Harmony Day: Poetry in the Gallery
Free event. Bookings required.
Join us for live poetry readings in the exhibition VOID to celebrate #HarmonyDay and #WorldPoetryDay. Hear from culturally diverse speakers as they share stories and celebrate the importance of inclusiveness, respect and sense of belonging for everyone.
SPEAKERS
Introduction: An acknowledgement of Country will be provided by Kerri Shying.
Speaker 1: Kerri Shying
Kerri Shying is a poet of Wiradjuri and Chinese family, winner of a NSW Writers’ Centre Emerging Writer Grant in 2017 with work appearing in Snap Journal, Cordite, Verity La, Ear to Earth, and Women of Words, 2016 and in The Australian Poetry Journal 2020. Author of the bilingual pocketbook of poems sing out when you want me,2017, Flying Islands/ASM/Cerberus Press, the chapbook Elevensies Slow Loris, 2018, and Knitting Mangrove Roots, 2019 Flying Island/ Cerberus/ ASM. Shortlisted Helen Anne Bell and Noel Rowe Prizes in 2017, she won the Dr Eric Dark Flagship Fellowship for 2019 for her collection Know Your Country, available through Puncher and Wattman online. Kerri has been convenor of the free disability-led writing collective, Write Up for 5 years and is a nominee for theaspireawards.com.au/2020. She lives with her famous dog Max Spangly and her hobby is getting tattoos.
Speaker 2: Michelle Cahill
Michelle Cahill is a poet and novelist who was born in Kenya and lives on Darug lands, and Kaurna lands which are unceded. Her work appears in Meanjin, Australian Poetry and Australian Book Review. She was the 2020 Red Room Poetry Fellow. She received the Val Vallis Award, and the UTS Glenda Adams Award for Letter to Pessoa. In 2007 co-founded Mascara literary review journal.
Speaker 3: Irina Frolova
Irina Frolova is a Russian-Australian poet who lives on the Awabakal land with her three children and two fur babies. She has a degree in philology from Moscow City Pedagogical university, and she is currently studying psychology at Deakin University. Her work has appeared in Not Very Quiet, Australian Poetry Collaboration, Baby Teeth Journal, Rochford Street Review, The Blue Nib, and The Australian Multilingual Writing Project, as well as various anthologies. Irina is a regular at Newcastle Poetry at the Pub where she was a featured poet in January, 2019. Her poetry speaks to the experience of immigration and a search for belonging. It draws on folklore and explores archetypes through cultural and feminist lenses. Her first collection of poetry Far and Wild was released by Flying Island Books in January, 2021.
Speaker 4: Janette Hoppe
Janette Hoppe is a poet of New Zealand Maori and Australian heritage. She is the creator of Papatuanuku Press; a platform dedicated to social justice through Creative Arts projects and events. Papatuanuku Press currently facilitates three projects; The Blue Series Projects, Women of Words and The Poetry Bomb. Janette’s poetry has been published in Australia, New Zealand and the UK. She has featured in the Newcastle Writers Festival (2013, 2016, 2018) and has been a finalist in the Australian Poetry Slam (2017). In 2018 Janette was a finalist in the Nimbin Performance Poetry World Cup and has appeared in festivals and exhibitions throughout New South Wales. Janette lives in Newcastle with her five children and is an advocate for children’s rights to equal opportunities in education.
Speaker 5: Anupama Pilbrow
Anupama Pilbrow is editor of The Suburban Review. She studied mathematics at The University of Melbourne. In 2015, she received the Dinny O’Hearn Fellowship for her manuscript the ravage space. Her poems, reviews, and essays have been published in journals and anthologies including Cordite Poetry Review, Rabbit Poetry Journal, JEASA, Southerly, and The Hunter Anthology of Contemporary Australian Feminist Poetry. Read her chapbook Body Poems, out with Vagabond Press 2018. Her work often deals with diaspora, dialogue, exchange, and gross stuff.
Photos: Courtesy of Kerri Shying; Courtesy of Nicola Bailey; Courtesy of Irina Frolova; Courtesy of Janette Hoppe; Courtesy of Claire Albrecht
