Sunday, March 8
at 2:00pm – 5:00pm

42 Albert St, Footscray, Victoria, Australia

Located in the gallery room of the iconic Dancing Dog café, 5 minutes from Footscray station, West Word poetry events happen every 2nd and 4th Sunday of the month at 2pm, with a different feature poet at every session.

For this session, March 8th, the feature is Angela Costi.

Angela Costi is the author of four collections of poetry: Dinted Halos (Hit & Miss Publications, 2003), Prayers for the Wicked (Floodtide Audio, 2005), Honey and Salt (Five Islands Press, 2007) and Lost in Mid-verse (Owl Publications 2014). In 2009 she received funding from the Australia Council for the Arts to travel to Japan and work on an international collaboration involving her poetry and the Japan-based Stringraphy Ensemble. This culminated in the performance text: A Nest of Cinnamon, which has been published together with accompanying essays by Cordite Poetry Review (issues Custom Made Sep 2009, Transpacific Feb 2013). Both her parents migrated from Cyprus and she grew up in Riverwood, Sydney and then moved to Lalor, Victoria.

West Word Poetry also has an Open Stage section where anyone can read their poetry (5mins time limit).

So feel free to come along and read your poetry, or just listen, and enjoy a few drinks or nibbles while you’re there.

Ούγκο Μουχίκα, Ποιήματα
εισαγωγή: Γιολάντα Ντελγάδο Μπατίστα
μετάφραση: Στάθης Ιντζές

Η ποίηση του Ούγκο Μουχίκα είναι μια σαφής αποκύρυξη του ίδιου του του εαυτού, ώστε να μεταμορφωθεί σε έκφραση της ζωής, δημιουργώντας έναν οικείο και ανεξάντλητο διάλογο με τον κόσμο.

«Μόνο μια φορά πέφτει κάθε βροχή
και όλες οι σταγόνες της είναι
εκείνη η βροχή»

Είναι ακριβώς αυτή η απρόσκλητη προσφορά, αυτή η απογύμνωση, που κάνει τον Ούγκο Μουχίκα έναν ανένταχτο συγγραφέα και μακάρι να είναι έτσι για πάντα.

Η Μικρή Λειτουργία της Άνοιξης είναι ένα λυρικό ταξίδι, μια ερωτική προσευχή σε πέντε ενότητες: «Μικρή Λειτουργία της Άνοιξης» μια παγανιστική λειτουργία για τη λατρεία της γονιμότητας και του μυστικισμού που κρύβεται στον ερωτισμό και στη φύση, «Στα λιβάδια του Ήλιου» μια μικρή αλληγορία σε παραδοσιακή μορφή, «Μικρογραφίες Καλοκαιριού» σύντομα λυρικά ποιήματα που προκαλούν μικρές και μεγάλες εκπλήξεις, «Το βιβλίο του Οδοιπόρου» μικρές προσευχές σε μορφή σονέτου και σε ελεύθερη μορφή που εναλλάσσονται, «8 Τραγούδια για την Αγάπη» 8 ποιήματα για τον έρωτα, «Η κυρά του Ήλιου και της Νύχτας» μια τελετουργία για μιαν άλλη εποχή που πέρασε ή που θα ξανάρθει και τέλος τα «Δύο Άσματα» δυο εκτενή ποιήματα για τη Μνημοσύνη και την Αγάπη.

Ο Θωμάς Παπαστεργίου γεννήθηκε στη Βέροια το 1980, έζησε τα παιδικά του χρόνια στη Γερμανία και σπούδασε Μαθηματικά και Πληροφορική στην Πάτρα. Ζει και εργάζεται στη Θεσσαλονίκη. Ποιήματά του έχουν δημοσιευτεί στα λογοτεχνικά περιοδικά: Παρέμβαση, Μανδραγόρας, Συμπόσιο, Φαρφουλάς, στον συλλογικό τόμο «Τα στάχυα και οι καρποί» των εκδόσεων Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών, στην «Ανθολογία Ερωτικής Ποίησης» και στην «Ανθολογία» του Λογοτεχνικού Τμήματος των ΠΟΦΠΠ καθώς και στα Πρακτικά του Συμποσίου Ποίησης. Η «Μικρή Λειτουργία της Άνοιξης» είναι η πρώτη του ποιητική συλλογή που κυκλοφορεί από τις εκδόσεις Ars Poetica.

*Από το δελτίο Τύπου.

WRITE A POEM IN SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE IN MANUS PRISON CAMP

This is a call out to poets to stand in solidarity with those in Manus Prison Camp. We are asking for people to send their poems of solidarity to wirethroughthe@gmail.com

Your poems will then be forwarded to those suffering in the Australian funded and run prison camp on Manus Island.

Later all poems will be considered for inclusion in a collection of poetry to be edited by Janet Galbraith (poet, founder of Writing Through Fences and Editor of Refugee Writing Mascara Literary Review) along with 2 poets who are seeking asylum in Australia.

As Audre Lorde said: “POETRY IS NOT A LUXURY. IT IS A VITAL NECESSITY OF OUR EXISTENCE. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action”.

Janet Galbraith

Ends on 1/31/2015

Melbourne Spoken Word is proud to announce the launch of Audacious, a new audio journal of spoken word to be launched in 2015. It will feature poetic recordings to be available for download or as a CD and we are now seeking submissions to the inaugural issue.

We want Audacious to be true to its name and feature the boldest voices and sounds from Melbourne’s vibrant spoken word and poetry community from the quiet and profound readings in pubs to the in your face and vulnerable pieces delivered in slams, as well as everything in between. We want emerging voices as well as familiar names. We want important voices, funny, entertaining and even raw voices, a mix of the diversity of our scene.

We are seeking poetry that is judged not just on its poetic and thematic merit but on its aural qualities as well, the best use of the tools your voice offers. Submissions are now open for the first edition to be released in early 2015. We are seeking spoken word recordings not seeking written work. We may accept pieces but ask you to come into our studio to re-record the piece for better quality or record it live ourselves. We are also commissioning work and specific poets alongside open submissions.

We recommend that the pieces are no longer than 5 minutes, except if the work is exceptional. Please query beforehand for longer work. Poems should be strictly submitted in .wav files to maintain quality.

Submissions are open to everyone, including beyond Melbourne, but we admit to a bias toward Melbourne poets or those connected to the Melbourne community, and so we intend for that to be the primary focus whilst also not completely excluding outside voices.

We are looking for generally previously unpublished work. Publication does not include performance of work. We may accept some previously published work. Please query beforehand.

We expect more submissions than we could possibly publish and rejection does not necessarily mean a judgement on the quality of work. We may ask to keep some pieces for future editions. We encourage you to submit again, though.

Payment is a percentage of royalties split between the published poets paid around 3 months after publication. We hope to earn enough or have enough funding to pay poets a flat fee in future editions.

Any questions can be forwarded to benjamin@melbournespokenword.com

Please read the submission guidelines carefully and pay attention to the questions asked with your submission as not meeting the guidelines may mean automatic rejection of your work.

Press Release

The Paradise Anthology & Robarta presents

Michael Crane Book launch party: The Church of contradictions

Featuring special guests
Chris Wilson, Odette Snellen and Joel Cohen

The event will feature blues legend Chris Wilson.
playing some of his original songs and blues standards
Chris has released several acclaimed records that have charted
well on the ARIA charts and has supported Billy Joel,
Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello and has played at every major
festival in Australia. He’s one of the best harmonica
players in the world.

Local writer Michael Crane has appeared several times
at the Melbourne Writers Festival, The St Kilda Festival,
The Williamstown Literary Festival, the South Melbourne Festival,
the Art of a Difference Festival and the Darebin Music Feast

He has had more than 300 poems and stories published
in Australian, Canadian, US Literary journals
and also in anthologies, including the Best Australian Poems
2011 & 2014 and the Australian Love Poems (2013) and appeared
on ABC TV Voices program and ABC TV News and breakfast program.

The Church of Contradictions is a new collection of 135 prose poems

Special appearances by Odette Snellen, (former lyricist
with Rebecca’s Empire and co author of the popular
blog Punk & Blanket and Joel Cohen publisher of the St Kilda News
to talk about a forthcoming publication called the ST Kilda Book

THIS IS A FREE EVENT.

Saturday the 28th of February, 2015. 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm

Media enquiries contact: Michael Crane michaelcrane680@yahoo.com

Poetry Café

Rumi Komonz, Alex Skovron & Simon West

As part of Australian Poetry Poet@Your Local Program, Montsalvat presents their own Poetry Café of readings, and conversation on aspects of literary translation, in association with their Artist in Residence Lella Cariddi.

In this her fourth edition the feature poets and translators are:

Rumi Komonz, the editor of the 21st Canterbury Writers Anthology, 2014. Her presentation will be about haiku, its history and Japanese tradition, intercepted with some bilingual haiku readings.  

Alex Skovron, author of six collections of poetry and a prose novella. His reading will include poems from Towards the Equator (Puncher & Wattmann, 2014); from The Attic, a bilingual publication (PEN Melbourne, 2013); and from other work.

Simon West, a poet and Italianist. His reading will include poems born out of: The Marten Bequest Travelling and the BR Whiting Residency in Rome, and the Poetry Australia Tour of Ireland 2014; & from Thirty Australian Poets (UQP) and Young Poets: An Australian Anthology (John Leonard Press).

Matcham’s Studio, 1 February @ 1pm-3pm

Montsalvat
7 Hillcrest Avenue
Eltham VIC 3095
http://www.montsalvat.com.au
                                                                
Montsalvat entry fee applies.
Adult $14
Concession $10

Bookings: To book call Montsalvat on 03 9439 7712

Words by Benjamin Solah

Poetry gigs come and go. It’s always so exciting when a new gig comes up, in a new venue, or if we see someone taking the initiative to keep our scene chugging along by setting up their own gig. I’m in awe of some of the gigs and their organisers that have kept gigs running for so long, for their hard work and determination but also convincing venues and organisers to keep supporting spoken word when it doesn’t always seem like the most booming art form.

Some gigs have survived many venue swaps, as one pub decides to shun poetry, that convince another to keep it alive.

It’s also especially sad when a gig has to wrap up.

Dimitris Troaditis has been running poetry@fedsquare for the past two years, where he hosted a monthly poetry gig, inside the Atrium at Fed Square or upstairs at Beer DeLuxe, and was especially encouraging of poetry in other languages, himself writing and performing poetry in Greek.

Melbourne Spoken Word was very happy to support this event, publicising it along with all of the other gigs, and doing our little bit to get people along. I hope some of you got the chance to make it along one Saturday. I had the pleasure of performing alongside some refugee poets there one Saturday afternoon, and it was always a pleasure to meet the regular open mic readers that had called this event home.

Unfortunately, Fed Square have chosen to discontinue to the event from this year and so we’ve lost this treasure. Like Australian poetry as a whole lost ABC Poetica, and everyone remembers losing The Spinning Room due to the venue being refurbished, we hope that Dimitris continues to host a new gig at a new venue when he’s ready.

As one venue decides to not support poetry, we’ll find another that does and continue to find people to support it so we can keep on performing.

*Published at http://melbournespokenword.com/?p=1320 with lots of thanks.