on 3/4/01 2:36 AM, Hugh Tolhurst at [log in to unmask] wrote:

> Two fabulous events at amazing locations in Rome,
> how did New York, Oxford, Sydney, London go? Not
> to mention Dialogue at the Water Rat Hotel in Melbourne?
> How did John Kinsella enjoy convening at the UN?

The Sydney readings went well although they were held in a less traditional
venue and therefore less, how shall I say, reverential than the usual poetry
reading.

For reasons I won't canvas here, the venue was Sydney's well-known (well
maybe not that well-known outside Sydney) Paddington Markets which take
place in the grounds of the Uniting Church on Oxford Street.

This meant the crowd was a shifting one and the words of poetry took to the
air amongst an atmosphere of ambient noise, buying and selling, overhead
planes and the children's playground right behind us. In a sense, quite
appropriate to the theme. We read under a marquee, as there was the
possibility of rain, at an intersection of clothes and food stalls. Later, I
noted over the other side of the markets an area given over to fortune
tellers. Now, that would have been interesting.

In the end nine readers took part. They were Nihat Ziyalan - who read in
Turkish with English translation read by Ruark Lewis (Nihat used to be a
stall holder at the markets as well); Joanne Burns; Rudi Krausmann; Les
Wicks; Amanda Stewart; Peter Boyle (who also read two poems he had
translated from the Spanish); Angelika Fremd plus the two organisers, myself
and Ruark Lewis. No-one read more than three poems.

Some people stayed for the whole session and many stayed a while and moved
on. Other obviously caught words and phrases so at least some Sydneysiders
and tourists will have been faced with the fact that poetry still happens in
this city.

All the poets bar Nihat, who had to return to work, repaired afterwards for
a coffee etc down the street and agreed that Sydney needs more variety of
readings and some more like this would be good.

My partner took photographs and as soon as they are available I will place
them on the web page I've set aside for this on my site as well as a poem
from each reader plus work from a few other poets who could not, for various
reasons, be present (one had been beaten up the night before, for instance)
but who had wanted to be part of the project. The web site address is in the
signature below. I hope the final versions of pix and poems will be up at
the end of the week. At the moment all there is is a list of readers and
other info.

Good to hear about the other readings. I was the MC and, in introducing the
theme, noted as many of the other readings throughout the world I knew of,
especially those I knew were happening around a similar day and hour, which
included some of the New Zealand readings.

Cheers,
Jill

_________________________________
Jill Jones
50 Ruby Street
Marrickville NSW 2204
AUSTRALIA

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http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~jpjones