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Reading
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The Whiteley Readings Brett Whiteley Studio Poets Union Sunday Poetry Readings February - June 2008 Enquiries: Angela 0424 002 317 Sunday 24 February Rosemary Huisman: (The Possibility of Winds). Lucid, engaging, playful. Poetry built from a lifetime of observation, thought and delight in language. David 'Ghostboy' Stavanger: Be prepared. Anything could happen as this performance poet makes a flying visit from Queensland. Sunday 23 March Jenni Nixon: (Café Boogie). Angry, funny, powerful poems that give voice to the marginalised and explore the underbelly of city life. A lively performance guaranteed. Sunday 27 April - Studio Closed for Renovations. Sunday 25 May Judy Johnson: (Navigation). Her verse novel, Jack, won the Victorian Premiers Prize. Her second collection, Nomadic, won the Wesley Michel Wright Prize. Hear the first Sydney reading from her new collection, Navigation. Poetry that is crafted, beautiful and resonant. A Sydney Writers Festival Umbrella Event. Sunday 22 June David Brooks: (Walking to Point Clear; Urban Elegies). Two poetry collections twenty years in the making published in 2007! Spare, poised, precise, easy and rigorous lines that unfold into equivocal understanding. Live Poets Society Wednesday October 24: Guest Poet is Carolyn Gerrish who will read from her fourth collection Dark Laughter and new work. Also, Open Section (anyone is welcome to recite, sing, tell a story or play an instrument).
Don Bank Museum Enquiries: 9908 4527 Live Poets Society began life on April 4 1990 in a Neutral Bay cafe where jazz musicians played and poets read and performed their work. It moved to Don Bank Museum about 18 months later. Organisers Sue Hicks and Danny Gardner have published five books of poetry under the Live Poets’ Press imprint, showcasing poets’ work. A sixth book is underway to celebrate our tenth anniversary and will be launched later this year. All this in their own time, without grants or financial assistance. The oldest regular is in her 80s and poets in their 20s have performed at Live Poets. We do not discriminate in any way - anybody can perform or read in the open section. In addition to poetry we have had people sing, play an instrument, tell a story - we have even had belly dancing. Guests, however, are chosen carefully. Guest readers have included Les Murray, Heather Cam, Vera Newsom, David Dale and other well-known names as well as a host of emerging poets. Members have also given free readings at seniors events, Nutcote, at City of Sydney Library and Mosman Library and we liaised with Mosman Council to run Bards At Balmoral for a few years in the early 1990s to mark the start of daylight saving. Some of us have judged competitions for Stanton Library, Manly Fellowship of Australian Writers and other groups. Our second birthday was spent performing and celebrating under the stars at Castlecrag Amphitheatre, with Ted Mack as chief guest. Other memorable moments have included a possum eating our food in the garden while we performed inside Don Bank and the fire alarm going off when we celebrated a founder member’s 70th birthday with a cake complete with candles! (The firemen happily took one of our books away with them and said if it happened again we would be the "Dead Poets Society"!) Over the years we have had support in the form of alcohol from Poets’ Corner wines and, in the last several months, Pregos cafe, Spit Junction, has helped enormously with catering. We believe Live Poets is the longest-running poetry society on the north shore. We set out in still-yuppie 1990 to prove the lower north shore was not just full of consumers but that the area wanted and would support an outlet for poetry and music (all the others at the time were on the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge). I think we have proved that. Danny Gardner has had two books of poetry published and his work has been in magazines and newspapers including Westerly, Island and The Sydney Morning Herald. In London in the early 1980s he organised a venue called Words With Chow in a Nth London Chinese Cafe. Sue Hicks edited the first issue of Poetry London, was part of a group called Black Columbus, musicians and poets based at the University of Birmingham in the early 1970s. Republic Readings
299 Elizabeth Street, North Hobart These readings grew from a phone call to Eric Beach in 1998 with me whinging that National Poetry Day was being ignored in Tasmania except for the ABC. Eric told me to stop whinging and do something about it. Last year we featured 56 separate writers, three original songwriters, and hosted an evening for national poetry day with over 1 50 people attending. This year featured readers are even being paid, the pub puts in $50/week and the Tasmanian Writers Center has given the Fellowship of Tasmanian Writers $1500 to look after the venue for 2000. This is a pub with a social conscience, there are no pokies, if you leave your stuff you’ll find it behind the bar, and after you've left you can even ring up to find out if your son is really keeping an eye on your grandaughter. One of the publicans is a writer who encourages writers to take over the pub every Sunday, and for special events such as the launch of Siglo or Island magazine or to celebrate International Rivers Day with poetry and music. It is a place where writers from around the state meet and exchange information, where writers who are here for TWC workshops, UNI residencies, or just on holiday are heard by Tasmanians, and where Tasmanians can showcase and develop their craft. This reading venue is created by writers, for writers with its defining principle being equity for all. Words at the Wintergarden
Wintergarden Cafe/Bar - MacKillop St
Geelong Victoria. Words at the Wintergarden readings in Geelong, Victoria were established by Bev Roberts, chair of Geelong Writers, in 1996. Susan Kruss took on the organisation of the readings for 1998-1999. Funding assistance from the Victorian Writers Centre made it possible to bring a wide range of exciting writers to the region. Writers featured previously include Dorothy Porter, Barry Hill, Philip Salom, Jordie Albiston, Bruce Pascoe, Ramona Koval, Andrea Goldsmith and Rod Jones. The readings begin with the featured guest, with open readings following a break for replenishing drinks and buying books. In addition to some open readings, there will be two 10-minute Spotlight segments where regional and visiting writers will present some of their work. Keen to cater for new as well as more experienced writers, the Wintergarden readings are a good opportunity to showcase local talent as well as to assist writers to sharpen their presentation skills. We also anticipate having some short sketches ftom the Gordon Institute students of the Performing Arts under the direction of Christine Davey. One of the features of the Wintergarden readings is that the audience consists of local writers. They are therefore more concentrated and longer than the usual pub readings, allowing the audience to get a real feeling for the writer's work. Another significant feature is the lovely ambiance of the Wintergarden cafe/bar with its mezzanine floor and the feel of openness as the audience sit around cafe tables.
Cambelltown Poets at the Pub
I started "Poets at the Pub" in the Macarthur area over eight years ago. Over the years it’s also become known as "Poets & entertainers at the Tavern (or Pub)". As with most readings the audience is a fairly undnown quantity. Attendance depends on whether people are working, moved from the area or even the weather. Being a Monday night is also a factor as it’s the start of the working week. Despite all these facts we have managed to build up quite a good following. I started the readings out here because at that time most of the readings seemed to be in the City or North Shore and felt that poets living in or near this neck of the woods should have the chance to air their work without having to travel in and out of the city. The management of the Bradbury Tavern have been terrific in letting us take over their well funished lounge to hold our readings. It works both ways of course, as Monday night is a quiet night pub wise, and a group of thirsty poets looking for refreshments, or a first time reader looking for something to bolster the nerves, is most welcome. We use a small stage & mike and generally manage to have a fun time, with comedy skits, humour, drama, and several door prizes, which always add a bit of fun. One night during the football season one guy wandered in from the bar on the other side of the Tavern and enjoyed things so much he decided to stay and give the footy away. We thought that was quite a coup. On the very odd occasion we’ve had the anti culture type wander by, but even then they stopped to listen while our comedy people were on, stayed till the end, and then ended up giving compliments to various people. One said "Don’t change anything mate, you’re bloody brilliant." That put a good finish on the night. It’s been gratifying to me to see raw talent come along, too scared to get up and read until a bit of coaxing and then go on to become an enthusiastic regular and later into print. Our poets vary in age from 20’s to 60’s so it’s really good to see no age gap and how well everyone mixes in with each other. Readers range from bush poets to drama, comedy from Yorkshire born Sheila Myers and her wonderful accent, Barry Holland, Marjorie Brown and Margo Shugg with skilful verse on all subjects and a number of others, some serious, some mad as hatters. Yours truly keeps the evening going as compere plus a bit of my own solo comedy and verse. Trevar Langlands has had 25 years in braodcasting and is State President of FAW for NSW) Poetry at Chats - Cafe Bazaart
Cnr Sydney Ave and State Circle Canberra’s long-running poetry series is again relocating. Organised by Geoff Page, the readings started at Cafe Neruda in Manuka in 1993; moved Cafe Chats at the ANU Art School in 1998 and have now move to Cafe Bazaart in Barton. The new venue, owned and managed by Lisa Howard, will maintain the same traditions of providing optional light meals before the readings and coffee or wine at half time. Out-of-town poets already lined up for this year include Les Murray, Robert Gray, Kate Llewellyn, Geoffrey Lehmann, Jan Owen and John Tranter. Several well-known (and less well-known) local poets are also on the bill. Cafe Bohemio. Smith Street, Fitzroy
If you are interested in reading your
work at this new venue call Franc Maurici Mbl: 0412 597 717 A couple of people have asked me "Franc what are you doing?" - After attending so many poetry readings over the years as a spectator and as a performer I started to take note that it is always the same line up of the usual suspects that get up and do their thing. I walked around town bitching about this for a few years deciding it is not good enough. How can the form grow if this continues? It is bad enough as it is that many new poets find the scene and older poets intimidating. We ought to welcome newcomers otherwise we will be left with a closed, inbred environment that so many already think we have. We haven’t - it’s just that you have to know where to look. So I thought I’d get off my ass and do something about it. I talked to some mates of mine who had just recently bought Cafe Bohemio in Smith Street, Fitzroy and they very kindly offered their space to me for this sole purpose. In years past the cafe had always sponsored this sort of thing and the new owners are only too happy to re-introduce it regularly, if all goes well. The bottom line is if you think you’d like to read 5 or 10 minutes of your work - please get in contact with me so I can finalize numbers before the reading. The reading will take place on Saturday the 6th or Saturday the 13th of May 2000. There will be an open reading section but you will have to register beforehand. Poets at the Pub (PATP)
Northern Star Hotel Poets at the Pub (PATP) has been meeting for well over a decade, bringin Hunter Valley poets together for a monthly evening of open readings and featured guests. Thanks to the generous sponsorshop of Montrose Wines (makers of Poet’s Corner wines), we have been able to bring in visitors from across Australia four times each year; Judith Beveridge, Anthony Lawrence, Chris Mansell and Kathylein Job are recent bebeficiaries of this scheme. Our sponsor's grant is used for payment, and accommodation is supplied by the Northern Star Hotel in Hamilton, our liberal and poetry-friendly venue. These events are usually associated with a seminar at the University of Newcastle, a workshop organised through the Hunter Writers' Centre, and school visits in season. These events are all paid for so a trip to Newcastle can be both profitable and enjoyable. PATP runs a free-to-members monthly Critique Night at the Cooks Hill Bookshop where poets can hone their work under the direction of more experienced local poets: Norman and Jean Talbot, Jean Kent, Judy Johnson, and Rob Riel are often called upon to direct these evenings. PATP publishes an annual anthology of members' work, and runs its own weekly radio show on 2NUR-FM which features the best local poetry along with recorded readings from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and anywhere else our microphone may travel.
Readings Outloud
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Hong Kong
Poets Union members are active around
the world. Dr. Chris Kelen runs readings in Hong Kong - travellers
overseas should keep this in mind. |
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