Indrani Perera

poet, publisher & mentor

Tag: Melbourne Spoken Word

Going Out With A Bang

The closing night for the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival at Howler in Brunswick on Sunday night was incredible. Six featured poets, four hours of spoken word and more inspiration than you could poke a stick at.

Jon Englezos had me wiping away surreptitious tears with his beautiful poem about his yai yai. A masterful example of the power of story to connect us all.

I am so lucky to live in country where we can all speak up and be heard. Huge thanks to Melbourne Spoken Word for bringing Rania Ahmed to the stage last night to share her poetry. Seeing the world through her eyes was a revelation.

Legendary poet Claire Gaskin rocked the stage last night with her reinterpretation of Greek mythology, giving voice to the women ignored by his/story.

I'm steeling reeling from Tenda McFly's performance. A mixture of spoken and sung word plus video and collaboration. If you're a poet, go check out Gladiator. It will inspire you to keep writing.

American poet Bill Moran gave a stream of consciousness Beat style performance melding spoken word and music with haunting images. He has got the most expressive face I think I've ever seen.

Headlining the event was the Individual World Poetry Slam champion Mic Ting. I was mesmerized by his eloquence and use of gestures to illustrate a point or heighten the moment. I attended his Extended Metaphor workshop on Saturday which was amazing. It was wonderful to then hear how he incorporates metaphor into his work. He also used characters and personas in his performance. This was beyond poetry. It was a masterclass in storytelling.

I hung around for the after party, chatting to fellow poets, meeting the features and not wanting the night to end. The whole festival has been the most incredible experience and I am so grateful to Benjamin Solah and the whole team over at Melbourne Spoken Word for all their hard work in putting the festival on.

July 31, 2019
Book Fair

Sunday morning saw me packing all my books into bags and heading back in to town for the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival Book Fair at Siteworks in Brunswick.

It was super fun to be spending a day hanging out with other poets and checking out all the cool things they're publishing. Lots of chapbooks, zines, second hand poetry books (thanks Fiona for the great haul!) and more. I loved Kat's beautiful chapbook, Hungry and her illustrated posters. Eddie Burger had a humongous range of zines for sale. Adiba was selling books in Syriac (the first international language), Arabic and English. Imagine being able to speak and write in three languages!

I was selling Defenestration, my hand bound chapbook, Wild Heart, as well as bookmarks and postcards from the book. I did really well and only have left 3 copies of my limited edition run of 25 for Wild Heart. If you couldn't make it to the Book Fair but want to buy a book, they're for sale in my online shop.

There was an open mic for the stall holders and Tim did a series of interviews with the authors during the day. It was great to chat to all the other poets and see what they're creating. I'm feeling very inspired now!

July 24, 2019
Mastering the Microphone

I was terrified of the microphone. Absolutely petrified. Completely intimidated. When I went to open mic nights and had to stand behind the microphone, I was a frozen bunny in the spotlight. I had no idea how to adjust it for my height or how to speak into it so I could be heard.

But that all changed on the weekend when I attended the Mastering The Microphone workshop with musician and poet Meena Shamaly. The workshops part of the phenomenal Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival. If only I had more time and didn't need to sleep, I would be going to all the things.

Meena has the best voice, a love of all things sound tech and a great way of sharing his passion. He taught us how to set up a mike stand, showed us how a mixer worked and then let us loose on the microphone buffet he had created. We got to experience where on the mic to speak into, how far away to stand, what to say to the sound guy to make us sound better and so, so much more. At the end Mena even hooked the mic up to an amp he'd brought long so I could have a play and see the difference in the sound.

It was so much fun playing with a piece of equipment that had terrified me. And really? All that cool new gear? You guys know I love good tools. Now I have a microphone, stand, speaker and mixer on my wish list. It would be so cool to have a set up at home to play with and to practice more.

July 22, 2019
Fresh Voices

I've spent the last six weeks alternating between a state of anxiety and excitement. I guess you could call it nervous anticipation. The cause? My first ever feature as a spoken word artist at the Fresh Voices event as part of the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival.

When Benjamin Solah of Melbourne Spoken Word asked me to do a fifteen minute set my response was 'Hell, yes!' I couldn't believe Ben had asked me to share the stage with Cat Lee, Thabani Tshuma and Poetpre. These guys have amazing poetry and have won all sorts of spoken words in the last year.

I've only been performing since the beginning of the year and although I dreamed of one day performing a set as a feature, I thought it would be years before that happened. Turned out I was wrong!

Once the excitement wore off however, doubt began to creep into the cracks and corners. Pretty soon it turned into dread. Fifteen whole minutes up on stage. Did I have enough material to make up a fifteen minute set? Was any of it good enough to share with an audience? Could I remember all my poems? What was I going to wear? How was I going to get there? What if no-one liked me and I died of shame?

~ these next photos were taken by Brendan Bonsack, photographer extraordinaire ~

Like most things, it turns out all the energy spent on worrying was a waste. I loved being behind the microphone and speaking to an audience of over 100 people at the North Fitzroy Library. My husband and beautiful girls came along to see my first ever feature and there were lots of friends in the audience too. It was my first time performing in front of them and one of the reasons for my anxiety (what will they all think of this side of me?). The experience of seeing familiar and friendly faces in the audience was incredible. I know I'm a poet but I have no words to describe it.

My friends loved the whole evening and all the open mic performers and other featured artists. It was fabulous to see their appreciation of the spoken word community and to share it with them. Sometimes the things you dread turn out to be the best things of all.

July 18, 2019
Open Mike Adventures

I've been diving head first into the terrifying recently. Going to spoken word gigs and putting my name down for the open mike section. Getting up there and reading my work to a room full of strangers. Like I said, terrifying and incredibly humbling to share a stage with giants in the Melbourne scene.

I've been to Passionate Tongues at the Brothers Arms in Fitzroy, Dan Poets at the Dan O'Connell in Carlton, Littlefoot & Co in Narrewarren and Girls on Key in Northcote. The first time I got up behind the mike I was petrified. Everyone was looking. And no-one was being distracted, they were all staring. And listening. To me. I somehow got through that very first poem, hand shaking as I held the piece of paper and spoke into the microphone. The audience were amazing and supportive. When I said it was my first open mike ever, they whooped and hollered. The poetry community here in Melbourne is the best!

I love hearing poets read their own work. There's nothing quite like it. Sometimes a word captures my ear and my imagination. Other times it's the poet's voice rolling and crashing on the shores of my memories. In the last few moths I've had the privilege of hearing Fenella Edwards, Benjamin Solah, Waffle Irongirl, Wani, Robbie Coburn and Krish Prasad. And they're just the featured artists.

If you're interested in spoken word and live in Melbourne check out the excellent Melbourne Spoken Word for gigs near you. There are amazing poets performing in venues all across Melbourne and a lot of the gigs are free. You can pretty much go see live poetry every night of the week. It's awesome. Go check it out!

May 27, 2019
2019 Poetry Challenge – Week Twelve

Week 12 words from @handelsit: friend, bank, hand, man, end.

I've spent my joy

in careless Autumn afternoons

now she is no friend of mine

and I must bank

on happiness instead

~

I hand over my heart

wrapped carefully

in lines of cramped

and almost illegible prose

the stony edifice of the man

behind the counter

rasps against my skin

and my pages curl inwards

to hide the end

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twelfth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

This one was really tricky. Both the words and finding the motivation to write it. I've cheated a little as it's in two parts. I just couldn't seem to get the first two words to fit neatly in the poem so I made a separate little introduction piece.

On the weekend, however, I did an amazing poetry workshop run by Melbourne Spoken Word, The artist was Joel McKerrow and he shared his creative process and performance technique. He said the only way to write good poetry is to write lots of bad poetry and then stitch the hidden pearls together into a beautiful necklace, Well maybe not the last bit but he writes a poem a day and apparently a lot of them are crap but sometimes, there's something good. It was an amazing experience learning from Joel and I'm feeling much more motivated to write poetry!

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

March 27, 2019
2019 Poetry Challenge – Week Twelve

Week 12 words from @handelsit: friend, bank, hand, man, end.

I've spent my joy

in careless Autumn afternoons

now she is no friend of mine

and I must bank

on happiness instead

~

I hand over my heart

wrapped carefully

in lines of cramped

and almost illegible prose

the stony edifice of the man

behind the counter

rasps against my skin

and my pages curl inwards

to hide the end

~~~~

Here are the words and my poem for the twelfth week of the 2019 Poetry Challenge.

This one was really tricky. Both the words and finding the motivation to write it. I've cheated a little as it's in two parts. I just couldn't seem to get the first two words to fit neatly in the poem so I made a separate little introduction piece.

On the weekend, however, I did an amazing poetry workshop run by Melbourne Spoken Word, The artist was Joel McKerrow and he shared his creative process and performance technique. He said the only way to write good poetry is to write lots of bad poetry and then stitch the hidden pearls together into a beautiful necklace, Well maybe not the last bit but he writes a poem a day and apparently a lot of them are crap but sometimes, there's something good. It was an amazing experience learning from Joel and I'm feeling much more motivated to write poetry!

If you want to join the 2019 Poetry Challenge, head on over to my Instagram account (@indraniperera) where I post the words for the week on Mondays (mostly) in my story. Write a poem and post it. Be sure to tag me and use the hashtags #2019poetrychallenge and #livepoetsclub.

If you don't want to write a poem, you can still be part of the 2019 Poetry Challenge. Send me five random words and I'll use them in a poem. Either DM me on Instagram with the words or send me an email (indrani at indraniperera dot com).

Happy writing!

March 27, 2019