Si's amazing poem, 'This City Speaks To Me' stuck in my mind from when I first heard it in underground warehouse party gigs in 2008. It captures the spirit and pulse of bohemian artistic life of Melbourne.
He has gone on to run The Bohemian Masquerade Ball series, manage Hiatus Kaiyote and help them achieve incredible international success, found Wondercore Island label and manage many great Melbourne artists like Oscar Key Sung, Ainslie Wills, Sampa The Great, Jazz Party, Kirkis, Vulture St. Tape Gang and much more.
May this spark your creativity to write a piece expressing your slice of life in Melbourne and add to the mix. Head to www.thecityspeaks-melbourne.com for more info and email your piece to sarah@thecityspeaks-melbourne.com

'This City Speaks To Me' by Si Jay Gould, 2008

Rufus - Aged 14 - Melbourne City Speaks.MP3

Jazzlyn - Aged 14 - Melbourne City Speaks.MP3

Alex - Aged 14 - Melbourne City Speaks.MP3

Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa performing her piece ' To Advance Australia Fair' 

Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa is a #grownwoman, hairy, single and ready to mingle, and a storyteller. You'll find her on park benches dnm'ing with strangers about the evils of the patriarchy or impromptu rapping about Tony Abbott with her best mate. She is passionate about the performing arts and inherently merges her advocacy background with the arts. Sukhjit, from a young age, enjoyed writing pieces and performing them for her family. In fact, her first script was written when she was just 6 years old. However, while on exchange in Prague, a Bulgarian backpacker hijacked Sukhjit's laptop and typed in 'Sarah Kay', exposing her to the magical world of spoken word poetry. Since then she has been workshopping pieces and it was only until the Australian Poetry Slam Competition last year that she decided to perform spoken word for a wider audience, spiralling off into a YouTube Channel titled Contemporary Kaur. Sukhjit's writing predominatly surrounds stories of the Sikh diaspora, family, cultural confusions, and gender. She is still discovering the art form of slam poetry and experimenting with style and content while she currently resides in the 'big city' of Melbourne. For her, the journey has just begun.

'To Advance Australia Fair' by Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa

Luka Lesson's poem 'Yiayia' which beautifully encapsulates the migrant experience, community, family love and life in Melbourne with an amazing take on racism, "..just because some people naughty doesn't mean you throw the rest in the rubbish.."

Luka Lesson is a spoken word music artist of Greek heritage from Australia.

Luka’s debut book, “The Future Ancients” is now (independently) a best-seller for poetry in Australia twice-over and a part of educational programs from Hong Kong to Melbourne. His performances and writing skills in various arenas have earned the title of “a sonic literary genius” by New York poet and former president of Poetry Slam, Inc. (USA), Taylor Mali.

With 4 years of international touring, 13 Writers’ Festivals, 9 years of workshop experience and ten years of writing under his belt, Luka has written commissions and performed for the likes of The National Gallery of Victoria, Greece’s pioneer Hip-hop group Active Member, South Africa’s OneBlood Festival and China’s most celebrated living poet Xi Chuan in Beijing. He is also the Australian Poetry Slam Champion of 2011 and Melbourne Poetry Slam Champion of 2010.

Musically, Luka has released two EPs and two full length albums: Please Resist Me (2011) and EXIT (2014) and blurs the lines between conscious rap lyricist and insightful story-teller. From dense rhyme schemes to a poetic vulnerability rarely seen in modern day artists, Luka’s musicality is prevalent in everything he does. Whether holding the focus of thousands of people at a music festival main stage with nothing but his voice, or flowing on complex beats and electronic production, Luka is a versatile artist who’s influences are as diverse as his army of faithful followers.

http://www.lukalesson.com.au/

Luka Lesson - Yiayia (Grandmother) Spoken Word

Joel McKerrow's stunning piece 'Welcome home', an ode to artists, the creative struggle, belonging and home, set to the etherial sounds of The Mysterious Few.

Check out the video clip here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aX4U-eyEB4k

Frontman Joel McKerrow is one of Australia's most successful performance poets having toured extensively throughout Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada, the UK and Europe as well as releasing two previous studio albums, two live albums and two published books. He is the Artist Ambassador for the aid and development organisation ‘TEAR Australia’, was the third ever Australian representative at the Individual World Poetry Slam Championships in the USA (2012), has been invited to perform at the Sydney Opera House, the Melbourne Arts Centre, the Victorian Parliament House, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe (NYC) and he is a TEDx speaker and performer. He has been commended by Canadian performance poet Shane Koyczan as, ‘an exceptional spoken word artist…fiercely political and humane’. And by the Australian National Poetry Slam Champion, Luka Lesson, as, ‘a true leader in Australia's performance poetry scene…A man who can tear a roof down with his performances and bring tears with his subtle eloquence’.

Having played to audiences of 5000 people and being on line-up's with the likes of Switchfoot, Katie Noonan and Blue King Brown, Joel McKerrow and the Mysterious Few, are pioneering a unique fusion of artistic forms through an explosion of poetic verse, impassioned performance, soaring vocals and intricate musicality. The songs/poems (or pongs for short) are inspiring and moving, attention grabbing and thoughtful, articulate and powerful, in-your-face and under-your-skin. They are the breath before the storm and the bellow of thunder. Not merely poetry dressed up with a thin veneer of music, this is music powerfully and intentionally woven with spoken word.

Genre-bending and ground breaking, this is like nothing you have encountered before. Call it intimate, acoustic-driven, folk-rock poetry; or perhaps a mash up of Passenger, Sigur Ros and Daughter sitting beneath passionately delivered spoken word. Whatever you call it, you need to listen to truly ‘get it’, and once you have you will want more.

http://joelmckerrow.com/

Joel McKerrow & The Mysterious Few - Welcome Home

'Australia Day' by the wonderful Neil Gaiman who so eloquently and humourously reveals a layer of the history of the land upon which we stand.

A popular writer of fantasy and the dreamily macabre, Neil Gaiman created the landmark comic Sandman and wrote the novella Coraline. He began writing in the early 1980s, first as a journalist and book reviewer. He moved into comics with Alan Moore's Miracleman series in the mid-1980s and began working on graphic novels with artist Dave McKean. Gaiman and McKean's Sandman ran for 75 monthly episodes, an industry phenomenon in the early 1990s (it ran from 1989 to 1996), that cemented Gaiman's reputation for mature fantasy. He has since moved from being a popular underground author to a mainstream success through comics, short stories, novels, children's books, television and movies. Gaiman's novels include Good Omens (1990, co-written with Terry Pratchett) and American Gods (2001) and Anansi Boys (2005); his children's books include The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish (1997),Coraline (2003) and The Graveyard Book (2008, and a winner of the Newbury Award in 2009); his fantasy mini-series Neverwhere was broadcast by the BBC in 1996; he wrote the English screenplay for the animated feature Princess Mononoke (1997), the story and screenplay for MirrorMask (2005) and the screenplay for Beowulf. Coraline won a both the Hugo and Nebula awards in 2003 and was made into an animated feature (2009) starring Dakota Fanning.

'Australia Day' By Neil Gaiman

'Melbourne Now' by the wonderful Rochelle D'silva. 

Rochelle is a page/performance poet who writes about her travels, cultural influences and personal experiences. She has been writing poetry since she was a scrawny 6 year old. Her spoken word journey began on a dreary, cold Melbourne evening in August 2011 at open mic at the Brunswick Hotel. Since then she has won an Encouragement Award at the coveted Doris Leadbetter Poetry Cup, represented Melbourne spoken word on Indifeed, been featured on Peril Magazine as a contemporary Asian-Australian poet, published two zines, wore a onesie and performed street poetry as part of the Northcote Northern Exposure Festival, won slams and organised poetry events as part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival. She has recently published a book of poetry titled 'A Converseation in Four Parts' in collaboration with 3 other amazing poets from Mumbai, india. She runs a monthly open mic event in Mumbai titled "Words Tell Stories" and also
conducts poetry workshops for those who share a love for poetry and those who want to discover it. She endorses hugs.

Follow Rochelle's work at https://www.facebook.com/RochelleDsil...
Soundcloud for more tracks: https://soundcloud.com/rochelle-dsilva

'Melbourne Now' by Rochelle D'silva

'The Melbourne Mosaic' by Katie Price
38 years old
Postcode 3182

I've lived in Melbourne for 13 years, I'm an English expat. I was a nomad until I arrived here and Melbourne stopped me in my tracks! I live in eclectic St Kilda with my husband and I work as an emergency nurse.

www.grownewbuds.com
www.facebook.com/katiejanepoems


The Melbourne Mosaic by Katie Price

'A Disaster Movie Like Me' by the very wonderful Sean M Whelan.  

Sean M Whelan is a poet, playwright, DJ and marriage celebrant. He has published two books of poetry, Love is the New Hate and Tattooing the Surface of the Moon. His first play Everything: All The Time enjoyed a sold out season at the 2013 Melbourne Fringe Festival. All The Animals We Ate his second play was performed at the 2105 Melbourne Fringe. He also works extensively with musicians, most notably Isnod and The Interim Lovers. He has performed his work widely both nationally and overseas in the USA, Canada, Indonesia and New Zealand. In 2014 he was awarded a Creative Fellowship at the State Library of Victoria. He is currently working on a new collection of poetry and new recordings.

'A Disaster Movie Like Me' by Sean M Whelan

Victorian Arabic Social Services' Anti Racism Action Band presents:

'The City Speaks- making audible the stories that coexist in this radiant city, Melbourne.'

This city is full of stories.

Layers upon layers of histories- from the ancient ancestors of the Kulin Nation to all that make up the vibrant city that we know today- Melbourne has been shaped by booms and busts, fortunes, misfortunes, global events and movements bringing waves of migration and cultural influences to our shores. All of the interlinking personal stories combine to make up the rich fabric of our society in the shared space that is The City of Melbourne.

Melbourne, this radiant city, is the stage for countless stories. Everyone has their unique experience and tales to tell and everyone who dwells here is linked with the long chain of histories that entwine here. The City Speaks project exists to make audible the stories of it’s inhabitants and their experience through place and space in Melbourne.

It is a celebration of life in this fine city and of cultural diversity, community and creativity.

It is underpinned by the belief that we are all richer for appreciating the humanity in all we share this space with- past, present and future- as well as the land on which we stand.

We invite you to share your story and create a short spoken word piece expressing your slice of life; your connection with and experience of being in Melbourne. It can take whichever form you choose stylistically or thematically- just make it an authentic expression of you.

Watch the 6 part video series featuring 6 Melbourne based poets and MC's performing their work, and talking about their views and process to help you get started.

Head to: www.thecityspeaks-melbourne.com for more info and to get involved.

This project has been supported by the 2015 City Of Melbourne Arts Grants

The City Speaks

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