Red Room Poetry

What can poetry do to change the world?

Earlier this year, we met up with poet and artist Jazz Money in a half-renovated room at Carriageworks during the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Scooched into the corner sitting cross-legged on the floor, Red Room Poetry Creative Producer Izzy Roberts-Orr spoke with Jazz about the radical potential of poetry, Sara M Saleh’s brilliant poem, ‘Border control: mediations’, and specificity as a gateway to the universal.

Jazz Money is a Wiradjuri poet and artist whose practice is centred around poetics to produce works that encompass installation, performance, film and print. Their most recent poetry collection is mark the dawn, published by UQP and now available at all good bookstores.

Sara M. Saleh is a human rights lawyer, organiser, writer, and the daughter of migrants from Palestine, Egypt, and Lebanon. She has been published and anthologised widely, and made history as the first poet to win both the Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize, and the Australian Book Review’s Peter Porter Poetry Prize. Her first full-length poetry collection, The Flirtation of Girls / Ghazal el-Banat is published by UQP, and her debut novel Songs for the Dead and the Living  is published by Affirm Press.

'Border control: mediations' by Sara M Saleh was published in Overland Issue 242, Autumn 2021, and was the winner of the 2020 Judith Wright Poetry Prize.

 

Explore Poetry Month

August is Poetry Month - a continent-wide celebration of contemporary Australian poetry established by Red Room Poetry to increase access, awareness and visibility of poetry in all its forms and for all audiences.

Explore the full program at https://poetrymonth.org.au/

This year, as part of Poetry Month, we're bringing the UK's Biggest Poetry and Performance Festival Down Under. The UK’s biggest poetry and performance festival BBC's Contains Strong Language comes to Sydney 28-31 August.

Check out the full program here - including events featuring both Jazz and Sara https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/contains-strong-language/

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Yirga is a writer, researcher and poet from Lalibela, Ethiopia. He currently lives in Whadjuk Noongar Boodja (Perth, Western Australia), where he is a Senior Lecturer at the Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin University.

His Amharic poetry was published in a solo collection, የተራሮች ጩኸት (The Cry of Mountains), and has been performed widely on stage and radio in Ethiopia. His English short stories and translated poems have been published in anthologies and journals, including Westerly, Unlimited Futures (Fremantle Press) and Ways of Being Here (Centre for Stories and Margaret River Press).

Yirga is also one of the inaugural recipients of the Emerging Poetes Residency, which is currently open for applications! Here he is reading his poem 'ኪዳን / Covenant'. Read the full poem here:

https://redroompoetry.org/poets/yirga-gelaw-woldeyes/covenant/

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Lulu Houdini is a proud Gamilaraay/Gomeroi woman, writer, artsworker, nurse and birth worker. She creates and explores around connections with poetry of land, sea, sky, story.

The main themes she explores are texture, Country, identity, traditional language, kweer nature, sensuality, love and finding our way back home to the guniimara, the mother's hands. She currently lives on and cares for Kabi Kabi/Gubbi Gubbi & Jinibara Country, Sunshine Coast.

Lulu is also one of the inaugural recipients of the Emerging Poets Residency, which is currently open for applications! Here she is reading her poem 'Mangrove Girls'. Read the full poem here:

https://redroompoetry.org/poets/lulu-houdini/mangrove-girls/

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Today's #30in30 poet is freelance writer and author of Martu descent Karen Wyld!

Karen has recently authored the books Where the Fruit Falls (UWA Publishing) and Heroes, Rebels and Innovators: Inspiring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from history (Hachette Australia Books ). She lives by the sea on Kaurna Yarta in South Australia.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/karen-wyld/a-day-at-the-beach

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/sukhjit-kaur-khalsa/kush-dil-happy-heart

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“Poetry is about freedom and it's survival. Poetry for me was lifesaving.” ~ Mohammad Awad

MAD Poetry Producer, and Poetry Month Senior Producer David Stavanger draws out selected poems from the MAD Poetry archives in this episode, plus a range of selected poems previously commissioned as part of Poetry Month #30in30.

If a poem was a room you could walk into, whose voices might you hear? Red Room Poetry grew from a community radio show focused on the voices of Australian poets. Now in our 20th year, explore Red Room Poetry’s audio archives including commissioned poems from the first two years of the national Poetry Month and beyond.

Curated and hosted by David Stavanger

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/andrew-sutherland/my-most-watched-youtube-searches-year-so-far/

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/melanie-mununggurr/stars/

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/harry-reid/pinged-hammy/

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Poetry Month (1–31 August) is an initiative presented by Red Room Poetry to increase the profile of Australian poetry in all of its forms. Every day across Poetry Month, 30in30 delivers new original poetry, reflections and writing prompts from some of the country’s leading poets, public figures, and spoken word artists. https://redroompoetry.org/projects/poetry-month/

Read the full poem here: https://redroompoetry.org/poets/david-quirk/compromising-ambiance/

Our theme music is 'DIY’ by Material Gurl https://app.soundstripe.com/songs/14723 Created with the support of Australia Council for the Arts,Create NSW, RISE and Copyright Agency.

Support the show: https://redroompoetry.org/donate/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.