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
Workshop bookings
$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
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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
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/
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
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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
corner Shenton Road and Claremont Crescent
Claremont
next to Claremont train station
Lorikeet House
104 Cambridge Street
West Leederville
near Chappell Lane
Mattie Furphy House
Bush Heritage Precinct next to Allen Park
Kirkwood Street
Swanbourne
Moon Cafe
323 William Street
Northbridge
near Newcastle Street
Northbridge Piazza Community Room
upstairs Northbridge Piazza
corner Lake and James Streets
Northbridge
entrance under the Big Screen
Paper Mountain
267 William Street
Northbridge
near Aberdeen Street
Steep stairs with poor disability access
Rosemount Hotel
459 Bar
459 Fitzgerald St
North Perth
Universal Rooftop Bar
221 William St
Perth
Rooftop, no disabled access
The 2017 Perth Poetry Festival is part of th City of Perth Winter Arts Season and is supported by