Sospeso Readings

Friday!

2010-07-01T08:50:00.000+10:00

Hello me dears

Tomorrow night (friday) is Sospeso Readings. It's gonna be a great night, with Tiggy Johnson bringing you a taste of her new poetry collection "First Taste", and Anna Fern cooking up some spoken word with an amuse-bouche of sound poetry.

It will be the last of Sospeso Readings, so it would be great to see you there, just one more time, being warmed by the heat of words on a miserable winter night.

It's an open theme this time round, so bring along a poem for the open mic, there might be a prize in it for you.

Best

Laura

The Last Ever Sospeso Readings

2010-06-22T11:08:00.003+10:00

We've got an awesome pair of features coming at you on the 2nd of July at Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

Anna Fern will be bringing her spoken word sound poetry thang to the cafe. She's fascinating to see, there's nothing else quite like it in town. You absolutely must catch her the second you get the chance (which would be next week, yes?).

Tiggy Johnson will be showing off her new collection "First Taste" in a kind of pre-launch celebration of her book. Her poems have been said to be "earthly and ravishing", and are certainly worth a sneak peek.

If you're wondering about the title, yes, this will be the last Sospeso Reading. The readings have run for over a year, which I reckon is a pretty good run given that it was originallly concieved as just one or two events at the end of a Cafe Poet residency. Now I'd like to move on to other projects.

Thanks to all those fantastic people who featured, MCed, open miced, and just came to listen, you've made running an event great fun.

With all this in mind I think it's nice if the open mic is open themed for this one last time, so bring your favourite gear and share it around.

Coming Soon - Motherhood!

2010-06-03T13:46:00.004+10:00

Tomorrow night we're coming to you with an all-star line-up including Vicky Thornton, Amy Bodossian, Geoff Fox, Koraly Dimitriades, Tiggy Johnson and Di Cousens. It's going to be a great night at Caffe Sospeso, rockin to the theme of Motherhood.

When: 7pm, Friday June 4
Where: Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

Hope to see you there!

June, Motherhood

2010-05-20T22:52:00.008+10:00

It's time again for another Sospeso Readings. For June we're very happy to have six features for the night. Vicky Thornton, Amy Bodossian, Geoff Fox, Koraly Dimitriades, Tiggy Johnson and Di Cousens are putting together a special event on Motherhood.

There'll be a prize for our favourite open mic poem, so bring along your best.

Where: Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

When: 7pm, Friday, June 4

vehement toolbox on ways of reading poetry

2010-05-18T23:03:00.000+10:00

Hello me dears

Lovely Susie Anderson has written a most excellent blog on her night at Sospeso Readings and the lounge-room performance poetry experimentation that followed. It's a great read, check it out.

link to vehement toolbox

Sospeso Readings is tomorrow!

2010-05-06T09:49:00.000+10:00

Hello me dears,

Don't forget! Tomorrow (Friday) Rhys Rodgers, the pink-haired poet-boy, and Kristin Henry, one of Melbourne poetry's leading ladies, will tell you all about love, space, and other big things.

Once again we're privileged to have Deb Vanderwerp, poet, singer, fiddle player, actor, deity, and creative writing course coordinator, as our MC.

Friday 7 May, 7pm at Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

Have a great night!

Laura

Rhys Rodgers, Poetry Idol to be

2010-05-03T15:32:00.003+10:00

Rhys Rodgers, our next feature poet has made it into the Poetry Idol finals! Clearly he is awesome stuff.

He's new to Melbs so maybe, perhaps, you haven't seen him being a poet around town yet. You poor thing. To remedy this, check out his blog. You'll feel better in no time.

Rhys's blog
Poetry Idol website

May, Love, Space, and Other Big Things

2010-04-17T01:04:00.005+10:00

Yep, that's right, Sospeso Readings is back after a short suspension.

This time Rhys Rodgers, the pink-haired poet-boy, and Kristin Henry, one of Melbourne poetry's leading ladies, will tell you all about love, space, and other big things.

Once again we're privileged to have Deb Vanderwerp, poet, singer, fiddle player, actor, deity, and creative writing course coordinator, as our MC.

It's going to be a fantastic night, hope to see you there!

Where: Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

When: 7pm, Friday 7 May

Keeping you in suspense

2010-03-11T12:06:00.005+11:00

Hello lovely ones

We're going to suspend Sospeso Readings in April. We've been hit by a triple whammy on the first friday of April - our MC has to work, the cafe can't be open, and you guys have to do whatever it is that you usually do on Good Friday.

We'll be back in May, but If you need your poetry fix in the meantime try the Poem Pruning workshop that's coming up on the 27th of March at Booktalk Cafe in Richmond.

Poem Pruning facebook event

Thanks for coming!

2010-03-09T00:03:00.005+11:00

Thanks to everyone who came along to Sospeso Readings: Domestic Rock 'n' Roll. It was a great night, fantastic to see Derek and Nathan do their respective thangs.

Congratulations to Easy Bee, who was the favourite open mic reader this month, her prize was an invitiation to do a workshop or feature at Booranga Writers' Centre. This will be sorted some time in the near future, and I'll keep you up to date on the deets.

Sospeso Readings is on this friday!

2010-03-03T13:08:00.002+11:00

Hello sweet people

Just a reminder that Sospeso Readings is on this friday (5th March), featuring Derek Motion and Nathan Curnow, both marching to the beat of their own ice-cream-container-and-wooden-spoon-handle drums, and to the theme of Domestic Rock 'n' Roll.

7pm at Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

Hope to see ya there!

stuff to check out

2010-02-25T11:53:00.003+11:00

Derek's blogaroonie:

typing space

Nathan's spaceamondo:

Nathan Curnow myspace

March, Domestic Rock 'n' Roll

2010-02-20T12:08:00.004+11:00

Hello me dears

We're coming up fast to the next Sospeso Readings - on friday the 5th of March at 7pm.

This time round it's the word-music of Derek Motion and Nathan Curnow jiving to the theme of Domestic Rock 'n' Roll. No doubt you've read Derek's work in Best Australian Poems 2009, and you've certainly read Nathan's book The Ghost Poetry Project.

We're back at Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

It's going to be a fantastic night, hope to see you there!

The awesomeness of flyers

2010-02-13T11:24:00.004+11:00

Some of you may have noticed that the Sospeso flyers have suddenly become awesome. This is because I've stopped plagiarising images off the web, and have instead been getting fabulous Zoe Steers to design the art. Check out more of her stuff at:

Texta Chainsaw Massacre

Looking back

2010-02-09T15:58:00.003+11:00

Hello my dears

Just in case you missed out on the last Sospeso Readings, check out the fantastic sum-up and pics on Thuy Linh Nguyen's blog.

Thuy Link Nguyen

Thanks for coming!

2010-02-08T18:16:00.005+11:00

Just a quick note to thank everyone who came along on friday. I've had a lot of feedback about how strong the open mic section was, so good job you lot!

Thanks also to those awesome people who put money in the hat to cover the cost of the venue and to pay the feature poets. I think it's important that poets be paid for their work as a way of acknowledging it as a legitimate form of art and entertainment.

Special thanks to Randall Stephens, who somehow managed to do two gigs on the one night - Plan B AND Sospeso Readings; and to David Gilbey, who isn't a Melbournite but seemed to know everyone in the room.

Change of venue for Feb Sospeso Readings

2010-01-31T12:24:00.002+11:00

Please be warned, due to staffing issues Caffe Sospeso is unable to host the reading on Friday the 5th of Feb.

However, since we all adore David Gilbey and Randall Stephens and can't stand any delay in seeing their next gig, we will be moving to the awesomness of the Town Hall Gallery, which is just down the road, behind the big grey town hall building on the corner of Burwood and Glenferrie roads.

The address is 358 Burwood Road, Hawthorn.

For more information about the space please check out their blog at http://townhallgallery.blogspot.com

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Greetings from blogging hot Wagga Wagga

2010-01-25T14:36:00.005+11:00

Just before Christmas I was in Sendai, Japan, for three weeks on a kind of 'writing retreat' - a chance to write some more poems about Japan and work on drafts of pieces I'd started. Hopefully I'll have enough worthwhile poems for a chapbook collection. It was a relatively solitary light at the end of a crowded, rich tunnel - excuse the mixed metaphors for my working life as an academic and arts person in regional Wagga Wagga. I guess I have about thirty proto-poems. Once again, it made me think how elusive is 'place' and how hard it is to give the feel, smell, taste, look of another country - as well as the sense that description and reportage is not what it's about anyway. And language that has some surprise, suggestivity and complexity to it, as Basho, Wordsworth, Wright showed... I will read some of these on Feb 5 - a nice 'deadline' to aim at.

I was in Japan partly, too, to contribute to a colloquium at Doshisha University, Kyoto, on Christos Tsiolkas' novels, one of which, 'Dead Europe', I argued, was strikingly Japanese in its preoccupation with the supernatural as engrained in what we would normally consider realism. The folktale element that Tsiolkas uses meshes well with a destabilised consciousness such as that which is found in 'The Ring' or in Haruki Murakami's 'Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'.

As well, there was a seminar in Sendai on language-learning and I presented a couple of my 'jinglish/japlish' poems as an indication both of my failure as a learner of Japanese, and of poetry's suggestive hybridity, obsessing about ways that language didn't neatly refer to or instantiate a world of objects, society and psychological profiles, but plays, mischievously in a word world that reaches through television, advertising, sports into restaurants, bars and mountain hot springs.

Let me plagiarise myself: my word journey began in London, near the sweet, sullied Thames, has dallied next to Miyagi’s Hirose River (signifying ‘comfort and prosperity’ for the citizens of Sendai) and now winds its way beside Wagga Wagga’s serpentine Murrumbidgee (‘big water’ or ‘never failing’ - depending on the translation).

I'm looking forward to being part of the bash with Randall Stephens - the evening should be a terrific - do write us something, and tell/bring your friends...

David Gilbey

Caffe Sospeso presents: Randall Stephens' bio -19/01/2010

2010-01-19T11:06:00.010+11:00

.
Hello
My name is Randall Stephens, I was advised by the powers that be to put up my bio for my upcoming show on February 5th. I am doing this of my own free will and without being manipulated in anyway or coerced. Or threatened. Repeatedly threatened. With violence. I have not been repeatedly threatened with violence in order to put this online to support the democratic poets republic of Sospeso. I wish to state this for the record. Thank you.
To my family please be assured that I am being treated kindly and fairly and I look forward to my eventual reunification with you upon my release.
---

About Randall Stephens:

13.7 billion years ago a singularity of infinite density existing without time or space exploded for unknown reasons, creating the universe. For a while not much happened. In 1980 “The Empire Strikes Back” came out, and Randall Stephens was born. He is a poet. His many and varied pursuits include writing poetry, performing spoken word poetry, writing spoken word and occasionally typing it too.
After travelling around the world, Randall returned home and is currently living in Denial, while visiting other emotional states in Australia. Find out even more about Randall Stephens, or make a large non-tax deductible donation to him:
www.randallstephens.blogspot.com or email him at: brainthatweighsatun@hotmail.com

---
See you on February 5th, I'll be back here before then to give you some details of what I'll be doing at the feature. Looking forward to seeing you all there. It's going to be a great show folks, don't miss it.

Randall Stephens.

-Peace

February, Healing

2010-01-10T11:21:00.005+11:00

For this year's first Sospeso Reading we're importing a much loved rural poet. David Gilbey will come all the way from Wagga Wagga NSW to share his poetic delights.

We're also featuring Randall Stephens, the self-confessed last angry man who has chosen "healing" as the theme for the reading.

Free entry, and there will be a prize for our favourite poet.

Hope to see you there!

www.caffesospeso.com.au

December, Racism

2009-12-01T18:13:00.001+11:00

Sospeso Readings: Racism

Friday 4th December, 7pm

Featuring Maxine Clarke, Lian Low, Raina, and MC Thuy Linh Nguyen.

Free entry, and a prize for out favourite open mic poet!

Caffe Sospeso
428 Buwood Road
Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au

November, Power Dynamics

2009-11-01T19:43:00.000+11:00

Sospeso Readings: Power Dynamics

Friday 6th November, 7pm

Featuring Vera Di Campli San Vito, Andy Jackson and MC Melissa Delaney!

Free entry, and a prize for our favourite open mic poet.

Caffe Sospeso
428 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au

October, People and Places

2009-10-09T20:35:00.001+11:00

Sospeso Readings: People and Places

Friday 9th October, 7pm

Featuring Fiona Stuart, Susan Fealy, and MC Deborah Vanderwerp.

Free entry and a prize for our favourite open mic poet.

Caffe Sospeso
428 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au

September, First Poems

2009-09-04T20:28:00.000+10:00

Sospeso Readings: First Poems
first read, first heard, first written, first liked

Friday 4th September, 7pm

MC Tara Patwardhan with special guests from Melbourne's Cafe Poets Gemma White, Laura Smith, and Jessica Raschke.

Free entry, and a prize for our favourite open mic poet.

Caffe Sospeso, 428 Burwood Road, Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au

August: Prejudice, Conflict, and Love

2009-08-01T20:19:00.000+10:00

Sospeso Readings: Prejudice, Conflict, and Love

Friday August 7th, 7pm.

Featuring John McKelvie, Michael Crane and MC Libby Charlton.

Free entry, and a prize for our favourite open mic poet.

Caffe Sospeso
428 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au

June

2009-06-01T20:09:00.001+10:00

Friday 26 June, 7pm. Featuring Anthony O'Sullivan, Myron Lysenko, MC Ezra Bix.

A prize for the open mic poet.

Caffe Sospeso
428 Burwood Road
Hawthorn

www.caffesospeso.com.au