Spoken Word

Hear Eric Beach, recorded live at the Dan O’Connell! Eric Beach was born in New Zealand in 1947, and moved to Australia in 1972. He is widely respected in the Australian poetry community, publishing several collections throughout the 70s, and in 1977 was co-founder of the Melbourne Poets Union. His 1996, Weeping for Lost Babylon, received critical acclaim, and won the Dinny O'Hearn Poetry Prize an...

On this week's show, we chat to Nour Abouzeid about the special exhibition currently running at the Immigration Museum, Kahlil Gibran: The Garden of The Prophet. Nour performs some of his own and Gibran's work, and discusses the various influences Gibran has had on himself and his writing. In the second half of the show, poet and songwriter, Alice Night, performs some pieces from her debut book of...

Gender Euphoria is a new show which will be performed as part of Midsumma for one night only on 24 January at the Arts Centre. Mama Alto and Fury talk to Di Cousens about the creation of the show and Fury shares some spoken word pieces. The show celebrates the trans experience.

Excerpts from a tribute gig to the great American poet Allen Ginsberg, presented at Hares and Hyenas Bookshop, Fitzroy, in 2017.

Poet, spoken word performer, and author of Ramblings of a Unique Mind, Astrid Mbani, is our guest this week, sharing some of her work, and chatting about men and women, the legacy of slavery, relationships and emotional language, masculinity and raising boys. Growing up granddaughter of a pastor, and daughter of an activist in the era of Apartheid in South Africa, Astrid discusses her own spiritua...

Emily recites her apology to all the women in the world - a 10 minute poetical tour de force - and other materials written for the Women Of Letters series.

On this week's show, we chat with street poet, Angelina Stanton, a very familiar face on the streets of Melbourne's CBD, stationed with her trusty typewriter and tapping out poetry "while you wait". Angelina shares some of her own work, reflects on her unique job, and why the typewriter is "an honest machine".Also in the program, multi-disciplinary artist, ReVerse Butcher, talks about her new work...

In this last interview, recorded in September 2018, Judith Rodriguez discusses her most recent anthology, The Feather Boy and Other Poems (Puncher and Wattnam). Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Daniel Hutley is from Essex in the UK, and has been a regular on Melbourne’s open mics for the last two years. His poetry explores distance and fragmenting relationships. He came second place in the June Shenfield poetry award and in the John Shaw Nielson poetry award. This year he’s had short stories published in Gargouille magazine and the Visible Ink Anthology. Tune in to hear him in conversati...

In this last interview, recorded in September 2018, Australian poet Judith Rodriguez talks about and reads from her most recent anthology, The Feather Boy and Other Poems. Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Felix Nobis LIVE @ The Night Heron

Loran Steinberg is featured in a regrettably rare extended set of her poetry. In it, she reveals herself to be a sensitive and quirky poet of highly diverse means. There are long stream of consciousness episodes, short biting word quips, and other stuff in between. Ela and Santo put her under scrutiny in their interview. Loran comes out of it all gliding confidently, talking not only about her wri...

On this week's show, Amit Dahiyabadshah is our special guest, visiting from India to share his resonant poetry and discuss some of the things he has learned from being a working poet for 25 years. Amit has traveled the world and been awarded on several continents for his poetic works. He is founder of Delhi Poetree, dedicated to the elevation of poetry as an art form. Also on the programme, Chalis...

Ashleigh Russell takes a sharp and uncompromising look at issues of mental illness and how one lives with it for decades. Her poetry is often dark, certainly insightful, and may trigger discomfort in some listeners. There are, however, significant moments of positivity, joy and relief, which are beautifully articulated by Ashleigh, not only in her actual poetry but also in her chat with Ela.

This programme features the poetry of long time 3CR stalwart, the late Lisa Bellear. Jen Jewel Brown has recently edited a beautiful anthology of Lisa's poetry for University of Western Australia Publishing. For twenty years, Lisa presented Not Another Koori Show on 3CR before her untimely death. She was not only a poet and broadcaster, but also an academic, social worker, photographer, theatre pr...

This week's guest poet is Morgaine van Wingerden, who will be flying to the USA very soon, as a member of the team representing Australia at the National Poetry Slam in Chicago. Morgaine's work pulls no punches, and, amongst other things, she shares with us some of her dark and raw insights into child and motherhood, family violence, modern dating horrors, and the importance of writing in dealing...

Laundry Man aka Jakob Boyd

The remarkable Hunch (aka Daymon Greulich) performs a spectacular set of spoken utterance. He analyses himself, his inner psyche, the world around him, and anything else that might get in the way, at a rate of knots. Just when you thought it couldn't get any faster, he ups the beats per minute to a breathtaking tempo. Norman Gunston on speed. Between pieces, he catches his breath to answer questio...

Our guest poet this week is Laniyuk. Laniyuk is a Larrakia, Kungarrakan and Gurindji poet, living in Melbourne/Naarm. She was recently awarded with the First Nations Writer’s Residency in the 2017 Noted Festival, and Overlands' Writers’ Residency in 2018. She is a contributor to the book, Colouring the Rainbow: Blak Queer and Trans Perspectives. In the spirit of the theme of NAIDOC Week, "Because...

Girls On Key Director and poet, Anna Forsyth, reads from her second poetry book, Beatific Toast. Interviewed by Di Cousens.

Santo Cazzati presents Jay J Larkin, convenor of the gig Ms Millies, held monthly at Afro Hub in North Carlton. She talks about what motivated her to start this gig and about her interest in poetry in general. We hear substantial pieces by her covering issues of gender, sexuality and race, written and delivered in a pointed and incisive style.

The 2018 Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival is a wide ranging event over three weeks, featuring both performance poets, more literary page poets, and lots more besides. Santo Cazzati speaks with Melbourne Spoken Word founder Benjamin Solah about this new festival. We hear recordings of three out of the many featured artists.

Save these dates! Tuesday 15th May is the 3CR On-air Spoken Word fundraiser for 3CR Community Radio, and 17th May - 3rd June is the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival. In this program, we talk about these events and hear from some of the performers, Jennifer Compton, Kylie Supski, Tariro Mavondo, Tenda McFly, Tim Evans and Alan Pentland.