This Saturday 22nd February we have the wonderful poets David Stavanger (Qld) + Mattie Goedegebuur (Holland) to entertain us.
David Stavanger is an Australian poet, performer, cultural producer, editor and lapsed psychologist. His first full-length poetry collection The Special (UQP, 2014) was awarded the Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Poetry Prize and the Wesley Michel Wright Poetry Prize. David co-directed Queensland Poetry Festival (2015-17) and is the co-editor of Australian Poetry Journal 8.2 Spoken, Rabbit 27 Tense, Verity La Slot Machine and SOLID AIR: Collected Australian & New Zealand Spoken Word (UQP, 2019). His next collection is Case Notes (UWAP, 2020). David is also sometimes known as Green Room-nominated spoken weird artist Ghostboy. These days he lives between the stage and the page.
Mattie Goedegebuur is a teacher/educator. Born in Vlissingen, the Netherlands, she is a committed people-person and works primarily with people with personality disorders. She has always been fascinated by the possibility of playing with language. She observes the world around her with curiosity . She wants to capture it in words and pictures and displays it in its own perspective. She reflects her thoughts on paper.
Mattie’s poetry is widely published in magazines and over 28 poetry anthologies. She often recites her work published in three poetry collections/books ‘Pure Poetry’ (2014) 'Double Poets’ (2015) in collaboration with Derrel Niemeyer and ‘Unveiled‘ (2017).
Please join us to celebrate poetry this Saturday afternoon 2pm - 4pm at the Moon Café, 323 William Street Northbridge with David Stavanger and Mattie Goedegebuur + open-mike.
This next few weeks, we have the following features + usual open mike:
22-Feb-20 David Stavanger (Qld) + Mattie Goedegebuur (Holland) + open-mike
29-Feb-20 Letters to the Earth (Writing to a Planet in Crisis), with Allan Boyd, Allan Padgett, Ann Gilchrist, Coral Carter, Jackson, Scott-Patrick Mitchell + open-mike
See details below - this Saturday date only occurs every 28years
7-Mar-20 Woman Scream, in celebration of International Woman’s Day - WAPI event
Georgia Hooper-MC, Emily Sun, Raihanaty A Jalil, Biddle, Virginia O'Keefe, Ella Wylynko, JP
No open-mike that day - 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 …
There is a publication called ‘Letters to the Earth’ [ https://www.letterstotheearth.com/ ] which was published to highlight creative responses to climate change.
It’s a wonderful book and Vivienne Glance is the spark for a similar initiative in Perth.
Perth Poetry Club will host a Letters to the Earth gig on Saturday 29th Feb 2pm-4pm. Feature readers Allan Boyd, Allan Padgett, Ann Gilchrist, Coral Carter, Jackson, Scott-Patrick Mitchell will read their poems written for the occasion plus poems from the Letters to Earth anthology composed by wonderful poets/writers like Kate Tempest, Mary Oliver, Steve Wright.
Open mikers are encouraged to read their own poems on the subject, and there have been many of these read over the months at the Club, so let’s make a feature of it.
There will be regular open-mike as well.
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 aim is to produce a chapbook with the ultimate aim that these chapbook poems would be read at Voicebox later in March this year.
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?