First slam at Yours and Owls

Tonight I ran my first slam, which was also the first slam ever held at Yours and Owls. Because we're just getting started, there weren't too many competitors, but everyone seemed all right with that. One of the people who did compete brought along a lot of friends, who were very eager to show their support:

Brittany is known amongst her friends as the Slam Queen.

Brendan is chief among her fans.

The three judges had widely divergent tastes, which is as it should be for a slam, as the judges are chosen more or less at random from the audience. Luckily, the poems themselves were widely divergent, which meant there was something for everyone!

In an unexpected but very welcome turn of events, performance poet Matt Day gave a fabulous rendition of Taylor Mali's "Political Poem". I'm hoping he keeps coming back to the slams, either to compete or as guest poet. Moreover, several poets in attendance indicated that, while exams and other pressures had precluded them from performing tonight, they intend to on the next slam, which is scheduled for June 30 at 6 p.m. (To keep up with the info, "like" the Poetry at Yours and Owls page on Facebook.)

Thanks to everyone who was there: poets, judges, audience, and the great guys at Owls!

The race is on!

We have until August 2 to encourage you all to support our opera-in-development, The Dancing Mice and the Giants of Flanders. In an era where universities are slamming the doors shut on their music schools, where a search on the words "orchestra" and "crisis" yields over 13 million hits and "opera" and "crisis" nearly 40 million, where musicians are facing the monstrous choice of limiting access to music to the rich (through astronomical ticket prices) or not being able to make music at all — in such a time, is it not worth seeing if we can take art back into our own hands?

Take a stand for your own personal power to make, enable, and love art. Go to our project page at http://dancingmice.pozible.com, watch our video, read our project description, and if our opera is something you'd like to see happen, kick in a few bucks. We will be very grateful for your attention, for your support, and — most of all — for your courage in claiming your right to make art happen.

Opera! Opera for everybody! So much opera!

Well, I've hardly drawn breath since The Death of Albatross closed, and already I'm up to my earlobes in other projects.The poetry events at Yours and Owls have been tons of fun (the next one is a youth poetry evening on May 14 — hope you can be there!). The Ph.D. is proceeding apace.

But the big news is a couple of opera projects! The first, on July 7 and 8, is a night of opera favorites we're calling Opera at the Phoenix (because it's, like, opera, and it's at the Phoenix Theatre in Coniston, see?). A hefty serving of opera favorites, sung by some of Sydney's top young vocal stars (and even a guest appearance by Houston Dunleavy, who has many talents), will be followed by an intriguing re-envisaging of a swag of Händel arias staged as drama, and interspersed with a new poem cycle (which I blushingly own I have purpose-written for the piece). You are enthusiastically encouraged to come along, and to bring any music students you know. It's always a joy, and a vivid boost to a music student's learning, to see time-honored works performed live. Tickets are available right now at the Phoenix Theatre's booking page.

The second is exciting in a totally different way! Regular readers of this blog will recall that Houston and I have been collaborating for some time on an opera based on my story "The Dancing Mice and the Giants of Flanders". And the time has now come to give it its first airing. On August 25, we will be presenting a concert performance (for those unfamiliar with the term, it means all the music, but not the costumes or staging) of the entire opera. We've cast three terrific singers for this phase of the project development, and we're getting some preliminary sketches in from the animator, as the complete production will involve a fair bit of multimedia. We're really excited about bringing people in to hear the work, as the reactions of an audience are absolutely crucial to making it the best it can be.

I need to add, though, that we need your help. We've set up a crowdfunding page for you to help us get the resources we need to stage this event. It goes live on Friday, so please go now and click "follow project", and when you get the word, head on over to the page and please help with what you can spare. Crowdfunding is an amazing idea: art, and the funding for art, are no longer controlled by the government or by the moneyed elites. Instead, as one crowdfunding entrepreneur has said, "If you change the question behind funding from 'Will this make money?' to just 'Do I want this to happen?' — a lot more things become possible."