"In my dreams i hear my tribe"
oodgeroo noonuccal
Then & Now
Wednesday 24th 5pm-6pm
Brisbane Square Library - FREE
This QPF satellite reading sees the present and future of indigenous writing side by side. Joanne Arnott - of Canadian Métis descent and one her nation's most acclaimed poets - is joined by the award-winning author of Mullumbimby Melissa Lucashenko, as well as exciting emerging voices Graham Akhurst and Yasmin Smith. Hosted by QPF Co-Director Annie Te Whiu. Co-presented by Brisbane Square Library.
Road Fire
Wednesday 24th 6:30pm-7:30pm
Skewers - 2 Club Lane Toowoomba - FREE
The two 2016 Poet’s in Residence – India’s Jeet Thayil and Brisbane’s Sam Wagan Watson – combine forces to take a range road trip up to Toowoomba to tell stories of the multiplicity of love, the language of loss, & the many vices that make us human. Hosted by author and poet Rebecca Jessen.
Words from the Street / Walking into the Well
Thursday 25th 10am-11:15am
Brisbane Square Library - FREE
This very special one-off event sees QPF co-presenting two of this city's most distinct and direct writing groups - School of Hard Knocks 'Words on the Street' + Brotherhood of the Wordless - coming together to deliver their work live (and living large off the page.) This is a QPF satellite session about art as resilience, and poetry as a way forward when the world stops moving. Hosted by QPF Co-Director David Stavanger. Co-presented by Brisbane Square Library.
Paper Wings
Thursday 25th 7pm-8:30pm
(drinks & DJ Zaziz in the foyer from 630pm)
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Join QPF Co-Director's Annie Te Whiu & David Stavanger for the Official Opening of QPF2016. Including a keynote address by the Indigenous Poet-in-Residence Sam Wagan Watson + the Arts Queensland Poetry Awards, Phillip Bacon Ekphrasis Award and the inaugural Oodgeroo Noonuccal Indigenous Poetry Prize, as well as a feature reading by Chloe Wilson.
The Prince & the Duke
Thursday 25th 9:30pm-10:30pm
(DJ Zaziz spinning tracks in the foyer bar from 830pm)
JWC Shopfront
Tickets $15
No ordinary tribute night, this special QPF event will see the work of the two late greats Prince & Bowie remixed and responded to in the forms of music, spoken word, hip-hop and dance by The Stress of Leisure (duo mode), Zenobia Frost, Eleanor Jackson, jiveswallow, Toby Fitch, Hannah Makk (MKO Sun), Dylan Hoskins, Amrita Hepi, Janet Rogers (Canada), Ben Brown (NZ), and Jeet Thayil (India). Hosted by Meg Bartholomew (Ruckus Slam).
Trigger Warning: Panel
Friday 26th 10am-11am
JWC Shopfront- FREE
How dangerous can words be in the right hands? Join provocative poet and erotic author Krissy Kneen, Canadian spoken word artist Janet Marie Rogers & acclaimed Indian author and 2016 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Jeet Thayil to find out. Chaired by QPF Co-Director David Stavanger. Warning: this panel is trigger warning free.
Flight Feathers - QPF Emerging Poets
Friday 26th 11am-12pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Come and hear six of QLD’s most exciting new voices as they take to the sky for first flight at QPF. Featuring Natalie Catalan, Joe Simington, Jarad Bruinstroop, Grace Lucas-Pennington, Torrey Atkin, and Waverly Stanley Jr.
Life on Mars: Tracy K Smith
Friday 26th 11:30am - 12:30pm
JWC Shopfront
Tickets $15
An exclusive one-on-one interview with Pulitzer Prize winning poet Tracy K. Smith about her body of work, including her recent acclaimed memoir Ordinary Light. Hosted by UQP’s Poetry Editor Felicity Plunkett plus an opening reading by rising young poet Alison Whittaker. Co-presented by Melbourne Writers Festival.
#LookUP
Friday 26th 12:30pm - 2pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Every day in 2015 visual artist Rhonda Ayliffe looked up, and quickly captured a glimpse of the sky. Poet Melinda Smith responded to each photograph in words. The result is this 90 minute projected video loop consisting of 365 photographs of the sky with accompanying micropoems.
Mysterious Ways
Friday 26th 1pm-2pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Poets work in mysterious ways, not just in their poetry but in their vocations, working not just as poets but as publishers, editors, academics, or all of the above. Join four such poets, Felicity Plunkett, Brentley Frazer, Dr Jeanine Leane and chair Justin Clemens, as they read their work and discuss how they work. Presented in conjunction with the Australian Poets Festival.
Not Fox Nor Axe
Friday 26th 2:30pm-3:30pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Three of Australia’s leading and highly decorated poets read from their new collections alongside selections from their past work: Chloe Wilson, Anthony Lawrence, & Jordie Albiston. Hosted by Sarah Holland-Batt. Sponsored by QUT.
The Body Country: Panel
Friday 26th 2:30pm-3:30pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
“Dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?” - Friedrich Nietzsche. Movement on & beyond the page. Join poet & dancer Tishani Doshi, dancer & spoken word artist Amrita Hepi, and Singapore’s CHOWK as they explore the relationship between poetry and dance. Co-presented by Queensland Multicultural Month.
The Big Read
Friday 26th 3:30pm-4:30pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
Ten poets, five minutes each. Each poet will read a favourite poem from the works of an Indigenous poet, and follow that up with a poem of their own. Featuring Bronwyn Lea, Chloe Wilson, Brett Dionysius, Stuart Cooke, Ellen van Neerven, Stuart Barnes, MC Wire, Brentley Frazer, Melissa Lucashenko, Matt Hetherington, and hosted by Toby Fitch. Presented in conjunction with the Australian Poets Festival.
My Own Darling
Friday 26th 4pm-4:30pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Join NZ poet, playwright and spoken word artist Grace Taylor for an intimate session as she performs sections from her acclaimed one woman-play My Own Darling. Supported by PANZ.
The Way to Heaven Island
Friday 26th 5pm-6pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
A showcase of some of New Zealand’s finest poets & spoken word artists featuring Grace Taylor, Ben Brown, and Robert Sullivan. Direct from Aotearoa, this will be a session of electric poetry of the head, the spirit, the sea, and the heart. Hosted by Annie Te Whiu. Supported by PANZ co-presented in conjunction with Queensland Multicultural Month.
Hip Hop Is My Passport
Friday 26th 6pm-7pm
IMA Screening Room
Tickets $12.50
An intimate one-man Hip Hop Theatre show by Morganics. A Bboy, a poet, and a passionate community worker, Morganics tracks down the grassroots of an emerging global culture, given a voice to those who haven’t had one before. Queensland debut.
Kalyakoorl: QPF Literary Cabaret
Friday 26th 7:30pm – 9:30pm
JWC Performance Space
Tickets from $25
QPF’s night of nights, when poetry shines into the dark of forever. An all-star cast featuring Indigenous Poet in Residence Sam Wagan Watson, Indian poet Tishani Doshi, Steven Oliver (Black Comedy) in spoken word mode, 2016 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Jeet Thayil, Pulitzer Prize winning poet Tracy K. Smith (US) and a set by songstress Gina Williams (WA) singing in the rare Noongar language. Hosted by Eleanor Jackson. Sponsored by QUT.
Beyoncé FORMATION Dance Classes
$22.50 Bookings
These classes will be held in Expressions Dance Studio, L3 at JWC
Saturday 27th 9:30am–10:30am
Saturday 27th 10:45am-11:45am
Dancer Amrita Hepi calls you to GET IN FORMATION! Learn all of the dips & twirlsssss from Formation’s clip. This is a beginners dance class in a shame free dance zone for all bodies, shapes, sizes and genders + no prior dance experience needed. BYO HOT SAUCE IN YO BAG.
Weaving Circle (1) with Anaheke Metua
Sat 27th 10am-12pm
(meet at JWC Box Office @ 945am)
Tickets $25
Join Anaheke Metua, a facilitator of Weaving Circles and learn to develop a sense of place, honor weaving traditions past and present through our innate ability to create. Together we weave the fibres of the land and their charasteristics of strength, texture, colour, durability, flexibility, impermanence and design into our own unique woven vessels. Note: All materials will be supplied and you'll be able to take home your woven piece of art.
SlammED! QLD Final 2016
Saturday 27th 10am-11:30am
JWC Performance Space - FREE
SlammED! is the states’ only inter-school slam program, and it’s final time! Ten South-east QLD schools slam it out live and loud with a feature set by NZ spoken word artist Grace Taylor. Hosted by Simon Kindt.
Co-presented by the State Library of Queensland.
Jack & Mollie (& Her)
Saturday 27th 10am-10:30am
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Acclaimed poet Jordie Albiston is joined by QUT’s Sarah Holland-Batt for an in-conversation with about her new UQP collection Jack & Mollie (& Her), as well as exploring her poetic practice and process. Sponsored by QUT
Peace and duress
Saturday 27th 10am-10:30am
IMA Screening Room- FREE
Join Canadian poet Janet Marie Rogers – a Mohawk/Tuscarora writer - who works with the mediums of performance, video, and music in-conversation about her body of work with Eleanor Jackson. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Hand that stilled the Water
Saturday 27th 10am-11am
Wynnum Library - FREE
A very special QPF satellite event that sees two of New Zealand's best wordsmiths by the bay. Robert Sullivan is an acclaimed poet & author of the best-seller Star Waka while Ben Brown is one of Aotearoa's most electric poetry performers. Co-presented by Wynnum Library.
QUT Student Salon
Saturday 27th 10:45am-11:45am
IMA Screening Room -FREE
Some of QUT’s best student short-form writers show why less is more. Featuring Mindy Gill, Ella Jeffery, Emily O'Grady, Laura Kenny, Anna Jacobson and India Poulton.
Sponsored by QUT.
Lost Language, Found
Saturday 27th 11am-12pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
“Our language is like a pearl inside a shell. The shell is like the people that carry the language. If our language is taken away, then that would be like a pearl that is gone. We would be like an empty oyster shell.” - Yurranydjil Dhurrkay, Galiwin’ku, North East Arnhem Land. Join Joanne Arnott, Gina Williams & Des Crump as they discuss the ongoing fight to revitalize endangered indigenous languages. Sponsored by ATSICHS.
Survival Tactics
Saturday 27th 11:45am-1:30pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
Come hear director Morganics & actor MC Wire introduce & talk about their pioneering film, before a screening of Survival Tactics, Australia’s first-ever hip-hop feature film. “A hot new performance hybrid, the cast are a powerful and diverse collection of talents, serious Hip Hop cred.” – The Age
Sponsored by ATSICHS.
Transforming My Country
Saturday 27th 12:30pm-1:30pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Join contemporary poets Natalie Harkin, Alison Whittaker, Stuart Cooke and Justin Clemens as they respond to classic Australian poem ‘My Country’ (‘I Love A Sunburnt Country’) by Dorothea Mackellar with a new poem of their own—a transformation, a mistranslation, a riposte—challenging assumptions of Australian identity. They will discuss their poems with Toby Fitch.
Presented in conjunction with the Australian Poets Festival.
Couplet (1)
Saturday 27th 1:30pm-2pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
A joint reading by award-winning poets & RMIT academics, Jessica Wilkinson (editor of Rabbit) & Bonny Cassidy (author of Final Theory). Hosted by QPF's Rebecca Jessen. Sponsored by QUT.
Some Uses of Reincarnation
Saturday 27th 1:45pm-2:30pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
A special performance by Tibetan-Australian musician & storyteller Tenzin Choegyal (fresh from playing Carnegie Hall alongside Patti Smith’s band & Laurie Anderson) + 2016 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Jeet Thayil reading from his Man Booker short-listed Narcopolis accompanied by The Viola Cloning Project. Hosted by Matt Hetherington. Presented in conjunction with the Australian Poets Festival Co-presented by Queensland Multicultural Month.
Some Folk
Saturday 27th 2:30pm-3:15pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Live experimental sets by local musician JiveSwallow and 2015 XYZ Poetry Prize winner and multi-disciplinary artist Manna Marvel. MC Seamus Kirkpatrick.
Thomas Shapcott Book Launch
Saturday 27th 2:30pm-3:15pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
UQP launch Stuart Barne’s debut collection Glasshouses, winner of the 2015 Arts Queensland Thomas Shapcott Prize. Come along as Stuart reads from one of the most anticipated new poetry releases of the year. Launched by Matt Hetherington and hosted by UQP’s Felicity Plunkett.
From Another Land
Saturday 27th 3:30pm-4:45pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
CHOWK presents From Another Land exploring the poetry of Singapore’s displaced migrant workers using contemporary dance, plus fefature sets by the author of Dirty Words poet Natalie Harkin & Singapore spoken word artist Pooja Nansi. Hosted by Deborah Emmanuel. Supported by Singapore’s National Arts Council , co-presented in conjunction with Queensland Multicultural Month.
Many Waters Rise: Poetry & Lyrics
Saturday 27th 3:45pm-4:45pm
JWC Shopfront
$15 tickets
Join legendary multiple-ARIA award winning songwriter Archie Roach, acclaimed Canadian spoken word artist & musician Moe Clark, and Grant McLennan Fellowship recipient McKisko - who has been praised for her abstract lyricism - as they explore the relationship between verse and music, the places where lyrics are born, and poetry as song. Hosted by 4zzz’s Ian Powne (The Stress of Leisure).
Thought Waves
Saturday 27th 3:45pm-4:15pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Drop into a beanbag and chill with short films by poets and artists Amanda Hayman, Tishani Doshi, Janet Marie Rogers, and Natalie Harkin.
Couplet (2)
Saturday 27th 4:45pm-5:15pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
A joint poetry reading by Bareknuckle Books founding editors AG Pettet (author of Improvised Dirges) & Brentley Frazer, whose experimental memoir Scoundrel Days is due out with UQP next year. Hosted by Matt Hetherington.
Firewater
Saturday 27th 5:15pm-6:15pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
A Canadian showcase with spirit: Joanne Arnott, Moe Clark, and Janet Marie Rogers. Featuring acclaimed poets, storytellers, musicians and spoken word artists of the Métis nation, and Mohawk/Tuscarora heritage. Hosted by Zenobia Frost. Supported by the Canada Council for the Arts.
Steven Oliver, Single
Saturday 27th 5:30pm-6:30pm
JWC Shopfront
$15 tickets
The ABC Black Comedy star in solo cabaret mode. Get close-up and personal with the sexiest slut in spoken word. Blackapella at it’s best. Hosted by Ruckus Slam’s Meg Bartholomew.
Silver Forks
Saturday 27th 6pm-6:30pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Controversial visual/performance artist and social justice activist Van T Rudd.
Rising Dust
Saturday 27th 7pm-7:30pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
A screening of Hip Hop dance short Rising Dust shot in rural locations around the Hokianga (NZ), alongside the powerful live words of Ben Brown (NZ) whose work explores the Māori concept of mana. MC Annie Te Whiu.
Archie Roach In Concert
Saturday 27th 8pm-10pm
JWC Performance Space
$60 tickets
Fresh from an international tour, national treasure Archie Roach will be sharing songs from his soon to be released new album, Let Love Rule, alongside some of his classic hits. Archie will be supported by WAMi award-winning artist Gina Williams, who sings in the critically endangered Noongar language. Legendary Indigenous poet and activist (and proud Yugambeh man) Lionel Fogarty and one of Australia’s most exciting new writers, Ellen van Neerven (of Mununjali and Dutch heritage), will also read to open up the night. Hosted by Fred Leone.
Raw Styles
Saturday 27th 8:30pm - 10:30pm
JWC Shopfront
$15 Tickets
Hit the floor with two of this nation's most hard hitting underground hip-hop duos. Morganics & MC Wire and Rainman are joined at the mic by a mystery female MC to bring you words from the city and beats direct from the streets of Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.
Beautiful Bones
Sunday 28th 10am-11am
Olde Croquet Club, Musgrave Park - FREE
(Note: morning tea provided from 930am)
This QPF community satellite event welcomes all to a morning of tea and indigenous poetry in the grounds of Musgrave Park. 2016 Indigenous Poet in Residence Sam Wagan Watson is joined by acclaimed poets Lionel Fogarty, Natalie Harkin and Jeanine Leane, as well as local activist and poet Ricky Pascoe and emerging voice and Elder Theresa Creed. Sponsored by ATSICHS.
Kurilpa Walk Guided Tour
Sunday 28th 11:15am-12:15pm
Olde Croquet Club, Musgrave Park - FREE
Join our QPF Volunteers as they take you on a guided tour of Brisbane Poetry Map’s Kurilpa Walk, a site-specific poetry trail created by QPF and curated by Ellen van Neervan featuring six aboriginal poets writing to place. Note: walking shoes, water, smart phone with headphones required.
Comfort Food & Dirty Words
Sunday 28th 12:30pm-1pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
An intimate in-conversation between poets Ellen van Neervan & Natalie Harkin about their new works Comfort Food (UQP) and Dirty Words (Cordite).
Weaving Circle (2) with Anaheke Metua
Sun 28th 1pm-3pm
(meet at JWC Box Office @ 945am)
Tickets $25
Join Anaheke Metua, a facilitator of Weaving Circles and learn to develop a sense of place, honor weaving traditions past and present through our innate ability to create. Together we weave the fibres of the land and their charasteristics of strength, texture, colour, durability, flexibility, impermanence and design into our own unique woven vessels. Note: All materials will be supplied and you'll be able to take home your woven piece of art.
Paper Lantern Hands
Sunday 28th 1pm-2:15pm
JWC Performance Space - FREE
An ecstatic musical-poetry performance by mage-artist-outcast Erfan Daliri including feature sets by renowned Ruckus Slam member & local poet Angela Peita + Singapore spoken word artist Pooja Nansi. Hosted by Deborah Emmanuel.
Hunter Publishers Anthology Launch
Sunday 28th 1pm-2:15pm
JWC Shopfront - FREE
Hunter Publishers launch the new Anthology of Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry. Featuring co-editors Jessica Wilkinson & Bonny Cassidy + QLD contributors Pascalle Burton, Chloë Callistemon, Felicity Plunkett, Zenobia Frost and Sarah Holland-Batt. The session will begin with a reading by Liam Ferney from his new collection Content.
Beyoncé’s LEMONADE
Sunday 28th 2:15pm-3:15pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Could this be a screening of the landmark video-album featuring the work of 2015 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Warsan Shire? Come and find out.
Kurilpa: The Water Rat Storytelling Salon
Sunday 28th 2:45pm-4pm
JWC Shopfront
Tickets $15
Come feast on stories of place & the animals that make them home. Featuring master indigenous & first nation storytellers from Australia, Canada, Aotearoa and India including the Indigenous Poet in Residence Sam Wagan Watson, Melissa Lucashenko, Alison Whittaker, Joanne Arnott, Robert Sullivan and the 2016 Arts Queensland Poet in Residence Jeet Thayil. Hosted by Karina Hogan.
Sponsored by ATSICHS.
Sentenced to Life: Clive James
Sunday 28th 3:30pm-4:30pm
JWC Performance Space
Tickets $15
Clive James: an exclusive in-depth interview and moving reading of new (and some unreleased) work QPF filmed in his Cambridge home in March of this year. Clive discusses his life, his poetry, his view of Australian poetry past & present, plus his mortality and the Japanese maple that keeps living. This is the premiere screening, complimented by The Viola Cloning Project performing a few of Clive's favourite Desert Island Disc tracks. Hosted by the Courier Mail’s Arts Editor Phil Brown, who will also read his favourite James poem.
Presented by McCullough Robertson Lawyers in association with QPF.
You are Here
Sunday 28th 4pm-5pm
IMA Screening Room
Tickets $12.50
Pooja Nansi’s intimate one-woman show You are Here, a mixture of spoken word and storytelling direct from the heart of Singapore, explores migration stories and the complex cultural maps we emerge from. Supported by the Singapore’s National Arts Council.
Always Was, Always Will Be
Sunday 28th 4:30pm-5:30pm
JWC Shopfront
Poets and orators have often been at the front of the Indigenous civil rights movement. Join Lionel Fogarty, Bob Weatherall & Dr Jeanine Leane as they explore the role of poetry in social justice having a voice in Aboriginal activism, past and present.
Sponsored by ATSICHS.
Australian Poetry Slam – QLD Final
Sunday 28th 5:30pm-7:30pm
JWC Performance Space
Tickets $25
Australia’s biggest spoken word event hits full fever pitch. Sixteen finalists from round the state slam off in the big one + a feature spoken word set with loop pedal by Canada’s Moe Clark. Hosted by slam’s king and queen of the mic, Hadley. Supported by the State Library of Queensland & ATSICHS, co-presented by Word Travels.
Language Matters
Sunday 28th 6pm-7:30pm
IMA Screening Room - FREE
Australian premiere of this PBS doco (featuring New York’s poetry legend Bob Holman) exploring the rapid extinction of many of Earth's languages, from Goulbourn Island (Australia) to Wales to Hawaii.
Ivan Coyote Live
Sunday 28th 8:30pm-9:30pm
JWC Performance Space
Tickets $15
Not to be missed. One of the world’s best storytellers in their Australian performance debut, supported by acclaimed spoken word artist Eleanor Jackson. “Distinctive and persuasive voice, a flawless sense of pacing, and an impeccable sense of story.” -Quills Magazine. Hosted by LGBTI Media Personality of the Year, Ruth Gardner.
Co-presented by Melbourne Writers Festival.
