Poets Union Events at the Sydney Writers Festival, 19-23 May,2010:

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Poets Union Event 1: (SWF Program no.128)
128 - Voices from Underground
An interactive performance by the Sydney-based group, Harbour City Poets, presenting all-new poems and a new chapbook. These edgy readings feature buried Sydney, from the city margins to the centre. Political, ecological and social issues surface from its history to disturb the smooth façade. Expect sewers and cemeteries, the Police Museum, convicts and larrikins of the nineteenth century, The Rocks (earliest Chinatown), rat plagues, jails, in fact anything subterranean (literally and metaphorically) that our poetic ventriloquy can re-create.

Date: Friday May 21
Time: 5.30-7pm
Venue: Sydney Philharmonia Choir Studio
Cost: $5 at door (cash only)
MC: Margaret Bradstock
Time: 5.30-7pm
HARBOUR CITY POETS have been performing together for three years, basing their presentations on the premise that it is the poems (rather than the poets) that have something to say to each other. With multiple voices, the result is cumulative and cutting-edge.
The group has made successful appearances at the Riverside Theatre, Parramatta, and at Live Poets, North Sydney, in 2006; at Sydney University in 2007; at the Baulkham Hills Artsfest, and the Brett Whiteley studio in 2008 and 2010; and at the Sydney Writers’ Festival and Baulkham Hills Artsfest in 2009. Each performance uses different material, and themes and conversations vary accordingly.
128 - Personnel and biographies:
Margaret Bradstock has published five books of poetry. The most recent are The Pomelo Tree (which won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize), Coast (2005) and How Like the Past (2009). Other prizes include the Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson awards. In 2003 she was Asialink writer-in-residence at Peking University. Margaret is co-editor of Five Bells for the Poets Union, and Hon. Visiting Fellow at the University of NSW.
Kerry Leves is a NSW poet and critic, and a poetry reviewer for Overland. His most recent poetry collection is A Shrine to Lata Mangeshkar (Puncher & Wattman, 2008), which was shortlisted for the 2009 Kenneth Slessor Prize. Other recent books are Water Roars, Illusions Burn (Vagabond, 2002) and Territorial (Ant Studios, 1997). Kerry won the 2000 Bauhinia (Central Queensland University) Poetry Award, and was a runner-up in the Broadway Poetry Prize 2006.
David Musgrave has published three poetry collections: To Thalia (published by Five Islands Press in 2005), On Reflection, (Interactive Press, 2005) and a chapbook, Watermark (Picaro Press, 2006). In 2007 a cd, Open Water, was released by the River Road series. In 2008 he won the Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prize, the Newcastle Poetry Prize, and the Alec Bolton Prize for his unpublished manuscript, ‘Phantom Limb’. Phantom Limb will be published by John Leonard Press in late 2009.
Jenni Nixon is a poet and performer, whose work has appeared in numerous journals and small press anthologies, including Southerly, Overland, Blue Dog, Breaking Free, Open Boat: Barbed Wire Sky and Slam the Body Politik (synaptic graffiti collective). She published Café Boogie in 2004 (CD audio/text, Interactive Press, 2005, http://www.ipoz.biz/titles/cb.htm) and Agenda! (Picaro Press) in 2009.
Louise Wakeling is a Sydney poet and teacher. Her second collection of poetry, medium security, came out with Ginninderra Press (2002). In 2007 she was the recipient of a Premier’s English Teaching Award to research the teaching of poetry by poet-professors in universities and schools in the USA. Her third poetry collection, paragliding in a war zone, was published by Puncher & Wattmann (2008).

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Poets Union Event 2: (SWF Program no. 239)
239 - DiVerse at the SH Ervin: A Poetic Response
Poets from the group DiVerse respond to images in the SH Ervin gallery, which this year will be from the Salon des Refuses. Their poems will be performed at the gallery, and the audience will receive chapbooks of their work.

Synopsis: A reading of ekphrastic* responses to the exhibition at the SH Ervin, presented by the eight talented and experienced members of the poetry group, DiVerse. *(Ekphrastic: one art form into another).
Venue: S.H. Ervin Gallery,
Address: Watson Rd, Observatory Hill, Sydney.
Time and Date: 3 - 4.30pm, Sunday 23rd May.
Door: Reading included free for cost of normal entry to SH Ervin gallery: $7 / $5
Contact at SH Ervin Gallery: Leah Haynes: Media & Public Programs Tel. (02) 9258 0150 or Email lhaynes@nsw.nationaltrust.org.au
MC and Event Co-ordinator: Robert Kennedy

DiVerse, which includes some extremely well-known poets, started in 2000, and has performed over 60 times in galleries and other institutions around Australia. Performances/exhibitions in 2006 include John Constable at the National Gallery of Australia, and Margaret Olley, Witness to War and The Sydney Printmakers Group at the National Trust: S.H. Ervin Gallery. In 2007 DiVerse performed at the Janet Dawson Survey, the Portia Geach Portrait Exhibition (both at S.H. Ervin) and the Sidney Nolan Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. In 2008, the exhibitions DiVerse responded to were the Led Zeppelin World Tour and the Artworks of John R. Walker.

Each new performance is accompanied by the production of a booklet of poetry and images which is given away free to each member of the audience. In its ten years’ existence, DiVerse has produced almost twenty booklets of poetry.
The current poets in DiVerse are Jill Jones, Marcelle Freiman, Carolyne Bruyn, Margaret Bradstock, Louise Wakeling, Paula McKay, Sheryl Persson, Jo Wade and Robert Kennedy (facilitator).

239 – DiVerse Personnel:
Margaret Bradstock has published four books of poetry. The most recent are The Pomelo Tree (which won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize) and Coast (2005). In 2003 she was Asialink writer-in-residence at Peking University. Margaret is co-editor of Five Bells for the Poets Union, and Hon. Visiting Fellow at the University of NSW.
Carolyne Bruyn is a writer, professional archivist and freelance editor. She is the coordinator of the Sydney WEA Writers Workshop. Carolyne owns and runs EveryWrite, an internet-based manuscript appraisal and editing business: http://www.everywrite.com.au/
Marcelle Freiman is a poet and a lecturer in the Department of English, Macquarie University, where she teaches creative writing and diaspora literatures. Her poetry publications include poetry in journals in Australia and overseas and a book, Monkey’s Wedding (1995), which was Highly Commended for the Marjorie Barnard Prize.
Jill Jones’ latest book, Broken/Open (Salt, 2005), was shortlisted for both The Age Poetry Book of the Year in 2005 and the Kenneth Slessor Poetry Prize in 2006. She won the Kenneth Slessor Prize in 2003 for her fourth full-length book, Screens Jets Heaven. http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones/
Robert Kennedy is a poet, composer and freelance journalist. Robert founded and manages the poetry group DiVerse. http://diversepoets.blogspot.com/ He has had articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Cordite, State of the Arts, Five Bells and Newswrite, on the arts and social commentary.
Paula McKay lives and writes in Sydney. Her collection of poems, Travelling Incognito, was published by Five Islands Press in 2003. She is editor of the poetry E-zine Sydney Mosaic www.ram.net.au/users/paula
Sheryl Persson is a poet and educator. Her poems have been published in literary journals, anthologies and educational publications in Australia, New Zealand, England and the USA, including Black Inc’s Best Australian Poems 2004 and 2005. A collection of Sheryl’s poems, Scarcely Random, was recently published by Ginninderra Press.
Louise Wakeling is a Sydney poet and teacher. Her second collection of poetry, medium security, came out with Ginninderra Press (2002). In May 2007, she was the recipient of a Dept. of Education poetry research award. Her third poetry collection, paragliding in a war zone, was published by Puncher & Wattmann in December, 2008.

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Poets Union Event 3: (SWF Program no.s 69,134 and 193)
69, 134 & 193 - A Season of Love at the Bar

» Media release

Love at the Bar is a night of Australian love poems set to music by Ashley Chatto, and presented by Kath Ellis, Dave Stephenson and a band of quality musicians. The performances will be hosted by Laureate Productions, a small arts company which was formed to mount entertainment based in a variety of ways on Australian verse – with a particular focus on quality contemporary material.
Patrons will have the choice of watching the show with a meal – or with a complimentary glass of wine.

Venue: Sydney Dance Cafe
Dates: Thurs 20th May, Fri 21st May, Sat 22nd May
Time: 6.30-9pm.
Cost:: $45 for meal and glass of wine, or $25 (incl complimentary glass of wine).
Bookings: 9250 1988 or sydneytheatre.org.au
Media enquiries: Angela Stretch, Laureate Productions: 0434 898 578
Email: angela.stretch@gmail.com

(Please note: if you miss Love at the Bar at the SWF, there will be a further season at Ravel, in the Macquarie Hotel, during Sundays in June: details on the Laureate Productions’ website www.laureateproductions.com.au )

69, 134 & 193 (cont.) - Love at the Bar Personnel:
The Laureate Productions team is an offshoot of the Wordjammin’ Poetry Ensemble, which presented Darlinghurst Nights at the 2009 SWF. The production team is comprised of: composer Ashley Chatto, producer Angela Stretch, poetry consultant Martin Langford and visual artist DJ Young.
Kath Ellis is a singer, performer and a visual artist. She is the front woman for Sydney bands Hubris and Kathellisism. Her performance style is very theatrical using costumes and characters. She has performed at festivals around Australia, Europe and Java. In 2007, she co-founded and performed in a theatrical performance with Vashti Hughes and Trash Vaudeville for the Kings Cross festival called Sigh of the Cross.
Dave Stephenson is a Sydney musician, writer and teacher. He is best known for his performances with the contemporary folk band Waiting for Guinness.
Ashley Chatto is a jazz and classical guitarist/composer and arranger/pianist who studied at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has played with many of Sydney's leading jazz musicians including James Morrison, Evan Mannell, Casey Greene and Clayton Tomas. As an arranger he has produced music for some of Sydney's leading big bands. As a composer he has scored for short films, orchestra, string quartets and classical guitar.
Scott Leishman studied music at The Sydney Conservatorium of Music, he has played with many of the leading jazz musicians in Sydney. He worked with Jackie Orszaczky for over a decade and was part of Jackie's most influential bands 'The Godmothers'. He is also in demand as a bass player working in any musical style.
Angela Stretch is a visual artist, poet and founder of Wordjammin'. She holds a Masters degree in Journalism from the Sydney University of Technology. Angela toured as an emerging poet on the Statelines tour through NSW and VIC, funded by the Australia Council, 2007. She curated New Directions, a video poetry exhibit at the Australian Poetry Festival 2008, and was awarded the Australia Amnesty International Freedom Art Prize 2009. She is the coordinator of the Poets Union readings at the Brett Whiteley Gallery.
J D Young is a Sydney based visual artist who has practiced for twenty years as a painter and for the last ten years in video. He has collaborated with other artists in experimental projects such as the Australian collective Deprogram, and generates a mix of live and recorded material that challenges traditional approaches. His work typically accompanies live music, poetry, installation and site-specific pieces.
Martin Langford is the author of six poetry books. The Human Project, a Selected and New, was published by Puncher and Wattmann late in 2009. Other publications include Microtexts (Island, 2005) a book of aphorism and observation about poetics, and Harbour City Poems (ed. P&W, 2009), an anthology of poems about Sydney. He has directed the Australian Poetry Festival three times, and was the NSW Poetry Development Officer 2007-8.

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Poets Union Event 4: (SWF Program numbers 57 and 218)
1. The Sydney Poetry Readings
2. The Sydney Readings: New Voices
For the past few years, the Poets Union has organised a series of readings whose purpose has been to highlight the quality of poetry produced in Sydney, and to promote the idea of Sydney as a creative city.

57 - The Sydney Poetry Reading
A one hour program featuring three respected Sydney poets:
Martin Harrison, Anna Kerdijk-Nicholson and David Musgrave

Time and Date: Thursday May 20th, 4-5pm
Venue: Bangarra Mezzanine
Duration: One hour
Entry: Free, no bookings
MC: Martin Langford

57 – The Sydney Poetry Reading Personnel:
Martin Harrison is a poet and critic. His selected poems Wild Bees: New andSelected Poems was published by University of Western Australia Press in2008, and was short-listed for the Adelaide Festival Poetry Prize. A selection of his poetry in Mandarin parallel text, A KangarooFarm, appeared that same year. He divides his time between Sydney and theHunter Valley. He teaches writing at the University of Technology.
David Musgrave is the publisher at Puncher & Wattmann. He has published three books; Open Water, a cd of a selection of his poetry, was released in 2007 as part of the River Road series. In 2008 he won both the Newcastle and Josephine Ulrick Poetry Prizes. He teaches at the University of Newcastle. His most recent publication is Phantom Limb (John Leonard Press, 2010).
Anna Kerdijk Nicholson's first book, The Bundanon Cantos, is a series ofpoems about Australian landscape. Anna went on to receive the 2001 ArtsQueensland Award for Unpublished Poetry (The Val Vallis) with one of thepoems from the book and The Bundanon Cantos became a Sydney Morning Herald Best Book of 2003. Her most recent book, Possession [FIP, 2010], is about Captain Cook's Endeavour voyage and colonial appropriation.
Martin Langford (MC) is the author of five poetry books, the most recent being The Human Project, a Selected and New, published by Puncher and Wattmann in 2009. He is the editor of Harbour City Poems (P&W, 2009), an anthology of poems about Sydney.

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Poets Union Event 4: (SWF Program no.s 57 and 218)
218 - The Sydney Reading – New Voices
Craig Billingham, Jo Featherstone & Roberta Lowing

Time and Date: Sun May 23rd, 1-2pm
Venue: Bangarra Mezzanine
Duration: One hour
Entry: Free, no bookings
MC: Brook Emery

218 – The Sydney Reading – New Voices Personnel:
Craig Billingham emigrated from England at age fourteen. He studied Philosophy at Macquarie University before living overseas, first in Kobe, then Brussels, London, and Frankfurt. Since returning to Australia in 2003 he has completed an MA at the University of Sydney. His first collection of poems, Storytelling, was published in 2007. His work has been featured on ABC Radio National’s Poetica series, A Pod of Poets, and new poems have appeared in HEAT, Meanjin, Blue Dog, Going Down Swinging, and Famous Reporter. He lives in Katoomba.
Jo Featherstone established the Red Room Company in 2003. Her poetry has featured in journals such as Quadrant, Best Australian Poems (Black Inc) 2006 and 2009, Papertiger and Mascara. In 2006 she created a series of literary TV shows, The Wordshed, in partnership with The University of Western Sydney where she is a research associate. Johanna is an honorary associate of The University of Sydney's School of Letters Arts and Media. In 2008, she received a fellowship from the St James Ethics Centre.
Roberta Lowing’s poetry has appeared in Meanjin, Blue Dog, Five Bells and Overland. From 2006 to 2010, she convened Sydney’s monthly PoetryUnLimitedPress Poetry Readings; in 2007, she edited PULP’s Ilumina Journal. Roberta’s sequence on the Iraq War, Ruin, will be published by IP in June. Her first novel, Notorious, will be published in September by Allen & Unwin.
Brook Emery has published three collections: and dug my fingers in the sand, Misplaced Heart and Uncommon Light. He has won the Queensland Premier's Prize and been short-listed three times for the NSW Premier's Prize. He directed the Australian Poetry Festival in 2008, and will direct it again in September, 2010. He is the current Chair of the Poets Union.

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Poets Union Event 5: (SWF See Exhibitions, p.6)
Exhibitions, p.6 - The Book of Water: A Collection of Video Poetry
The Book of Water is an exhibit of local and national video poems. Poems vary in length from 30 seconds to 5 minutes (A complete viewing might require 40 minutes.) The collection showcases the work of a variety of poets. Notes on their work will be incorporated into the video program.

The exhibition will collect work from the many scattered sources where media poetry is currently found (from the net; from new media grant recipients and graduate students; from traditional poets trying their hand), to enable people to have an idea of what is happening in this field.
Curation by Angela Stretch in consultation with organisations that promote or house media poetry.
Venue: Heritage Pier Upstairs
Entry: Free
Open: 10am – 5.30pm

Angela Stretch is a visual artist and poet. She was the curator of New Directions, a collection of video poetry screened at The Australian Poetry Festival 2008 and more recently at the Australian Centre for Moving Image. Angela is the founder of Wordjammin', a Sydney based organisation that fosters poetry and spoken word. She toured as an emerging poet in the 2007 Statelines Project through NSW and VIC. and is the coordinator of the Poets Union monthly reading at Sydney’s Brett Whiteley Gallery. She was awarded the Australia Amnesty International Freedom Art Prize 2009. She holds a Masters degree in Journalism from the Sydney University of Technology and is a freelance radio producer.

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Poets Union Event 6: (SWF Program SR22 and SR23)
SR22 & SR23 - Poetica: Five Arrivals
Devised, written and peformed by poet Gillian Telford, composer Solange Kershaw and dancer/choreographer Francoise Angenieux, this unique soiree is structured along the lines of a symphony.
For the prelude, stroll through the enchanted surroundings of the Edogawa Commemorative Gardens at Gosford Regional Gallery, where digital installations mix with live music and poetry readings to bring to life the themes of voyage, displacement and migration.The second half of this event takes place inside the art gallery. Through dance, music and the poetic voice, Gillian, Solange and Francoise perform the five movements of their symphony, elaborating the theme of arrival and interweaving stories from personal, social and mythical levels.
Dates and times: Fri May 21, 7.30-8.30; Sun May 23rd, 4.30 – 5.30
Venue: Gosford Regional Gallery, 36 Webb St, East Gosford (show begins in Edogawa
Commemorative Gardens and concludes in the art gallery). A joint presentation of Gosford City Council, the Poets Union and Arts NSW.
Tickets: $20/$15.
Bookings: Tel. (02) 4323 3233, laycockstreettheatre.com

SR22 & SR23 Poetica: Five Arrivals - Personnel:
Gillian Telford Gillian Telford is a poet. Born in England of Irish parents, Gillian migrated to Australia after completing her secondary education. She has lived and worked in NSW and Tasmania in the fields of health and education as a speech pathologist, ESL teacher and administrator. Her poetry has been published regularly in literary journals and anthologies. Her longer poem sequences have twice been selected for inclusion in the Newcastle Poetry Prize anthologies ‘The Honey Fills the Cone’ and ‘Roadworks’. Her first collection of poems, ‘Moments of Perfect Poise’ was published in 2008.
Solange Kershaw Solange Kershaw is a sound artist and composer who explores working with different ways of hearing. Her fascinating creations are composed utilising the unique combination of found sounds and computer technologies. When Solange is not at the computer, it is the piano that fundamentally drives her compositions.
Francoise Angenieux Francoise Angenieux is a West African-born dancer whose extensive training spanned nine years across two continents including Dance Studies in Dakar Senegal, Africa and the Conservatoire de la Danse in Grenoble, France. Her career as a dancer began with Ballets de Monte Carlo and touring Germany with Schweizer/Tourne Theatre. After moving to Australia, Francoise was employed as a dance teacher at the University of New South Wales while dancing with Kinetic Energy Dance Company and Sydney City Ballet. In 1979 she joined the Sydney Dance Company, where she remained for 11 years.

AN EVENING PERFORMANCE
AS PART OF THE SYDNEY WRITERS’ FESTIVAL
GOSFORD REGIONAL GALLERY 21 & 23 MAY 2010
Poetica:Five Arrivals

Date: Friday 21 May 7.30pm
Sunday 23 May 4.30pm
Venue: Gosford Regional Gallery
Tickets: $20. Conc. $15

Limited tickets available T. 02 4323 3233
Online at www.laycockstreettheatre.com
At Laycock Street Theatre Box Office
Open 10am-5pm Mon - Fri
9am-12 noon Sat

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