Want to live a more inspired, meaningful life? Or see the world in a new light and nurture your curious and creative spirit?
Brisbane Writers Festival's Inspire Festival is designed to evoke inspired thought and positive action, whether that be in your own life, or those around you. Inspire Festival will feature three sessions; Talk, Democracy and Drive.
Focusing on the age of social media, texting and the art of truly inspiring conversations being lost, Talk will be hosted by Stan Grant, Trent Dalton and Robin Bailey. Jan Own, Mark Bahnsich, Erik Jensen and Dr Lorann Dower will host Democary; a talk about what democracy means to modern Australia. Drive will be hosted by Australian/ Queenslander of the Year award winners Michael Ross, Orange Sky Laundry (Nic Marchesi and Lucas Patchett), Tim Fairfax AM and Catherina McGregor, and will focus on what drives them all to follow their dreams.
Award-winning feature journalist for The Australian, Trent Dalton is one of the conversational maestros who has established a career curating and creating intimate portraits of the lives and stories of others. He will share his deep insights into the art of conversation and how we can encourage human connection and conversation. Here, Trent pens an open letter about the art and act of talking:
"Sorry about that time I talked, that time my brain sent a message to my voice box and my fool mouth opened and I filled that perfectly fine silence with speech. Sorry about that time I talked down, talked up, talked nonsense, talked mean, talked hate, talked loud, talked sad, talked sport when I should have been talking business, talked me when I should have been talking you, talked politics when I should have talked music, talked movies when I should have talked music. Sorry about that time I talked music.
Sorry about that time I didn’t talk. Sorry for that kid in high school whose face comes and finds me sometimes when I shut up from talking all day and put my head down on the pillow. That kid’s not talking at all when he finds me, just waiting for me to talk to him, waiting for me to talk that profound and perfect piece of talk that would have saved his life, a piece of talk so powerful he might have reconsidered his plan to quietly lay down across a night-time railway track. Never a nice thing to talk about. But always worth talking about.
Sorry for not having that perfect thing to talk to you about when you talked to me about dying, about wanting to die, about wanting to live, about being gay, about being old, about being a mum, about being a dad, about being left out, about losing your job, about losing your virginity, about losing your dad, about being hurt by things I talked about being hurt.
See, the thing about saying things – talking – is that there is always a better way of saying them. I can’t recall a single impromptu thought I ever talked aloud that could not have been talked better. That’s why I like to write."
– Trent Dalton
Sorry about that time I didn’t talk. Sorry for that kid in high school whose face comes and finds me sometimes when I shut up from talking all day and put my head down on the pillow. That kid’s not talking at all when he finds me, just waiting for me to talk to him, waiting for me to talk that profound and perfect piece of talk that would have saved his life, a piece of talk so powerful he might have reconsidered his plan to quietly lay down across a night-time railway track. Never a nice thing to talk about. But always worth talking about.
Sorry for not having that perfect thing to talk to you about when you talked to me about dying, about wanting to die, about wanting to live, about being gay, about being old, about being a mum, about being a dad, about being left out, about losing your job, about losing your virginity, about losing your dad, about being hurt by things I talked about being hurt.
See, the thing about saying things – talking – is that there is always a better way of saying them. I can’t recall a single impromptu thought I ever talked aloud that could not have been talked better. That’s why I like to write."
– Trent Dalton
Inspire Festival takes place at Brisbane Powerhouse 17 & 18 June.
