Poetry Sydney presents the inaugural inner city Sydney poetry festival,
P – – tcode: 2010, taking place in the postcode district of 2010 (Darlinghurst and Surry Hills) over the Easter weekend.
With events taking place over three days at several venues, P – – tcode: 2010 will see a variety of performances ranging from open readings at the Hollywood Hotel to spoken word accompanied by music at the East Sydney Creative Arts Centre (ESCAC).
“We are going to celebrate poetry in all its forms, as an art form with robust conviction from the participating poets, local businesses, those who create arts and culture, community and poetry lovers from across Sydney and NSW,” said Angela Stretch, festival creative director and curator of the poetry program at the Brett Whiteley Studio at the Art Gallery of NSW.
“We are keeping it local, with poets from the city and NSW on the program, including programs curated by convenors of the various poetry events throughout greater Sydney.”
Festival Headquarters (HQ) is at Disorder Gallery, the official poetry book and merchandise sales station and reading green zone. Coffee, wine and refreshments are available. Throughout the Festival poets featured are programmed for short intimate readings.
“Throughout the Festival, members of the public can interact with poetry about life in the inner city and postcode 2010. We’ll be making certain excerpts available so people can Instagram a 2010 postcode location as a response to those selected verses,” said Ms Stretch.
Festival highlights:
Opening night Gala on Friday 10 April, 10-20, features 10 poets reading for 10 minutes. Poets include: Alise Blayney, Peter Boyle, John Carey, Anne Casey, Toby Fitch, Andy Kissane, David Stavanger, Bjorn Stewart, and Ali Whitelock. Live Poets Society celebrate 30 years, Brook Emery will be in conversation with the Convener Danny Gardner. The evening showcases a musical performance by composer and pianist Anton Koritni.
Romantics is the Australian premiere of The Crumbling Mansion by Charles Freyberg; Tragic Romantics is a concert performance of original music by classically trained composer pianist Anton Koritni, inspired by the great poets of the Romantic period at ESCAC.
Curator Djon Mundine OAM, presents a series of three performances in a first nations song cycle that explores media poetics and language art. Multiplicity is a one-hour feast of multilingual poetry in Hindi, Russian, Turkish, Urdu and English by Tatiana Bonch-Osmolovskaya, Halee Isil Cosar and Neera Handa.
Australian Poetry presents a curated members reading of poetry written on life in the inner city and postcode 2010. Excerpts from selected poems will be available to the public to find a place in the 2010 postcode, photograph and upload to Instagram.
Sydney poets on the Australian psyche will read poetry from the anthology, To End All Wars, Puncher and Wattman 2018. Poets include: Susan Adams, Seber Aydjinlik, Maragret Bradstock, H Isel Cosar, Anna Couana, Andy Kissane, Bota Krili, Cervet KÖrdeve, Chris Mansell, Norm Neill, Mark O’Flynn, Brenda Saunders, Willem Tibbens, Saba Vasliyi and Les Wicks.
A panel discussion on publishing projects presented by Verity La chaired by Michele Seminara and co-editors from specialised themed publications: Alise Blayney, Clozapine Clinic; Brenda Saunders, Black Cockatoo; Tricia Dearborn, Out of Limbo; Gaele Sobott, Disrupt and Saba Vasef, Discoursing Diaspora.
Blood in the Water is the Australian premiere of a multimedia documentary work which investigates the space between thought and action, the poetic and the political; where the individual and public self overlap. The work comprises film, song and installation was written and produced by Geoffrey Datson and Annette Hughes as artists in residence in Hungary at Art Quarter Budapest 2018-19.
A screen event of video poetry and performance in collaborative exposition from Girls on Key curated by Anna Forsyth and Poetry Sydney. Video art by JD Young produced for Sydney Writers Festival productions City Nightfall by Kenneth Slessor and Love at the Bar 2008, 2009 and 2010, will be exhibited at Disorder Gallery.
The Big ‘O’ and Festival wrap party on Sunday 12 April, showcases original music and spoken word by Suburban Bukowskis, Adam Gibson and Datsun Hughes at the Hollywood Hotel. Spot prizes include a night at the Hollywood Hotel. It is also the Festival big open reading with MC Benito DiFonzo.
The inaugural P – – tcode 2010 opens at 7pm on Friday 10 April, with readings and events on Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 April. The full program will be launched in March.
To keep informed register to the Poetry Sydney newsletter at www.poetrysydney.org
STOP PRESS: Unfortunately, due to the current COVID-19 global pandemic, the inaugural Sydney Poet Festival has now been cancelled. The festival will now explore ways to utilise digital platforms to positive effect through virtual and live experiences of the program during the time of the festival, 10-12 April 2020. Make sure you sign up to their newsletter to stay updated on how you can continue to support the arts community whilst social distancing.
