Poetic City Winter Edition

You can warm yourself by the fire of creativity this winter when the second Poetic City Festival rolls out a plethora of welcoming interactive events for established sonateers and the poetry-curious alike. BMA’s Anthony Plevey sharpened his quill and caught up with Festival Director Jacqui Malins to learn what literary delectables await us.

In the first two weeks of July, Poetic City Winter Edition, the second iteration of Canberra’s Poetic City Festival, will combine the themes of winter and urban life to thrillingly activate the City West precinct. These themes will be driven by the key focus of engagement and outreach, with a raft of opportunities for creative interaction and participation via a wide-reaching and deliciously varied program that welcomes all.

Supported by a place-making grant from the City Renewal Authority (CRA) and the ACT Government, the festival will enliven connections between the CBD and the City West area, with a number of the festival’s installations and activities happening in the area between Civic Square, the Australian National University, The Street Theatre, and the Food Co-op.

The festival warms-up in June with a program of workshops, providing accessible, supportive, encouraging, and fun environments for people who might be, as Festival Director Jacqui Malins puts it, “poetry curious”.

“The Festival welcomes anyone who has ever been interested in having a bit of a go, giving them many opportunities to do just that,”

Malins says. “There is a real joy in creating something.”

Creative output from these workshops will feed into the activities, installations, and artworks which will enhance the City West environment for the festival.

“Canberra already has a vibrant and dynamic poetry community and it’s an art form that is open to anyone,” says self-declared poetry evangelist Malins. “It’s very portable. It’s very cheap. We all have the toolkit within us – words and language. All you need is a pen and paper or a phone and you’re away!”

This framing of poetry as an accessible artform is very deliberate. “Poetic City Winter Edition aims to break down perceptions of poetry as lonely musing and silent reading,” Director Malins says. “There’ll be lots of exciting, interactive things happening, with

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