We empower Australians to tell their stories. ___________________________________________________  On Sunday, November 27th, a packed Sydney Theatre chose Luka Lesson to be Australia's Slam Champion.
Two poets form each state and territory bound onto the stage. They poured out their wit, substance and powerful emotions in a competition judged by randomly selected audience members. A crowd of over 400 offered wild screams, applause and people leaping to their feet shouting, “yeah, that's right”. Reminder: this is at a poetry event. We heard an 85 year old woman from Launceston discuss her online relationship with a Mr. N. Large Ment, an ode to a female parking inspector, a brilliant assessment by an indigenous woman of issues in Alice Springs, moving rant on the fate of Palestine and two strong pieces from runner-up Nadine Browne, a school teacher from Perth. The Australian Poetry Slam is a major national program created to showcase writers who perform their work. Starting in 2005 in with 3 heats and a final in Sydney the program has grown to 45 events from June-December in every state and territory with almost 1000 writers performing in packed out events. The Slam has also expanded to include the performance of any type of writing: stories, lyrics, monologues... whatever one person can do with words and a mic. Check out the full press release on the APS media page. APS '11 - NATIONAL FINAL, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27TH - 5PM |
Imagine two minutes in the spotlight. No props. No music. Judged by the audience. Just you...and your story. From urban lanes to country rivers, Australians have been spitting poetry, stories, lyrics and monologues. Now watch the nation's best wordsmiths tear up the Sydney Theatre stage in a battle to become Australia's next Slam Champion. Two poets from every state and territory are about to descend on Sydney Theatre. Judges, chosen from the audience, will pick one fresh voice to represent Australia in a writer's tour of Asia worth $11,000. NOVEMBER 2011 - APS'11 NSW FINAL |
After six months of hard-core heats –Wagga to Kempsey, Grenfell to Glebe – word-slingers from around the state battled with their best poetry, monologues, raps and stories. Judges, picked from the audience, selected two poets to represent NSW wordiness in the National Final: Christopher Wright and Greg North. UK SLAM CHAMPION HOLLIE MCNISH AND FREESTYLE CHAMP INJA PERFORMED AT APS '11 NSW FINAL |
Hollie McNish is a published UK poet and spoken word workshop leader who has been taking the scene by storm since her first reading in 2009. She has released two poetry albums, Touch and Push Kick, both to critical acclaim with the latter prized for contributions to maternal research by the University of London. She has appeared in venues as diverse as Glastonbury festival, Ronnie Scotts Jazz Bar, London’s Southbank Centre and Cambridge University. She won the 2009 UK Poetry Slam and finished third in the World Slam du Monde, Paris, has been featured on Radio 4’s Poetry Diaries, Women’s Hour and BBC 2 and has recently completed a poetry residency in Mons, Belgium. Watch Hollie performing Language Learning here. 
Inja is an exceptional MC and host whose work spans a huge variety of genres including dubstep, hiphop, grime, drum and bass and freestyle poetry. He is resident Host / MC at Warning and Stink Like Sock, two of the UK’s biggest and longest running drum n bass and dubstep nights and is current host of both the UK and World DMC DJ Championship tours. Inja performs live as a solo act, as well as as part of the renowned Taskforce family and one third of the mighty ‘The Skuff and Inja Show’. The latter’s ‘show stopping powers’ have received 4 star ratings in Metro and smashed up stages from the UK and Europe to China. Check out Inja's latest single, Pepper Sauce, here. WORD TRAVELS WELCOMES NEW BOARD MEMBERS |
 We are proud to announce the addition of four new Word Travels teamies, who each bring exceptional skills, passion and vision to our committe. At our board meeting on 14 July 2011 we welcomed: Tony Letford (Executive Chairman, Summit Equities), Anthony Nantes (CEO, Plan Power), Jane Ellis (Partner, Blake Dawson) and Belinda Campbell (Writer, Singer/Songwriter, Photographer).
Read more... 2011 SYDNEY WRITERS FESTIVAL WORD TRAVELS WRAP |
 Word Travels paired up with the Sydney Writers Festival in 2011 to produce a series of poetry events. For the second year in a row we hosted one of the Festival's most popular events, Spoken Four. This year Spoken Four featured our 2010 Slam champion, Kelly-lee Hickey, Australian performance poet, Candy Royalle, two time US team slam champion, Mike Simms, and former US slam champion and HBO Def Poetry Jam poet, Rives. Before a capacity crowd of 350 at the Festival Club, these poets showed that performance poetry...
Read more... ROOTY HILL HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS AT SPOKEN FOUR |
 Students from Rooty Hill High School jumped up on stage at our recent Spoken Four event at the Sydney Writers Festival, performing to a capacity crowd of 350 people.
The performance was the culmination of a series of Wordshops coordinated by Word Travels and WestWords (the Western Sydney Young People's Literature Project). Wordshops were held with the school's drama students and several went on to perform at The Rumble - a youth poetry slam in Blacktown... Read more... | 
