A STELLAR LINE UP OF ITALO/AUSTRALIAN WOMEN
     Each presenter is bilingual, and will be able to engage with the        
     audience in both English and Italian.

Laura Ancilli, academic and broadcaster at SBS Radio will offer a  visual presentation  titled: Italian print advertising: how the language has  changed over the last 35 years to accommodate “globalization”

Josephine Eberhard, actress, writer and playwright will offer poetry in English and Italian by Emily Dickinson.

Marisa Fazio, poet, singer, and teacher will present her own unique poetry in English and in Sicilian.

Josephine Gargano – Carey, is a Dante enthusiast and a poet, will present her own thought provoking poetry in English and in Italian.

Gabriella G-Hubbard, journalist and actress will give voice to the poetry of Eugenio Montale.

At Rinaldi Gallery 334 Victoria Street Brunswick
Tel: 9380 4624
Cost: $7/$10 at door

Festival Launch
– by Carlo Carli MLA
Member for Brunswick,
Parlimentary Secretary for Infrastructure
Sunday, July 2, 2-4pm

Join us for the launch of the poeSIA festival. Events include art, poetry and song! Indulge your eyes with the opening of art exhibition Le Madonne by Laura Boselli and Tonia Composto. Enjoy a taste of poetry in translation with academic and translator Patrizia Burley. Patrizia will read her own poems in English and Italian. Plus women’s choir Voci di Donna perform madrigals and modern a cappella songs.

Free Event
Venue: Rinaldi Gallery
334 Victoria St, Brunswick

The Art of Translation
Saturday, July 8, 10am-1pm

This translation workshop will consist of information and discussion on the tension between literal and literary translation with academics and translators Judith Rodriguez and Kostandina Dounis.

Cost: $10
Venue: Rinaldi Gallery
334 Victoria St, Brunswick

Getting Published!
Sunday, July 9, 10-1pm

A workshop on presentation for publication and how to pitch your work. With Philip Rainford (president, Fellowship of Australian Writers), editor and publisher Robyn Freeman (Deakin University Professional Writing) and others.

Cost: $10
Venue: Rinaldi Gallery
334 Victoria St, Brunswick

The River Crossing – The Languages of Poetry
Tuesday, July 11, 10.30am-12pm

An inspiring morning with poet, translator, academic and librettist Judith Rodriguez, followed by the multi award winner Italo-Australian poet Lino Concas. The theme of Judith’s presentation will be on the linguistic and cultural value of translation, while Lino’s poetry readings in English and in Italian will engage with the theme of Italo-Australian- Aboriginal connections.

Free Event
Venue: Coburg Library
Cnr Victoria and Louisa Sts,
Coburg

Poetry and Music
Wednesday, July 12, 7.30-10pm
An evening of poetry and music from the Italian Drama Company. Contact Tom Padula at 9381 4188 for details.

Cost: $15
Venue: Teatro Padula
1 Tripovich St,
Brunswick

Mosaico Magico
Friday, July 14, 7-10pm

The Brunswick Asylum Seekers’ Welcome Centre joins World Poetry to present a truly multicultural celebration of creative collaboration. Poets and musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds come together with drums, poems and songs. Artists include Kevin Brophy (poet), Peter Russo (musician), Chris Basile with Patrice Lamumba (musicians), political poet ACspecials.com (potent poetry for her state of affairs) and drumming ensemble Camel Walk (takes you on a journey through the Arabian, Turkish and mediterranean worlds).

Cost: $7/$10
Venue: Asylum Seekers’ Welcome Centre,
Uniting Church, 212 Sydney Road,
Brunswick

Le Madonne Poetry Reading
Sunday, July 16, 2-4pm

Giovanna Livolti-Guzzardi, Josephine Gargano Carey and Marisa Fazio are women who write from the heart. This afternoon of beautiful poetry in Italian and English will explore themes of nostalgia, place and identity.

Cost: $7/$10
Venue: Rinaldi Gallery
334 Victoria St,
Brunswick

Festival Concert – An Evening of Soul and Sensuality
Saturday, July 22, 7-10pm

Kavisha Mazzella, Melbourne’s favourite folk singer collaborates with Italian jazz ensemble Gone Banda; Marcello D’Amico reads works by Canadian poet Rachel Rivi translated into Italian; plus a Sicilian dancetroupe and Tony Yap share their poetic expression through dance.

Cost: $15 (bookings through Multicultural Arts Victoria, 9417 6777)
Venue: Brunswick Town Hall
Cnr Dawson and Sydney Road,
Brunswick

Poetry and Music
Thursday, July 27, 7.30-10pm
An evening of poetry and music from the Italian Drama Company. Contact Tom Padula at 9381 4188 for details.

Cost: $15
Venue: Teatro Padula
1 Tripovich St,
Brunswick

Voci Armoniose – Closing Party
Saturday, July 29, 2-4pm

Led by Kavisha Mazzella, the Italian women’s choirs La Voce Della Luna and the Fawkner Italian Women’s singers, will perform folk songs about events that have shaped Italian life, from the gaiety of grape picking to the tragedies of war. Poetic readings in Italian, English and Irish will complete the day.

Cost: $15, includes champagne and finger food afternoon tea
Venue: Café Belfiore
597-603 Sydney Road, Brunswick

While this festival is primarily targeted at the Italian community in the City of Moreland, it is very important that the festival be inclusive by presenting original readings or recitals in both Italian and English text and in translation.

The intention is to give the listening audience the opportunity to experience a poem or song in English from another language with the same intensity and purpose as it was originally meant, which can only therefore be made possible by the “art of translation”.

This festival features Italian language writers & musicians in collaboration with artists from other cultures, i.e, Malaysian, Congolese, Middle Eastern, Irish/Australian and others. Venues include the Coburg Library, the Brunswick Town Hall, the Brunswick Asylum Seekers Welcome Centre at the Uniting Church, the Belfiore Café and the Rinaldi Gallery also in Brunswick. 

Full programme coming soon! Watch this space…

INVITATION FOR POETS, SONGWRITERS & WOULD-BE LITERARY MENTORS

Do you write poems or songs in a language other than English?

Do you include words from Aboriginal traditional languages as part of your English text?

Would you like the opportunity to work with a person with literary expertise who would assist you with fine-tuning your writings into poetic English?

Then this invitation is directed at you and any person with literary expertise who is interested to find out how to become a mentor in a one-to-one literary partnership!

Contact Lella Cariddi for more information on this exciting opportunity.

This anthology goes to the core of diversity. Diversity in language, culture, history, spirituality, and literary styles. It is a modest publication, yet the themes between its covers reveal each of the authors' concerns with place and identity. These range from Hidayet Ceylan's concerns with spiritual and contemporary issues to Bruce Pascoe's and Vanessa Fisher's cogent concerns with the history of their country. Vanessa's poems, which have been described as "gems of enchantment", hark back to antiquity, but are also very much connected to the present. Cristina Neesham's contribution resonates with the personal at the same time that it draws upon the universal sphere of women's experiences.

The poetic styles range from the experimental, such as Bruce Pascoe's signpost poem "Singing up the country" which is "a recitation of Colac district place names in verse meant as an incitement for people to learn their country", to the self-referential, deeply reflective and elegantly composed poetry of Cristina Neesham. Hidayet Ceylan’s poems follow traditionally strict rules of rhyme and metre and become musical compositions which can either be read or recited as chants. Vanessa Fisher’s poems, with their lyrical structure, are ideally presented through the medium of dance, singing, and chanting, thus drawing in the audience.

In this anthology we also find interesting differences in translation styles or approaches, such as parallel texts in the case of Cristina Neesham and Hidayet Ceylan, and line by line translation as practised by Vanessa Fisher.

This publication was first of all made possible by the generosity of the three organisations which provided the money for the encouragement awards presented at the Festival, i.e. the Victorian Aboriginal Corporation for Languages, Readings Books and Music and the Elysium Group Pty Ltd. Indispensable assistance also came from the Victorian chapter of the Fellowship of Australian Writers which not only offered to publish the anthology, but also to cover any financial shortfalls.

Through it all, Multicultural Arts Victoria, under whose auspices World Poetry operates, continues to offer its support and encouragement. All the support World Poetry has received to date, both in actual and in social capital, seem to indicate that its efforts at making the Australian literary scene more inclusive are striking a chord, that there are others who are convinced that literature written in other languages deserves more than an occasional airing.

What also appears to have struck a chord is World Poetry’s insistence on giving pre-eminence to Aboriginal writings, for only by honouring the Aboriginal nations’ heritage and respecting their languages and finding joy in them, can we open our hearts and minds to the languages of people who have come here from other parts of the world.

Lella Cariddi
Janna Hilbrink

In brief, World Poetry ’s raison d’être is to be inclusive, to work towards the recognition of literatures outside the English language sphere. Read more >>