POETS OUT LOUD 2021 YOUTH SLAM – The countdown is on!
What a busy year it’s been… Our Poets Out Loud team have been workshopping, meeting, travelling, planning, performing, teaching, and juggling! Sarah, Anna, Katinka and I have been working steadily on the Youth Program, bringing slam poetry workshops to high schools in the Northern Rivers, connecting with young people from different walks of life and offering them the opportunity to speak up and be heard. The Youth Slam will be held on 5th August at the Regent Cinema, Murwillumbah. Check out links at the end to snap up tickets.
Our slam poetry workshops have been a great success this year, with interest from many schools across the region. We were ultimately able to offer a total of eight workshops, from Casino right through to Kingscliff, and were blown away by the creative enthusiasm of our local young people. The Poets Out Loud Youth Program is made possible through the hard work and dedication of our heroine and founder, Sarah Temporal. The program is supported by the NSW government through Create NSW. It is also made possible through fundraising and with the support of Tweed Shire Council.
One of our earlier workshops was at Sathya Sai High School in Dungay, and the students wowed us with their original thinking and crazy humour. A particularly memorable performance involved a dictionary, an argument, and some very big words. Students at Wollumbin High in Murwillumbah created some great, high-energy pieces. One group did their entire poem in thick Russian accents, inspired by family lineage and current events.
Amidst the workshops, Poets Out Loud partnered up with Tweed Shire Council to host Youth Voices Together: A Showcase of Youth Music and Slam Poetry, held in April at The Citadel in Murwillumbah. The weather was chilly, the talent was red-hot, and the audience enjoyed performances by some of our 2020 Youth Slam participants, including winner Pancho Symes. This event offered young people a chance to experience live poetry with their peers, try out the mic, and build confidence in performing. I performed a poem from when I was around 20 years old, a personal piece that I wrote to give myself courage in the face of continual challenges. I wanted to share this special piece, in part for myself, to honour the girl who wrote it all those years ago, never knowing if that poem would be heard by anyone else. It was a moving way to acknowledge my own journey in now being able to share my voice, and also the wisdom and experience I have gained along the way.
One of the most exciting events in the lead up to the slam has been our recent Masterclass, which brought all the young slam participants together. Sarah Temporal and I worked with the poets on their writing, performance skills, and tips and techniques for overcoming stage fright and anxiety, which everyone feels!
Once again, and at the risk of repeating myself, we were blown away. Our free writing exercise produced fresh, insightful pieces that inspired the poets or added to material they had prepared already. After we split up to help individual groups with writing and performance skills, we were treated to some unique readings. It was so inspiring seeing the young people grow their confidence in sharing their voices, whilst experiencing non-judgmental listening and acceptance. Sharing and receiving in vulnerability, with truth, is a powerful experience for all involved. I never cease to be moved.
So, onwards to the Slam! All of our participants now receive one-on-one mentoring in the lead-up to the big day on 5th August. Our aim is to guide these young poets in freeing their voices and overcoming their fears. We’ll cheer them on, and build them up, so they can step onto the stage at the Youth Slam and show us their creative talents. Bring it on!
Book your seat and enjoy amazing young voices at this iconic local venue: https://the-regent.com.au/film/poets-out-loud-youth-slam/
For more info on Poets Out Loud and to support via donation go to http://www.poetsoutloud.org/youth
Important Update: the Youth Slam was originally included in the Byron Writers Festival this year as a satellite event. Unfortunately due to Covid, the BWF will no longer go ahead.
The Youth Slam will go ahead, as an independent POL event. On with the show! 🙂
2020 Youth Slam wrap-up & Studio Sessions
In 2020 Poets Out Loud brought Youth Slam Poetry workshops to the Northern Rivers in the midst of a global pandemic. We didn’t know how it would all pan out when Covid really struck in March, but we held our nerve and pushed forward to the end goal of a Youth Slam showcasing amazing, diverse local voices. The online Youth Slam was a hit!
Huge congrats to winner Pancho Symes, runners-up Georgia Smith & Jasmine Logan, and to all the brave, fierce, raw and real voices we were lucky enough to hear. You all smashed it and I feel so privileged and inspired to be part of facilitating that. Here is the full recorded livestream from the event.
One bonus of an online event was that entrants were given the option to professionally film their poems, thanks to support from Tweed Shire Council.
The poet mentors were also filmed and I decided to perform the poem that I demonstrate for students during our workshops.
‘Black Dog’ is a deeply personal piece about my experiences of depression and anxiety. It was written many years ago but it also rings true in the present for me. Moving and sad, gentle and observational, this poem speaks to the heart of my experience… The overwhelming self-criticism and shame. The sense that something is fundamentally wrong with you. The loneliness and isolation. A feeling of being trapped within yourself. These are things that are felt by so many, witnessed by so many, and I think that’s part of why students respond to this piece. So here it is, my little poem 🙂
The opportunity to share and witness real, heart-moving words from brave and vulnerable humans motivates me so much in this work. It is humbling to share and be seen myself, even as I teach and nurture!
You can see individual performances from slam entrants and the other Poet mentors here: https://poetsoutloud.org/youth/
I’m so pleased to say we are rolling out the 2021 Poets Out Loud Youth Program right now across the Northern Rivers! I absolutely cannot wait to see what beautiful voices come to the surface this year. Our intention is to stage a fantastic live event, so watch this space. Workshops start this month!
Poets Out Loud Youth Program 2020: The Workshops
This year, Poets Out Loud offered a series of slam poetry workshops to high schools around the Northern Rivers, NSW. The program will culminate in the region’s first ever Youth Slam on 1st November 2020. I’m lucky enough to be involved in the program as a Poet Mentor, and the experience has been amazing.
Poets Out Loud is an Arts collective founded by poet and teacher Sarah Temporal, based in the Northern Rivers. I met Sarah and got involved in POL in early 2019, when the first Poets Out Loud open mic night was held in Murwillumbah. I caught the tail end of the evening after a commute back from Uni amidst M1 traffic, and saw amazing poets like Matt Hetherington and Atlas Talisman take the mic. I managed to sneak off the waiting list last to read a poem called ‘Landscape of a body’. It was awesome to experience live poetry in my local region and I’ve volunteered and been involved socially with Poets Out Loud events ever since.
So how did I end up as a Poet Mentor for the POL Youth Program?
It all started around the end of 2019. Covid was still a world away and in the live poetry scene we were blissfully unaware of the restrictions we’d soon face. Sarah Temporal dreamed up an idea for the region’s first ever Youth Poetry Slam. POL would conduct a series of dynamic and interactive workshops in local high schools, culminating in a fantastic live event: a Youth Slam during Youth Week 2020. She approached me and asked, would I like to be a Poet Mentor? I jumped on board with such extreme enthusiasm, I’m surprised I didn’t scare her off. We were up and running.
The project was Sarah’s baby and she kicked into overdrive, working her butt off to make it happen (despite also having her own real baby!). Funding and Arts Grants were applied for. 2019 QLD Slam Poetry champion Anna Avocado came on board as the third mentor, and experienced performance poet Katinka Smit signed on as the fourth. Meetings were conducted. Wild ideas were thrown around. We had the support of Tweed Shire Council. Funding started coming through. Oh, and my belly continued to swell as my pregnancy progressed rapidly! Due to give birth soon, I prayed I would be able to teach a few workshops before my bambino popped out.
During the workshop planning stage, Sarah, Anna, Katinka and I did a workshop with the amazing poet and educator Emilie Zoe Baker, aka EZB. EZB has been running youth slam workshops in Victoria for many years and was a great inspiration to us as we nutted out our own unique POL workshop format. Check out her work at http://www.emiliezoeybaker.com. We wanted to empower young people to speak their minds and their hearts, and be heard. We wanted to show them that performance poetry is booming around the world, that their voices matter, that they can speak the world as they see it.
The Workshops
Workshops were held at Cape Byron Steiner School, Murwillumbah High, Sathya Sai Secondary School, Nimbin Central School, and also Byron Youth Theatre and a Community workshop. Nimbin and the Community workshop were held online later in the year, after everything came to a halt due to Covid. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to hold the slam live during Youth Week in April 2020. This year, the slam is an online edition. All participants in the slam were offered free online mentoring to prepare, and with the support of Tweed Shire Council they were also given the opportunity to professionally film their performance for entry. Us mentors were lucky enough to film a poem each too! I’m planning on sharing my performance in my next post which will wrap-up the filming process and the slam.
All students come out of the workshops having written a slam poem either individually or in groups. Students are guided through a series of exercises designed to make the process interactive, spontaneous and fun. We support the students to think critically as well as creatively. The focus is on holding a safe, inclusive space for young people to express themselves, and we found they engaged with the workshops in really diverse and exciting ways.
For me, the experience was scary, awesome, rewarding, inspiring, challenging and so exciting! I am really passionate about helping young people find their voices, and demonstrating the power of words. Can’t wait to see the amazing poetry, words, rhymes and raps from the young people of our local region!!! The online Youth Slam is on Sunday 1st November at 3pm (daylight savings time).
You can get free tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/youth-poetry-slam-online-tickets-124653276305
For more information about the Youth Program and Poets Out Loud check out https://poetsoutloud.org/youth/
Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup 2019
It was a sunny Saturday on the 7th of September and I was locked and loaded for the Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup. The poem was a doozy, an eight-minute, free verse behemoth. It was called ‘Maitland’.
First, a bit about the poem. Then, onwards to Nimbin.
‘Maitland’ is an extended version of an earlier poem, also by the same name. This descriptive, heartfelt poem tells a story about my memories of Nan and her man Davey, their property at Maitland, and the times we spent there after our family broke down and Mum left. I think Dad, my sister and I were all pretty shattered by it. Nan and Dave’s was a healing place for us, a place of animals and trees and Nan’s big bosom and our little Shetland pony. But there was always an undercurrent between my father and Davey, beef from the past around Nan. Davey’s anger and jealousy was something my Dad had to live with for a long time growing up. As kids, we didn’t know everything, but we knew some things. So this poem is about family, and grief, and loss, and landscape, and the past.
So, after a solid six weeks of writing, practicing, getting sick of, practicing again, getting sick of again and practicing my poem again, the day arrived. The 7th. My heat of 10 poets out of 40 was on in the afternoon and we took a leisurely drive through this green God’s country into Nimbin.
Yes, we did get asked if we wanted any cookies as soon as we jumped out of the car. We politely declined, as alas we had more important things to attend to. Like having a crack at the two grand first prize. Oh yeah, we were hungry poets that day.
After a delicious feed at a little Italian joint, it was time to check out an earlier heat. Just sitting down watching, my heart began to race, sweaty palms, guts rising up into my throat. The usual, but intensified. I was worried I would forget some part of my poem. I was worried that I would trip over the microphone cord. I was worried that maybe I couldn’t do this, after all. An interlude, some cups of tea, and a bit of cake later, it was my turn to put it all on the line. Here’s how it played out…
I was so proud of myself for getting up there and giving it a red-hot crack. The competition was amazing, the poems were incredible, and I took my hat off to everyone who had a go on that brutal first-heats day. I almost got through to the semis! With a 50 bucks hard cash encouragement award in my hot little hand and a relieved/overwhelmed/stoked smile plastered on my face, once more we headed out of Nimbin.
We pulled over to take these ‘artistic’ shots in front of a beautiful paddock. I was just soaking it up, my head still spinning a little. The response I got from the audience after I finished my poem was so encouraging and uplifting. So many people told me they loved it, that I had told them a story, I had painted a picture, I had stirred the heartstrings. It meant the world to me.
A Night at the Opera…
Who would have thought I could write the words for a short opera? Well, on Saturday 6th April ’19, months of work came to fruition when ‘The Painting’ was performed at the QLD Conservatorium of Music in Brisbane.
The Painting is the outcome of a collaboration between myself and composer Jaidyn Chong, sung by Jola Kudra and Kristian Scott, with piano by Matthew Garvie.
Our short opera was one of four collaborative works between Griffith Creative Writing and Conservatorium of Music students. They were presented as part of NOW – the New Opera Workshop by QLD Conservatorium, Griffith University and Opera QLD on 5 -7th April.
When I was originally approached about being involved in the project in November 2018, I really had no idea about anything opera-related, but the opportunity was way too good to miss. I didn’t even know that the text of an opera is called a libretto, and we were to be ‘librettists’. We were encouraged to just be ourselves and write creatively, so some poetry/prose flowed out of me, I came up with a concept and a story, and The Painting was born. Jaidyn Chong then worked his compositional magic and created a haunting, beautiful soundtrack for the story.
Jaidyn and I went back and forth with the music and the words until about February, then we finalised the piece, and performers and a pianist were cast. Throughout the process, we had the opportunity to attend Ariadne Auf Naxos (above), and met Patrick Nolan, Artistic Director & CEO of Opera QLD, for creative direction on our pieces. With the help of our Conservatorium mentors for the project, Nicholas Cleobury (Head of Opera), and Gerardo Dirie (Head of Composition), The Painting was rehearsed over several weeks, and presented on the 6th April.
I had a ball travelling up to Brisbane to see this amazing project come to life. It was surreal watching our pieces sung so beautifully, and we were all blown away! Massive kudos to my fellow writers Bridget Thomas, Hailey Quiazon and Indyana Horobin, and huge thanks to everyone who worked hard to bring it all together. Can’t wait to see if The Painting might have further life with the inclusion of stage directions and the actual painting that lies at the heart of this emotive piece. Watch this space! Here it is – The Painting…
Masters & Slaves Performance 2017 – ‘Her Name Was’
Each year, Smallroom Writers Collective hosts a night in partnership with Griffith’s Friends of the Library, themed ‘Masters and Slaves’. The theme calls for you to pick a great literary master or mistress, and write something about them. It could be satire, homage, takedown, or any other number of creative interpretations you could think of. The pieces often take on a sort of questioning route – an exploration into the writer’s own complicated, nuanced relationship to their interpretation of a master’s work.
In 2017, I wrote a poem called ‘Her Name Was’ for the Masters and Slaves auditions. The poem was specifically a response to the famous Mrs Dalloway (1925) by Virginia Woolf – a literary masterpiece. Woolf uses a flow of consciousness style of writing, drawing the reader into a typical day in the life of Clarissa Dalloway, a well-to-do housewife in London.
Woolf’s story flows in an organic, alive, disjointed way – immersing you in trains of thought, then jolting you back to the past via memory, or into another character or another layer of a day rich with imagery, saturated in emotion and meaning. Her writing style is like an alternative to the hard, patriarchal lines dominant at the time. She embodies the feminine, the intuitive, a realistic flow of thoughts and feelings beyond an ordered, literary construction of them.
In Mrs Dalloway, the appearance of an old friend plunges Clarissa into buried memories. She relives her young love for another woman, the beautiful Sally Seton, and the one night they shared a kiss. ‘Her Name Was’ references this, and is also inspired by Virginia Woolf’s own bisexuality and her relationship with Vita Sackville-West (below left), another married woman.
The first time I tried reading Mrs Dalloway, I must admit I struggled. In fact, I put it down and didn’t pick it back up. But after reading it again for another Uni course, and doing a bunch of research around Virginia Woolf’s writing and life for an essay, something odd happened.
I picked it up with distaste but once I made it through the initial shock and disorienting effect of Woolf’s free narrative flow, I found myself moved and transported. I felt Clarissa’s internal questing keenly, and it brought up a surge of emotion around my own bisexuality, something I had only recently begun to fully accept. The poem became a response to my feelings and sexuality and past, and was influenced by the tragic story of Virginia Woolf’s own life, which ended when she walked into a river with pockets full of stones.
I made it through the audition and was part of the 2017 performance, which was an awesome, nerve-wracking experience. I get such a kick out of performing, just waiting backstage to go on with the other amazing performers was a lot of fun. The poem was chosen for publication in Getamungstit – the Griffith Student Guild magazine, with a selection of other works from the night (see PUBLISHED WORKS page for details and link).
Here’s the recorded performance. This was the first time I filmed a reading – the spotlight’s blaring out my face but the sound is good 🙂
My love affair with Smallroom
Now that we’re acquainted, there’s still a bit of ground to cover. You see, my writing journey really kicked into gear a couple of years ago, when I started going to Smallroom Writer’s Collective. This was the beginning of belief in myself as a writer.
Smallroom is a group that meets once a month during Uni trimesters for readings, wine, networking, conversation, laughter and connection. I first found out about it through one of my tutors, Dr Sally Breen, and I’ve been hooked ever since. You can check out more of what we’re about at our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/smallroomwriterscollective/
The thing is, for the first few years of studying, I struggled to connect with other students. Being a single mum, I’d drive the hour or more to Uni, go to class, maybe hit up the library, then jump in my car and shoot home in time for after school pickup, shopping, making dinner and falling in a heap. My writing was done basically in isolation.
I found out about Smallroom, held at the drama theatre on campus at Griffith, and I was desperate to go. I did a lot of community theatre growing up so the performance bug had already bit me, I just hadn’t had the chance to explore that side of me for a long time. I actually missed the first Smallroom and when I realised, I broke down – frustrated, upset, yearning for connection and the chance to share my work. It became obvious I had to get there!
I don’t have any pics from my first night at Smallroom. I was like a little child, wide-eyed and shy, soaking it all up. I remember sitting in the rows of faded red theatre seats, my guts up in my throat waiting for my turn to read. They called my name. Smallroom virgin. I walked up to the lectern with words printed on paper that trembled in my hands – my piece was an anti-establishment rhyme I’d written years before. I braced my palms on the lectern and tried to ignore the shake in my legs. Drawing in breath, I opened my mouth, and delivered.
The feeling afterwards is difficult to describe. A rush of adrenalin? Sure. A feeling of relief? Maybe. A release of emotion held in for years? Definitely. When the crowd loved it and I didn’t fuck up and I spoke my piece and they clapped and cheered and urged me on, something inside me was seeded. Some deep need breached the surface and charged me with pride, passion and longing. I was gone, besotted, changed forever.
Let’s go back… to the beginning.
Let’s go back. Way back. Waaaaaay back. Okay, wait, we’ve gone too far. I’m not one to dwell on the past but, since we just met, I feel it’s only fair to fill you in a little.
I’m a Creative Writing and Literature major at Griffith University and I’m just about a bee’s dick away from finishing my degree, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I’m here to talk about the words. The books. The writing that has permeated and enriched my life since I was a wee one.
My love affair with books and words began long ago. We don’t have time to go back that far. So let’s just say I was a child who read and read and read. Then I wrote and wrote and wrote. Journalling, mainly, as a child and young teen, which mutated into full-blown, angst-ridden poetry, self-reflection and prose. Then came some good stories (I won a competition at school – go me), a shitload more reflection, many poems and several stopped, started and ultimately discarded ideas for books. Chuck in graduating high school, having a child at nineteen, leaving an abusive relationship, recovering and raising my daughter alone for a long time and starting my Bachelor of Arts around six years ago, and I think we’re ready to leave the past behind.
Okay, we’re kind of ready to leave it behind. We’ll probably revisit it. That’s the nature of the stories we tell about our lives, right? Cycles of narrative, circling around, coming back to the fore, seeking amongst ashes for new meaning, new understanding, new modes of being. So in the spirit of that circling contemplation, let me share this old poem with you…
Morning
In the semi-woken hours of the morn
I dream of a life left behind
a love thought had then lost
a legacy of feeling to be amputated
cut away.
For in loving you
I found only loss of self
not a gaining of empowerment
not acceptance
not a safe place to fall.
You betrayed me
yet the betrayal was somehow my own.
That which remains unseen
run deep in flesh and bone
hidden in the energy of mind
I know not.
I shall not fear truth, though
this I know.
The strength within me has grown
it seems
and I can endure
fight for my life
protect my blood
hold my head high
and feel no shame
cry no more tears
because my time has come.
Jedda Winkworth November 2006
Jedda Winkworth 