment, gender, climate and the planet’s health, migration, dissent, protest, human rights, freedoms. Sandra has published poems about gay and lesbian rights in social justice anthologies and international and national journals. She creates poetry as a protest form for gay and lesbian rights, and writing poetic responses to some contemporary events (such as the mass shooting in Orlando, Florida) and the historical context of gay and lesbian politics in Australia.

Paul Heslin

Paul Heslin is a Canberra-based composer/producer/whatever. He is a graduate of the Centre of New Media Art at the Australian National University and has performed regularly locally and nationally, most notably at the This Is Not Art/Electrofringe Festival in Newcastle and the Australasian Computer Music Conference. Recently he undertook a residency at the Arteles Creative Center in Finland, exploring the potential for generative sound composition, making use of recent development in microcomputer technology.

#PoetrySlam

#PoetrySlam

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at 730pm on Wednesday 15 February at the Phoenix Pub

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

YOUR FIRST LAST ONLY AND ALL POETRY SLAM WANTS YOU FOR THE POETRY SLAM

AND TO POETRY SLAM WE PROVIDE STAGE BAR SOUND SOUNDGUY MCS SCORE ADDER SCORE ADDING THE MASTER OF CONFLICT THIS GUY THE SACRIFICAL POET AND FEATURE ACTS AND MICROPHONES

AND BECAUSE THIS IS POETRY SLAM WE HAVE RULES!

2 MINUTES NO PROPS NO MUSIC YOUR ORIGINAL MATERIAL ALL FOR 1ST PRIZES

AND ALL IN THE PHOENIX PUB

OUR FEATURE ACTS

Emily Crocker

Emily grew up in the outer-suburbs of Sydney. She has since found a home in the Wollongong spoken-word community, including performances with Wollongong Writer's Festival and at The Vault Cabaret, Port Kembla. In 2016 she won The Rumble youth slam, and scored the opportunity to feature at the Australian Poetry Slam National Finals. Her work can be found in various Australian journals including Southerly, Verity La, Cordite, and Seizure. Emily habitually picks junk up and pockets it away only to turn it all out a week later asking 'what can I get for this?'.

Pablo Latona

Pablo Latona is a performer and teacher of physical theatre, based in Canberra, Australia. He has performed his unique routines all over the world, including at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, European Juggling Convention, Dublin International Arts Festival, Woodford Folk Festival, World Juggling Day and Adelaide Fringe Festival. Pablo’s professional recognition includes winning the 2005 National Buskers Competition, being shortlisted for Circus Oz, and getting a kiss from Kylie Minoque.

Reuben Ingall

Reuben Ingall grew up in Canberra, and studied computer music and interactive digital media at the Centre for New Media Arts at The Australian National University. He makes music through an array of home-made software patches, iteratively mangling his guitar, voice and other sources to create lonely pop and glitchy, psychedelic soundscapes. His other projects include a radio show, motion-capture 3D-drawing software, recording and mixing bands, and a novelty mashup-DJ act. He has worked on music for installations, theatre, film, and dance.

So join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! in the Phoenix Pub, East Row, the Civic Bus Interchange for Poetry Slam, 1st prizes and victory!

Sign up from 7:30pm!

Poetry Slam from 8pm!

Victory by 11:30pm!

And remember, 2 minutes, no props, no music, your original material.

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.

badslamnobiscuit-730pm-wednesday-18-january-phoenix-pub-canberra-act

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!

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

And to do that BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! gives you and anyone else a microphone, 2 minutes, a stage and 1st prizes, all for the chance of victory!

Because BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is the poetry slam in the Phoenix Pub!

That is correct, Poetry Slam! Prizes! Phoenix Pub! Victory!

And because we are the poetry slam we give you feature acts!

Luciana Harrison

guitar, ukelele, vocals. you should know Luciana Harrison from Canberra’s alt-pop Pocket Fox. keep out of direct sunlight. water regularly, at least once a day. responds well to singing.

Tahi Atea Kentwell

Tahi Atea has been writing creatively for as long as she can remember. She discovered and fell in love with slam poetry four years ago. She won BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the National Folk Festival in 2015. Her other passion is dance, which she will be studying at university in 2017.

So join the poets, the audience, the bar staff, the drinkers, the Master of Conflict, the feature acts, Andrew Galan, the Sound Guy, the Score Adder, your best friend, the Sacrificial Poet, your worst enemy, and the passers-by! All for BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! at the Phoenix Pub!

Sign up at 7:30pm!

Poetry Slam at 8pm!

Victory by 11:30pm!

And remember no props, no music, 2 minutes, your original material!

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!@THEPHOENIXPUB

BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!