GLITCH SUNDAY 12 AUGUST

The Antipoet hits Melbourne this Sunday 12th August

West Australian poet, Allan Boyd (aka the Antipoet) arrives in Melbourne this week as part of the 2007 Overload Poetry Festival. And he's ready to play!

On Sunday 12th August - at the Glitch Bar and Cinema, North Fitzroy - Boyd will be joined by Melbourne performance poets, Ashley J Higgs and Jezza PA Speelman in a one-off experiment of sound, visuals and vocal collaborations.

A collaborative blend of performed poetry, vocal effects-processing, live laptop sonic-manipulation, rock-drumming and random visuals, Boyd will perform a brand-new batch of works for Melbourne audiences.

Since 1996, Allan Boyd's unique performance style has earned him a cult-reputation across the country. Borrowing from sound-poetry, the last-poets, hip-hop culture and informed by Australian politics, his acerbic words both entertain and engage.

His 2004 "Antipoet Manifesto", written as Emerging Writer in Residence at Fellowship of Australian Writers WA, has been republished in various countries including the US, the UK, Bangladesh and Oman.

A seasoned performance poet, musician, sonic collaborator, the Perth-based 40-year-old artist, labourer and web-designer, fronts two original independent bands in Perth and presents the weekly political-activist program "Perth Indymedia" on community radio station RTRFM.

Boyd says he is ecstatic to visit Melbourne again. "I'm ready to spit some hot sonic actions into the Melbourne winter. This will be my third trip to Melbourne for the Overload Festival," says Boyd. "I love it. Melbourne culture is inspiring. I'm looking forward to working with some old and new friends and collaborate whole new poetic experiences. Let's invent some paradigms..."

Allan Boyd's long-time friend, WA cellist and poet Kevin Gillam - together they form Perth indie-band "MiteyKo" - will also be in town to play a set at Federation Square on Friday 17th August and read poetry. The pair will also perform at Dante's, Fitzroy on Wednesday 15th August.

More information about Overload Poetry Festival:
http://www.overloadpoetry.com

paddling

paddling

under the stark imperfect structures, the halogen glare, we gather to kill the states of industrial gauge dispossession. the black sky a rigid scar of Christmas, a fence in the barbed wire sea.

here brother you have the right to perpetual desertion, disparity, dysfunction for certain, you and yr family in the wet salt face, the constant nauseous rumble of a diesel toxicity - the fossil peak drowning in a bat shit mountain, a shattered dreaming, a tattered cloth, a photograph of sisters lost.

and the roll roll roll as the nights heave closer to the excised zone - yr neck deep in jargon, a slight of the razor hand, and they slash n slice into race, they turn people into gates of words. our messages lost in the hegemonic trail of glass and fire. a tragedy in one foul act an outright victory, a cousin on ice, on fire on fire on fire...

and this week the riot is funded - the nearest broken computer, a missing key on a calculator - and I'll see you later, he said, his face crooked with rage.

and the batons in yr back as you approach the doors, the pack thinning to trickles, the horses high and hostile. and they spilled over the metal in droves, scaling the bloody walls, the children tossed to running doctors and lawyers and mothers and brothers and sisters and fathers.

and the setting desert sun, the thin orange dust in yr teeth. the star maps of this journey, this paddling farce to reach an open sea, to reach an open door, a concrete crack.

and in the bitter forests of 5000 islands we sing as the ripple of oar to ocean tears a new path, the rainbows chased us to the ridges, to the fences the fences.

---

performed at Kulcha, Fremantle as part of the "paddling for refugees" event hosted by Project Safecom... (See: Perth Indymedia Feature - More...)

BACKGROUND: In mid July 2007 Simon Keenan and David Corlett (freelance writer and author of Following Them Home: The Fate of the Returned Asylum Seekers) will embark on a sea kayaking journey in and around Australia's 'excised zone' - those parts of Australia's north (including Christmas Island, Ashmore Reef and almost 5,000 other Australian islands) that have been legislatively cut off from the migration zone in order to prohibit any asylum seeker arriving there from applying for protection in Australia. Asylum seekers who are found in the excised zone can be forcibly transferred to Nauru or elsewhere where their applications for protection are assessed in a system without an independent appeals mechanism and which is not subject to judicial oversight. Nor do such people have a right to independent legal advice. There is compelling evidence that this system has led to the return of asylum seekers to situations where their human rights have been violated. Some have been killed. Those asylum seekers found to be refugees have no right to be resettled in Australia or any other country and can wait for extended periods of time in limbo while their resettlement is negotiated between governments. Excision and its denial of access to Australian territory and the onshore protection determination process remains one of the key outstanding issues in Australia’s response to asylum seekers... Read More

Antipoet Melbourne Invasion

Antipoet MELBOURNE DATES...

From the Overload Festival 2007 Festival Program

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Sunday 12th August
Unknown Language
Venue: Glitch Bar and Cinema
Address: 318 St Georges Rd, Nth Fitzroy
Time: 8:00pm-11:00pm
Melbourne’s home of experimental poetics is back for another night that ya mother warned you about, but that’s just because she didn’t want you to find out she was going to be there, ogling Allan Boyd. Tut tut. Don’t tell her we said anything ok. Hosted by the inimitable Jezza P. Speelman, Unknown Language has been on a bit of a break for a few months and we are damn happy that it’s back for the Overload. There will be music, there will be noises that my Father swears aren’t music, there will be some hot fuckin’ shit going on. Featuring antipoet and other wonderful acts to tease, delight and possibly bludgeon you.

Wednesday 15th August
Once More Into The Inferno
Venue: Dantes Fitzroy
Address: 150 Gertrude St Fitzroy
Time: 8:00pm-12AM

Don’t you love Dante’s? And Dante’s loves poetry. And we love that TAA mural in the back room; which has to be seen to be believed. This night doesn’t really have a theme per se, let’s just say that we’ve invited some of our favourites along for a night that will be poetic, musical and possibly a little odd. Once again we’ve got poets from far flung places mingling with some local ruffians. What is Crystal Set? You ask. Harmonies darling, it’s all about the harmonies. Featuring: Spoken Treats (From the Melbourne Arts Factory), Allan Boyd (WA), Kevin Gillam (WA), Helen Child (WA), Ashley J Higgs, Crystal Set, Richard Hillman, Robbie Lane, John West

Friday 17th August
Under Star Poets - MiteyKo at Federation Square
Venue: BMW Edge Amphitheatre
Address: Federation Square, Flinders St, Melbourne CBD
Time: 7:00pm-10:00pm

I’ve written a lot of these blurbs and you think that I’d run out of things to say. Not even close. Music and poetry combine for the best night of your life. Ever. Well, except for that one night but that was different wasn’t it. The stars are truly coming out tonight, from Ireland, from Perth, from Elwood and Northcote and other refined places, this is going to rock. Literally. And did I forget to mention music, poetry AND bellydancing? I did? For shame. We’re aiming to fill a very large venue. This one’s ambitious no doubt about it, but that’s all right because it will be full. Oh yes, it will be full. Featuring: Death To Your Dreams (Sean Whelan & The Mime Set), Sugarfree Masons, Andy White (TBC), MiteyKo (aka Allan Boyd and Kevin Gillam), Trisnasari, Ben Ezra, Lish and Steve O’Prey, Belfast Poets...

Find out more about this bangin festival:
http://www.overloadpoetry.com

australianpoetryslam07

WA Stuff: Slam at the PICA BAR!

This is a callout to all poets, hip-hop artists and other outspoken wordsmiths: polish your werd, shine your rhymes and lip-spittle your lyrics for the AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM 2007 - with over $10,000 in cash and prizes on offer! What is a poetry slam..?

Slam heats are being held in city centres and regional venues across Australia between June and November 2007. Two finalists from each slam heat will compete in their state’s final, and the two top point scorers from each state final will travel to Sydney in December to battle it out for the national title at the State Library of NSW.

All contestants are given a mic, a live audience and just two minutes to impress the judges (selected at random at each heat) with their original spoken word, poetry, hip hop, monologues and stories.

Local spoken-word artists from each participating state and territory will host the slam heats and state finals, as well as entertain audiences with their own word artistry.

For details on National slam heats in your region

ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA

Updating this blog

The antipoet blog is undergoing a bit of an overhaul.

Time for a change.

Not much writing a lot of poetry lately.

Lots of slam action over the coming months.

Been busy with this australianpoetryslam07.org!

Off to Melbourne for the overloadpoetry.com in mid August

And this: www.thewordisout.net.au WA Poets Inc

And this: radicalhack.com my webserver...

Lots of things to do.