Gathering Ground: Cracks, Portals and Pockets of Resistance
An invitation to explore cracks in the system, pockets of resistance and portals to other worlds that exist in the place where we live and love.
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Writing to Understand the World
Participants in this workshop will partake in activities that ask them to interrogate their story as a way of understanding themselves and the world happening around them.
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PG
Book a session with lapsed psychologist and poetic general practitioner David Stavanger as he joins you from the therapeutic (uni)verse couch to explore the intersection of the id and the idea, and reads to you from his self-aware guide Case Notes.
Poetic Meditation Workshop – Movement BE
Developed by Movement BE founder Nate Howard, The Poetic Meditation Workshop is a qualitatively unique experience where the art of poetry and meditation come together to an uplifting experience.
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Deadly Editors: Talking First Nation Anthologies
Three leading Indigenous poets discuss the new wave of First Nation anthologies that have arrived on bookshelves this year.
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Australian Poetry Slam 2020 – Darwin Heat
Partnering with Word Travels and the APS, Red Dirt Poetry Festival presents the Darwin Slam heat online!
Free
Poetry Chatroom
Virtual Event NT8 guest poets are invited to an interactive live performance opportunity where the audience enters a poets chatroom.
Consciousness for the Subconscious: A Mindful Poetry Podcast
Virtual Event NTRed Dirt Poetry Festival invites you to relax with us, meditate or even fall asleep. We all need and deserve some time out to rest, every night of the festival we will release a new episode on 8CCC and online. In this short podcast our poets will speak to your subconscious and help guide you to creatively relax and support your mind to process the world around us and the spaces we occupy.
Opening Ceremony
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTSmoking Ceremony and Acknowledgement of Country from Akeyulerre Healing Centre.
NT Poetry Month Showcase
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTCo-presented by Red Room Poetry and Red Dirt Poetry Festival as part of Poetry Month 2022
Australian Poetry Slam – Central Australia
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTFeaturing special performances from APS legends.
Gravidity, Parity, Poetry
Birth & Beyond 10/89 Todd St, Alice Springs, NTAn event for people with babies
Free
Imagining Resilience
Alice Springs Public Libary Cnr Leichhardt & Gregory Tce, Alice Springs, NTIf you were free to be you, and your loved ones were free to be themselves, how would that look and feel? Join poets Alexandra C. Steffan and Rowan Rose in a playful and joyful exploration of the ways we might connect in possible futures, in our communities and in the world around us. Bring […]
$10
Power Discourse within Poetry
Alice Springs Public Libary Cnr Leichhardt & Gregory Tce, Alice Springs, NTJoin Victoria Alondra and Huda the Goddess to examine how the language we use affects others and ourselves, context, shoehorn, clout chasing and point scoring - why we do it, how to detect it and how to not do it. Book Now
$10
Connective Tissue
Adelaide House 50 Todd Street Mall, Alice Springs, NTA collaborative installation of images and words
Free
Mixtape Memoirs
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTMixTape Memoirs is the convergence of music and poetry. We’ve asked 10 poets to write with a song in mind relating to this year’s festival theme longing and re/connection. It’s not the mixtape you’ve asked for but it’s the mixtape you need. A love letter from us to you…
$5
Agapi & Other Kinds of Love
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTBased on Plato’s The Symposium, Agapi & Other Kinds of Love is a Modern Hip-hop Opera embedded in the Ancient Greek storytelling tradition. Greek-Australian poet and rap artist Luka Lesson’s reputation as one of Australia’s best storytellers shines as he takes us on a journey through the Ancient Greek kinds of love. SOLD OUT!
$25
FIRE VR
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTFIRE is a Virtual Reality project filmed in the burnt forests of South Coast NSW in early 2021 following the devastating 2020-2021 fires. In partnership with Outlandish Arts, disabled artists working across multi-art forms to express their thoughts on climate justice.
Free
Connective Tissue
Adelaide House 50 Todd Street Mall, Alice Springs, NTA collaborative installation of images and words
Free
International Haiku Death Match Championship
8CCC 14 Lindsay Ave, East Side, NTYou me? Saturday morning in the 8CCC Carpark to battle it out for the title of International Haiku Death Match Champion. All haiku to stick to the 17 syllable (5-7-5) format, this death match will be broadcast live on 8CCC. Open to everyone so get writing those haiku and meet you in the carpark for […]
Free
Exploring the Self Through Tangential Metaphor
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTAre you a star? Or a satellite? Leave identity politics and proper nouns at the door to follow your pen through the nit-picky, unnameable facets of self in this step-by-step workshop by four-time Australian poetry slam finalist Andi Stewart. Armed with a mountain of metaphors and a tangential mind-map, learn how to write an explorative […]
$10
Woman at the Wheel
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTIn 1907, Henry Lawson felt the motor car was “sullen, like a thing that should not be”. Indeed, in the early 1900s cars were, for many, a symbol of power and wealth: noisy, dangerous, destructive and unfamiliar. Part love letter to the freedom of the ride, part eulogy to the single-driver gas guzzler, Eleanor Jackson […]
Free
Everything’s F*cked: It’s the End of the World
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTFour poets look at the apocalypse through a poetic lens, what is the end of world? We all have events, moments in time that signify the end of the world as we know it. The apocalypse may not be Mad Max style escapades, the end of the world might just be a whimper, a change, […]
Free
The Somatics of Existence in “The New Reality”
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTFour poets share their somatic inspired works and explore the connectedness of all things body, spirit, mind and language. The space between our physical beings and the language we use to express ourselves in society in this time and space in our “new reality” may seem like a straightforward concept or is it?
Free
Beatbox Meets Poetry
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTCome and join world-renowned beatboxer, theatre performer and poet Hope One and learn from one of the best, in this workshop Hope helps you develop tools to create rythym techniques and explores the connection between poetic performance and beatbox. Book Now
$10
SIARAD
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTIt’s 2020. A poet arrives in Western Australia to visit her Welsh mother who has dementia. But border controls mean she must remain in isolation for two weeks. Shifting between the worlds of the writing room, the Slam stage and the wounds of family history, the poet examines what it means to be a poet, […]
$10
Poetry in Motion 2022
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTGuts Dance x Red Dirt Poets team up in this amazing showcase, seven poets and seven dancers have collaborated to create a moving piece of poetic expressions. Poetry in Motion will take you on a moving journey featuring an opening number from Fan Fatale. SOLD OUT!
$10
Declarations in the Dark
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTLet’s take a walk over to the Blue Moon for a showcase of spoken word poets from around the country, these seasoned artists will share their stories with you under the stars. The event is BYO and food will be available.
$10
Not the AfterParty
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTNot your nanna’s afterparty - kicking off the gig is a feature performance from Harrison & Black Jesus in Do You Thrust Me. Followed by the eco-punk warrior stylings of Stellar Sea and smashing their way onto stage in true Alice Springs fashion is the Holy Dimes. Come party with us! BYO Event.
$10
Connective Tissue
Adelaide House 50 Todd Street Mall, Alice Springs, NTA collaborative installation of images and words
Free
Arrernte Womens Poetry Group & Marketplace
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTCome and join us for morning tea with readings from the Arrernte Women’s Poetry Group’s first book, Arelhekenhe Angkentye Women’s Talk and recent works.
Woman at the Wheel
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTIn 1907, Henry Lawson felt the motor car was “sullen, like a thing that should not be”. Indeed, in the early 1900s cars were, for many, a symbol of power and wealth: noisy, dangerous, destructive and unfamiliar. Part love letter to the freedom of the ride, part eulogy to the single-driver gas guzzler, Eleanor Jackson […]
Free
Red Dirt Scrawl
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTRed Dirt Scrawl is a collection of poems written for, inspired by, and read during the successive 2018 and 2020 Red Dirt Poetry Festivals by Jeremy Garnett. It provides a glimpse into the emotional and literary experience of the festival, which is organised by poets, with poets, for poets. This book is thus a reflection […]
Free
To quote Slim Dusty, Looking Forward, Looking Back
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTRetrospective - the importance of looking back in order to move forward. Politically, locally or globally, these poets share their work and discuss how it is everything that happens to us and everyone ever that creates the existence of our reality.
Free
What Does ‘Nice’ Mean Anyway?
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTNiceness. It’s a nice word, in an ideal world everyone would be nice. But what does that even mean? These poets explore the concept of niceness from a poetic viewpoint as we delve deep into the idea... you may leave feeling pretty nice or you may leave questioning the existence of everything.
Free
Power Discourse within Poetry SECOND SESSION
Blue Moon 17 Undoolya Rd, East Side, NTJoin Victoria Alondra and Huda the Goddess for a second session, examining how the language we use affects others and ourselves, context, shoehorn, clout chasing and point scoring - why we do it, how to detect it and how to not do it.
$10
Love & Belonging
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTLove and belonging is a collection of songs by Bambadino illustrated by Frankie Garnett that explore how we come to love and find our place in the world. Join us for this collaborative between two artists for a presentation of projection artworks and music.
Prickly Pear
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTPrickly Pear is a multidisciplinary live arts performance prioritising the creative practice of women and gender diverse people. Unraveling the tensions found at the intersections. Prickly Pear cross-pollinates performers and audience alike, building relationships between artists that might not usually share a line-up. It's a space held by everybody to witness and be witnessed; for […]
So Long & Thanks for All the Poetry
Totem Theatre & Courtyard 8 Wills Tce, Alice Springs, NTIt’s time to say goodbye - let’s go out with a bang! Join us for the final hurrah as these spoken word masters take to the stage to say goodbye the only way they know how.
$10