Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival
Melbourne’s annual celebration of its vibrant poetry scene, the Overload Poetry Festival has a new logo, a new website on the way and a penchant for technology as it gears up to run from 10-19 September 2010.
Melbourne’s Overload Poetry Festival has selected ‘Screening the Word’ as this year’s theme to reflect the different mediums poets are tackling with this playful, critical and ever evolving art form.
To screen the word suggests the meeting of tradition and technology. While poets have struggled to find their place among traditional mediums such as books, they are now revolutionising the way they create and publish their work.
It also brings home the message that to this day some poets remain persecuted for their ideas, and emphasises
those whose work is under the threat of censorship in many places around the world.
The 10-day festival will be held from 10-19 September across various Melbourne venues with Luis Gonzalez
Serrano at the helm as this year’s Festival Director.
“We’re extremely excited about this year’s theme. Words meet the concepts of visual arts in concrete poetry, they meet the storylines of film in video poems, and they meet the growing demand of alternative media in podcasts and blogs,” Festival Director Luis Gonzalez Serrano said.
“This year’s program reflects these changes by showcasing contemporary poets in Melbourne on big screens, electronic banners, websites and podcasts as well as the more traditional spoken word events.”
Highlights for this year’s Festival include:
- Melbourne Poetry Map – podcasts by Melbourne poets, which guide visitors around the places that have inspired them.
- Azahares, a tribute to Miguel Hernandez – a collaborative work between poets, dancers, musicians and multimedia artists, to celebrate 100 years since the birth of one of Spain’s most captivating and moving poets: Miguel Hernandez, an emblem of the civil war.
- Poetry at the movies – our selection of “voems” or video-poems from all over Australia plus a special presentation of works by ABC Radio National’s Mike Ladd.
- Mightier than the sword – a keynote speech by Judith Rodriguez, Vice President of Melbourne PEN about the plight of poets whose words have been silenced and a panel on silenced voices, featuring guest speakers from the Asia Pacific region as well as Australia.
- Poets in Time Lapse at the NGV – a selection of readings by poets in response to photographic works dealing with the idea of time.
- Tri-Nations Skype slam: Overload once again goes head to head with a poetic opponent through cyberspace in a virtual slam. This year they take on Singapore’s LIT UP festival and Scotland’s STANZA.
Tags: Melbourne Overload Poetry Festival