Beyond the Ekka winds and the looming magpie season, August is Australia’s poetry month, and this year, Red Room Poetry has been wowing audiences nationwide with a series of virtual and in-person events showcasing the nation’s vibrant, diverse poetry community.
Our poetry scene is spectacular in many ways, but the ongoing willingness to wield an often-overlooked art form like a weapon is one of my favourites. Especially when it results in events like the Queensland Poetry Salon. A collaboration between Red Room Poetry and the State Library of Queensland, the Salon took place in Queensland’s home of reading, writing and ideas, celebrating the unique and dynamic Queensland poetry scene.
The Salon was both a celebration of local poetry, and the launch of Lionel Fogarty’s 14th collection, 'Harvest Lingo'. There’s magic in watching a performer who strips back performance so that only the words matter. Lionel owned the stage, a master storyteller at work, and watching a living legend perform some brand-new poems – including a piece celebrating the hard work of nurses that had the crowd in stunned silence – was an unexpected delight.
It would be difficult to step onto stage following so masterful a performance, but Sachém Parkin-Owens, the current Youth Poetry Ambassador and triple threat of rapper, musician, and spoken word poet, was more than able to hold his own. A phenomenal First Nations/ African American performer with a gift for creating connection, Sachém’s work is both hard-hitting and hopeful, an exceptional blend of unflinching honesty and hopefulness.
Raelee Lancaster, a powerhouse Meanjin (Brisbane)-based poet descended from the Wiradjuri and Biripi peoples, has a wicked turn of phrase, and a spellbinding stage presence. It’s always a pleasure seeing Raelee perform, as she brings a bubbly, charismatic energy to the stage that’s difficult to describe but impossible to look away from. There’s mischief to her work, a playfulness in the way she uses language to spark against the sometimes serious topics being discussed in new and fascinating ways.
Next to the stage was non-binary, trans writer, zine maker, and all ‘round awesome sort Rae White. Rae’s poetry holds a dazzling amount of wit and whimsy, and watching them weave ‘90s childhood nostalgia into a poignant and gleeful takedown of terf arguments was, frankly, a linguistic masterpiece I’m still recovering from.
The last performer of the evening was Huda the Goddess, a poet, educator, mental health advocate, dancer, and proud African-Muslim woman. A staggeringly talented performer who makes spellbinding audiences into her superpower, Huda’s poem about Sudan’s revolution, and the cognitive dissonance of military life veered her performance from the hopeful to the profound. Truthfully, it takes a lot of talent to be able to bring an audience back towards hope after that kind of soul-deep exploration, and Huda made it look effortless.
Each poet brought a distinct style and energy to the stage, and yet, they were all united by the ability to take simple words and create magic, chaos, or a little of both. The beauty of poetry, and the work of these poets in particular, is that regardless of the theme, there’s always room for hope. And that makes for a phenomenal night of poetry.
Poetry Month is still going strong over at Red Room Poetry with a range of events taking place in the final week. And if you’re needing some new reads to fall in love with, Lionel’s latest collection ‘Harvest Lingo’ (Giramondo Press), and Rae White’s latest ‘Exactly As I Am’ (UQP) are out now. For lovers of music and spoken word, Sachém will be raising the roof at Redland Performing Arts Centre on 28 October.
