Perth Words… exploring possibilities.

© Jessica McCallum

Mamba

A snake that wraps
its slimy body
around your
good intentions.

It has a bite
that transmits itself
into the other person.

How to ward off
it’s terrible grip?

Best to stand still
heart - bite your lip.

Best not to move
or show when you're
in its grasp,

though your eyes
are green and all
around...

and it's eating up your heart!


Frances Macaulay Forde © 1969


#FrancesMacaulayForde  #POEM:Mamba  #FMFPoems  #Poetry  #WAPoets  #WAWriters  #1968Notebook

10+ years ago I wrote this blog post “GOODBYE Poets Corner” (copied below in full) signalling the end of Poets Corner @ Pages Cafe (2005 – 2008) posted on-line 2008-10-20 17:13:44 GMT.

I spent a while yesterday looking at the photos on The Moon Cafe‘s Poetry Club Facebook page and pleased to see so many familiar faces of participants at Poets Corner @ Pages Cafe but also so many new faces active in the Perth Poetry Scene.

Even though I have stepped back in my retirement, I keep up-to-date with the writing community on the net.  So every time one of those names listed below has a book published or appears on an award-winning list – my heart swells for them.

It still amazes me how many wonderful wordsmiths from all levels of achievement and ability, enthusiastically shared their words in our little corner of the State Library in Perth City once given the opportunity.  And how many came to listen.

GOODBYE Poets Corner:

“As the initiator, facilitator and host of Poets Corner @ Pages Cafe, I’d like to sincerely thank everyone who’s had anything to do with the event for their most valuable and much appreciated support and encouragement over the last three years, and say goodbye.

Even if Poets Corner @ Pages Café  was never ‘cool’ according to Janet Jackson, I’m proud to say the chapbook, website, photos and blog have played a vital though often unacknowledged role in the Poetry Community of Perth.

Poets Corner @ Pages Café was a unique and free event:  It was important to have somewhere central to the City, so the State Library in the Cultural Centre was easy to get to by bus or train. My Saturday afternoon event (daytime as opposed to evening) intended to encourage the general public to attend – which they did!

By promoting and supporting many poets, the event often provided first performance opportunities for those who were new to the Perth Poetry Scene, alongside well-known and highly-regarded academics.  It’s great to see those same Newbies are now printing their own chapbooks, running blogs and events.

Of course, Poets Corner could not have happened for the last three years without the on-going and much-appreciated support directed by the then Minister for the Arts The Honorable Sheila McHale to Staff at the WA State Library and of course, Pages Café.

Or vitally, the poets who most generously gave their time over the last three years to Poets Corner either as hosts or invited guests for no fee (many more than once) when they would earn one elsewhere.

THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH:

Afeif Ismail Abdelrazig

Rosanne Bersten (Melbourne)

Peter Bibby

Donovan Blundell-Wignell

Ross Bolleter

al boyd

Andrew Burke

Coral Carter

Lily Chan

Nandi Chinna

Liana Joy Christensen

Sally Clarke

Sue Clennell

Hal Colebatch

Irene Connor

N.J (Jim) Cornish

Suzanne Covich

Simon Cox

Emma Crook

Miranda Crothers

Jenny de Garis

Jen de Ness & Bill

Lucy Dougan

Marlia Douglas

Meg Dunn (Melbourne)

Gabrielle Everall

Alex Falconer

Terry Farrell

Sarah French

Tiffany Garvie (Paris)

Maureen Gibbons

Kevin Gillam

Vivienne Glance

Raymond Grenfell

Danny Gunzburg

Helen Hagemann

Ashley J Higgs

Debbie Hills

T.A.G. Hungerford

Janet Jackson

Peter Jeffrey

Murray Jennings

Pat Johnson

Beate Josephi

Desmonda Kearny

Marilyn Dorothea King

Trisha Kotai-Ewers

Mike Ladd

Veronica Lake

Paul Langford

Brian Langley.

Andrew Lansdown

Deanne Leber

Elizabeth Lewis

Frances Limb

Dosh Luckwell

Mardi May

John McBain

Shane McCauley

Megan McKinlay

Glad McGough

Graeme Miles

Heath  Miller

Ann Morgan

Lucas North

Susan O’Brien

Ron Okely

Alvin Pang (Singapore)

Wayne Pantell

barry parsons

Rachael Petritis

Glen Phillips

Marcella Polain

Dorothy Porter

Primo Lux Poets

Bruce Russell

Zan Ross

Tracy Ryan

Trisha Saggers

Frances Arnett Sbrocchi

Cecily Scutt

Maureen Sexton

Steve Smart

Flora Smith

Kate Smith

Dov Spinks

Klyth Tan

Andrew Taylor

Barbara Temperton

Kriston Terbutt (Melbourne)

Rose van Son

Rita Tognini

Walter Vivian

Donna Ward

Amelia Walker (Melbourne)

Samuel Wagan Watson

Julie Watts

Mags Webster

Miriam Wei Wei Lo

Annamaria Weldon

Mike Williams

Fay Zwicky

(If I’ve missed anyone off the list, again – I do apologize.)

Thanks also to those who allowed me the privilege to either host the launch of or feature their books such as T.A.G. Hungerford, Andrew Taylor, Tracy Ryan, Deanne Leber, Afeif Ismail Abdelrazig, FAWWA, etc.

It was always my intention to have guest hosts and many have stepped up to the mike for what is mostly an underrated but important role:  Glen Phillips, Lily Chan, Coral Carter, Andrew Burke, Deanne Leber & Andrew Lansdown. (If I’ve forgotten anyone, I’m sorry.)

Personally, I’ve enjoyed all the words, enthusiasm for poetry and each contribution to sharing and building a viable Poetic community here in Western Australia since that first flying-by-the-seat-of-our-pants but highly successful WA Spring Poetry Festival in 2003.

Nine days of amazing events where Maureen Sexton and Lynn, al boyd and I set the ground-work for so much more to come (and repeated the effort the following year), even though we all ended up burning ourselves out.  Well done to all those who continue to organize or facilitate, host and encourage others.

I’ve watched with pride, as many poets who’d never performed in public before appearing at Poets Corner, now confidently stride onto various stages at the many poetic events which happen around the Metro area.

Still, I’m very proud of the original Poets Corner, that’s why, if I can’t devote the same amount of time and energy, I must bow out.   So Poets Corner is no more.

May your muse amuse…”

Frances Macaulay Forde

2008-10-20 17:13:44 GMT

#FrancesMacaulayForde #PoetsCorner@PagesCafe  #PoetsCornerPerth  #StateLibraryWA  #PagesCafeSLWA  #SLWA  #PerthPoets    #PerthPoetry #PoetryInPerth

Twenty years ago the practice of arts in schools was very much dependent on, if a teacher was interested and prepared to go outside the curriculum box to practice their art.  Children who wanted to be involved in drama in the Northern Suburbs only had school opportunities which were very few and far between. 

I know, my daughter was one of them.  She regularly came with me to a local adult theatre group but because they didn’t have roles for 12 year olds, she enjoyed helping backstage. She just wanted to be involved and soak up the atmosphere of performance.

So in 1992, I set up our own group for 12 – 25 years olds to produce and perform something for the public, which 80 enthusiastic members of Northern Youth Theatre did very well, every three months until 1996. 

I am proud to say my daughter Jessica was accepted into WAAPA’s ‘ Set Design &  Construction’ course at 17 years old, because of her experience with Northern Youth Theatre.  They usually only considered 24 year olds and over, for their courses.

The only reason I closed the group was because I had decided to study full-time at ECU/WAAPA myself.

As the founder and Artistic Director of Northern Youth Theatre, I was very much involved as the community Theatrical consultant with the Department of the Arts & Culture Peer Assessment Panel and Wanneroo/Joondalup Community Festival & Performing Arts Centre Advisory Committees.  

“Since the 1990’s, the City has considered the need for a dedicated performing arts and cultural facility to provide local opportunities for residents to participate in and experience cultural events.”   City of Joondalup

I lobbied hard for the introduction of the arts into the Australian school curriculum all those years ago and celebrated when the plan was accepted.  Now, there will be an inquiry into how well the Arts Curriculum is being implemented. 

Meanwhile, the long awaited dedicated Performing Arts Centre in Joondalup is still on the drawing board because the public doesn’t appreciate the value of arts practice and plans remain just that.   

If the Performing Arts Centre was now the reality we worked so hard for in the 90’s, the public would know how many in the community actually already practice the five arts markers: dance, drama, media arts, music and visual arts.

We have dance schools in the Northern Suburbs with their top students achieving scholarships to prestigious schools around the world again and again, representing Western Australia.  My niece is a senior teacher at Gale Meade Performing Arts Centre  and her sister, an ex-student won many scholarships and has danced professionally all over the world. 

Our proud ex-students from WAAPA leave their mark with each performance here and overseas:  

 Star graduates

“WAAPA graduates excel in their chosen professions around the world, confirming the Academy’s well-earned reputation. Many well-known actors, dancers, musicians and music theatre stars including Hugh Jackman, Frances O’Connor, Marcus Graham, William McInnes, Lisa McCune, Lucy Durack, Rachelle Durkin, Emma Matthews, Jamie Oehlers, Eddie Perfect and Tim Minchin, have called WAAPA home.

The employment record of our graduates, in extremely competitive fields, continues to be outstanding and well-attuned to the needs of the industry. Our designers, arts management and production graduates are highly sought after and many hold influential positions across a wide range of performing arts companies, festivals, venues, film, television, major events, arts organisations and teaching institutions.”  WAAPA

It is essential we have effective Arts Practitioners teaching our young to develop and hone their skills, then enabling them to put those skills into practice in their community – preferably in our own Performing Arts Centres show-casing the abundant talent in our Northern Suburbs and Perth. 

25 years after Northern Youth Theatre, participants have grown into valuable members of their communities, applying the lessons learnt working as a team to produce something for someone else to enjoy. 

Appreciation of the Arts should begin in school and have the opportunity to thrive in a community which encourages and offers multiple venues to share their talent with a wider audience.  Some may even make a living doing so.

Practicing the Arts crosses all boundaries and permeates lives in a positive way – smashing down walls of division and enabling friendships and experiences which last a lifetime.

#PerformingArts  #ArtsPractice  #ArtInSchools  #ArtsTeaching  #Theatre  #Drama  #Dance  #VisualArts  #Music  #MediaArts  #WAAPA  #JoondalupPerformingArtsCentre   #NorthernYouthTheatre