Press July 2011 - Word Travels featured in Australian Financial Review 
2011 Sydney Writers Festival Word Travels wrap - Miles Merrill, Creative Director 
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 Festivals 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 continues to defy definition, with a lyrical selection from Kelly-lee; an explosive barrage of verses from Mike; power lyrics, loops and melody by Candy; and a sensitive, comedic, charismatic performance by Rives. Between the headliners, we featured three Western Sydney High School students from The Rumble. After an hour of prodding by Word Travels artists, year 11 students Sumayyah Siddiqui, Gavin Newman and Imraan Daniels conquered their nerves and delivered their writing with passion and confidence. This year Word Travels also hosted a panel discussion, Write a Revolution, where five poets discussed their motivations to deliver workshops, literary projects and mentoring which moves their art out into the community. Press Archives |
