PANEL DISCUSSIONS

VENUES

GUEST POET BIOGRAPHIES

To download a one page summary of all festival events, click on the link 2017 program 9

For event news and interviews, check out the Festival on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/wapoets/

TICKETS and CONTACTS

Tickets online, some events door sales only. Ticketed events will have limited door sales

Event bookings

www.trybooking.com/QWVC

Workshop bookings

www.trybooking.com/QNMP

$20 per workshop

$15 per workshop (WA Poets Inc. members and concession)

Season ticket

All six workshops $100

$75 (WA Poets Inc. members and concession)

The program is subject to change without notice

All open mike sessions are at the MC’s discretion and are subject to time limits

FESTIVAL GALA OPENING

Thursday 17 August

Patron’s address by Amanda Joy

All guest poets

Luis Francia, Lydia Lockett, Susan Fealy, Andy Jackson, Luka Buchanan, Dennis Haskell, Matt Norman, Mags Webster, Tim Gallagher

Creatrix prize presentations

Creatrix Anthology No. 2 launch by Peter Jeffery

7 – 10 pm

$15 / $10 concession www.trybooking.com/QWVC

Catered

Wine and beer for sale

Northbridge Piazza Community Room
Back to top

EVENTS and READINGS

11th to 20th August

Poetry on the Big Screens and Facebook

Every day of the festival works by members of WA Poets Inc. and clients of Lorikeet House will be screened at unscheduled times on Big Screens in the Perth Cultural Centre mall in James Street and at the Northbridge Piazza, and posted on Facebook.

Friday 11th August

Sounding Off

Sound poetry and poets working with sound

Chris Arnold, Blowjobs and Growth, Bozo, Mar Bucknell, Scott-Patrick Mitchell, Sage and more

7 – 10 pm

$10 / $5 concession at the door

The Artifactory

Saturday 12th August

Youthful Transgressions

Biddle, Luka Buchanan, Melissa Clements, D. Patch Miller, Nic Kowald, Taonga Sendama and open mic with a twist: all poets must be between the ages of 15 and 20

MC Saoirse Nash

Presented in association with Said Poets Society and Perth Poetry Club

2 – 4 pm

Donation at the door

The Moon Cafe

WA Heat for the Australian Poetry Slam
Perth Slam presents Australian Poetry Slam – WA Heat 2

Hosted by The Antipoet & Laundryman
Presented by Perth Slam

20 slam spots available at the venue on the day.
Sign up from 4.30pm-5pm. Slam starts at 5PM.
Three top-scoring poets will go though to the WA final. Two WA winners will receive prizes and a spot in the National Final in October. http://www.australianpoetryslam.com/

View the Facebook event for WA Heat 2.

4.30-6.30pm

$10 Entry / $5 Concession

the Rosemount Hotel

Multicultural Voice – World in Words

Tineke Van der Eecken, Kate Wilson and Zainab Syed. Music by Saeed Danesh and Rachel Wyder

If poetry is the music of being human then it’s playing out loud at this event! Belgian-born Tineke Van der Eecken weaves multiple languages and experiences of love and loss. Kate Wilson, an award-winning performance poet, invites you into her world of mermaids and creates a storm in a teacup with clever wordplay. Zainab Syed is an internationally touring Pakistani Spoken Word Artist who has performed in the US, UK, Europe, South Asia and Australia.

The soundscapes of Iranian percussionist Saeed Danesh and multiinstrumentalist Rachel Wyder accompany the performances.

Includes an open mic (2-5 minutes each) for local poets who have poems (or parts of poems) in a language other than English.

7 – 9 pm

$20 / $15

Tickets at https://form.iwannaticket.com.au/

The Goods Shed

Follow this event on facebook click here

Sunday 13th August

OOTA and Books

Out Of The Asylum poets Jo Clarke, Ross Jackson, Maureen Gibbons, Shane McCauley, Kevin Gillam, Chris Konrad and Rose van Son read from their latest publications

2 – 4 pm

Free

Mattie Furphy House

Anti-Slam

You’ve seen the wonders of the Perth Slam … Now get ready for the Anti-Slam. Run almost the same way as a poetry slam – sign-ups at the door and order pulled at random from a hat – but it’s the lowest score, that is, the worst poem that wins! Winner takes home a chunk of the door and the glory of being the Best at Being the Worst.

7 – 9 pm

$10 waged / $5 unwaged at the door

Universal Rooftop Bar

Wednesday 16th August

Spoken Word Perth

Luka Buchanan, Matt Norman and many more

7 – 9 pm

$5 at the door

Paper Mountain

Thursday 17th August

Sonnets and Suites: Music and Words for the Soul by City of Perth Library

Kevin Gillam plus limited open mike

12.30 – 1.30pm

Poetry and music share much in common; flow, rhythm, meaning and expression. Audience members will be invited to read one of their own poems or a favourite piece of verse.

Free

To register your interest please visit https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/sonnets-and-suites-music-and-words-for-the-soul-tickets-36097101402

Festival Gala Launch

See above for details

Friday 18th August

Mental Wellness Poetry

Gary De Piazzi, Kevin Gillam and Lorikeet clients from the anthology Open Your Mind, plus open mic for people to share their own journeys to mental wellness in a supportive atmosphere

11.30 am – 12.30 pm

12.30 pm lunch

Free entry including lunch and a copy of the 2017 anthology

Lorikeet House

OUTspoken

Jakob Boyd, Ellen-Mai Bresnihan-Delaney, Luka Buchanan, Chase Houghton, Saoirse Nash, Kai Schweizer, Carissa Wright

MC Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Our annual queer poetry mega-mic night

7 – 9 pm

$5 at the door

The Dutch Trading Co.

All proceeds go to The Freedom Centre www.freedom.org.au

Supported by Crow Books

The Beauty of Ghosts

Luis Francia, Mags Webster and Nandi Chinna

An idiosyncratic suite of poems envisioned as a theatre of poetry. The works revolve around the Filipino immigrant experience in the United States, as seen through the eyes of various individuals, imagined but also real, and deal with the intersections of memory and history, racism, neo-colonialism, hope, survival and contemporary realities.

It presents poems from what the poet calls ‘Five Voices.’ They are

Alter Ego (contemporary middle-aged Filipino-American)
Comfort Woman (sex slave of the Japanese during World War II)
Manong (Filipino immigrant old-timer)
Overseas Filipina worker / nurse / bar girl
Teener (teenage Filipino-American rapper)

This work had its world premier in 2007 in New York.

9 – 10 pm

$5 at the door

The Dutch Trading Co.

Saturday 19th August

Perth Poetry Club

All guest poets: Luis Francia, Susan Fealy, Andy Jackson, Luka Buchanan, Dennis Haskell, Matt Norman, Mags Webster

Music by Tim Gallagher

2 – 4 pm

Donation

Moon Cafe

WA Heat for the Australian Poetry Slam
Perth Slam presents Australian Poetry Slam – WA Heat 3

Hosted by The Antipoet & Laundryman
Presented by Perth Slam

4.30-6.30pm

$10 Entry / $5 Concession

the Rosemount Hotel

WA Final: 4.30-6.30pm Sat, August 26 – MAIN ROOM, the Rosemount Hotel

Guest Features

Luis Francia, Susan Fealy, Dennis Haskell, Mags Webster

Music by Tim Gallagher

7 – 9 pm

$15 / $10 www.trybooking.com/QWVC

Northbridge Piazza Community Room

Sunday 20th August

Voicebox

Luis Francia, Susan Fealy, Andy Jackson, Dennis Haskell, Mags Webster

Terri-ann White launches Susan Fealy’s book Flute of Milk

2 – 4 pm

The Goods Shed

Free but registration is essential at http://form.iwannaticket.com.au/

Festival Close

Ros Spencer Poetry Prize

Features: Andy Jackson, Matt Norman, Luka Buchanan plus all other guest poets and open mike

Catered

Wine and beer for sale

7 – 10 pm

$15 / $10 www.trybooking.com/QWVC

Northbridge Piazza Community Room

PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Friday 18th August

The Relevance of Performance Poetry

Luis Francia, Matt Norman, Luka Buchanan, Allan Boyd

Facilitated by Scott-Patrick Mitchell

Now more than ever spoken word and performance poetry are hitting the mainstream. What is the appeal of these forms of poetry? How are they shaping the future of poetry? What’s the difference between a slam poem, spoken word and performance poetry? And why do so many academics openly snub the form?

Free

4.30 – 6 pm

Northbridge Piazza Community Room

Saturday 19th August

Poetry in an Age of Uncertainty

Luis Francia, Susan Fealy, Dennis Haskell, Mags Webster

Facilitated by Dennis Haskell

Advances in science mean that we live in an age of the greatest amount of knowledge that humankind has ever known. Widespread education and the internet have made that knowledge more widely available than ever before. Yet few would doubt that ours is also an age of uncertainty – uncertainty about social, cultural and moral values and about the purposes of human life.

Poetry has a lesser role in developed societies than it once had but it could be argued that these fundamental uncertainties make poetry more important to us than ever. Or it could be argued that poetry, as Auden famously wrote, ‘makes nothing happen’.

Free

4.30 – 6 pm

Northbridge Piazza Community Room

Sunday 20th August

Poetry in Multiculturalism

Andy Jackson, Tineke Van der Eecken, Rafeif Ismail, Marziya Mohammedali

Facilitated by Annamaria Weldon

In recent years ‘multiculturalism’ has become a controversial concept in political discussions of Australian society but there is no doubt that Australia now has a multicultural identity. The distinguished demographers James Walter and Margaret MacLeod have declared that this means ‘an end to old ideas of an anglocentric citizenship’ and have called for ‘a language that would unify where common interests could be claimed, but that would accommodate heterogeneity, diversity and difference.’ How can contemporary Australian poetry accommodate such issues in a single language, English, albeit one that has incorporated words from all over the world.

4.00 – 6 pm

The Goods Shed

Free but registration is essential at https://form.iwannaticket.com.au/event/poetry-in-multiculturalism-panel-MTMxNzI

Follow this event on facebook click here
Back to top

VENUES

The Artifactory

8 / 16 Guthrie Street
Osborne Park
near O’Malley Street

City of Perth Library

Auditorium
573 Hay Street
Perth

The Dutch Trading Co.

243 Albany Highway
Victoria Park
near Mackie Street

The Goods Shed