Ipswich City Council

Media Release

Poets invited to take part in new slam event in Ipswich

25 June 2009

ONE of Queensland's newest slam events will be held next month as part of the Flinders Peak Festival.

The Ipswich Poetry Feast has sponsored the event which will be held from 2.45pm to 3.45pm on July 5 at The Dome Stage at the Ivory's Rock Conference Centre, Mt Flinders Rd, Peak Crossing.

Ipswich Poetry Feast Chairperson Councillor David Pahlke said council was pleased to lend its support to the event which would feature renowned performance poet and slam MC David Stavanger, known as Ghostboy.

Slam poetry is a live spoken word competition that has become a global phenomenon since first being introduced in the 1980s.

Open to all people and all forms of spoken word - poetry, hip hop, theatre or whatever - each person "slams" their words for two minutes to a live audience among whom five are selected to score each poet's work.

The audience at a slam has the freedom to express itself in any way they see fit and can scream and cheer or if they do not like a poet, they can finger snap, foot stomp and even boo.

Cr Pahlke said Queensland was home to an active slam poetry movement led by Ghostboy who won the prestigious Performance Poetry World Cup in 2005 and was runner-up in 2007.

"Ghostboy is one of Australia's most innovative performance and spoken word artists and he has been a strong supporter of the Ipswich Poetry Feast in recent years.

"He has hosted a number of slam workshops and competitions in Ipswich and has been involved in school-based workshops and even acted as a judge for the competition."

In 2006, Ghostboy established the highly successful Queensland Poetry Festival slam with his mentor and close friend Marc Smith from the United States who is the founder of the slam form.

Ghostboy was the captain of the 2006 Queensland World Wrestling Federation slam poetry team at the 2006 Sydney Writers Festival.

He been a regular at major festivals throughout Australia including The Sydney Writers Festival, "NightWords" at the Sydney Opera House, the Broken Hill Poetry Festival, the Brisbane Writers Festival, The Queensland Poetry Festival, The Festival of Cairns and The Noosa Long Weekend Festival.

Ghostboy is also the co-ordinator of two of the nation's biggest slam events in the Australian Poetry Slam (Queensland heats and final) and the WordFood slam and spoken word showcase that is held as part of the Woodford Folk Festival.

Ipswich has hosted a heat each year since 2006 leading up to the WordFood slam at the Woodford Folk Festival and a representative from Ipswich has represented the city at the slam final at the festival.

People intending to take part in the Ipswich Slam Poetry Cup at the Flinders Peak Festival are invited to register from 2.15pm on the day at the venue.

There will be $100 and a trophy awarded to the best slam poet taking part.

The Flinders Peak Festival will run from 10am to 5pm with entry costing $5 per car and part proceeds going to the Flinders Peak Rural Fire Brigade.

The festival will also feature entertainment by Linda Weston and Cameron Mitchell, Neil Duddy, the Just Rock Dancers, roving street entertainers, a wildlife show, face painting, market stalls and the Bands on the Rise section which will showcase local up and coming acts.

Inquiries about the slam or the festival can be directed to 54 64 8200 or visit the website at http://www.flinderspeakfestival.org/

-ENDS-

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Last Updated 25 Jun 2009 |

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