Past Event
Poetic Riffs
5th Sep 2009
Presenter: Overload Poetry Festival
Website: http://www.overloadpoetry.org/
Event Duration: 180 minutes
Spoken Word meets the rhythm of tap, the chords of Sheish Money and the riffs of the Interim Lovers. Part of Overload's National Showcase Series, Poetic Riffs features outstanding performers from Queensland, South Australia and Victoria. This is the inter-arts 'she-bang' of the festival, a rhythmic feast not to be missed!
Jenny Toune (SA), possibly the world's only tap-dancing poet, preludes the rock 'n' roll poetry that is Graham Nunn's (QLD) storytelling and Sheish Money's (QLD) electric guitar backing. Off the back of Money's riffs Melbourne's own Sean M Whelan hits the stage with some fresh material and an exciting new musical collaboration - The Interim Lovers. Come close to the stage for this lyric blast hosted by Overload's one-and-only rockstar, Steve Smart.
* All tickets at the door: $7 full / $5 concession *
Jenny Toune was a professional dancer both in Australia and overseas for fifteen years before moving back home to Adelaide to become a dance educator. Her specialty is Rhythm Tap, and she tries to travel annually to New York or Melbourne to teach and participate in their international Tap festivals. Becoming hooked on the rhythms of poetry four years ago, Jenny has recently been performing her work at open mike sessions around Adelaide. She has also performed tap and poetry at Wordfire, as part of the Adelaide Fringe Festival 2007 and 2009.
A prominent figure in the Brisbane poetry scene, Graham Nunn organised the New and Selected Readings in 2001 and co-founded legendary Brisbane spoken word event SpeedPoets in 2002. In 2003, his first collection of haiku, 'A Zen Firecracker' was published. This publication was well received by the critics and as a result Nunn was invited to run a series of workshops on the art of haiku at the inaugural Bali Readers and Writers Festival in Ubud (2004) and The Byron Bay Writers Festival (2005). In 2004, he was invited to take on the role of Artistic Director for The Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word. In the same year he released his first full-length collection of poetry 'Share the Tragedy'. 2005 saw the release of two new collections, an experimental chapbook co-written with Brisbane poet, Mandy Beaumont, 'To the one who comes at dawn…' and 'Measuring the Depth', a collection of haibun and haiku.
Sean M. Whelan is a writer of poetry, prose and works for performance.
In 2009 he was a special guest at the Festival Voix d’Amériques in Montreal, Canada.
His second book of poetry, Tattooing the Surface of the Moon was released in 2008, published by Small Change Press.