Streets of Your Town

Well happiest of New Years to you all, my dedicated Streets of Your Towners! With all the agitation and conflict in the world at the moment—I thought what we need on Streets of Your Town to start this year is whimsy. Something to make us smile and stir a sense of childlike awe in us again. And so off I meandered in Mildred the Cantankerous Kombi to the Woodford Folk Festival. It’s on every year in...

You can’t be what you can’t see. It’s a saying that prompted a former AFL player to create a children’s band, so that his kids could be exposed to more than the bland musical world they were offered. Nick Gill is the founder of children’s band The Quokkas, which he started in 2020 with a mission to show children a modern and inclusive Australia through song. State Library of Queensland acquires my...

I’ve just returned from one of the most exciting secondments of my now three decade journalism career—to the Cathedral of Sport the great MCG, where I was part of the National Indigenous Radio Service (NIRS) team covering the 2023 AFL grand final between Collingwood and the Brisbane Lions. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

My amazing Wandering Journo Tribe! We made it! Can you believe it Streets of Your Towners—this is it—the 100th episode of the little indie podcast that could. Thanks for making this milestone with me—and here’s to many more episodes of Streets of Your Town. Thanks so much for your support—could do this without you! xx Nance Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substa...

Today we’re revisiting Vidya Makan, who you may remember from her episode in December last year when she was one of the performers in the smash hit touring musical Six . Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

This week we bring you the wonderfully eclectic Matt Hsu’s Obscure Orchestra. From a shy kid on the fringes to years later bringing together an eclectic group of musicians in an orchestra bearing his name, Matt Hsu has found the power of music and passed that joy onto dozens of others. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

This week’s Streets of Your Town takes you into the world of fast and slow fashion, and what we can all do to lessen the burden of clothes waste on the world. Have you ever looked down at what you’re wearing, or into your wardrobe, and wondered where those materials came from? Who made your outfit, and at what cost to them compared to the cost you paid for it? Or pondered what the true cost of tha...

Well this week, my loyal band of Wandering Journo subscribers, Streets of Your Town profiles the amazing and very humble artist and free spirit Angus McDiarmid from the tiny Queensland town of Boonah. It’s a tribute to the creatives who live the life less travelled. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

Performing in the national spotlight is far from a passing phase for Julian Kuo, whose dedication to his craft since a young age has been rewarded with a prized place in the Australian cast of Hamilton . “I don’t think that Hamilton is ever going to be one little show. It’s a massive beast and it’s become this massive pop culture phenomenon, which is very unusual for us in musical theatre,” Julian...

It’s rare that a musician makes such a mark with her first EP that Rolling Stone US magazine raves and international world music festivals beckon you to play. But that’s exactly what has happened to Brisbane-born and Melbourne-based artist Tiana Khasi, whose distinctive and captivating music will grace the WOMADelaide stage this weekend. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project...

The Tony, Grammy, Emmy, Olivier and Pulitzer Prize winning creator came to Brisbane this weekend, to watch the Australian company perform Hamilton —his worldwide musical juggernaut that combines jazz, hip hop, R&B and Broadway musical styles to tell the story of American founding father Alexander Hamilton. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

The long awaited biopic paying tribute to the incredible feats of Jessica Watson has finally been realised, highlighting the struggles she overcame to become the youngest person to sail solo and unassisted around the world. The film True Spirit was mostly filmed in south-east Queensland, with Jessica Watson’s courageous feats navigating some of the world’s most challenging stretches of ocean now t...

This episode of Streets of Your Town comes to you (again!) from the streets of the Woodford Folk Festival, where the sublime singing of Punjabi Australian singer and dancer Parvyn Kaur Singh drew me into her orbit. Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.com/subscribe

With the mega-hit musical Hamilton officially opening its Brisbane season this week, this episode of Streets of Your Town podcast is highlighting one of Australia’s brightest new musical theatre talents. I was lucky enough to speak to Callan Purcell—the man taking on one of the most renowned roles in musical theatre—Aaron Burr—in the Australian production of the worldwide phenomenon that is Hamilt...

This episode of Streets of Your Town comes to you from the streets of the renowned Woodford Folk Festival, an annual gathering in the week leading up to New Years Day that transforms this peaceful rural idyll into a thriving community of more than 130,000 people, larger than the nearest Sunshine Coast town of Nambour.  Get full access to Streets of Your Town: The Journo Project at soyt.substack.co...

Vidya Makan is an absolute delight—not only an incredible talent of musical theatre, she’s also making her mark writing and composing musicals as well, and at such a young age! Her work making performances on stage and off a more inclusive and diverse space for all is so powerful—I had to tell you all about it! Performing in Six the Musical ’s Australian tour is the culmination of a lifelong journ...

In this week’s Streets of Your Town podcast (press play on the link above!), we feature an Australian treasure. The thrill of performing has never left Marcia Hines, not since she started singing in her church choir as a child in Boston more than 60 years ago. She first moved to Australia from Boston to Sydney at just 16 years old, to star in the Australian production of Hair . Since then, she’s b...

Sometimes you meet someone whose dedication to their craft is so meticulous and thorough, you just have to find out what drives their passion. So it was with international award winning photographer Erick Regnard. He and his twin brother Ian have travelled the world doing high-end art and advertising photography, shooting for more than 25 magazines worldwide such as The Wall Street Journal and Har...

This episode of Streets of Your Town is a story of hope and reconciliation through science. The Dingaal and Ngurrumungu people of Far North Queensland have known for thousands upon thousands of years how their people have journeyed far across the Coral Sea, and now finally, that First Nation’s knowledge is being more widely recognised. The Queensland Museum exhibition, Connections across the Coral...

Hello to you all, my wonderful supportive Wandering Journo Tribe! It’s not often you talk to someone whose love for what they do is so infectious that it draws you into their world and makes you want to be part of it. That was how I felt after speaking with Maestro Umberto Clerici—the world renowned cellist with a vision to take the music of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra to the world stage. As...

For Queensland Ballet Artistic Director and renowned author of Mao’s Last Dancer Li Cunxin, a confluence of two historic events for his beloved company have brought his life into beautiful perspective. This year marks his 10th anniversary as Artistic Director of Queensland Ballet, and soon he will be part of the official opening of Queensland Ballet’s new home at the Thomas Dixon Centre—fulfilling...

Nearly two decades on from her meteoric rise to fame with her surprise Australian Idol win at just 16 years of age, Casey Donovan is enjoying a renaissance in her musical career. She’s on a national tour around Australia starring as Judy Bernly in 9 to 5 The Musical , attracting many accolades, with spontaneous standing ovations after her showstopper solo Get Out and Stay Out . And she won’t stay...

Reviving Indigenous languages through song is the driving force for Rochelle Pitt-Watson’s music. Her Quandamooka and Meriam heritage underlie all of her songs, and she hopes that performing them brings some relief from the stresses of these post-covid times. Rochelle is one of the First Nations artists taking centre stage at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre in May for Clancestry—A Celebratio...

This week on Streets of Your Town, we speak to renowned author and proud Wiradjuri woman Dr Anita Heiss, who is a special guest of the 60th Brisbane Writers Festival coming up in May. In Brisbane, and many areas around south-east Queensland and northern New South Wales, floods have inundated our homes, towns and cities.  This on top of two years of living through the pandemic has hit local communi...

Welcome back to Streets of Your Town for 2022! Since our last newsletter, it feels like the world has thrown everything at us. The ongoing Pandemic, floods and war have filled our newsfeeds. So for the start of season four of the podcast, we’re going to have some fun. I figured we all need some light and hope in the world right now, so I’m taking you to Daylesford in regional Victoria, where the C...