Poetry slam champ to be unearthed at museum
04 Sep 2017
Budding Novocastrian performers are invited to recite, sing or scream their own work to a live audience as part of the Australian Poetry Slam 2017, a live literary performance program.
Newcastle Region Library will give local writers and performers two minutes to wow a judging panel -- selected randomly from the audience -- with original poetry, hip hop, monologues or stories during a local national poetry slam heat on Thursday 21 September at Newcastle Museum.
The National Poetry Slam will see 50 slam heats and workshops held in city and regional venues around Australia in the lead up to October.
Last year's national winner and next month's host Arielle Cottingham.
"I invite would-be poets to get out of their comfort zone and put their voice to their work and encourage the Newcastle community to come along to the Museum and be inspired by their art and heart," Newcastle City Council's Acting Libraries Manager Alex Mills said.
"The slam is sure to unearth amazing local talent and enhance the career opportunities of those who take part."
Two writers from each NSW slam heats will be selected for regional finals during October before two wordsmiths are chosen from each state and territory final to head to the national final in Sydney.
The winner will take part in the ultimate writers' festival tour, an all-expenses paid performance tour to the Byron Writers Festival and the Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.
2016 Australian Poetry Slam Champion Arielle Cottingham will host the Newcastle Poetry Slam heat.
Cottingham, a writer from San Antonio, Texas, began performing spoken word in 2014 while studying at the University of Melbourne and has since developed a full-time career as a poet.
Every year, around 1,000 Australian Poetry Slam writers perform for more than 20,000 people across the Asia-Pacific -- from small towns to major cities, libraries to warehouse parties, Sydney to Darwin and Bali.
