Spoken Word

Peter Bakowski talks about his new book, The Courage Season, and reads some of the poems.

The meeting of a saint and a pope - Spoken Word presenter Santo Cazzati introduces Pope Fred, anarchist, cultural agitator and colourful personality. Pope Fred rants spiritedly against car culture, consumerism, the mental health system and many others. The two protagonists discuss the reasons for the attempted control of society through the mental health system, the underlying economic causes of s...

Regular Spoken Word presenter Santo Cazzati, co-founder of the programme with the late Rhonda Jankovic, reads the prizewinning and placegetting poems in the Rhonda Jankovic Awards of 2016. Beginning with the Commended poems, then the Highly Commended poems, and concluding with the Third, Second and First Prize poems. The competition was judged by highly respected and experienced poet and teacher C...

One of the earliest Spoken Word shows from the first year of the programme, 2009, panelled by our founder, the late Rhonda Jankovic. Santo Cazzati introduces Michael Reynolds, the convenor of the long running Passionate Tongues gig in Brunswick, tireless and selfless photographer of poets in action, and general patient nice guy of our scene. We hear poems by both of them and they talk about the sc...

Beowulf is an ancient epic poem written in Old English. Dr Felix Nobis has translated this epic and performed it theatrically. The story is one of heroes, Vikings, Danes, monsters and dragons, and also chivalry and clan. Felix is interviewed by Di Cousens.

A programme of crazy and spontaneous interaction between 3CR Spoken Word presenter Santo Cazzati and guest poet Paul Skec. Amidst the general philosophical prattle and weird noises emanating from the mouths of these two are observations on science, the Croatian language, the immigrant experience, Paul's wife Lish and their two twin children. Paul Skec is one of the ghoulish presences on Melbourne'...

Susan Fealy has just released her first book of poetry, Flute of Milk. It has been ten years in the making, after her poems have been included in many journals and anthologies in Australia and the US. She has a careful and distinct style of reading her poetry, which is most appropriate to the refinement and thoughtfulness of her composition. The issues she deals with in her poetry include love, lo...

Susan Fealy has just released her first book of poetry, Flute of Milk. It has been ten years in the making, after her poems have been included in many journals and anthologies in Australia and the US. She has a careful and distinct style of reading her poetry, which is most appropriate to the refinement and thoughtfulness of her composition. The issues she deals with in her poetry include love, lo...

Amy Bodossian performs poetry from her new book, Wide Open, and talks about life. Amy is a cabaret artist and poet.

Ian McBryde recently released his book of poetry We The Mapless. It is a retrospective of work from many of his previous books AS WELL AS containing new poems. His imagery is very striking, very disturbing - and very brief. He has a live reading style to match, which is heard in this programme to great effect as he caresses the 3CR microphones with his distinctive vocal cords.

Laura’s first job was with the prestigious British supermarket Sainsburys. She tried to make friends with her co-workers (for she had few at school), but since most of them were into So-Solid-Crew and Arsenal she found that she had more in common with the numerous bottles of condiments and tinned non-perishables that she was stacking. From there she left her half-cockney/half-posh conservative tow...

ani Abdile, a Somali Australian refugee, performs her poetry from her new book, I Will Rise

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...