Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 01 May
6:15 PM - 7:15 PM
In the 1990s, Tracey Spicer was a smart, talented young journalist rising quickly through the ranks at Channel Ten. But even as the network’s national news anchor, she had to play the role of the ‘good girl’, submitting with a smile to onerous daily hair and make-up routines and humouring advice from network bosses such as ‘stick your tits out’.
She was famously sacked (or ‘boned’, in now notorious industry parlance) by email in 2006, after returning from maternity leave. After that, it was No More Mrs Nice Spice. She sued, won a sizeable settlement, and embarked on the path to become the Tracey Spicer we know today … defiant, outspoken and given to hilarious public confessions.
Her funny and candid new book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, starts with her early life in suburban Brisbane, traces the highs and lows her career in journalism and touches on many other subjects – from anxiety to class warfare to the beauty myth. In conversation with her friend and contemporary Virginia Trioli, and with a special performance from Candy Bowers, Spicer will talk work, life and feminism today.
Featuring
Tracey Spicer
Tracey Spicer is an iconoclast whose TEDx talk ‘The Lady Stripped Bare’ has been seen by nearly 1.5 million people. Tracey has anchored national news, current affairs and lifestyle programs for several TV networks, and has brought her sassy style to talkback radio. Her columns appear weekly in metropolitan newspapers and on opinion websites. The 49-year-old is the co-founder and national convenor of Women in Media.
Virginia Trioli
Virginia Trioli is a journalist, broadcaster and author. She is a two-time Walkley Award-winner and lives in Melbourne with her husband and son. Her latest book, A Bit On The Side, is a celebration of Aussie food culture ...
Candy Bowers
Candy Bowers is an award-winning writer, actor, social-activist, comedian and producer. The co-artistic director of Black Honey Company, Candy has pioneered a fierce sub-genre of hip hop theatre that delves into the heart of radical feminist dreaming.
Born of multi-racial South African parents and raised in the Western Suburbs of Sydney, her life experiences have created a unique foundation to build her body of work upon. A poet, playwright and speaker from an early age, in 2001 Candy was accepted into the Bachelor of Dramatic Arts – Acting course at the National Institute of Dramatic Art.
Since then she has gone on to build her own company, star in sketch comedy, perform on Australia’s main-stages and tour the country with original works including: Sista She, Australian Booty, MC Platypus, Who’s That Chik? and Hot Brown Honey. You can also catch her on the small screen in Newton’s Law, Get Krack!n, Tonightly with Tom Ballard (ABC/Netflix) and The Cry (BBC.)
Candy is currently working on her first feature film with ArenaMedia, an anthology of Australian monologues for Actors of Colour called EVERYBODY ELSE, Twelve – a soul musical from the streets (after Shakespeare's Twelfth Night) and One the Bear – a fairytale for the hip hop generation heading to the Arts Centre Melbourne and Sydney Opera House in 2019.
Her awards and accolades include: Green Room Association Awards: Geoffrey Milne Contribution to Independent Theatre Award, British Council of the Arts Realise Your Dream Award, Australia Council of the Arts Cultural Leadership Fellowship, NIDA Glorias Fellowship, Creative Sydney Top 100 Creative Catalysts List, Philip Parsons Young Playwright Award Short List, Melbourne Fringe Best Performance and Director’s Choice Award and Adelaide Fringe Youth Education Award.