the break-up dictionary for baffled men

it’s not you it’s me
means
i couldn’t be bothered
discussing what a complete
tool you’ve turned out to be

you’ve changed
means
i never knew
what a complete tool
you were before

i’ve changed
means
how could i
not have realized what
a complete tool you are
until now

i don’t know you anymore
means
you are such a tool
to have hidden
what an enormous tool you are
from me for so long

Some Recent & soon-to-be Publications

My short story The Butcher has been published in the current edition of Peril. Here's the opener:

Late one July morning, Mei Lin stood in the line inside the Harrington’s, the local butchers. Sen, brought along to push the second wheeled grocery cart required for the fortnight grocery run, clutched at her mother’s skirt, peering uncertainly at the whole lamb carcass and row of unplucked chickens hanging just behind the counter.

After waiting quietly for the better part of a half hour, Mei Lin raised her voice above the din of orders. “Haff poun of chickin mince and lamb back strap thank you, sir.” Her still-strong accent cut through the bustle of the busy shop like scythe splitting melon, dulled the cheery neighbourhood chatter to silence.


“Well Mr. Harrington, you gonna let that fuckin chink lady buy up a piece of England?”

Click here for the full piece. You can also check out my 12 minute patois audio poem Some Dream Was Brewing in the latest cd of the latest issue of Going Down Swinging. Also stay tuned for the publication of my illustration Poelectronica in the upcoming issue of Cordite Poetry Review. I'll give it a shout out once it's up.

 

helpful tips for becoming a trendy melbourne chick

go vegan
buy yourself a vintage dress

get an expensive whispy hair cut
& a rental in northcote
or brunswick west

subscribe to 3CR
or RRR

get a show on SYNfm

read frankie
yen / or peppermint
while riding the 86 tram

drink a free-trade
bonsoi / but fully
caffeinated / latte`

own a car
but bike everywhere
in a retro helmet
& whinge like f*ck
about the trains

black people white people don't like

black people on welfare
unemployed black people
black people who have a better job than they do
black people with no education
black people with a better education than they have

aboriginal people
original people
black refugees
black tourists
black economic migrants
black people who think this is their country
just because they were born here
or have been here for generations
black people who aren’t grateful
that they are allowed to live here

black people with a funny accent
black people whose english is so good
you can’t tell they’re black people

black militants
black rioters
jesse jackson

white people black people don't like

white people who hate black people
white people who like black people too much
white people who think they’re black
white people who are glad they’re white
white people who want to be black
white people who don’t want to be black
white people who adopt black babies
white people who refuse to adopt black babies
white women who date black men
white women who won’t date black men
white men who marry black women
white men who won’t marry black women
white people who won’t hire black people
white people who are the boss of black people
white people who fire black people
white people who refuse to fire people cause they’re black

white people who love jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, rap or blues
white people who don’t understand jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, rap or blues
white musicians who don’t play jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, rap or blues
white musicians who only play jazz, soul, hip-hop, funk, rap or blues
white people who think they can dance
white people who think all black people can dance
white people who can’t dance
dancing white people

Blogging Overload

A Note in Your Coat Pocket at the Beginning of Winter - The Class of '99 Remembers Sandon McCleod

Overload Poetry Festival’s Class of ’99 gig on Wednesday night was, without a doubt one of the best evenings of poetry I’ve been privileged to encounter anywhere. No ego, no pretention, no stumbles, no heckling. Class of ’99 was an honest, sincere, heartbreaking, spontaneously narrated many-tongued trip back through Melbourne spoken word memory. Oh, and with some absolutely unbelievable poetry from Melbourne’s finest wordsmiths thrown into the mix.


Every poet in Class of ’99 spoke of Sandon McCleod – the mother of Overload, a poet I never knew, but by the end of the evening, felt almost as if I had. The most poignant moment of the achingly nostalgic evening was when the last poet of the night, Steve Smart, spoke of Sandon in hospital with lung cancer after being given a month to live. Still wickedly witty and sharp-tongued but slipping away a little more each day, Sandon told the endless parade of Melbourne poets keeping her company at the end that they must look after each other. Whatever they did, they must really make sure they took care of each other.

Dodgy Haiku & Coffee with Saul

Okay, so during Overload Poetry Festival last week we held a competition for the WORST haiku on the subject 'Death By Poetry'.
"We are giving away coffee with African-American hip hop poetry god Saul Williams to one lucky Slam Up Overloaded reader... Of course, we’re poets, and ‘coffee with Saul Williams’ might not ummm...carry it’s literal meaning. So what we ACTUALLY have to give away is a brand spanking new copy of Saul Williams poetry book Said the Shotgun to the Head, paired with a posh bag of authentic Turkish coffee. I know. Sorry ladies...and gentlemen. Sly. But amusing also, right?"

Well, it seems a lot of readers were put off by our sense of humour. Seriously, get over it people. If I had a date with Saul, you really think I'd raffle it off to a really BAD haiku-writer.

Overload is Still Alive Online

Overload Poetry Festival might have officially ended last night, but it'll linger on a little longer online over the next few days. Read back on our reviews and interviews as we chat a bit more about Mills & Boon Swoon and (finally) review Class of '99, and we might even go into that bizarre  Ian McBryde heckling incident at the Dan last weekend. We'll have a muse on what went wrong, right and magically for Overload 2011. Then it'll be a little blog-holiday for this tired Slam Up publishing goon.

A Bottomless Bag of Metaphors: Benjamin Solah Reviews Tell it Like it Is

Melbourne writer and blogger Benjamin Solah encountered poetry slam superstars Ken Arkind, Jive Poetic and Shane Koyczan  at Overload Poetry Festival's Tell it Like it Is  last night and left bursting with inspiration. Solah shares his experience here at Slam Up Overloaded. If you enjoy his post, head over to his blog where it was first published. If you like what you see there, which you undoubtedly will, please donate to help crowd-fund Solah's writing. Here's Solah, on encountering slam royalty:

Perhaps it was the night, the vibe or the crowd that made me excited, but after tonight’s taste of North American slam superstars, I have a ripple of inspiration and a desire to write. That’s perhaps a pretty self-centred outcome from seeing others tear up the stage but Luka urged it himself and for a writer, this is a top endorsement.

The crowd was the first thing I noticed. Poetry gigs especially in Melbourne can be hard to fill up, especially with non-poets, and this year one of the drawbacks of the Overload Poetry festival has been the attendance. So, it was a real surprise to see the Footscray Community Arts Centre full, with people I didn’t know and an energetic crowd.

Get Badger Happy - Maxine Clarke on Badgers Dozen #7

The very Dadaesque Badger’s Dozen, a small oddball zine edited and compiled by Melbourne poet Timothy Train isn’t poetry. There’s poetry in it, sure, but not enough for it to warrant sneaking into the Overload Poetry Festival program to be launched at the Dan O’Connell Hotel tomorrow afternoon. Or, come to think of it, for me to really be reviewing on this blog. But then that in itself is somehow very apt, in a Badgers Dozen kind of way.

On the second page, after the usual badgertorial (so named), is an advertisement for Mal’s Mail Order Sexists. For $100, you can order Simon, who likes long walks on the beach and objectifying women or Jack, whose favourite pastime is muttering about how things were better when women stayed home. On page four is an important mock-Orwellian notice from the government: Do you exist? If so, you could possibly be infringing the regulations and rules of the Reality Department. The centrefold, headed A Page Suitable To Be Used As A Coffee Cup Placemat contains a circular dotted line, the dotted outline of a spoon, the dotted outline of a miscellaneous, splodge and the words (respectively) Place cup here, Place spoon here and place coffee stain here.

Heartstrings That Play Like Harps - Bronwyn Lovell on Mills & Boon Swoon

On Wednesday the 14th of September, Bronwyn Lovell headed to LongPlay in North Fitzroy to catch the 8.30pm showing of Eleanor Jackson and Betsey Turquot's two women poetry show Mills & Boon Swoon as part of Overload Poetry Festival 2011. The queer twist on the 'traditional' ups & downs of a Mills & Boons romance delighted Lovell, and the poetry stayed with her long after the curtains had fallen:

I am so delighted to be writing this review. I mean, who wouldn’t swoon for these two lovely ladies? Ever since Wednesday night I have been dying to sit down and share with you the absolute wonder of Eleanor Jackson and Betsy Turcott’s A Mills & Boon Swoon. Wow. The performance is still reverberating through my bones and sinking into my skin. For those who have not yet seen it, for you I feel two parts pity and one part excitement, because I have the honour of imparting just a taste of the tremendous treat you are in for when you do see this show, and you will. It was featured in the Queensland Poetry Festival before it came to Melbourne for the Overload Poetry Festival, and it will no doubt go on to be welcomed in many more places, so eagerly await its return because damn, are you in for something special.

Mermaid in the Docks - Karen Andrews Reviews Chloe Wilson at the Eltham Courthouse

Last night, Slam Up Overloaded reviewer Karen Andrews headed over to the Eltham Courthouse to hear poet Chloe Wilson feature as part of Overload Poetry Festival. She found herself beguiled by mermaid and myth, despite the dwindling end-of-Overload attendence:

The Courthouse Readings are held in Eltham’s historic courthouse, convened lovingly for over seven years now by Helen Lucas and made possible by the assistance of the Nillumbik Shire Council. As a result of this, feature poets are well paid (or so I’m told), and there is a loyal community following – up to 85% of the audience are from the district.

This audience was sadly lacking at The Courthouse Readings last night. Suggestions explaining this unusual occurrence centred mostly on other competing Overload Poetry Festival sessions on at other venues. A shame, really. These people missed out on a stand-out appearance by feature poet, Chloe Wilson.

The Writing on the Wall - Maxine Clarke Reviews Electric Text

How do your curate a collection of short poems which will come to life as electric text scrolling down the walls of Melbourne’s Federation Square? Do you go for shock value – for that double-take when a weekend leisure-seeker heading to a screening at ACMI suddenly looks up and realises that there writing on the wall is not your normal Fed Square advertisement? Do you go for profundity in the hope of permeating someone’s subconscious, altering their day in the most spiritual of ways? Do you pick each poem separately, for their individual merits and end up with a potentially eclectic poem gallery, or do you aim for a more wholistic curation, with variations on a theme? Melbourne poet Matt Hetherington, the editor of Overload Poetry Festival’s Electric Text braved, and conquered this dilemma.

'The Wolf is Content' - Amy Bodossian Gets Her Overload Poetry Fix at Passionate Tongues

This past full moon, Monday September 12th, Slam Up Overloaded's Amy Bodossian ventured out to Passionate Tongues at the Brunswick Hotel on Monday Night thirsting for a poetry fix. On stage, she encountered Koraly Dimitriades stalking the audience in a scarlet red dress, a confronting Mel Hughes, a brooding GM Walker and a no-frills Kerryn Tredea. Spent, but satisfied, Amy emerges to tell her tale:

A full moon in Pisces. Predicted by various astrologers to be one of the most romantic nights of my year. Hungry like the wolf, I venture out to Passionate Tongues to, hopefully, get f**ked (ahem…romanticised) by some exhilarating poetry. This had better be good. I got a big itch to scratch.

The first thing I notice is that the turn out is considerably lower than previous Overload years, the vibe less ‘crackly’. This could be due to a number of things, but I suspect the main culprit is lack of funding. Come on! Poetry is hot! Nonetheless the crowd is still big enough to generate a warm receptive atmosphere, and they are definitely in the mood to imbibe some serious wordage.

Eleanor Jackson on The Melbourne Poetry Map & Getting Lost Instead of Found

Thanks for waiting while Slam Up Overloaded got their tech shit together. Trust technology to, well, Overload in the middle of our coverage of Overload Poetry Festival. In any case, we're back. If you haven't been able to make it out tonight to the launch of the Melbourne Poetry Map's latest additions, then check out Map's curator Eleanor Jackson as she vox pops here with us on working with poets, getting lost instead of found, and Melbourne as a first love. Then head over to the Melbourne Poetry Map website to check out what all the fuss is about.

The Melbourne Poetry Map. WTF?
Yep. That's right - A Map. In Poetry. Of Melbourne. Consider it the most inefficient, but beautiful, way to get around the CBD. See you later City Circle Tram - there's a new slow game in town.

Seriously... a poetry map? You’ve got to be joking: the Melways is hard enough to read in plain English...
Like the website says - these are maps for getting lost as well as found. Hopefully, most people will be able to navigate around the town (we're using hand-drawn maps so fingers crossed), but somehow I love the idea that, if you get a little bit lost, you might actually have to stop some Melbourne local (that's the person hurrying past you in black) saying, "um, sorry I'm looking for this poem, can you help me?"

Let Your Eyes Sneak Peek 'Your Looking Eyes' by Emilie Collyer

What reader, accomplished writer, aspiring writer or general lover of words doesn't love a good book launch? Poets, even those for whom spoken word is their primary stock in trade, aren't such different beasts: where there's red wine and words being born, you're bound to find a few. Tomorrow night from 5pm, Chris Flynn will launch poet Emilie Collyer's new book Your Looking Eyes as part of Overload Poetry Festival, 2011. Your Looking Eyes is an illustrated collection of poems. It was written by Emilie Collyer during her residency at c3 contemporary art space (through the Australian Poetry Café Poet Program). The book is illustrated and designed by Eirian Chapman, and is a response to the world of visual arts, the act of observing and is designed to be a beautiful art object as well as a piece of literary work.  The launch, at c3 (details here) will also include a special performance by the delectable spoken word artist Amy Bodossian.


The chapbook will be available for sale via the author’s website from early September: http://www.betweenthecracks.net/, but Emilie has generously allowed Slam Up Overloaded a sneak peek of the poetry within:

I Couldn't Help It, I Cried - Bronwyn Lovell on Overload's Takeaway Poetry

The Slam Up Overloaded  team has been fortunate to be joined by reviewer and poet Bronwyn Lovell for our coverage of Overload Poetry Festival 2011. On Sunday, Bronwyn reviewed a surprise addition to the Overload program, the Takeaway Poems stall at the Fitzroy Sunday markets. Punters could request poems on any subject from Overload wordsmiths, giving new meaning to poetry under pressure. Think poets are precious with, and protective about, their words? Well as Lovell found out, true twenty minute wordsmithery (ironic, isn't it, that that's not actually a word) is alive and well in Melbourne:

 Fitzroy. Sunday. Sun. Does life get any better than this? Add poetry and art to the mix and forgive me for mistaking the Rose St Markets for paradise. The poets were the amazing Tim Clare and Luke Wright all the way from the Norwich, UK, and local superstar Ezra Bix, and they were writing free poems for whoever was wise enough to order one at the Take Away Poetry Stall.
I approached the desk and was promptly greeted by Laura, who was very warmly taking the orders. Luke was sitting beside her in front of a typewriter. ‘What’s your name?’ asked Laura. ‘Bronwyn,’ I answered. ‘And what kind of poem would you like today?’ she asked. Hmmm. Good question. I decide I would like something inspiring, to encourage me as an emerging poet. ‘What do you want to achieve with your poetry?’ Luke asks, ‘What are your dreams?’ And just like that I am suddenly teary eyed and spilling out my entire life story faster than poor Laura can take notes.

Lament of the Spoken Word Poet

Koraly Dimitriadis - The Doris Leadbetter Cup Was Rigged...Wasn't It?

The 15th Annual Overload Poetry Festival Doris Leadbetter Poetry Cup was held on the evening of the 10th of September at Bella Union in Carlton. Forty registered poets had sixty seconds each to wow the three judges and secure one of ten coveted places in the final and a chance at the whopping $2000 first prize. Slam Up Overloaded's Koraly Dimitriadis is miffed that she didn't scoop the loot, and with those stakes, what poet wouldn't be? Here's her take on the evening:

Unfortunately, the 2011 cup was rigged. How do I know? I was the best performer there. Hands down. And I didn’t win. Not even a place in the final. See. Rigged.

Seriously though - three judges, forty poets – these things are so subjective. Aren't they? Before writing this review I was gathering my thoughts, trying to make some kind of sense out of the top ten finalists, pondering the criteria the judges may have adapted.

The order in which the poets performed was by surname, which meant if your surname started with ‘A’ you were probably not going to be in the top ten. Every poet knows about the concept of score creep – the scores creep higher as the judges wade through the poets.

Poetry Grows the Lilies of the World* - Karen Andrews Reviews the Overload Dan O'Connell Readings

Melbourne's iconic Dan O'Connell Hotel in inner city Carlton is the home of our longest running poetry reading. On a lazy Saturday afternoon, punters and poets can sip on a schooner as they listen to hand-picked feature poets and cheer on regulars and first timers at the open mic. Slam Up Overloaded's Karen Andrews ventured in to review an afternoon at the Dan for Overload Poetry Festival:

This past Saturday, I ventured into town with a girlfriend to watch the Dan Poets as part of Overload Poetry Festival 2011 and the three hours passed in a blink. We didn’t get to see everyone who wanted to participate in the open microphone – but that was simply because there wasn’t enough time in the program to fit everyone in!

An event like the Dan Poets showcases for me just what it is that I like about poetry events when they work: the talents of the practised and the still-practising poet are equally applauded. There was the usual fumbling of papers in plastic sleeves as newer performers stepped up; a clanging of glassware, the gurgle of a washing machine, a ringing telephone: these almost domestic familiarities made a cosy, convivial atmosphere. Gentle ribbing among friends between microphone and audience doesn’t threaten to alienate the newer viewer, and the bending-of-the-elbow takes a lesser priority to a lending-of-the-ear to the words and language.

Better Late than Never: Steve Smart's Overload Opening Vlog

Okay so we're uhhh, a tad late posting founder Steve Smart's Overload Poetry Festival Opening Vlog. Cause he posted it late. That's right, it's a veritable chain of tardiness. Forgive us all - this whole festival-reviewing thing....and the festival itself is being run by a bunch of, well, poets.

Stay tuned past Steve's charmingly dishevelled ranting and the sly (sarcasm alert, it's not sly at all - Smart actually pauses to look up this blog while he's vlogging!) cross-promotional plug for this blog until you get to the poem, which was published last week on this blog during our vox pop with Steve. It's a Beauty. Yes, with a capital and bold printed B.

Your can read the text of the poem and our chat with Steve here. And you can check him out at Overload Poetry Festival tomorrow night reading at La Femme Erotica or Wednesday night in Class of 99. Or even sandwiched between the two on Tuesday in Speak Me Deadly. There's no escaping Overload Poetry Festival's baby-daddy this festival - you can try and run, but you'll only end up finding him on the mic round the very next corner, like in some kind of C Grade horror flick. Only in a good way - cause even though there might be blood he's brandishing words, and they're good.

What I Thought Poetry Was - Koraly Dimitriadis on Overload Opening Night

If I was your average Joe Blow who knew nothing of poetry other than what it is perceived to be in society – abstract concepts about birds and trees, a man standing in a library reading verse from a dusty old book to a bunch of grandmothers – and I walked into the Fitzroy town hall on Friday night at 7pm I would have nodded my head and said ‘yep, thought that’s what I thought poetry was’ and walked straight back out. As a poet being represented by Overload Poetry Festival, as a poet part of a community, I was heart broken. The four-hour long opening festival, staged in a brightly lit town hall, with many ducking in and out for a ciggie and drink a bit too often, had me wishing I was at home in bed. After a certain amount of poetry, after a certain amount of words, you stop absorbing. My brain was overloaded with poetry. The average Joe Blow would have glanced at the photocopied program of 30 events, and based on what was being staged, would not have been enticed to go to any of the events.

Scanning the list of fourteen (fourteen!) performers selected with the intention of giving the audience a taste of what was to come in the festival, a taste of the best, I was perplexed. The selection lacked diversity and I didn’t feel it represented the spoken word scene in Melbourne or the amazing talent taking part in the festival. For a start there were too many newbies, and I was utterly bemused at the decision to put some of the best acts, which I feel represent the range of poetry and spoken word being performed in Melbourne, acts like Sean M Whelan and Emilie Zoe Baker, performing at the closing ceremony rather than opening ceremony.

Overloaded: Lian Low on Overload's Opening Night

It’s Overload Poetry Festival’s tenth anniversary this year and I’m hankering to be enthralled. I walk into a very big room with dizzyingly bright giant chandeliers and massive pillars. The venue seemed a bit formal and cold for a poetry gig. The program advertised a duration of 6-10pm. That’s a really long night to concentrate on poetry under these bright lights. I collect my media pass and choose a seat about four rows from the front. At 6:30pm, the Artistic Director, Luis Gonzalez Serrano apologises for the late start promising that the gig will start in five. 15 minutes later and the show begins.

My favourites were Luka Lesson, Omar Musa, Alan Pham and Alia Gabres. Luka Lesson and Omar Musa performed a set of three poems together. Their first set mythologically themed; the second a reflection about their generation; and the third love and heartbreak. Both Luka and Omar are seasoned and champion slam poets. Luka’s first poem was like an epic Greek myth with a postmodern twist of writers on writing; it sounded like a powerful prayer invoking his ancestors and ancient Greek gods and goddesses. Omar’s first poem was also a beautifully written piece where he is walking on a metaphysical landscape and meets twins – one of forgetfulness and one of memory. Their second set and third set also blew me away. Luka’s “Confluence” was an unsentimental, beautifully crafted and viscerally charged poem about falling in and out of love. Omar’s “My Generation” piece had airplay recently on Q&A, and he prefaced the set by saying that after his performance on TV, he received a mixture of love and hate mail. “My Generation” is a sharp and scalding attack on a generation Y of selfish young people obsessed with artifice, megalomania and copycat ideas.

Where Were You? - A Poem for the 10th Anniversary of September 11

For the next week, this blog is covering Melbourne's Overload Poetry Festival. But ordinarily this is a personal political poetry blog, I couldn't let the anniversary of September 11 go by without posting a poem for my regular Slam Up readers. Overload coverage will resume this evening with reviews of our first three events.


i remember where i was
tell me
where were you

no window dressing
& however mundane
it might seem

no poetics needed
i only want the truth

my flatmate
that year
wz an engineer
obsessed with gaming

it wz 8.30
in the am
& already
the guy wz lounged out
playing WWIII

Sean M Whelan Ticks a Banjo off His Bucket List for Overload Poetry Festival 2011

Blogger and poet Sean M Whelan is Melbourne Spoken Word royalty...well, maybe he's the tatty down-on-his-luck Aladdin, which is about as close as we get to royalty in the poetic community of this here fine UNESCO City Of Literature. But once he finds that lamp, it'll all come good for all of us. Sean will be performing at Overload Poetry Festival's Notes on Sound this coming Tuesday, and will rock closing night next Saturday in a new poetry/music collaboration with The Interim Lovers. Slam Overloaded chatted to Whelan about ticking an item off his bucket list during Overload 2011.

Andy Jackson on Poetry Puppetry & Solitude as Kryptonite

Melbourne Poet and blogger Andy Jackson (Among the Regulars, 2010)was there when Overload Poetry Festival all began. He'll be poeticising with many of the Melbourne Spoken Word old guard in Class of '99 on Wednesday evening as well as appearing in Tuesday night's Notes On Sound. Slam Up Overloaded caught up with Andy to talk telephone booths, poetry puppets and solitude as a poet's Kryptonite:

Overload Reviewer: 'I Wish I Was at Home in Bed'

Today, Slam Up is sending reviewers to the Dan O'Connel Hotel and the Doris Leadbetter Poetry Cup and we'll be reviewing the Electric Text scrolling down the walls of Federation Square. Watch out poets, the audience-lurking and eavesdropping has officially begun.

Melbourne's Overload Poetry Festival opened last night and two of Slam Up's reviewers were there. What was the verdict? Were they blown off their feet? Moved to tears? Wowed with words? Steady on, you'll have to wait a little.Their verdicts will be published on this blog within 48 hours. What this house-bound editorial monkey can reveal though, is that she received a text from one of the reviewers revealing she was hankering to be home in bed. Why? Did she discover a new poet she fancied? Was she tired after a hard day's work? Had she had too much opening night red wine? Or did the unthinkable happen and she was absolutely bored out of her mind? Stay tuned (when you're not out at today's awesome Overload events) to find out. Were you at Opening Night? What was your verdict?

Real Poets are Phds, Bushmen or Working Class Heroes

he says real poets don’t wrestle for silence
in beer packed bars echo words from
temple walls & scream down
the pews of churches he says real poets
don’t force you to listen howl
it out on a street corner mic slam
around the tennis above the orders
before the band he says get
the fuck out of here who
do you think you are now
piss off before I—

Overload Critic Lian Low Battles the Demon Poetess of Death

I am soooooo excited to introduce Lian Low, the final reviewer for Slam Up's coverage of the Overload Poetry Festival 2011. Lian is Prose Editor at Peril Asian-Australian arts and cultural online journal.  She is a published writer who has reviewed and freelanced for ArtsHub, Vibewire and Melbourne queer street press. Lian rocks* (*not in her bio: my own editorial interference). Slam Up Overloaded's vox-pop questions have been getting more and more incoherent as we get buried under the weight of a poetry Overload. Poor Lian is our latest victim. Here, the spoken word critic finishes off my babbling sentences on Poetopia, secret identities and the Demon Poetess of Death:

What Do You Call Gatherings of Poets?

Jen Jewel Brown on Overload Poetry Festival, Furry Pants & Kryptonite

Melbourne poet Jen Jewel Brown, will be amongst the who's who of Australian Spoken Word performing at this friday's Overload Poetry Opening Night in Melbourne. We caught up with her pre-show to talk poetry, poetic arch nemeses, purring evilly like Eartha Kitt, and Rupert Murdoch publications as Kryptonite. If you haven't yet bought your tickets for Opening Night, you're a damn fool anti-poet. Overseas? Out of state? No excuse. Even if you can't make the show, just buying a ticket makes you supercool. Scramble over here to get one. Here's Jen Jewel Brown:

Eddy Burger on Goats Balls, Schnapps & Overload Opening Night

Wow, Overload Poetry Festival opening night is two days away. The Slam Up Overloaded  team is looking forward to reviewing Luka Lesson, Omar Musa, Jen Jewel Brown and more. We're champing at the bit to bite at the champs, but before all the poetry gets itself on, we're asking a few local poetic legends to waste their time with us by responding to some bizarre and irrelevent questions about, well, nothing in particular really. Here's the amazing Eddy Burger on how to spell schnapps, eating goats balls and poets in sailor suits:

Overload Blog Slam #1 - Post a Terrible Haiku on 'Death by Poetry' to Win Coffee With Saul Williams

So, it’s National Poetry Week in Australia. Regular readers of Slam Up will already know what short work I made of hating on that concept last week. But with the Slam Up Overloaded team, we’re all about spreading the poetry love in the lead up to Overload Poetry Festival 2011.

So as our first National Poetry Week prize, we are giving away coffee with African-American hip hop poetry god Saul Williams to one lucky Slam Up Overloaded reader.

Overload Critic Amy Bodossian - 'Poets Are Vulnerable Egotists'

Slam Up Overloaded's next critic for coverage of Overload Poetry Festival is Melbourne poet Amy Bodossian. Her work has been nominated for a prestigious Green Room Award and in 2008 she won the SA Young Women Writers’ Award.Since moving to Melbourne from Adelaide two years ago, she has appeared on Spicks and Specks, performed at the Woodford Folk Festival, and headlined at all of Melbourne’s major poetry evenings. Her spoken word/cabaret show, Phlegm Fatale sold out this year in both the Adelaide Fringe Festival and the Adelaide Cabaret Fringe, and received rave reviews.

What's that you protest? Another Overload poet as a reviewer? She might review herself? That isn't ethical? What kind of festival coverage is this? Whooooa, settle down, the whole deck of cards is on the table, and they're all facing up. And if you know Amy at all, Melbourne-co-poet-wrath is not enough to stop her trashing a set where required...in fact, just quietly, I reckon she'd relish it. Here, Amy talks fear, dressing gowns and poets streaked in blood:

Overload Critic Karen Andrews: 'Pass Me a Cigar, for The Blog of My Enemy is Failing'

This year for Slam Up Overloaded, reviewer Karen Andrews is back to review Overload Poetry Festival 2011. Karen is an award winning Melbourne writer, blogger and publisher. She is the publisher behind the successful anthology of blog writing: Miscellaneous Voices, Australian Blog Writing #1 (2009). Karen was a reviewer for the coverage of Overload Poetry Festival in 2009, and was also the author behind one of the most talked-about poems to appear online during the festival coverage: The Blog of My Enemy is Failing. What better way to introduce Karen as an Overload blogger this year, than with a re-post of this poem, which resonates with bloggers far and wide, even if we'll never admit it out loud:

Overload Critic Koraly Dimitriadis: 'Will Review Own Poetry & Open to Bribes'

Koraly Dimitriadis will be one of five critics squatting at Slam Up for the next fortnight to cover the Overload Poetry Festival. Dimitriadis is a Cypriot-Australian performance poet and published writer. She is the author of the controversial poetry chap book Love and Fuck Poems (2011) She blogs for Overland Literary Magazine and presents monthly on 3CR's Spoken Word program. Koraly hopes to carry the momentum of her no-holds-barred approach to poetry over to her reviews. Slam Up caught up with her to talk bribery, red dresses, the Melbourne Spoken Word scene and the ethics of reviewing herself.

Review: 'Tattooing the Surface of the Moon' - Sean M Whelan

This year, Overload Poetry Festival is bringing out some amazing international poets, but for me one of the best things about Overload Poetry Festival is the ability to see local poets hit the stages the love the best in their very own UNESCO City of Literature. This morning, Slam Up reviews Melbournite Sean M Whelan's latest book offering Tattooing the Surface of the Moon (Small Change Press, 2008):

Sean M. Whelan is a Heavyweight poet, with a capital H. Whelan has been published in just about every literary magazine in the country, and his performance work is nothing short of revolutionary in contemporary Australian poetry. His on-stage collaborations with musical acts The Mime Set and The Interim Lovers blur the oft-imagined boundary between poetry and lyric and are guaranteed to pack smoky bars, sell out festival seasons and overflow grungy back rooms.

'Even Monsters are Allowed to Dance' - Steve Smart on Overload Poetry Festival 2011

Overload Poetry Festival started ten years ago as a TAFE project of Melbourne poet Steve Smart. and look at it now: interstate Heavyweights, Nu Yorican slammers, poetry scrolling live down the walls of Federation Square. To me, Overload is the worm that aspired to become a dinosaur, though according to it's maker, it  would prefer to be an echidna, on the evolutionary scale.

Slam Up Overloaded starts festival coverage this evening with our vox-pop with the festival's very own no-good baby daddy. Here's the always amusing Steve Smart, on avoiding child support, taking the little sh*t to the park some weekends, permitting monsters to dance, and what's new for Overload 2011.

Overload Poetry Festival 2011: Let the Blogging Begin

This evening, Slam Up will start coverage of Melbourne's Annual Overload Poetry Festival 2011.

In the lead-up to the Overload opening night next Friday, we'll be meeting our reviewers. Writer, publisher and blogger extraordinaire Karen Andrews is back, along with poet and writer Koraly Dimitriadis, who vows she's open to bribes, but otherwise will perhaps be this year's most cutting critic.

You'll have to stay tuned to meet the other three brand new critics for Slam Up Overloaded, who will bring brand new eyes, ears and efforts to the Overload Poetry Festival 2011 coverage.

Over the next few days we'll shoot the breeze with festival founder Steve Smart, we'll review Sean M Whelan's latest book, we'll hold several blog slam competitions and we'll give away a coffee date with hip hop poet Saul Williams*...and that's just for starters.

Stay Tuned, while Slam Up gets Overloaded.
* Note: Slam Up's version of a 'coffee date' may differ markedly from the assumed meaning. But the prize will involve coffee, and some Saul.