Spoken Word

Encompassing Africa, Jamaica, Australia and the UK, the poem Demerara Sugar journeys through the sugar cane trade across centuries, countries and a family. In this exclusive recording, Maxine Beneba Clarke reads this epic poem from her new collection, Carrying the World.

Since last year, he has been on a perpetual poetic pilgrimage across Austaleya, Dreamerica, Canadada, Dangleterre, Paristhmus, Italicks, Cirque du Turquie and Singapore. Currently based in Mel Burn, he has applied for a Collide art award residency with CERN particle physics lab in Geneva and FACT art and technology institute in Liverpool, with the intention of curating a poetry project titled 'DisCERN'.He has published 1 chapbook 'All Other Destinations' (2010) and dozens of poems in journals and anthologies around the world. These 3 Poeteers frequently perform, record, write and apply their poetry and spoken word via a combination of travel and socia lmedia networking, as well as workshops for organisations such as Melbourne Laneway Learning. The 3 Poeeters also speak French as they are influenced by the literary experiments of OuLiPo (Ourvoir de Litterature Potentielle), so also perform and write and translate for la poesie Francophone . All in all they treat poetry as a worldwide wordplayground.

On this episode of Spoken Word, Carmen Main is Ela Fornalska's guest. She is a fierce, sensitive truth-sayer of a poet who explores the human condition of heart ache in all its guises and weaves musical themes through her work. A treat of a show. Take a listen...

Steeped in the long traditions of centuries of classic poetry, yet sharply inserted into contemporary society, Marc Testart's highly expressive vocal delivery flies over the widest range of emotions. A past Australian Poetry Slam champion, Marc shares not only his poetry but the thinking behind it with Spoken Word presenter Santo Cazzati.

Over the past 16-17 years Steve Smart has performed all over the world, run workshops, gigs, festivals (RIP Overload Poetry Festival) and been sporadically published. He has released six poetry CDs, various self-published chapbooks and has a massive web presence. His hair is no longer categorised as brown, it is now officially ‘salt and pepper’. As a poet Steve has been described as ‘Melbourne’s rockstar of performance poetry’ – (Perth Poetry Club), “wildly funny to deeply moving’ (Simon Leo Brown – abc.net.au) and ‘a raw, seething, hardcore poet who makes the rest of us look spineless’ (Amanda Anastasi – melbournespokenword.com). He lives in Footscray and is the current President of Melbourne Poets Union.

Tune in to hear internationally recognised award winning poet Gayelene Carbis as Ela Fornalska’s guest for August 2016 on 3CR’s Spoken Word.Music by Madeleine Peyroux and k.d.lang

Under various names and in a variety of disguises, ReVerse Butcher has been performing, experimenting with and publishing her poetry for 15 years. She was a founding member of the Speedpoets (QLD), and moved on to coordinate and collaborate on several other open mic poetry readings including: Trip the Word Fantastic (QLD), WamJam (QLD), Beat @ The Boat (NSW) and ContraVerse (QLD & VIC). She has previously sung or spoken with several musical acts including: The Electric Afterglow (QLD), The Molotov (QLD) and Trypswytch (QLD/NSW). ReVerse is currently engaged in a series of elaborate art experiments around Melbourne, called the #antiresidency which you may or may not ever find.

Join Ela Fornalska and her guest Megan Bailey, for some fierce, honest, delicate poetry. Take a front seat ride to this talented, brave poet's return to the poetry world. We discuss making the ugly beautiful, how writing a poem can be a full stop on an experience and a way of completing a moment. We also discuss meaning making, the confessional tradition, poetry and a sense of self and whether poems should be written from an authentic lived experience.Music by SiaPhotograph by Michael Reynolds

Massaging Himmler: A Poetic Biography of Dr Felix Kersten.Poetry Anne M CarsonPiano Julian BaileyThe story of Dr Felix Kersten is a remarkable story, an archetypal story of the meeting of good and evil. But who is this relatively unknown man?Dr Felix Kersten was masseur to Heinrich Himmler, one of the most feared high ranking Nazis, head of the Gestapo and the SS.As a masseur, Kersten used his therapeutic expertise gain influence over Himmler, allowing him to secure the release of tens, possibly hundreds of thousands of people. Another, better known hero was Oskar Schindler, responsible for the release of 1,100.Poems from the Massaging Himmler sequence are performed alongside Rachmaninov Preludes, Opus 23. Julian Bailey, who has been playing some of the Preludes for over 40 years. The pieces combine passages of sublime lyricism with others of passionate intensity and make a perfect foil for the dramatic sequence of Massaging Himmler Youtube interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CnZLir88AY&feature=youtu.be http://annemcarson.com/massaging-himmler-a-poetic-biography-of-dr-felix-kersten/ http://www.onlymelbourne.com.au/massaging-himmler#.V4jVZI7sep4 http://www.jhc.org.au/news-and-events/calendar-of-events/item/497-massaging-himmler.html www.anemcarson.comwww.singinlogic.com.au http://spokenword3cr.podbean.com/e/massaging-himmler-a-poetic-biography-of-dr-felix-kersten/