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Showing posts from 2018

On not giving up your day job

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photo: Noa Gfrerer  It's slam poetry season in Adelaide and Australia. The Australian Poetry Slam competition is in full swing across the country, and I'm super-stoked to be one of two poets representing South Australia in the upcoming national final at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday October 21st. There's a whole lot of open mic events that are going on around town too, so I've been getting along to those. But all this poetry performance, especially the competition, can feel quite ego-driven, which gets uncomfortable after a while. For me, then, it's important to ground myself and there's no better way to do that than to return to my day job with Tutti Arts , where I work part-time as an arts support worker, assisting artists with disabilities to make and create art; visual art, poetry and performance. Ego has to take a back seat in this role, patience is a virtue and humour paramount. But that old question can resurface: Am I a 'real' writer

What do write when a poet that inspires you was inspired by another poet ..?

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It's Australian Poetry Slam Season and we're 3 heats down, 2 to go in South Australia. I was lucky enough to win the 3rd heat. That means I 'll be performing alongside 9 other poets on stage at the Goodwood Institute on 20th September. This will be my third state final. Each performance is different, but they all come with a good dose of adrenalin! The final has always been a sell-out, so if you're keen to go it's recommended you book tickets. If you do what is habitual in Adelaide - turn up on the night hoping to get in, you may be disappointed. You can GET TIX here.   Me n Emma Tam  ... image: Lucinda Corin I've also been booked to do a feature live performance set at the notorious Spoke N Slurred  at The Brick City Bar on Grenfell Street on 30th September. I'm writing some longer work for that, so if you like your poetry longer than 2 minutes, you might enjoy this one! I'm experimenting with form after New Zealand poet Hera Lindsay Bird and A

Australian Poetry Slam

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The Australian Poetry Slam is on! Here is the info for South Australian heats.  See you there!!

working at writing always pays off

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I've been writing poetry for years. Most of it isn't very good. I guess you could say I had a talent that I didn't spend much time developing. It's taken me years to understand, like really understand, that if you want to get better at writing, like really better, then you need to work at it, like really ... you get the picture. For the last couple of years I have been working at poetry; reading, writing and performing. This year I wrote a poem, To Touch and Taste a Comet . I was trying to do something in that poem that I hadn't done before and then it dawned on me ..  perhaps, at last, I was getting a little bit better.   Not long after I wrote that poem a fellow poet and friend told me about Cordite Poetry's call out for submissions to their issue, DIFFICULT. I gotta say that up until then I hadn't ever considered submitting to Cordite because frankly I knew my stuff wasn't good enough. But after a couple of years of working on technique and voice

LOST, a video poem

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Launched last week at Chateau Apollo in Adelaide, my first video poem is up for viewing presented by Pamela Boutros and Draw Your (S)words sink into it and don't forget to post a comment love to hear your thoughts

Draw Your (S)words presents Lost (video poem) Premier

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artwork: Ruby van Leuven Super excited to announce my first ever video poem LOST will be premiered next week on Thursday 28th June  from 7-10pm at Chateau Apollo, 74 Frome Street Adelaide with Music by the gorgeous Lucy Zola and Open Mic with 4 minutes max on the mic and live me performing some po-ems and i would love to see you there yeah 

Poetry Performance and Opportunities

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film-maker and photographer, Pamela Boutros Here's filmaker and photographer Pamela Boutros at the end of our shoot for the upcoming video poem, 'Lost'. Having the opportunity to make  a video poem was part of the prize presented to me for winning last year's inaugural Draw Your Swords Poetry Slam. Pamela is working on final edits, and we're going to release it very soon. I can't wait! I'm really happy with the way it's looking, so watch this space for details of where you can view it. In the meantime, you can view my performance of 'Resistance', a love poem I performed in last year's South Australian Poetry Slam finals . Leave a comment if you feel like it. I'm always open to constructive criticism :) Opportunities If you're a writer living in South Australia and have a poem you'd like to submit to the upcoming special online edition of Westerly, then you have until April 20th to get your submission in. Cordit