Spoken Word

Rik the Most LIVE @ the Dan O'Connell Hotel

Kerry Scuffins reads from her new book, The Million Star Hotel. This hotel is the night sky, appreciated only by the homeless. Kerry's poetry has a sensitivity to the vulnerable and reflects her broad life experience.

Anne Elvey's Sanctuary 267 is a long poem that commemorates the refugees who are now in Australia who had been on Nauru. Each one is given a name and a description and the intention is to universalise the experience of seeking sanctuary. This poem is read by three voices, poet, Anne Elvey,  producer, Di Cousens and actor, Ezra Bix. The 267 people from Nauru were the focus of a campaign to Let Them...

Maurice McNamara can charm a room full of people who thought they didn't like poetry. He is down to earth and easygoing, with a subtle and peculiar way of saying the commonplace and the ordinary. He reads from his book Half Hour Country, which sounds like fireside chat storytelling with a musical lilt.

Anne Elvey's 'Sanctuary 267' is a long poem that commemorates the refugees who are now in Australia who had been on Nauru. Each one is given a name and a description and the intention is to universalise the experience of seeking sanctuary. This poem is read by three voices, poet, Anne Elvey,  producer, Di Cousens and actor, Ezra Bix. The 267 people from Nauru were the focus of a campaign to Let Th...

Gabrielle completed a PhD in creative writing at The University of Western Australia. While finishing, she completed her second book o poetry, Les Belles Lettres. Her first collection is called Don Juanita and the love of boys. She has been published in numerous anthologies, including The Penguin Anthology of Australian Poetry. She has performed her work at the Big Day Out and Overload Festival, a...

A Live recording of Girls on Key at Open Studio in NorthcoteThis weeks features are: Cassandra-Elli and Lauren Lee Williams

Marty Smith grew up in the remote hill country pahiatua and the sea. Her father made his kids learn to ride bareback hanging on by their knees so the whole time she was a track work rider in New Zealand and England she never fell off. Marty grew up in a time when smoking was communal and companionable and the people she loved floated through a blue haze like mirages. she wanted to touch them back...

Tune in for this cracker of an ep with RikTheMost (Rikki Livermore).We talk Melbourne vs London, slam, dance, this awesome poet's process and more. You'll also be treated to three pieces including nuuu sh*t - 3CR Spoken Word EXCLUSIVE oooooooowwwwww exclusive...

Vicki Viidikas was born in Sydney 1948. (The same year as Michael Dransfield.) Her parents split up when she was a child and her mother moved to Queensland where Vicki went to school until she was 15. She came to Sydney and studied art for a year, took a series of casual jobs as a waitress, then employment at Abbey’s bookshop near Sydney Town Hall. She started writing at sixteen and never stopped....

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 'Dis...

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 r...

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 pr...

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 poe...

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 t...

Santo Cazzati reads all of the prizewinning and placegetting poems in this year's Rhonda Jankovic Awards for social justice through literature. The late Rhonda Jankovic was the founder of the Spoken Word programme, a long time stalwart at 3CR and a tireless grassroots activist for many social justice issues.

Kylie and Benjamin Solah perform at the 3CR Fundraiser

A live recording from the 3CR Fundraiser @ Hares & Hyenas of Sandy Jeffs and Peter Bakowski

This is a live recording made at Hares and Hyenas on 29 May 2016. Judith Rodriguez reads new poetry, including a series of poems about Oodgeroo Noonuccall - Kath Walker. They knew each other in Brisbane in the 1950s when a group of friends gathered to talk philosophy, read poetry and make music at the home of John Manifold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oodgeroo_NoonuccalJudith is a legend of Aust...

Robert James Conlon is a long time exponent of the art of taking an audience in one direction, only to sneak up behind them and yell 'Gotcha!'. This is not to say he will not put himself in the firing line. We all come under scrutiny and Robert's work features a high level of self-analysis. He has been a part of the Melbourne poetry scene since the 90s and has performed widely; in addition to his...