How much do you remember about the Canberra of yesterday?
Seven poets and one musical duo have been invited to write about a real or imagined history of City West.
They’ll be performing their poems at this showcase, and launching the zine where they are collected. Expect a multitude of windows into the past, fables about what was and what might have been.
Hosted by Zoe Anderson and Aaron Kirby and featuring Abhishek Gupta, Andrew Moss, Asha, Blue, Karina Vennonen, Samia Goudie, and Yleia Mariano, with a musical response by The Cashews, this will be City West as you’ve never seen or heard it before.
You can also join Zoe, Aaron and the poets on Sunday 9 July to experience this project in-situ on the Secret Histories of City West Walking Tour.
Free but registration recommended.
Zoe Anderson is a performance poet who is fascinated by ecology, place and creating new folklore for a changing world. She is a seasoned performer, having featured at many events and festivals including Poetry on the Move,and the Queensland Poetry Festival. Her first poetry collection Under the Skin of the World was published in 2020 by Recent Work press and Ampersand Duck. She was also one of the organisers of Slamboree, formerly the world’s best scout themed poetry slam. Zoe comes from Canberra, which is Ngunnawal country.
Andrew Geoffrey Kwabena Moss is a writer and teacher who has lived in the UK, Japan and currently Australia. Of Anglo-Ghanaian heritage, his work seeks to explore liminal landscapes, complex identities and the social constructs of race.
Widely published internationally, Andrew’s work is featured in 'The Best New British and Irish Poets Anthology 2019-2021', The Black Spring Press Group and the Year’s Best African Speculative Fiction 2022.
Andrew's debut novella Nicked Names was published by RoseyRavelston in 2022. He released three full length poetry books Japanabandon, Manifest.oh! and Diaspora³ through RoseyRavelston in 2023. ‘Childish Recollections’, Andrew's fourth poetry collection will be published by The Black Spring Press Group.
Asha, in her own words, is an 'accidental poet' in English literature in her tiny world in Canberra. She is often dubbed by her fellow poets as the Queen of Quirky poetry. Her poem 'A tree, two frogs and me' is on display as part of the Haig Park Experiment since 2020. The Australian Poetry Anthology 2020 published her poem ‘Midnight Lover’. Her poem 'Play' has been sung by three different singers as part of the 'How Musicians Work' project. She has been featured at Manning Clark House, Girls on Key, Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Poetry on the Move, ABC radio etc.
"Blue is.
They haven’t really gotten further than that yet.
Blue stumbled across poetry last year and found it a great outlet for all the words they’d been storing away for a rainy day, and for all the emotions they’d been storing away for the moment they got off a psychiatrist’s waitlist. It has also been a wonderful way to step away from the performativity of their everyday life.
You may have seen Blue in any number of shows, shopfronts, or shady alleyways. Don’t be afraid to ask them about it; they’ve been told not to bite."
Photo credit: Emily Leseberg
Karina Vennonen has been writing and sharing poetry for four years across Canberra, land of the Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Ngarigo peoples.
Their poems centre around themes of radical hope, uncomfortable despair and a collective spirit, all found in moments of everyday life.
Yleia (they/her/siya) is a Filipino poet, raised on Dharawal country. They’ve been kicking around on the poetry side of Instagram since 2020, and made their debut on the slam poetry scene in June 2022 at the Canberra Slam, eventually going on to become the Inaugural Canberra Slam Champion in November. Their poem ‘kinder gods’ was published in the Sweet & Sour Zine’s fourth issue, ‘Journeys’, and in their first feature set, performed at the Canberra Slam in February this year. Yleia has been writing poetry and stories since they could hold a writing utensil and believe that “To write is to come home.” (to quote Merlinda Bobis).
Samia Goudie identifies as a Queer Bundjalung woman. Her Mother’s family came from the White Swamp /Kilarney area of Border Ranges Qld, on Githabul country. She was removed and grew up on Ngunnawal/ Ngambri country where she now lives and writes. She is a member of Canberra based UsMob writers and FNAWN, First Nations Australian writers’ network.
Samia’s poetry been published by The Southerly, IWP Iowa press, Wakefield press, Norton and Norton, 3CC media journal, AIATSIS Press, Us Mob writer’s anthology, Recent work press, Rutledge press, Mascara Literary journal and Cordite poetry review. She won the KRG, Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert FNAWN poetry award 2022, Winning the KRG award is incredibly meaningful to Samia as Aunty Kerry Reed-Gilbert was always encouraging and a mentor for so many First Nations Writers.
Samia has just finished a Memoir.
The Cashews
The Cashews are contemporary acoustic nuts. They describe their music as original, indie-folk because acoustic-brain-pop is too challenging a category for most people to comprehend. Quirky, catchy, melodious, grounded original songs with a lingering social conscience.