It's been a while between drinks, but the bestselling international literary salon Women Of Letters (WOL) is headed back to the River City.
The line-up for the event includes: song-songwriter Airling, founding editor of 'Hot Chicked With Big Brains' Bri Lee, 2016 Australian Of The Year finalist Catherine McGregor, authors Ellen Van Neerven and Isbobelle Carmody, QMusic board member Leanna De Souza and theatre maker and director Margi Brown Ash. These women are much more then their titles say, they're high-achieving, butt-kicking creatives.
As amazing as these women are, they still have some unfinished business, and they'll be writing about it. Margi Brown Ash gives us a peek into her life and the unfinished business she's working on:
"Unfinished business, something that we all have either tucked away in our bottom drawer or filed away in the back of our minds. Sometimes when I am daydreaming in a coffee shop or in the studio, these unfinished plans and dreams zoom into my consciousness. I write this while on a creative retreat in Iceland. I'm sitting in my favourite coffee shop. Icelandic language hums around me, the smell of coffee is strong and, oh yes, it is snowing. The ground is transforming into a pristine canvas, the perfect place to draw my unfinished dreams..."My first unfinished business is my relationship to singing
When I was young I thought I would follow my aunty into opera. So, when I was an exchange student in Houston, Texas, in the early '70s I joined a singing troupe called 'Young Sounds' and was gifted private lessons. For some reason, on my return to Oz, I grew shy about singing in public... I would love to change that.My second unfinished business is a big one: I am so very close to finishing my PhD
About 'Belonging: Coming Home to Oneself'... Over the last five years I have co-created three award-winning shows with public seasons both here and Perth and my job now is to write about what new knowledge I have discovered, yet the final document is eluding me.I have always wanted to live in Europe
Not just visit but to create roots, to learn the language, to attend theatre, art galleries, join writers groups, drift along the sea shore and create work. This month I spent three weeks in Denmark as an artist-in-residence in a castle called Sostrup. It was magical and I hope that I can do it again, but for longer.I am needing to finish my book on acting and life
I have devised a way of working in the theatre that I call RIC: Relational Impulse Cultural training. After 40 years training and teaching in the theatre and 17 years of postmodern therapeutic study and lecturing, I have created a system which encourages artists to step into their potential. It is a gentle and profound training, encouraging healthy practices and uniquely creative ways of becoming the best we can be.I have always wanted a shed
A shed in which to create: a large shed with big tables and a stage at one end. In this arts shed I would love to have a mezzanine level where intergenerational international artists would come to stay and interact with our Brisbane artists. We are a relatively young arts community in Brisbane and I would like to encourage more creative interaction: the younger artists learning from senior artists and the experienced artists become re-inspired and re-educated by our young. To me this is a crucial step. An important business to finish.'Women Of Letters' takes place at The Zoo 8 May.
