This Saturday 7th March, W.A. Poets Inc. is hosting Woman Scream, in celebration of International Woman’s Day with Georgia Hooper as MC
and wonderful poets, Emily Sun, Raihanaty A Jalil, Biddle, Virginia O’Keefe, Wendy Beach + JP.
No open-mike – just celebrate great poets and their poetry.
Also there is a call to submit poems to Letters to our Home, the initiator is Vivienne Glance.
The Background stems from the book “Letters to the Earth", actor, Emma Thompson, writes: “The astronauts… describe it so well… They suddenly see vulnerable beauty of our pale blue dot in the reaches of dark space. They feel huge love and empathy for it and, crucially, they feel deeply protective. Art – in all its forms – can turn us all into astronauts. It can help us out of the prison of assumption and the caveats of ignorance into the atmosphere of clarity and hope.” “Letters to the Earth” came about as a creative response to global activism calling for action on climate change.
In a homage to this publication, we are calling for responses from writers in Western Australia to submit their own letter in response to the climate and ecological emergency for publication in “Letters to our Home”. In particular, we ask that the work refers to our own unique home. In our state, we have oceans, forests, deserts, rivers, wetlands, parks; we have unique and wonderful plant and animal species found nowhere else on Earth; we face challenges with the fossil fuel extracting, logging, and other planet-harming activities of our economy; and the corporate capture of our political system.
At the same time, we’re privileged to share this place with the Nyoongar nation, one of the oldest, continuous First Nation cultures; with people putting themselves on the frontlines to protect precious places; and a creative community that cares for our emotional and aesthetic needs.
Your submission to “Letters to our Home” could be a letter, written as prose or as a poem, to a special place in WA, to future or past generations, to other species, or even to those people in positions of power and influence. Vivienne Glance says “I’d like to promote the creative responses to climate change and the recent bushfires, as I believe the arts have a great deal to offer when helping us with overwhelming issues such as these.” The ultimate aim is to produce a chapbook with the aim that these chapbook poems would be read at Voicebox in March.
What is your perception of climate change, the recent ongoing bushfires, and your response? Is the Earth in crisis? Is humanity in crisis? Do we owe the Earth an apology – out of love, loss, emergence/emergency, hope, action, the politics? The crisis might also be a personal internal one, and can the Earth help heal our lives? Is there room for any optimism?
The next few weeks, we have the following features + usual open mike:
7-Mar-20 Woman Scream, in celebration of International Woman’s Day W.A. Poets Inc. event
with Georgia Hooper as MC + Emily Sun, Raihanaty A Jalil, Biddle, Virginia O’Keefe, Wendy Beach, JP
No open-mike – just celebrate great poets and their poetry.
14-Mar-20 Mike Greenacre + open-mike
21-Mar-20 Mega Open-mike where everyone is a feature, 5-minutes maximum
28-Mar-20 Carol Millner and Tim Parkin + open mike …
All with open-mike, not to be missed …