The wonderful, delightful, poetryful Sean M Whelan used to present a regular Melbourne spoken word night called Babble. Babble was a well loved event, originally started by another poetryful man Phillip Norton, and developed over years by SMW. Babble was able to satisfy both the need for poets to practice, via the energetic and beautifully supportive open mic stage, and the need for practicing poets to lift the bar in feature sets with professional performances.There was an expectation. Perform. Be lyrical. Be musical with your words. Your story is your art. Enlighten us. You are on a stage. Entertain us. There was also a genuine, authentic appreciation. An appreciation of variety - both in its performative sense, and its diversity sense. I've always loved him for this. And the good news, Melbourne, is he's doing it again! A little differently this time. No open stage, just lyrical storytellers and musical poets. A little more refined, a lot more lion.
An evening of spoken word with a difference. A House Safe For Tigers will exclusively showcase only writers collaborating with musicians. For the inaugural event Sean M Whelan & Isnod will perform their first gig together in 2014. Sean will also debut new material written in collaboration with musician Brooke Russell. Plus, Ben John Smith with band.
And, I bounced off the walls to make Sean let me mix spoken word and music in the breaks for the opening night on the 20th August. It just wouldn't be right not to. So you get LAPKAT too!
And besides, it's FREE.
Hopefully this is a hugely successful regular monthly gig - Melbourne has plenty of poetry readings but not enough high calibre story/music sessions. If you're in this southern town, come, bring your friends, tell others! It's at Some Velvet Morning, 123 Queen's Parade, Clifton Hill. Click on the (magnificent) poster (by DDT) for the Facebook event.