Australian Poetry Slam - Queensland
Slam facilitators
David Stavanger
David Stavanger aka Ghostboy is the Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde of Australian poetry. A live hybrid of performance poetry, spoken word theatre, soundscapes and surrealist vaudeville, he is also a widely published poet, lyricist, editor and independent publisher.
Ghostboy is recently back from a spoken word and slam mentoring tour of the USA, funded by Arts Queensland. He won the Performance Poetry World Cup (2005) and is Queensland's "slammaster" having coordinated two of the nation's biggest slam events in the Australian Poetry Slam (Queensland) and the WordFood slam at the Woodford Folk Festival.
Ghostboy has performed his work on ABC and Triple J radio and at various festivals including the Brisbane Writers Festival, Byron Bay Writers Festival, and NightWords at the Sydney Opera House. He is also a renowned poetry workshop facilitator and presenter with five years experience in creating and delivering highly innovative workshops in schools and festivals including the Voices on the Coast & Somerset youth festivals. He has released two books of poetry, a spoken word CD and recently an album with his Green Room Award nominated punk cabaret ensemble Ghostboy with Golden Virtues. www.myspace.com/holyghostboy
Candy Bowers
Writer, performer and lyricist Candy B and her sister, composer Kim 'Busty Beatz’ Bowers have been creating live performance work for over a decade. Now working under the title Black Honey Company, the duo specialise in hip hop, spoken word theatre and comedy.
They've worked with theatre companies across Australia, including Sydney Theatre Company, Belvoir St Theatre, Bell Shakespeare Company, Australian Theatre for Young People and Queensland Theatre Company, and have performed at festivals such as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Darwin Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, The Big Day, St Kilda Festival and Lady Fest, amongst others.
In 2013 Black Honey Company has three original works on tour: WHO'S THAT CHIK? (theatre) MC Platypus & Queen Koala's Hip Hop Jamboree (children's entertainment) and Australian Booty (comedy.)
Adam Hadley
Whether he's having his insane rants about Australian Idol interrupted by being forcefed pavlova by a dildo-wielding bar babe, or performing quiet, hungover poems about being hungover, Hadley is a weird, energetic, compulsive force on stage.
He was one of the hive minds behind Canberra's ridiculous slam BAD!SLAM!NO!BISCUIT!, represented the ACT three times at the National Poetry Slam Finals and is the host of WordFood at Woodford Folk Festival.
Scott Sneddon
Darkwing Dubs, a.k.a Scott Sneddon, is a poet dressed in the dreams of a monster. He writes, moves, speaks and bites at the lip of human nature with the questions of a child and the meaning of a monk.
His artistic history involves theatre shows, hip-hop crews, poetry collectives, bands, beatmaking and DJing. He’s a 2 times Queensland Poetry Slam champion and in 2010 placed as runner-up Australian champion.
In 2011 he began hosting the Jam Jar Poetry Slam, fostering and supporting a growth of performance poets through workshops and events, while exposing a new generation to a regular slam – complete with feature guests and avocados.
Benna Zenabomb
Combining his passions for law, justice and poetry, the Bennabomb is a human rights lawyer by day and a human-writes performer by night.
He has been involved in various community arts projects over the years, including: Junkadelic recycled percussion troupe; 10 piece New Orleans funk outfit The Chameleon Brass Band as a hip hop emcee; writer/director/performer in Mammals of the Jarrah Forest Hip Hop Puppet Show; and performer and organiser of the Atomic-Oz National Musical Comedy tour.
Benna is a recipient of the Performance Poetry World Cup, has performed shows at numerous Queensland poetry festivals, has been a national finalist in several poetry slams and represented Queensland at the National Slam finals at the Sydney Opera House. His written work has been published in the Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association (ACRAWSA) e-journal as well as New Matilda, Justinian and Online Opinion.
More information
- Phone: +61 7 3840 7768
- learningparticipation@slq.qld.gov.au
