My character for the three Phoenix Pub episodes of Roll For Intelligence was Dwarven Heavy Metal Battle Mage, Mack the Truck
During 2017 I was involved with the Dungeons and
Dragons performance group Roll For Intelligence. Our first two shows were part
of the 2017 You Are Here and held upstairs in the Civic Pub. Our group performed
to capacity crowds both nights, which was an excellent start. We went on to do
three shows in the Phoenix Pub, and our grand finale for the year was a
Christmas special at Smiths Alternative. The group is made up of our producer,
Morgan Little, our Dungeon Master Josh Bell, as well as players, Euan Bowen,
Helen Luan, Joel Barcham, Sharona Lin, and me. We also have a bard, Jack Collins, who plays
all our environmental and mood music, and we were joined by
artist Arran McKenna for some of the nights.
The podcast of the Christmas Special is in two parts.
Once someone said to Andrew they wanted to go to an event, ‘because a
bespoke poem had been written for a pop-up venue’ and Andrew wanted to punch
that person in the face. Instead he wrote a poem about carpets. He questions,
is there a need to fight poetry, how violent do we need to be with poetry, does
poetry afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted or is it the reverse,
and is it just too easy to go with aggression? Fighting poetry isn’t a lifelong
commitment, it is bloody victory and whimpering defeat.
Synopsis
Fighting
Poetry is a symbolic narrative of three rounds of poetry combat. The
performance tracks Andrew as he swings against the clichés, tropes and
characters of poetry writing and performance. In the second act he is unable to
escape these same concepts that drive him to poetry violence as blow after blow
rains on him. A framed snapshot of his first ten years of writing, publishing
and performing poetry, this is a show that delves into the perspectives, tools
and objectives of poets writing and performing their work. It is both
Canberra-centric in its examinations but wider-ranging in its exploration of and
experiments with poetry.
The play
uses two key facets of satire: 1) it allows you to say almost anything and 2) it
can go places that serious discussion may not. As satirical theatre founded in
poetry and polemic, Fighting Poetry tackles some problems faced by satire,
including preaching to the choir rather than confronting the target, that art
doesn’t change other minds as much as it changes the creator’s life, that satire
doesn’t work if you are obviously trying to be funny, and that satire should be
full of teeth.
Background
Fighting
Poetry was developed by Andrew Galan for You Are Here 2017. Its development was
assisted by funding from the festival. The text and performance of Fighting
Poetry received invaluable dramaturgy from Canberra theatre practitioner Nick
Delatovic. The play was staged on 6 April 2017 as part of the festival.
The play
makes use of Andrew’s poetry previously published in Australian and
international poetry journals as well as his first two books, That Place of Infested Roads (Knives
Forks and Spoons Press) and For All The
Veronicas (Bareknuckle Books). New poems written for the play during the
development of the work over six months were also included.
The key
objectives of the work was to create theatre that makes people think about the
use of poetry and that prompts them to buy poetry books.
Key development processes
Movement
and positioning during the play was devised while working with Nick Delatovic
to strengthen and extend the performers range of action, as well as to ensure
that these actions were deliberate and symbolic. This was done over four months
and facilitated the exploration of positioning to show key concepts and assist
the audience in absorbing the play.
The composition
of the text was designed to integrate the scripted monologues with already
written and new poems in a way that formed a coherent theatre piece. The intent
was to use the poetry seamlessly. This process involved re-scripting with
advice from Nick, as well feedback from two rehearsal reads with invited
audiences.
Scripting
and staging the play involved careful consideration to ensure that the satire
targeted the tropes of poetry and that the invective served the key polemics of
the work rather than engaging in needless ad‑hominem attacks.
Audience reactions
‘Andrew
Galan’s one man poet(ry) assault unit in action’ – Aaron Kirby, public servant
and performance artist
‘Stoic
isn’t the right word.’ – Cameron Thomas, theatre practitioner and bottle-shop
manager
‘This
feels like a book launch.’ – Ryan Schipper, poet and computer engineer
‘A show
that made me stop and think more about why we love poetry why we write, what we
write and how.’ – Akka Bellengen, photographer, poet and parent
‘You’re
an arsehole’ – Scott Sneddon, physical performer and Co-Director of Ruckus Slam
‘You’ve
made me think about what I write and perform.’ – Scott Batum, poet and BMA
reviewer
‘Having a
fashion crisis over which suit of armour to wear to this.’ – Dr Adele
Chynoweth, academic and theatre practitioner
‘Where
can I buy a book?’ – Andrew Yallop, writer and student
‘If I
have to have a poem, then I prefer it to be multiple choice.’
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!,
in partnership with Ainslie + Gorman, brings you the Salt Room, the national
capital showcase of the finest territory, interstate and international writers
and performers.
MCed by
Joel Barcham.
For this
event we have One Thousand Promises, Nigel Featherstone, Bela Farkas and J C
Inman. Tickets
at the door: $10 waged and $5 unwaged.
Read
below for more information about each of our performers.
One
Thousand Promises
One
Thousand Promises is a duo art project between Francesca Willow and Madison Mae
Parker. Francesca, a choreographer and performer, uses Madison’s poetry as a
starting point for making movement.The duo aims to create a full, experiential
atmosphere for the audience, not allowing them to be passive observers, but
active participants in the conversation unfolding before them. Their work
touches on the darkness that lies within us all, particularly focusing on
eating disorders and mental illness, and the strength to overcome through the
power that exists within womanhood.
Nigel
Featherstone
Nigel
Featherstone is the author of three thematically linked but standalone
novellas: (Blemish Books, 2014), which has been described ‘Elegant and
original’ (Sydney Morning Herald), ‘Accomplished – an intense fiction range’
(Canberra Times), and ‘Utterly enthralling’ (Newtown Review of Books), and was
recognised with a 2014 Canberra Critics Circle Award; I’m Ready Now (Blemish
Books, 2012), which was short-listed for both the 2013 ACT Book of the Year;
and Fall on Me (Blemish Books, 2011), which won the 2012 ACT Writing and
Publishing Award for Fiction. Nigel’s novel Remnants (Pandanus Books, 2005) was
published to acclaim, as was his story collection Joy (2000). He is also the
author of 50 stories published in Australian literary journals including the
Review of Australian Fiction, Meanjin, Island, and Overland. Between 2007 and
2015 he was a frequent freelance writer for Fairfax Media. Nigel has been
awarded residencies at Varuna and Bundanon and in 2013 he was a Creative Fellow
at UNSW Canberra/Australian Defence Force Academy. In 2015 Nigel was
commissioned by the Goulburn Regional Conservatorium to write the libretti for
an original 12-song cycle, which is being composed by James Humberstone from the
Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Bela
Farkas
Serial
celebrity name dropper Bela Farkas is a Canberra-based poet. A lot of his work
has been heavily influenced by popular culture and current events. He has
featured at Canberra’s BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, Traverse Poetry Slam, West Word
Poetry and as part of the ACT Australian Poetry Slam. He has been interviewed
and performed poetry as part of the documentary series Behind the Words and on
2xx radio. He has also performed at the Corinbank, Canberra Fringe, National
Folk and You Are Here festivals as part of the Tragic Troubadours. He has been
published in the Delinquent and has given speeches on poetry and performance at
schools.
J C Inman
J C Inman
is a contemporary Australian poet. His poetry blends humour and horror. Follow
him on Twitter @JC_Who_Art.
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!
IS THE POETRY SLAM IN THE PHOENIX PUB AND IT WANTS YOU FOR POETRY IN THE POETRY
SLAM IN THE PHOENIX!
If you
are wondering what BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is/could be/was/isn't then read on!
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!
gives you two minutes on stage with no props no music and your original
material all with MCs all with microphones all with stage all with audience all
with judges all with the Score Adder all with poets all with not poets all with
the Master of Conflict all with the bar and all with the Sacrificial Poet all
for victory defeat catapults and first prizes, yes first prizes! ALL OF IT!
And
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! gives you feature acts! Feature act one is One Thousand
Promises, and they will dance! Feature act two is the screening of Rising Dust,
straight from New Zealand to you! And filling the Hadley Memorial Slots is Tahi
Atea, MAY HE REST IN PIECE (Hadley not Tahi because she will be in the Hadley
Memorial Slots*)
Read here
for biographies!
Rising
Dust
Rising Dust is a hip-hop dance drama taken out of the city streets and into the
historical, isolated, rural land of the Hokianga in New Zealand.
With the
help of his ancestors, a teenager on the cusp of adulthood stands up to his
father and defends his place in his home.
One
Thousand Promises One Thousand Promises is a duo art project between Francesca Willow and Madison Mae
Parker. Francesca, a choreographer and performer, uses Madison’s poetry as a
starting point for making movement.The duo aims to create a full, experiential
atmosphere for the audience, not allowing them to be passive observers, but
active participants in the conversation unfolding before them. Their work
touches on the darkness that lies within us all, particularly focusing on
eating disorders and mental illness, and the strength to overcome through the
power that exists within womanhood.
And
remember! Join BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! for the Poetry Slam in the Phoenix Pub.
East Row, Civic Bus Interchange, Civic, Australian Capital Territory.
7:30pm
signing up for poetry slam!
8pm for
poetry slam for poetry slam! 11:30pm
end for poetry slam!
Victory
* Hadley
was one of the co-founders of BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, dead due to the bunnies in
the civic bus interchange incident, may he rest in peace.
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 Amanda Stewart (Sydney), Paul Magee
(Canberra), Happy Axe (Canberra) and Zoe Anderson (Canberra).
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.
Amanda
Stewart
Amanda
Stewart is a poet, author and vocal artist. She has created a diversity of
publications, performances, film and radio works in Australia, Europe, Japan
and the US working in literature, music, broadcasting, theatre and new media
environments. She also worked full time as a producer/presenter at ABC Radio in
Sydney for many years. Her book and CD set of selected poems, I/T was
shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s Literary Awards and won the Anne Elder Poetry
Prize. She is currently working on a solo album for the experimental music
label, splitrec and on a new collection of poetry.
Paul
Magee
Paul
studied in Melbourne, Moscow, San Salvador and Sydney. He publishes poetry. He
has also published extensive scholarship on poetic composition and critical
judgement. Paul is a past President of the Cultural Studies Association of
Australasia, and active across a number of scholarly fields (his broader CV
includes research articles on Marxian thought, psychoanalysis, stagnation,
boredom and revolution). His work in poetics is currently most focussed on his
role as Chief Investigator on the ARC-funded project Understanding Creative
Excellence: A Case Study in Poetry (2013-5), which sees him specialising on the
compositional practices and broader sociological millieu of major contemporary North
American poets. Paul teaches poetry at the University of Canberra, where he is
an Associate Professor.
Happy
Axe
Happy
Axe, solo project of Emma Kelly (Mr Fibby, The Ellis Collective, One Night Jam)
uses violin, musical saw and vocals to create layers of sound that are
beautiful, unsettling and cinematic. Organic instrumental sounds are melded
with digital manipulation, looping and effecting, and all sounds are generated
live.
Zoe
Anderson
Zoe
Anderson is a sky watcher, bird lover and performance poet. She has featured at
the Canberra poetry Slam and at BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, created a poetry-play
with Raphael Kabo for You Are Here Festival, and kept her very own journal
since the age of nine. Her poems can be found in The Stars Like Sand anthology,
and in Meniscus journal.
During
July to August of this year I got to be a feature poet at the Red Dirt Poetry Festival in
Alice Springs.
The event
was conceived by Northern Territory writer, radio presenter and all-round great
person Laurie May, who I
was lucky enough to meet at the Woodford Folk Festival.
I had a
great first night listening to the Dirty Word open mic and watching the packed audience
at the beautiful Totem Theatre. But my highlight was the Friday night Laneway
Hip Hop, which featured NT’s Desert Sevenz and Darcy Davis.
The Red
Dirt Poetry Festival was a tremendous and diverse few days mixing poetry, hip
hop and metal from Alice Springs with poets visiting from across Australia and
New Zealand. The eclectic range of venues showcased some of Alice Spring’s
hidden spaces for a first time visitor like me. I was a regular writing and
drinking coffee at Page 27 Café throughout my time in Alice.
The
festival also made successful use of community space in the Alice Spring’s
library where poetry and zine workshops were held.
Planned
for every two years the Red Dirt Poetry Festival will continue to showcase
Alice and its diverse and talented arts community. The next event is planned
for 2016.
Amanda Coghlan will have an installation of nine images focussed on the
campaign for Catalunya's independence and the preservation of El Bruc.
I'll be performing a combination of poems from my developing manuscript for
all the veronicas (the dog who staid) and That Place of Infested Roads (life during wartime)published by the Knives Forks and Spoons Press.
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.
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.
SpeedPoets last Saturday was loads of fun, both performing a set of poems and
listening to new poetry, so thank you very much Graham Nunn and SpeedPoets for
having me feature.
This
Saturday night I have a small fun part to play in the Page vs. Stage Poetry
Slam at the Brisbane Writers Festival, and Sunday I am featuring at Jam Jar Poetry. Jam
Jar is a poetry slam in the round with no microphone, run by Darkwing Dubs it
has even more poets to listen to. A Café Kitchen Hip Hop group, Harmaphonics, will be
featuring, so I am looking forward to hearing rhymes about entrées, health inspectors, tea-towels,
and the heat under the condensate hood (Yeah, I’ve been in the kitchen and I managed
to work my way out in a rags to riches story too); it’s gonna be rad. MC Kudos is another of the feature acts:
None of my poems are in anyway Hip Hop so I am looking forward to the mix.
The
rest of the two weeks has been filled with walking, sun, finding all the comic book
and non-comic book shops of the Brisbane Central Business District, some poetry at the Queensland Poetry Festival, and hanging
out with Tessa and Hadley and Harry, as well as drinking coffee, and seeing some
of the Brisbane people who are really nice. I have not caught up with everyone
I had hoped to but I did have dinner with Doubting Thomas and Scott Sneddon, both
really good to spend time with and I enjoyed seeing them again.
I
will be featuring at Brisbane’s SpeedPoets
alongside poet Trudie Murrell.
SpeedPoets is a long-running Brisbane
poetry gig with a large open mic section. The event is hosted by Graham Nunn (who has five
books and a CD of poetry published). So I am looking forward to hearing lots of words.
I
have not read Trudie Murrell’s poems before, but I found one published
in Cordite 39: Jackpot! and there is
an interview of her at Another Lost Shark, along with a second poem; read all those words then travel
to Brisbane in a vehicle powered by the M13 bacteriophage so you can listen to the poets at SpeedPoets on 1 September 2012.
Saturday
night I am performing a set at the BIG BANG SATURDAY - Pataphysics and Poetry
Slam at Digress Restaurant and Lounge, here is the poster for that gig.
And then
Zombie Rambo attacks.
Left: Florney. Right: Zombie Rambo. Photo by Adam Thomas
On Friday night I am on at 11pm and Saturday night at 9 and 11pm, all at the Midway Marquee. Visit, listen to poems.
The Tragic Troubadours will also be roaming the paths of the festival at random times and I will be running BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! with The Score Adder, The Master of Conflict and Jacinta at the Bally on Saturday evening at 5pm.
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! on the third Wednesday of every month. A POETRY SLAM, that’s what BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is And it gives you an audience, prizes, judges, a MASTER OF CONFLICT, a microphone, a pub for beer, more prizes AND 2 MINUTES to give us YOUR WORDS!
For glory, for the chance to say what you want to say at a bunch of people, for your public speaking practice, FOR PRIZES. That’s right BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! is back for 2011
WHO’D ‘AVE THUNK WE’D MAKE IT!?
So bring your words, chicken scratchings, Tanka that you say twice, drunk ramblings, the poem to your boyfriend, the poem to the neighbour, the one you made by gluing cuttings from the NEWSPAPER WHILE WEARING RUBBER GLOVES or your 2 minute Iliad to BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!
THIS MONTH WE FEATURE THE MAN AND HIS GUITAR, The man who will make up songs on the spot with your words The man who will resist the urge to wrestle the entire pub to the ground WHILE MAKING UP THE SONG IN HIS HEAD
NICK D.
AND BECAUSE ONE FEATURE ACT IS NOT ENOUGH FOR A BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! AUDIENCE
BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT! has demanded the return of The Man who stared down the BAR KEEP’s bluff The man who wrote the idiot’s guide to FREE WILLY the poem
POET SKIP SKIPSTER SKIPINATOR
So be at the PHOENIX at 730pm to sign up and perform your words, to sign up to judge someone’s words, to drink, to yell, to listen to people’s spoken words, for our feature acts NIC D. and SKIP to win prizes from IMPACT COMICS, MIND GAMES, FARMER GED and GORMAN HOUSE WHO HAVE PROMISED NOT JUST KRANSKY BUT VEGETARIAN PRIZES TOO!
Remember three first prizes, no props, an audience, no music, judges, original material and 2 minutes!
