Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 24 July
6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Location
The Toff in Town
Level 2, Curtin House, 252 Swanston Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Get directions
Poetry is at its best when it’s challenging: namely, when it’s challenging our expectations, the limits of the form, or a social boundary or taboo. And never is a challenge more keenly felt than through the voice: when performed aloud, poetry cuts deep, using words to reach wordless parts of us.
At this event – part performance, part discussion – we’ll hear from contemporary, local poets with new ideas about the possibilities of poetry. How does collaborative poetry work, in writing and in performance? Where does poetry intersect with other artforms? And how might technology enhance our experience of the artform?
See, hear and experience boundary-pushing poetry from the people who write it at a very special night at the Toff in Town.
Presented in partnership with Girls on Key and The Toff in Town.
Featuring
Michelle Dabrowski
Michelle Alina Dabrowski, also known as MC_Fembot, is a Melbourne based, Polish/Canadian artist-activist, writer, speaker, arts educator, producer and vocalist. With over ten years under her belt as an Artist working in communities, her work is a soulful blend of dance, rap, ritual, spoken word poetry and song.
As a singing, rapping, poet grounded in embodiment and dance, her work invokes the 're-wilded feminine', in a continuous exploration of nature's cycles and identity politics.
Extending beyond the stage as a feminine leader, she founded Montreal's Throw Poetry Collective and Melbourne's PSI-certified poetry slam, Slamalamadingdong. She is a regular host of the Australian Poetry Slam and the author of The Crescent Pathways, a social change method which grounds the teachings of her own workshops and events.
Supporting young people and intersectional communities to find their voice through writing and performance, Michelle has facilitated over 500 workshops as an arts educator. Her work has been featured on the Indiefeed performance poetry channel on SBS television and she currently works in community development, supporting young artists with a disability, as the manager of Wild at Heart's Inkrewsive hip hop crew.
Michelle is releasing her second poetry collection, Flood Flower, in October 2017 as well as a double concept album of music and audio meditations.
Kylie Supski
Kylie Supski is a Polish-Australian spoken word artist who performs live frequently all over Melbourne. In 2016, Kylie was a winner of the Melbourne Spoken Word Prize. Kylie’s inspiration comes from her personal experiences, all aspects of her life, and the people she is surrounded by.
Kylie's interests also expand into theatre. In 2015, she collaborated on an immersive theatre production, The 10CS by Metanoia Theatre. In 2014 she was also involved in Queering the Body at TheatreWorks and the Gl ry project by Victorian College of the Arts during the 2014 AIDS Conference.
Kylie is greatly concerned with using art as a method of speaking out about social, economic and political inequality. She encourages her audiences towards critical thinking, and to consider the weight of their own powers as citizens with specific regard to the inhumane policies backed by the Australian government controlled by less than ‘the 1%’. Many of her poems discuss her experiences as a transgender woman. Kylie is passionate about personal autonomy and exploring the beauty of being alive.
Roshelle Fong
Roshelle Fong is a Chinese-Australian performer and filmmaker who experiences life as Play School: The Glitch Opera. By day she creates rich media content for the Australian Government and by night, she devises multimedia performances exploring concepts like cultural confusion and technology as a life-force.
Roshelle has produced and performed in film, spoken word, stand-up comedy, theatre and performance art around Australia, including at Woodford Folk Festival, RAW Comedy Festival, Australian Poetry Slam 2014 at the Sydney Opera House, the Living Museum of Erotic Women, and Melbourne Spoken Word’s poetry events at White Night, and Melbourne Fringe Festival.
She won the Sydney Road Writers Cup 2015 and has since featured at events including Passionate Tongues, Speak Up and Mother Tongue, and supported American poet Oveous (HBO Def Jam Poetry).
This year Roshelle premiered her one-woman show, A Virtual Virtual Reality Show (Girls On Key), at Auckland Fringe Festival.
ReVerse Butcher
ReVerse Butcher is a multi-disciplinary artist with focuses in making performance poetry, unique artist’s books, collages, visual art, and music. She will use any medium necessary to engage and subvert reality until it is less dull and oppressive. When she grows up she wants to be a well-read recluse. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Chalise van Wyngaardt
Chalise van Wyngaardt is a South-African born poet, writer, editor, facilitator, theatre-maker and performer, insistent on staying a child who believes in dragons and love. Having performed around Melbourne since 2015, Chalise has featured at numerous events including Commonground Festival, Seven Sisters Festival and White Night. Chalise stretches the definition of poetry through experimentation and performance art. She believes truth is found outside the comfort zone, and the pilgrimage has scarcely begun.