POETRY SPECIAL PERFORMANCE Bronwyn performing at Sisters for Sisters at The Toff in Town, Melbourne. Photo by Philip Werner IT’S POETRY … BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT Forget the dreary recitations of droning verse that you remember from your schooldays. Since then poetry has leapt off the page and into pubs and parks, where it’s entertaining a much wider audience. Award-winning poet BRONWYN LOVELL writes of the new enthusiasm for poetry that’s a social and multisensory experience. t’s not that small collection of lonely and comedy – performance poetry is magical to Ineglected books that most readers walk past behold. Whether you love or loathe poetry in at the back of your local bookstore. It’s not the books, the poetry that is performed live on baffling lines your teacher made you memorise a stage is infused with an electricity that you to pass your high school English exams. And don’t get from a silent page. The poems are it’s not old-fashioned or difficult to understand. evocative and will engage and inspire – and So what is performance poetry? It’s vibrant, they’re guaranteed to stir something deep inside relevant and happening right now at a venue even the most poetically challenged. near you. If most poetry on the page leaves you a little Spanning a wide range of the artistic perplexed, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised spectrum and borrowing techniques from by the accessibility of performance poetry. You other classic performance arts – such as theatre, will rarely come away from a performance storytelling, rap, speech-making and stand-up poem wondering what it was all about. Poetry 18 GOOD READING APRIL 2014 GOODREADINGMAGAZINE.COM.AU PERFORMANCE POETRY SPECIAL comes to life when poets of people still living a Bronwyn performing employ their whole at the Muddy Rivers country lifestyle, and bodies as well as their Slam, Noise Bar, bush verse continues voices as instruments to Melbourne. Photo by to appeal to rural and express their poems. Michael Reynolds urban audiences alike. Performance poetry Contemporary topics isn’t a newfangled fad. are often performed in It’s taking poetry back bush poetry to brilliant to its roots, which are comic effect. firmly steeped in the If you really want oral tradition. And for to experience how every beanie-wearing entertaining poetry hip-hop poet can be, you should try performing spoken going to a poetry slam. word beats in the city, Each participating poet you can bet there’s must perform within an Akubra-wearing, a strict time limit. (So Driza-Bone-clad if someone’s poetry is regional lad or lass really awful, at least you reciting a ballad. won’t have to endure it Performance poetry for long.) And at poetry announces itself in many slams, the audience is forms and in myriad an active part of the voices. performance. Go along Bush poetry is for your modern-day Banjo and you might even be chosen as a judge, since Paterson and Henry Lawson types who write the judges are randomly and creatively selected rhyming poetry, usually narrating yarns from from the audience at the beginning of each country life. Before you say that that’s not your show (if you get hit in the head by a Fantale thing, just remember that the unofficial Aussie that means you’ve been chosen). And if you’re anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’, is a classic example not a judge, but you think the judges are doing of this style, and who can resist its charm? If a lousy job, you are actually encouraged to boo you’d like to see bush poetry in all its glory, get and hiss like you’re at a panto. Slam poetry yourself along to a campfire at the Dunedoo audiences are completely invested in the art Bush Poetry Festival, the Bundy Bush Poetry they are there to witness. It’s poetry for the Muster, the Toolangi Festival or The Man people, by the people. from Snowy River Bush Festival. They’re teaching performance poetry Don’t make the mistake of thinking that in schools these days and inspiring new bush poetry is out of date. There are plenty generations of students with a love of words. Poetry slam etiquette is a subtle way of showing appreciation and Poetry slam audiences are very expressing encouragement to the poet during passionate, but if you were to cheer a poem without distracting them from their or wolf-whistle during a poem, you performance or interrupting. It’s also might drown out the words of the poet respectful to other listeners. or upset their concentration. So here’s Slam poetry effectively turns poetry into a tip: if you dig what a poet is doing, you a sport. There are qualifying heats, state finals can click your fingers to let them know; this and supreme glory for the overall winners. GOOD READING APRIL 2014 19 POETRY SPECIAL PERFORMANCE Poetry lessons are no wealth of resources and longer met with groans local gig guides online because these days that will lead you to the poetry is totally cool. many pubs, bars, parks (I sense your suspicion and unexpected places and disbelief, but where performance honestly, it is!) poetry tends to pop up In Victoria, and make itself at home. participating high schools If you feel as though compete in Australian you’re one of those Poetry’s annual teen readers who loves prose team poetry slam, but has never really OutLoud. Students write understood poetry, or and perform together: who has felt a little honing harmonies, intimidated by poetry’s mastering metaphors pretence to high and mesmerising art, then I especially their audience at the urge you to give Melbourne Writers performance poetry a Festival each year. To Bronwyn performing at go. I think you’ll find it Passionate Tongues at the my knowledge this is the Brunswick Hotel, Melbourne refreshing. only team poetry event 2011. Photo by Michael Reynolds At the very least in Australia, but with you’ll discover that any luck it will catch on poetry has a much and go national. broader definition and far wider reach than you The adult competition, however, is already had ever imagined. nationwide and has been running for years. It’s called the Australian Poetry Slam and there are Bronwyn Lovell is a Melbourne-based poet heats at a local library near you. who works for Writers Victoria. Her poetry has But if competitive poetry isn’t really your been published in Australian Love Poems, thing, open mic events might be more to your Antipodes, Cordite Poetry Review and liking. Open mics attract poets of all ages, levels Global Poetry Anthology. She has won the and styles, and songwriters and storytellers Adrien Abbott Prize for Poetry and has been too. Beginners are always warmly welcomed shortlisted for the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the and encouraged. The standard is, as you might Bridport Prize and the Montreal International expect, variable at such events, but generally it’s Poetry Prize. Find out more about Bronwyn, her surprisingly good. I bet you’ll be impressed by philosophy of writing and her performances at your local line-up. bronwynlovell.com. Poetry has recently had a huge resurgence in popularity and it’s attracting unlikely fans and Want to learn more about participants to its ranks. But don’t take my word performance poetry? for it. Check it out for yourself. Poets are not just at writers’ festivals; you’ll australianpoetryslam.com find performance poets at fringe festivals and melbournespokenword.com comedy festivals too. Not to mention the events australianpoetry.org that specialise in poetry, like the Queensland sydneypoetry.com Poetry Festival, the Tasmanian Poetry Festival writersvictoria.org.au and the WA Poetry Festival. There is also a 20 GOOD READING APRIL 2014 GOODREADINGMAGAZINE.COM.AU.