SCREEN AUSTRALIA
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
& UNDERGROWTH presents
in association with
SCREEN TERRITORY
a bold new web series for abc iview
showcasing the australian slam poetry scene
© ATOM 2016
A STUDY GUIDE BY KATY MARRINER
http://www.metromagazine.com.au
ISBN: 978-1-74295-975-7
http://theeducationshop.com.au
The Word – Rise of the Slam Poets
is a six-part web series for ABC iVIEW about
contemporary Australian slam poetry, featuring
leading young poets from diverse cultural
backgrounds. Blending documentary, art and
video poetry, this series paints a powerful portrait
of multicultural Australia from a generation that
has rediscovered the power of the spoken word.
»»Curriculum links
The Word – Rise of the Slam Poets is suitable viewing for
secondary students in Years 7 – 12 in English, Literature
and Drama. The series is also a valuable resource for
cross-curriculum literacy projects. Teachers are advised to
consult the Australian Curriculum online at http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ and curriculum outlines relevant
to their state or territory for further information. It is recommended that teachers preview episodes. Some episodes,
are more suitable for use with senior students given the
ideas and issues explored.
Activities in this study guide provide opportunities for
students to:
ˆˆ learn how slam poetry enables people to express
and exchange knowledge, attitudes, feelings and
opinions;
ˆˆ identify personal ideas, experiences and opinions
about slam poems and discuss them with others;
ˆˆ explain and analyse the ways in which stories, characters, settings and experiences are reflected in slam
poems;
ˆˆ analyse and understand the philosophical, social,
cultural, moral, political and aesthetic bases on which
slam poems are built;
ˆˆ interpret and create slam poems with appropriateness, accuracy, confidence, fluency and efficacy;
ˆˆ learn how texts are structured to achieve particular
purposes;
ˆˆ identify how language is used to create texts that are
cohesive and coherent;
ˆˆ adapt language to meet the demands of purposes,
audiences and contexts;
ˆˆ write and perform their own slam poetry to entertain
and inform audiences;
ˆˆ learn how to edit for enhanced meaning and effect by
refining ideas, reordering sentences, adding or substituting words and using poetic techniques;
© ATOM 2016
Slam poetry has the potential to enrich the lives of students, expanding the scope of their experience. Learning
to appreciate these texts and to create their own slam poems, builds students’ knowledge about how language can
be used for aesthetic ends, to create particular emotional,
intellectual or philosophical effects. Allowing students to
perform their slam poetry in performance spaces, enables
them to refine their expressive skills in voice and movement. Through public performance, students achieve
validation and gain confidence as a writer and a speaker.
2
ˆˆ identify how slam poets perform their work to
an audience;
ˆˆ evaluate how performance styles in slam poetry convey meaning and aesthetic effect;
ˆˆ practise and refine the expressive capacity of
their voice to perform their slam poems.
Suitable for Years 7 – 12. Some students may find
the footage of life in South Sudan disturbing.
Run time: 6: 41
Episode 2 features Alice Eather, a bilingual teacher
and community leader from Maningrida in Arnhem
Land whose words traverse her indigenous and
European heritage.
ABOUT THE SERIES
Over the past decade, slam poetry has exploded
across Australia. The Word: Rise of the Slam
Poets is a bold, new series fusing art, poetry and
factual entertainment in a format that introduces
the thriving contemporary slam culture to a television audience. Crossing from spoken word to
freestyle rap, video blogging, political satire and
the rise of competitive poetry slams, the series
features some of the most prolific and successful poets in the Australian contemporary spoken
word scene.
The poems selected in the series include challenging messages about racism, refugee rights, environmental issues and indigenous rights. Together
they reflect the rising multicultural voice of contemporary Australia. The Word: Rise of the Slam Poets
shows the power of poetry is universal and timeless, allowing individuals to speak their own truth,
whoever they are.
Each episode of The Word: Rise of the Slam Poets
includes a portrait of the featured poet, and an
original short film interpreting one of their poems.
Episode 1 features Abe Nouk, a Sudanese refugee
who came to Australia completely illiterate yet has
been able to learn English through listening to hip
hop. Abe now mentors young people in the power
of literacy and spoken word and performs regularly
across the country.
Suitable for Years 7 – 12. Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander viewers are advised that the program
may contain images and voices of people who
have died.
Run time: 9:07
Each episode of
The Word: Rise
of the Slam Poets
includes a portrait
of the featured
poet, and an
original short film
interpreting one of
their poems
Episode 3 features Ee’da Brahim, a Singaporean
Muslim-born poet whose words and actions illustrate the importance of women coming together to
share their stories and support each other.
Suitable for Years 10, 11 and 12. Episode 3 is rated
M. The episode contains sexual references.
Run time: 8:55
Episode 4 features Hugo Farrant, a newly arrived
English migrant whose keen sense of Australia’s
colonial past now informs his poetry.
Suitable for Years 7 – 12.
Run time: 8:04
Episode 5 features Luka Lesson, a GreekAustralian poet, rapper and former Slam Champion
of Australia. Luka’s polemic and passion have inspired thousands of students in workshops across
the world.
Suitable for Years 7 – 12.
Run time: 6:49
© ATOM 2016
3
Episode 6 features Omar Musa, a firebrand poet of
Malaysian-Australian heritage and Muslim upbringing. Musa shares a fiery perspective on the issues
of racism and xenophobia in Australia.
multiply meanings. Done well, poetry transcends
mundane language patterns, crossing hemispheres
of the mind and the heart to connect disparate
thoughts, memories and emotional journeys in a
single sentence.
Suitable for Years 10 – 12. Episode 6 is rated PG.
Run time: 11:08
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
In 2011, I performed in the Australian Poetry Slam
National Finals in Sydney alongside twenty other
poets from across the country. The level of diversity
and talent that was displayed at that event inspired
a reawakening in me to the power of spoken word.
I realised that there was a bold new generation of
poets, inspired by hip hop, political speeches, freestyle rap, beat poetry and more, and they deserved
a larger platform for their stories.
Poets are masters of wordplay, weavers of meaning,
spellbinding storytellers with the gift of the gab, and
yet somehow this ancient medium has been entirely
overlooked by the modern broadcast media. I think
we need poetry in our media landscape, in our collective dreaming, our cultural discourse, in the streets of
our cities – and on our televisions.
The poets we have chosen for the series are all
Australians with diverse ethnic backgrounds and
unique perspectives. They understand the power
of words to open new ways of looking at the world
by bravely examining their own fears and furies,
their wounds and their hopes for the future. They
represent fresh new voices, keen to spark new
conversations – ones that we need to have if we
are to grow as a multicultural society.
Timothy Parish, Co-Writer, Co-Director & CoProducer, Undergrowth Productions
BEFORE VIEWING
Prior to viewing The Word: Rise of the Slam Poets,
teachers may choose to engage students in a discussion of their individual relationship with poetry.
This could be achieved by asking students some
© ATOM 2016
These days we are surrounded by text more than
ever through the internet and social media. Never
before has a well-formed idea – written or spoken
well – had the potential to reach so many. In that
context, I think poetry is a kind of hi-tech form
of oral communication – a hypertext language –
employing abbreviated thought and multi-layered
metaphors that fold symbols in on themselves and
The poets we
have chosen for
the series are all
Australians with
diverse ethnic
backgrounds
and unique
perspectives
Australia has a rich history of poetry, but it is not
something we expect young people to enjoy anymore. However, the artists that are featured in this
series have each broken through that barrier, and
are making people sit up and take notice everywhere they perform. They are not alone. Across the
country, spoken word events, poetry slam competitions and hip hop inspired freestyle nights are
putting poetry back in the public consciousness, as
if a generation has rediscovered its voice.
4
Useful links
Slam Poetry Movement: Marc
Smith at TEDxLUC
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=dOpsS9H5dgQ
A Brief Guide to Slam Poetry
https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/
text/brief-guide-slam-poetry
or all of the following questions to generate a class
discussion:
ˆˆ
ˆˆ
ˆˆ
ˆˆ
ˆˆ
ˆˆ
Do you like poetry?
Do you have a favourite poem?
Do you have a favourite poet?
Have you ever written a poem?
Do you ever read poetry?
Do you ever listen to poetry?
Another starting point is to ask students to share
their knowledge and understanding of slam poetry.
WHAT IS SLAM POETRY?
Slam poetry is a type of contemporary performance poetry. There is no formal structure to a
slam poem. It is this freedom from convention that
many slam poets find inspiring. Slam poems are
usually fast-paced, witty, and tackle brave and provocative subject matter. Words in slam poems are
chosen for their meaning but also for
the way they sound when read aloud.
Slam poems are written to trigger
emotional responses from a live
audience. Poetry slams are events
in which poets compete in front of a
live audience.
€€ H
aving watched The Word – Rise of the Slam
Poets, do you think slam poetry is a ‘democratic’ form of expression?
THE HISTORY OF SLAM
POETRY
While American construction worker and poet
Marc Smith is credited with having started poetry
slams at the Get Me High Lounge in Chicago in
November 1984, slam poetry itself can be traced
back to the free verse, musical style of Beat
poets like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg and
Negritude poets like Aimé Césaire.
© ATOM 2016
€€ O
mar: I am the word. A generation given life and embodied.
Landing on the soils of your
heart like a comet. I am the
word. That which gives solace.
Gem-studded crown from a
rock unpolished. I am spoken into being like a prayer
or a promise. I am the word.
Listen.
Why do you think these lines taken from a
poem by slam poet Omar Musa are featured
in the opening title sequence of each episode
of The Word – Rise of the Slam Poets? How
do the accompanying images position an
audience?
5
E
pisode 1: Child Soldier
to Warrior Poet
Abe Nouk
Sudanese-born, Abraham ‘Abe’ Nouk is a spokenword poet, hip-hop fanatic, MC and author whose
craft developed from a realisation about the freedom of speech.
€€ A
be: Both of my parents were born in the
South of Sudan. My mother birthed me in
prison and the circumstances that came to
that was she was brewing alcohol, which was
illegal at the time in Sudan in the early 1980s.
She was providing for the family and expecting me, she had to figure out finances and she
was arrested and... she birthed me in prison.
How have Abe’s experiences in Sudan shaped
who he is as a person and as a poet?
Explain the significance of the use of archive
footage of life in South Sudan. Why do you
think the filmmakers also use shots of Abe at
home with his mother in suburban Australia?
After many years of living in a refugee camp,
Abe’s family came to Australia in order to start
a new life. Abe was illiterate when he and his
family arrived in 2004 as UN High Commission
designated refugees.
€€ A
be: When we found out we got into
Australia... the magnitude of that is something
that as a person who was there, you think
someone is playing a prank on you. We were
put into language school with no English and
then they gave us tests to kind of measure
where we stood. It was ridiculous because we
barely knew the differences between yes and
no and in a lot of ways it became a challenge
for me to first and foremost just to speak the
language. Illiteracy is a nightmare no child
should ever have to go through.
What comment does Abe’s recollection of his
early years in Australia make about the challenges he faced as a refugee?
When Abe was learning English, he discovered the power of hip hop to express himself,
giving him a platform to express the anger
and confusion he began to feel about the
injustices he had seen in the world.
€€ A
be: I got the feeling of learning to connect
out of listening to hip hop MCs and one of
them of course was Eminem and realising
how he felt, just verbalising the anger, the
frustration... and that’s how I learnt to read.
Just by lip-syncing lyrics. But the liberation
that came with it. Wow!
© ATOM 2016
6
Explain the role that hip hop has played in
shaping Abe as a person and as a poet.
Who is Eminen? How did Eminem inspire
Abe’s decision to become a slam poet?
€€ W
hat does the footage of Abe with his peers
suggest about his sense of identity and
belonging?
Abe has performed in the Australian Poetry
Slam finals twice. He has published two poetry collections – Humble and Dear Child. Abe is
the founder and director at Creative Rebellion
Youth in Collingwood, running workshops to
inspire and motivate other young artists to
share their voices.
€€ A
be: Spoken word poetry pretty much allows you to not be able to fake authenticity.
So from all the numb emotions and so forth,
it was brutal honesty. It was the anger of,
man, how can one half of the world literally
live in freedom and the other half not? It was
a wound that I needed to self-inflict in order
to be able to tend to.
Why is Abe Nouk a slam poet?
1. F
EATURED POEM: ‘LOVE LOOKS
LIKE’.
In ‘Love Looks Like’, Abe recounts the mental
scarring of a generation of young men who were
forced into war. Abe’s intention in the poem is to
promote peace not war.
© ATOM 2016
7
LOVE LOOKS LIKE
Only ten years old.
He wanted to refuse, but had nowhere to go.
In his mind, this isn’t the life that he was destined to be.
He just wanted to be free.
My hopes for the world is constantly diminishing, as we are constantly reminded of what we have
become.
I know what hatred looks like.
It’s bullets loaded in a gun and pointed at infants in the name of revenge.
I know what hatred looks like.
It’s bombs dropping on innocent civilians and mothers trying to avoid them, while protecting their
children.
I know what hatred looks like.
It’s genocide justified.
A pair of bodies in a mass grave, while the world turns a blind eye.
I know what hatred looks like.
It’s cultivated in the hearts of children who had to bury their parents with no further explanation.
I know what hatred looks like.
It’s in the inheritance of generational warfares, rather than family values.
I’m tired of what hatred looks like.
If only my voice can be persuasive enough to paint a portrait of what love looks like I’ll try.
Love is at the extensiveness of a handshake as we become friends and not foes.
We are what love looks like.
How did they miss that?
Instead, I am the product of a society whose children have never felt loved, for we were always looked
upon as toy soldiers.
And we’re the lucky ones.
Having inherited a war we did not create and warfares we do not know how to end.
© ATOM 2016
8
€€ What is the poem about?
€€ What is the message of the poem?
€€ How does the poem use language to establish
meaning and impact?
€€ Can ‘Love Looks Like’ make a difference?
€€ What words best describe Abe’s
performance?
€€ Write a commentary that describes and
explains how production elements are used to
narrate ‘Love Looks Like’.
2. WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
Option A: Write your own slam poem titled ‘Love
Looks Like’.
Option B: ‘Love Looks Like’ is a protest poem
against war. Write your own slam poem about war
and/or peace.
Option C: Use a line from ‘Love Looks Like’ as the
starting point for your own slam poem.
Option D: ‘Freedom’ is a key word of Episode 1.
Use this word as the basis for a slam poem.
3. EXPLORING AN ISSUE
When Abe Nouk’s family escaped the conflict of
Sudan, he no longer faced the fate of being forced
into the violent life of a child soldier. Abe expresses
his gratitude to his parents who made great sacrifices to secure his freedom,
‘Growing up in times when the honourable thing to do
was give up your children to serve this uninitiated army of
children, both of my parents sensed that there has to be
more for children. That something different has to happen
for this generation.’
€€ ‘Children have the right to protection from
violence, abuse and neglect, and from being
hurt or mistreated, physically or mentally.’ –
Article 19, Convention on the Rights of the
Child, 1989
Use the Internet to research the issue of child
soldiers.
Working with a partner, create a multimedia
presentation that raises awareness about this
issue.
Begin your research at War Child: http://www.
warchild.org.uk/.
Teachers can access an education kit at:
http://www.warchild.org.uk/system/files/War_
Child_School_Resources_COMPLETE.pdf
Recommended links
be Nouk – ‘Love Looks Like’ – Australian
A
Poetry Slam 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtb_FjtJd5U
Australia’s Got Talent 2016 – Audition 2016
https://www.9now.com.au/
australias-got-talent/2016/
clip-ciklz0oau00hfdhnnf3eexb18
Creative Rebellion Youth
https://www.facebook.com/CreativeRebellionYouth/
iving with the Enemy (SBS) Episode 3:
L
Immigration
http://www.sbs.com.au/programs/
article/2014/08/20/episode-3-immigration
‘Meet refugee turned poet Abe Nouk’
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/
booksandarts/poet-abe-nouk-on-sudanese-malesand-australian-opportunity/7445294
he Creative Issue – ‘Interview: Abe Nouk, Slam
T
Poet’
http://www.thecreativeissue.com.au/
interview-abe-nouk-slam-poet/
‘To be a poet: a short film about coming to
Australia as a refugee’
nov/04/to-be-a-poet-a-short-film-about-coming-to-
© ATOM 2016
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/video/2015/
australia-as-a-refugee-video
9
E
pisode 2: Our Story
Alice Eather
Why do you think this episode begins with
a music video clip – ‘New Future Reaching
High’ by the Lurra Collective?
Alice Eather is an indigenous activist, primary school
teacher and poet from Maningrida, Arnhem Land.
€€ ‘My kinship system, my infinite wisdom.
Djomi Spring dreamchild, kappa life-giving.
Feel my rhythm flow, Djebbana women know
where the wind blow, which way you gonna
go?
Yo! My daughters – yo!
Feel my rhythm
flow, Djebbana
women know
where the wind
blow, which way
you gonna go?
€€ A
lice: My father and my mother, my Buba
and my Geeka, made an agreement that
they would have us go back and forth. To
stay in Brisbane for school, but go back to
Maningrida to stay connected to Mum and
language and family. Which worked out really
well, but it was really tough growing up like
that.
Alice grew up living between suburban
Brisbane and Maningrida – a remote community of Arnhem Land.
Right road – that’s what my mumma taught us.
Stay in the light, respect your sacred site.
It’s your choice, your basic right.’
How does Alice believe her childhood and
adolescence shaped her as a person and as a
poet, particularly in regards to her relationship
with her parents as she grew up?
© ATOM 2016
10
What does the footage of her graduation
ceremony suggest about her commitment
to her community and her understanding of
culture?
€€ A
lice: I think sometimes when I’ve felt
powerless in the past dealing with things
I feel like have been bigger than me. I feel
like as I always tell my kids, you know,
your words in your mouth is the most
powerful thing you have, so learn how to
use it well.
Explain the significance of the still photographs that are used to establish Alice and tell
her story.
€€ ‘When they see map of country, they see mining fantasies.
Alice: I love how poetry can bring people in
together. I can’t take my mother’s side or my
father’s side, but I can make a fire in the middle and bring everyone there. That fire in the
middle is where I am and where I believe we
can move forward, together, the black and the
white, but also passing that flame onto our
future generation.
When I see the seabed, I see sacred sites.
When they see the seabed, they see dollar
signs.
It’s funny how they want to dig so deep, but
act so shallow, so I say gorma, neeka, no.
Saltwater people say gorma, neeka, no.
Alice: …and with poetry it’s been a really great
way to get our story and our fight for country
out into the world.
Why is Alice a slam poet?
4. F
EATURED POEM: ‘YUYA
KARRABURA (FIRE IS BURNING)’
Warnow clan as gorma, neeka, no.’
– excerpt from ‘My Story is Your Story’
What is the message of Alice’s poem ‘My
Story Is Your Story’? Is it a political poem?
How does Alice use English and Ndjebbana in
the poem to express her sense of country and
culture?
In ‘Yuya Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’, Alice invites
her audience to hear her struggle and to listen to
the pain that she is feeling. Her poem is an acknowledgement of how all too often indigenous
voices are stifled or misunderstood.
Alice is the first local trained indigenous teacher
in Maningrida. She teaches in a bilingual education environment that reinforces the importance of
her students’ first language. During her graduation speech she speaks to her students about the
importance of learning from both cultures,
‘I know you mob have got family, culture and ceremony,
that’s why you’re strong. But you come to school too, so
you got two paths and you can bring them together.’
© ATOM 2016
€€ E
xplain the significance of Alice’s graduation
speech.
11
YUYA KARRABURA (FIRE IS BURNING)
I’m standing by this fire, the embers smoking, the ashes glowing, the coals weighing us down, the youth are buried in
the rubble, my eyes are burning and through my nostrils the smoke is stirring.
I breathe it in.
Yuya Karrabura.
I wear a ship on my wrist that shows my blood comes from convicts.
On the second fleet, my father’s forefathers came, whipped, beaten and bound in chains.
The dark tone in my skin, the brown in my eyes, sunset to sunrise, my Wornow. Mother’s side.
My ‘geeka’ who grew up in a dug out canoe, in her womb is where my consciousness grew.
Yuya Karrabura.
I walk between these two worlds, split life, split skin, split tongue, split kin.
Every day these worlds collide and I’m living and breathing this story of black and white.
Sitting in the middle of this collision, my mission is to bring two divided worlds to sit beside this fire and listen.
Through this skin I know where I belong.
It is both my centre and my division.
Yuya Karrabura.
My ancestors dance in the stars and their tongues are in the flames and they tell me... you have to keep the fire alive
between the black and the white.
There’s a story waiting to be spoken in every life there’s a spirit waiting to be woken.
Now I’m looking at you with the stars in my eyes and my tongue is burning flames and I say... Yuya Karrabura.
The sacred songs are still being sung, but the words are slowly fading.
The distant cries I’m hearing are the mother’s burying their babies.
Elders are standing strong, but the ground beneath them is breaking.
Yuya Karrabura. Now I welcome you to sit beside my fire.
I’m allowing you to digest my confusion.
I will not point my finger in blame, ‘cause when we start blaming each other, we make no room for changing each
other.
We’ve got to keep this fire burning, with ash on our feet and coal in our hands. Teach budarukba, them young ones how
to live side by side, ‘cause tomorrow when the sun rises and our fires have gone quiet, they will be the ones to reignite it.
Yuya Karrabura.
These flames, us, will be their guidance.
© ATOM 2016
12
€€ What is the poem about?
What is the message of the poem?
How does the poem use language to establish meaning and impact?
Option C: ‘Yuya Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’ makes a statement about the relationship between Indigenous and nonIndigenous Australia. Write your own slam poem about this
issue.
€€ C
an ‘Yuya Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’ make a
difference?
Option D: ‘Together’ is a key word of Episode 2. Use this
word as the basis for a slam poem.
€€ What words best describe Alice’s performance?
5. EXPLORING AN ISSUE
€€ W
rite a commentary that describes and explains
how production elements are used to narrate ‘Yuya
Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’.
In 2013, Alice was awarded the Northern Territory Young
Achiever of the Year Award (Environment) for her work as a
community advocate for the Protect Arnhem Land community group, which seeks to campaign for sea rights for the
saltwater people of Arnhem Land.
€€
WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
Option A: ‘Yuya Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’ is a poem
about identity and belonging. Write your own slam poem
about identity and/or belonging.
Option B: Use a line from ‘Yuya Karrabura (Fire Is Burning)’
as the starting point for your own slam poem.
Recommended links
Deadly Voices from the House – Alice Eather
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbKOPMibk_A
€€ H
ow do the filmmakers establish Alice’s relationship
with Country?
€€ S
ea rights recognise the part that the sea plays in
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander belief systems,
the complex systems of tenure over the sea, the
economic importance of marine resources and
Indigenous rights to manage marine and coastal
space.
Use the Internet to research the issue of sea
rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples.
Working with a partner, create a multimedia presentation that raises awareness about this issue.
Begin your research at Protect Arnhem Land:
http://www.protectarnhemland.org/.
‘My Story is Your Story’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4q4uR29K84
Stingray Sisters
http://www.stingraysisters.com/
© ATOM 2016
13
E
pisode 3: Read the signs
Ee’da Brahim
Ee’da is a spoken-word performance artist, a
dancer, an arts educator and a musician. Her
sound traverses hip-hop, soul, folk, reggae and
electronica, bound together by a unique style resonating with vitality, passion and grace.
Ee’da grew up in Singapore where she felt a great
pressure to conform to what society expected of
her as an Indian Muslim,
‘Growing up in Singapore there is a tendency for different
family groups to expect certain things of their daughters. Culturally and religiously I felt really... out of place.
Growing up in a country that was predominantly Chinese,
I’ve experienced racism and feeling that I was not allowed
to be who I am or who I wanted to be, because of being
Indian or being an Indian Muslim and so I find myself
always not really feeling like I belong.’
€€ ‘My mumma used to bleach me for years. She
put cream on my skin that used to itch me,
but I just let her, ‘cause those kids used to
diss me.’
Explain the significance of this excerpt from
Ee’da’s slam poem ‘Fade to White’.
How does Ee’da view her childhood and
adolescence, particularly the years she spent
in Singapore?
Explain the significance of the still photographs that are used to establish Ee’da and
tell her story.
Moving to Australia, Ee’da experienced what it
was to be a minority of a different kind, but learnt
to embrace that experience as she made friends
with a wide range of women from different cultural
backgrounds.
© ATOM 2016
14
€€ E
e’da: I felt that I couldn’t be myself completely. I couldn’t say certain things. I couldn’t
explore my sexuality in an open manner. I
couldn’t speak about religion and I couldn’t
speak openly about what was wrong about
government policies and in my head, a
Western country would allow me the opportunity to be more open, or to discover who I
am, and not being told that I can’t do certain
things and say certain things. So that’s what
pulled me to Australia in the first place.
6. F
EATURED POEM: ‘READ THE
SIGNS’
‘Read the Signs’ is a declaration of autonomy.
Ee’da draws striking connections to the way that
humankind exploits and perceives women’s bodies, as well as the way we exploit the natural world.
Use this claim to discuss Ee’da’s decision
to move to Australia. What does this claim
suggest about the importance of freedom to
Ee’da as a person and as a poet?
Ee’da has performed on stages including
the Melbourne Arts Centre, United Nations
Conference opening at the Exhibition Centre, the
legendary Bowery Poetry Club in NYC, National
Day Celebrations in Aajmer, India, The Silver
Room in Chicago, and Federation Square in
Melbourne.
€€ E
xplain the filmmaker’s decision to show
Ee’da taking to the stage at the Bowery
Poetry Club in New York City.
© ATOM 2016
€€ E
e’da: I started to also feel empowered to
find my own voice to tell the stories that
I’ve been wanting to tell, but I’d never...
never knew how to deliver them.
Why is Ee’da a slam poet?
15
READ THE SIGNS
It stopped feeling right.
I know you heard it in my bones and locking hips in silt and clay.
I know you did.
But you took it anyway.
My body is not your dumping ground.
Not your place of release.
My body is the sacred site.
Yes.
But not for the tourist bucket list.
Tick.
Yeah, I’ve been there.
It is not the free soup sample section at the supermarket.
My body’s too vast for shallow slurps in its herb garden that grew cardamom and cinnamon and
turmeric and sage and ginger that gives and heals like homeopathic drops.
My body is not your gymnasium.
Not weights for you to test or bulk your power with and my solar plexus is not the punching bag for
your unresolved emotions and next time you come for temporary cuddles to kill time until the next
time, know that my body is not your mumma’s.
Not a well for you to milk dry all that you’ve missed out on in childhood, but come with reverence,
with all of your essence and your presence and my body
will give you more than you’ve ever known.
My body is not your science lab.
No, I don’t give you permission to lay your curious on me with all of your industries, to test your
fantasies and strategies for some contest.
© ATOM 2016
16
My body is mine.
It’s mine.
It’s mine to objectify, like celestial objects, like asteroids and stars.
It’s my contradiction.
It’s my secret to tell or not to tell.
It’s my right to cover up or to rebel what you told me was my hell, was in fact my well of everlasting power.
So cast your pious eyes, your greedy hooks, your dirty looks away from my body. There is nothing
wrong with walking strong and proud and vulnerable and flawed. There is nothing wrong with
making you pay attention to the swaying of my gullies and my oceans.
There is nothing wrong with my body.
My body is crowning heads through birth cannels.
Humble creeks and waterfalls.
It’s an open palm always facing the source to pull in more love to give even through it all... a
breath-taking tapestry of interference patterns stitched with stardust.
My body is God’s library of information.
Just read the signs.
It’s all there... in my body.
© ATOM 2016
17
€€ What is the poem about?
What is the message of the poem?
How does the poem use language to establish
meaning and impact?
Recommended links
€€ Can ‘Read the Signs’ make a difference?
http://www.eedamusic.com/
€€ W
hat words best describe Ee’da’s
performance?
https://www.facebook.com/eedamusic
€€ W
rite a commentary that describes and
explains how production elements are used to
narrate ‘Read the Signs’.
https://www.youtube.com/
7. WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
Option A: Write your own slam poem titled ‘Read
the Signs’.
Option B: ‘Read the Signs’ is a protest poem
against the exploitation of women’s bodies. Write
your own slam poem about a gender issue.
Option C: Use a line from ‘Read the Signs’ as the
starting point for your own slam poem.
Option D: ‘Empowerment’ is a key idea of Episode
3. Use this word as the basis for a slam poem.
Ee’da
‘I Want to Wear You’
watch?v=Gm_Y5WVUdDc
‘Fade to White’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iChfvYzd38M
Ee’da Brahim, Melbourne Poet
https://vimeo.com/170823417
8. EXPLORING AN ISSUE
e’da is the Founder and Creative Director of
E
Sisters for Sisters (SFS), a women’s arts and music
collective that spearheads fundraising initiatives for
worthy causes locally and abroad. Most recently,
she was awarded the ‘Victoria’s Multicultural Award
for Excellence’ from Government House, for her
engagement in community work.
€€ E
e’da: Before having this experience I had an
idea that I wanted to be able to use my experience to help be the bridge... and I wanted
to... to connect women that feel like I do.
Women that really care about positive social
change and women that feel like there’s not
enough platforms for women.
Why are organisations like Sisters for Sisters
important?
© ATOM 2016
Visit Sisters for Sisters online at http://www.
sistersforsisters.com.au/.
18
E
pisode 4: Living Language
Hugo Farrant
Hailing from Branksome in the UK, Hugo the Poet
AKA Hugo Farrant is a prolific rhymer, freestylerapper, orator, MC and spoken-word poet. He regularly graces stages and festivals across Australia.
Arriving in Melbourne in 2007, Hugo quickly became a part of the Northside hip hop scene. He
built a reputation as a rising freestyle talent that
focused on philosophical themes and ‘conscious
rap’.
€€ H
ugo: I’ve been in Australia now for about
nine years, getting on ten years. It’s the best
decision I ever made in my life. Absolutely
no question about it. I really wanted to have
a journey in this country and the agenda of it
was to be a travelling poet, whose goal is to
understand this incredible country. The reality
of life in the UK is quite harsh. There’s also a
level of conformity that’s just staggering. The
strictures started to affect my ability to connect with any kind of creativity.
What prompted Hugo to move from England
to Australia?
Why does Hugo’s
story begin with
him on a road trip
along the Stuart
Highway?
€€ H
ugo: Poetic travelogue: Part three finds
me artfully winding through on my way in a
southerly pathway, driving the Stuart Highway.
Absorbing a tide of awesome views in my
brain, attempting to hear the divine melody
the land’s beauty has made.
Why does Hugo’s story begin with him on a
road trip along the Stuart Highway?
Once YouTube was created, Hugo became
fascinated with the ability to broadcast
freely across the internet. This interest led
him to collaborate with filmmaker and writer
Giordano Nanni to create the Juice Rap News
– a satirical news program that used rap to
comment on current events and politics.
€€ H
ugo: When I was a kid, I was obsessed with
music videos. Then 2006, YouTube just came
along. All of a sudden – exploded. You have
access now. You can transmit. You can reach
© ATOM 2016
19
an audience and so from then on, I was like,
yes, this is the medium. This is the medium.
to someone else who possesses ears. It’s
mind-expanding.
How has Hugo used YouTube to pursue a
career as a performer?
Influenced by hip hop, Hugo’s poetry often
takes the form of freestyle rap.
Had you heard of Juice Rap News prior to
watching The Word: Rise of the Slam Poets?
Can you explain its popularity?
Why is Hugo a slam poet?
Nowadays, Hugo is focusing on producing
online video content of various kinds: esoteric
explorations of a parallel reality in the Illusions
series, translating Dante’s Inferno into rap and
the Poetic Travelogue video blog, documenting his thoughts and poems written while
travelling across Australia.
€€ H
ugo: As soon as I arrived in Australia and
went to a couple of hip hop open mics and
saw the standard of rap and just the vibe of
the people. The friendliness, the openness,
the sense of humour, the intelligence. I was
like, this place is amazing.
9. FEATURE POEM: THE LAND
The Land explores Hugo Farrant’s conflicted
views of Australia, describing the many waves of
migrants that have come to settle here, as well as
the alienation and mistreatment of the country’s
traditional land owners and in more recent times,
refugees.
© ATOM 2016
Hugo: What is a poet? To some degree there’s
a mystical quality to a poet. Sounds created
by the combination of mouth and breath
are able to communicate complex ideas
What does the footage of Hugo performing on
stage in Melbourne suggest about his passion
for slam poetry?
20
THE LAND
You are the land.
You are the forest, the plains of sand.
You are a stick in a hand, gripped tight as you sit stoking a fire under desert night, coaxing a
story from the depths of the mind.
A voice rises from the embers and draws your eye, beyond time up to star-crossed sky, draws back
the smokescreen revealing the truthful behind, a view to remind... that you are the land.
You are an ocean of sand, the red stone berthing through the surface as horizons expand.
You are the ochre silhouette of a hand.
You are the land.
You are the first fleet.
The very first fleet to emerge from the seas.
The first fleet of canoes reaching that first beach, on the shores of the dreaming, imprinting ‘em
with the first feet.
You are the second fleet.
Petty thieves with shackled feet on ships in cells without enough room to swing a cat to beat.
Convicted and transported to protect the streets of the echelons of an empire you will never get to
meet.
You are the third fleet and many fleets after.
Rafts of people crossing seas fleeing disaster.
Embraced and nurtured among your pastures, farmers, salting the earth, with salty language
and laughter.
Mining deeper to build metropolises higher, whose bright lights, cars and amplifiers are more
tempting and addictive to deficient attention spans than night skies, stars and camp fires.
Each one of these arrivals on various vessels has merged for better or worse and become part of
the land, leaving their mark on the sand, forming symbiosis with flame or claiming possession
by planting a flag.
And now you could easily be the rag tag fleet, full of ragged homo sapiens somehow labelled as
illegal.
© ATOM 2016
21
The uprooted victims of global upheaval, seeking the humanity of this continent’s conquering people.
Sold a fool’s gold ticket to this advanced Australia fair, but you’re the boat stopped, raided and ensnared, and redirected to beyond Australia’s care.
Passengers just dreaming to share the boundless plains around the fire’s glare.
For you are the river of rocks, patiently floating in an ocean of sand.
You are the red stone berthing through the surface as horizons expand.
And inscribed on its back you a red ochre silhouette of a hand flinging a message across time’s span –
here I stood, here I stand.
I was, I am an open hand to anyone prepared to gather the fact that you’re the voice, try and understand, the songs that these ancestors sang.
Trying to beckon you back to the flames that are fanned and help you remember that you are the
land.
You are a hand taking a single ember from the fire as it dies.
Preserving it for the next night, the next verse, the next fire to light.
The embers collapse and smoke draws the eye to dawn sky.
It’s your hand, your foot, leaving a mark in the sand.
A story unfinished, unplanned, awaiting your chapter to add you stand... and continue to walk...
the land.
© ATOM 2016
22
€€ What is the poem about?
What is the message of the poem?
How does the poem use language to establish
meaning and impact?
€€ Can ‘The Land’ make a difference?
€€ What words best describe Hugo’s
performance?
€€ Write a commentary that describes and
explains how production elements are used to
narrate ‘The Land’.
10. WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
€€ O
ption A: Write your own slam poem titled
‘The Land’.
€€ O
ption B: ‘The Land’ provides a socio-historical comment on immigration to Australia.
Write your own slam poem about immigration
and/or Australia’s response to immigrants.
Recommended links
Hugo the Poet
http://hugofarrant.com/
Juice Rap News
https://thejuicemedia.com/
€€ O
ption C: Use a line from ‘The Land’ as the
starting point for your own slam poem.
€€ O
ption D: ‘Australia’ is a key word of Episode
4. Use this word as the basis for a slam poem.
11. EXPLORING AN ISSUE
Hugo I consider myself a patriot. I love Australia
and that means in my definition, that you don’t try
to whitewash the crimes of its history. I try to use it
to be completely honest about my personal and my
ancestor’s role in that imperialism and that’s one of
the major themes in my poetry and the raps.
€€ What is patriotism?
Are you patriotic? How do you express your
patriotism?
Are Australians patriotic?
Do you think some people take the concept of
patriotism too far?
Working with a partner, create a multimedia
presentation that makes a statement about
patriotism in Australian society.
© ATOM 2016
23
E
pisode 5: Words shape
Worlds
Luka Lesson
Luka Lesson is a spoken word and musical artist of
Greek heritage.
€€ L
uka: So my name is Luka Lesson. Born
Lukas Haralampou. I didn’t really enjoy poetry
in high school at all. It wasn’t really interesting to me. I didn’t connect with it and yet I
was listening to hip hop all the time. Guys like
Biggie and Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and definitely Tupac and no teacher said to me, ah,
actually, within hip hop, there is rhythm, there
is rhyme, there is assonance and alliteration.
So I just kept listening to hip hop. They kept
trying to convince me of Shelley and Keats
and we never spoke.
Luka’s passion for poetry was ignited by hip
hop artists Biggie Smalls, Bone Thugs-nHarmony and Tupac.
Use the Internet to research these hip hop
musicians. What contribution have
these musicians made to hip hop
as a genre? Drawing on songs
with appropriate lyrics, make an
A3 infographic that identifies
the poetry of hip hop.
Luka acknowledges that his passion for poetry now embraces more than hip hop.
‘And after like a decade of discovering all these love for
words in different forms, I’ve come full cycle to go, oh,
Shelley and Keats, awesome. Shakespeare? Incredible.
And I get it now, you know, but no one joined those links.
In some ways, my bread and butter work in schools is
just to come in and join those links.’
Who was Percy Bysse Shelley? Who was John
Keats? What sort of poetry did they write? Read
examples of their poetry. Do their words inspire
you?
Do you have a favourite poet? Like Luka, is some
of your favourite poetry written by musicians?
€€ L
uka: I think that automatically if you help a
young person connect with their heart and
self-reflect about their lives, they are able to
put themselves in the shoes of others and
be less apathetic and self-reflect and understand themselves. And doors have opened up
around the world and I’m talking schools
from the Bronx to Suweto to private
schools in Melbourne, to juvenile facilities and anything else in between.
Why does Luka visit schools to
teach students about poetry?
© ATOM 2016
24
€€ ‘Please resist me. Colonise me, compromise
me, conflict me. Please don’t risk me. If you
see me at the airport, please come and frisk
me. Please resist me. Colonise me, compromise me and conflict me. Please don’t risk
me. Please call me stupid, because your resistance brings our evolution. Sorry. You also
taught me to speak French. I learnt it when
you kept keeping me at arm’s length and then
I learnt Italian just to expand my head and
Greek to learn from where my ancestors had
fled and then I learnt some Yanuywa, just to
show the people of this land some respect
you see, it’s been your example that has led
me to leave you for dead.’
What is the message of Luka’s poem ‘Please
Resist Me’? Is it a personal or a political
poem? How does Luka use poetic devices
in this poem? Watch the video clip online at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-HED2UXwbw. How are production elements used
to convey meaning in the video clip?
€€ L
uka is shown on stage performing his slam
poetry. Describe Luka’s performance of his
poems.
Why is Luka a
slam poet?
€€ L
uka: I started studying anthropology and
then I met a guy at Uni who’s a rapper, who
was part of the hip hop council at Uni and we
started making tracks. I did a couple of battles
here and there and I didn’t really feel like it
clicked. Like, you know, then I would jump up
and do a verse, but I never felt connected and
then eventually I found slam poetry, spoken
word and it’s so raw, yeah, I just fully fell in
love with the form.
Why is Luka a slam poet?
12. FEATURE POEM: ‘MOMENT TO
MOMENT’
‘Moment to Moment’ is an autobiographical slam
poem describing Luka Lesson’s journey through
depression using poetry as a tool for self-awareness and growth.
© ATOM 2016
Luka was the Australian Poetry Slam Champion
of 2011 and Melbourne Poetry Slam Champion of
2010. He has written and performed for the likes of
The National Gallery of Victoria, Greece’s pioneer
Hip-hop group Active Member, South Africa’s
OneBlood Festival and China’s most celebrated
living poet Xi Chuan in Beijing. Luka’s debut book,
The Future Ancients is now a best-seller for poetry
in Australia twice-over and a part of educational
programs from Hong Kong to Melbourne. Most
recently, he has performed a spoken word and hip
hop adaptation of Homer’s Odysseus, supported
by the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
25
MOMENT TO MOMENT
At 31... I quit everything, and saw my insides under a microscope.
I realised the answer to most of my cravings is a deeper breath, a glass of water, or a moment alone.
I moved to the ocean and spent hours with the planets.
I did what poets talk about: I became more simple.
A king in jeans.
A kid who just really likes words.
Nothing more.
Nothing less.
Eventually... I threw a grandfather clock off a cliff just to see time fly... ‘cause I realised it
would anyway.
And I realised that our words don’t need to be heavy to hold weight.
It depends more on how you make them... fall.
And I realised that I’m no longer writing poetry, I’m setting up good silences.
I’m leaving space for you to fill in the gaps.
Every time I step on stage, I spend less time speaking and more time listening to you
listen to me.
In between my words, there is the poem that you were writing when I wrote this. Just by
living your lives – like we all do... from moment... to this moment.
© ATOM 2016
26
€€ O
ption D: ‘Antidote’ is a key word of Episode
5. Use this word as the basis for a slam poem.
Recommended links
€€ What is the poem about?
What is the message of the poem?
How does the poem use language to establish meaning
and impact?
Luka Lesson
€€ Can ‘Moment to Moment’ make a difference?
http://www.lukalesson.com.au/
€€ What words best describe Luka’s performance?
‘Antidote’
€€ W
rite a commentary that describes and explains how
production elements are used to narrate ‘Moment to
Moment’.
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=nzQIkh5Oj18.
‘Please Resist Me’
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=D-HED2UXwbw
http://rightnow.org.au/poetry/
poem-please-resist-me-by-luka-lesson/
€€
WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
€€ O
ption A: Write your own slam poem titled ‘Moment to
Moment’.
€€ O
ption B: ‘Moment to Moment’ is about self-awareness. Write your own slam poem about self-awareness
and/or personal growth.
€€ O
ption C: Use a line from ‘Moment to Moment; as the
starting point for your own slam poem.
‘Yiayia’
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=dZuTramIn6k
Spoken Wordsters: Luka Lesson
© ATOM 2016
http://goingdownswinging.org.au/
spoken-wordsters-luka-lesson/
27
E
pisode 6: Poetry in the
streets
Omar Musa
What does Omar’s description of himself reveal about his sense of identity and
belonging?
Omar Musa is a Malaysian-Australian rapper and
poet from Queanbeyan, NSW.
A former winner of the Australian Poetry Slam and
Indian Ocean Poetry Slam, Omar has performed
extensively around the country. He has been a featured guest internationally at the likes of the Ubud
Writers and Readers Festival, Singapore Writers
Festival, Jaipur Literary Festival, Galle Literary
Festival (Sri Lanka), the France Slam League Cup,
Beijing Writers Festival, and the Crossing Border
Music and Writers Festival (Netherlands). His international hip-hop tours have included supporting
legendary poet/singer Gil Scott-Heron in Germany.
Omar has released three hip hop albums and two
poetry books, including Parang, 2013. He has
also run creative workshops in remote Aboriginal
communities, youth centres and rural schools
across Australia. His critically acclaimed debut
novel Here Come the Dogs was long-listed for the
Miles Franklin Literary Award. In 2015, Omar was
named one of the Sydney Morning Herald’s Young
Novelists of the Year.
€€ O
mar: Malaysian Australian, scallywag, raconteur, poet, novelist, child of Queanbeyan
– Struggletown New South Wales. And so I’ve
got a very, very Arabic name. It’s Omar Bin
Musa.
How do the filmmakers use still and moving
images to establish Omar’s sense of identity
and belonging?
What does this
claim suggest
about the
challenges that
Omar faces as a
person and as a
poet?
€€ O
mar: …and my father told me from a young
age, life will be difficult for you in Australia.
You will be treated like an outsider, as he had
been when he came to Australia in 1980. You
will have to work twice as hard to get anywhere in Australia. He said to me there will
be people that try and make you ashamed of
your ethnicity, ashamed of your religion, but
always be proud of it. Claim it and own it. But
then after September 11th... when there is this
kind of definition of Muslims as the enemy,
you start to really feel like an outsider. You
start to feel disenfranchised. You start to feel
a little bit helpless and so I’ve used poetry to
kind of battle those types of feelings.
What does this claim suggest about the challenges that Omar faces as a person and as a
poet?
Omar’s love of poetry was inspired by the legendary Muhammad Ali, who Omar calls ‘the
coolest Muslim who ever lived’, the speeches
of Malcolm X and musicians Public Enemy.
© ATOM 2016
28
€€ O
mar: As a young guy I didn’t really see many
Muslim role models, especially in the public
growing up in Australia. In fact, I don’t think
I saw any. So I was really drawn to a lot of
African American Muslim identities. The coolest Muslim who ever lived was Muhammad
Ali, you know, and he was a poet too. He used
to make up poetry all the time.
Who was Muhammad Ali? Use the Internet
to research the way that Muhammad Ali used
words to change the world he lived in.
Omar: And I started, really getting into
Malcolm X. I would watch this hour-long
documentary just for Malcolm X’s speeches.
And there was this tiny clip, probably about
twenty, thirty seconds, where these two guys
leap onto stage and they’re saying rhythmic
poetry over a drumbeat and that was Public
Enemy and I just suddenly realised this is the
sort of poetry that I wanna make. This is the
coolest thing I’ve ever seen.
€€ O
mar: A lot of my friends were into either
footy or fighting. Expressing themselves
through physicality, through violence and I
think that that’s quite destructive. And so it’s a
really important thing just to show that there’s
another way as young men, as young people
that you can express yourselves.
Omar: Although I am trying to connect with
people, I’m also trying to shake people up.
There’s a certain segment of the Australian
population that just cannot stand a man
with a Muslim name having an opinion and
speaking his mind, you know? I’m not in the
business of making fence-sitter anodyne art.
I want to get a reaction. I wanna make people
uncomfortable.
Why is Omar Musa a slam poet?
Who was Malcolm X? How did Malcolm X use
words to challenge the injustices of society?
Like other slam poets, Omar credits hip hop
as influential.
© ATOM 2016
Who are Public Enemy? How has their music
made a difference? Your answer should
acknowledge the influence and legacy of
their song ‘Fight the Power’. Watch the video
on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=M_t13-0Joyc.
29
€€ O
mar (on stage): Everywhere I’m seeing violence, violence, everywhere violence. It started
with invasion and patterns of silence, because
this country has a rotten core. Forgotten wars
in the bottom drawer. The mythmakers, the
dictators and pisstakers, they got a lot of gall
when they choose their memorials and who
we choose to honour more. The people who
are fighting with their lands back, from the
land grabs, rapes and the ransacks, nah, let’s
forget about that and lay another wreath for
the ANZACs.
What is the subject and the message of
Omar’s poem ‘Laksa Pub Rant’? How does
Omar use language and poetic devices in this
poem to get a reaction?
Omar’s notoriety culminated in a live performance on ABC’s Q&A. It was a landmark in
his career, and a chance for the country to
listen to his finely-honed craft that blends hip
hop and poetic insight.
€€ O
mar: And I ended up performing on Q&A and
I think that was the first time they’d ever had
a poet performing at the end and it felt like it
kind of broke a bit of new ground in Australia
for poetry or at least for this kind of modern
generation, because you just don’t see poetry
on TV, and so it was a big moment for me.
What does the footage of performing on Q&A
suggest about his desire for his words to
make a difference?
13. FEATURED POEM: ‘CAPITAL
LETTERS’
of his youth and the journey to discover his own
voice, he embraces the resilience and diversity
that exists on the edge of mainstream Australian
culture.
© ATOM 2016
In ‘Capital Letters’, Omar channels his experiences growing up in the multicultural microcosm of
Canberra’s public housing into a disarming portrait
of the Australian identity. Describing the alienation
30
CAPITAL LETTERS
I knew none of their government names back then.
Back then, some of the most wondrous people I knew were self-destructive.
Talented vandals who took to relationships with mallet and saw.
But there was beauty in the streets.
You could see it everywhere.
In fishtails and donuts.
The silver cursive that slanted off tyres.
In spraycan fumes and opals of oil.
In kickflips and crossovers, cuts and kebab shops.
In sneakers that cluster-hung like grapes on powerlines.
This was the Australia I saw.
These were suburbs inscribed on scarified earth.
An alphabet of exiles far from lands of birth.
I’m talking pittance workers and remittance senders.
Traditional custodians and the kids of immigrants.
You know the ones.
The ones heard about, but not from.
The ones talked at, not to.
The ones treated as if very, very small.
In other words... us.
Each day, like smoke, I unwound up the stairs of the flats.
Smelled the oils and spices of many lands.
I heard many tongues.
I learned that in Malay culture, a storyteller is named penglipur lara – ‘a dispeller of worries’, ‘a reliever of
sorrows’.
But you and I know there are many types of stories.
© ATOM 2016
31
I heard carnivorous tales lope down gentrifying streets.
The hiss of talkback serpents.
The whistle of go-back-to-where-you-came-froms.
I lost faith and leapt into the whirlpool.
The scribbled hours, pilled and powered.
Full of sex and camaraderie.
Part of me knew on days like this, the timer ticked, history slipped, we skipped words like stones from our
hands.
Words that could never be retrieved like love, like hate, like us, like goodbye.
Yet somehow, somehow I found that something, like a magic key connecting ancient and new, I found it on
beats, breaks, tapes and acetate.
Unordained lion hearts on thrones self-made.
Do you hear?
Do you hear what I’m talking about?
I’m talking about the numberless underground kings and queens who taught us the power of our voices, of
nonconformity.
That each lyric, each windmill, each scarred “45 or fan of paint from a nozzle was a story aching to be told,
unfolding before us the fractals of cosmos and starlight.
A world all of a sudden unbearably bright.
So linger now.
Linger with me.
Consider that somehow, we could still own that something.
Be that something.
Something airborne, something gold shot.
Beings arranged in a calligraphy of rhythm and rebellion, people with so much damn resilience, it’s impossible not to smile.
Because you, me, us, we are more than statistics.
We are more than misfits.
We are more than ‘your dreams are unrealistic’.
This is the new scripture of our lives spelled skyscraper high in capital letters... bold.
© ATOM 2016
32
Recommended links
Omar Musa
http://omarbinmusa.blogspot.com.au/
Slam Poetry of the Streets: Omar Musa
at TEDxSydney
https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=XZfJsOGOxnw
Here Come the Dogs
http://herecomethedogs.com.au/#home
€€ What is the poem about?
What is the message of the poem?
How does the poem use language to establish
meaning and impact?
https://penguin.com.au/
authors/31-omar-musa
€€ Can ‘Capital Letters’ make a difference?
€€ W
hat words best describe Omar’s
performance?
€€ W
rite a commentary that describes and
explains how production elements are used to
narrate ‘Capital Letters’.
€€
WRITE YOUR OWN POEM
€€ O
ption C: Use a line from ‘Capital Letters’ as
the starting point for your own slam poem.
€€ O
ption D: ‘Generation’ is a key word of
Episode 6. Use this word as the basis for a
slam poem.
Source: http://omarbinmusa.blogspot.com.
au/2011/11/my-generation-lyrics.html
€€ O
ption A: Write your own slam poem titled
‘Capital Letters’.
€€
€€ O
ption B: ‘Capital Letters’ explores the
concept of identity in a multicultural Australia.
Write your own slam poem about Australian
identity and/or multiculturalism.
€€ W
orking with a partner, create a multimedia
presentation that makes a statement about
your generation.
How does Omar portray his generation in his
poem ‘My Generation’
© ATOM 2016
33
MY GENERATION
My generation sat on the brim of the ocean,
waiting for the tide to bring something in.
My generation
was populated with boozehounds and pillheads,
crude clowns and bedspreads stained with the
neon dreams of cocaine fiends,
I mean
the diamond flooded visions of sex kittens
who sweat bullets, glitter and Chanel
I mean
the ones who
live in debt buy spray cans of fake tan
I mean
the ones who drop out of college to get collagen
hoping to hook with pop collar gen Y men with
copycat tattoos,
footy contracts and right angled jaws.
Hoping to ride
amphetamine horses and red Porsches
into clubs
whose shelf life is over right.
about.
NOW.
My generation
took solace in
false prophets who promised change
and did more of the same,
whose ideologies of optimism
were turned into
fridge magnets and bumper stickersYES WE CAN
Yes, we witnessed
prime ministers slain.
Hushed coups in the halls of parliamentheads rolled over bad polls, tongues lolled,
drums rolled as newspapers harmonised like baying wolves.
New kings and queens smiled for the all seeing camera’s eyes
that blink but never flinch.
Freshly anointed “leaders” with polished teeth and long knivesthey would smile
deep down knew that
the guillotine waited also for them.
My generation
bloomed with the blood of artists
who sent messages in bottles
that ended up lodged in bleached coral,
© ATOM 2016
34
and humanity was a deep fossil to be fossicked
some day by a people other than us.
While the traditional custodians of the land
sweated in the concrete gizzards of govvo flats
left wing activists sipped red wine
and talked of reform.
My generation had hot buttered sex to
cookie cutter music.
We made autotuned love and men learnt how
to have sex on a curriculum of
pixellated pink pornstar pussy
and double D tits and digital dicks.
We made love between oil spills and massacres,
tangoed between
the headlines of history,
flitting between
hush love making and murder,
draughts of cool wine and hellish salt pans wimpling
with dancing mirages
that brought brief joy to our desiccated hearts.
My generation never stopped being children.
We grew wearier, but not wiser,
we grew older, but not up,
and our only possessions were our winged imaginations,
sitting on the brim of the ocean,
waiting for the tide to bring something in.
© ATOM 2016
35
HOW TO WRITE SLAM
POETRY: A 10 STEP GUIDE
Recommended links
Become a slam poet in five steps Gayle Danley
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_
continue=4&v=9f8VcV8v2LE
Digital Poet
http://www.digitalpoet.net/resourcesfor-writing-slam-poetry--spoken-wordpoems/resources-for-writing-slampoetry-spoken-word-poems
© ATOM 2016
1. The form and features of a slam poem are
for the poet to decide. You do not have to
have an in-depth knowledge of poetic forms
in order to write a slam poem. One of the
defining characteristics of a slam poem is
length. A slam poem is usually 2 – 3 minutes in length.
2. Write about what you know. Choose a
subject that you are passionate about and
then just write. Alternatively, write about an
experience, past or recent; a person you
know well; or an encounter that has made
a difference. You can also write about an
event that is making news or a topical issue.
3. Like any text, your slam poem should have
a purpose. What message do you want
to convey to your audience? What do you
want your audience to think? What do you
want your audience to feel?
4. Keep in mind that because slam poetry is
written to be performed, it should be accessible to your audience the first time it is
heard. This does not mean that the poem
should be simple in its content, structure
and use of language.
5. When you have settled on an idea, just
write. When you have finished writing,
edit the content to create the lines of the
poem. When you have finished ordering the
content into lines, move the lines about to
improve the sequence of your ideas. You
may decide to structure the content into
separate verses. Keep editing until you have
achieved a poem that sounds ‘slammy’.
6. Like all poetry, a slam poem is a condensed type of writing. Every word should
be carefully selected and sequenced. The
words you choose and the way you order
these words as part of lines, will establish
the tone of your slam poem.
7. Rhythm is an important feature of a slam
poem. It should be appropriate to the
subject and the mood you want to establish
when the poem is performed. Slam poems
can rhyme but do not become a slave to
rhyme.
8. Most poems rely on images to establish
meaning and evoke emotions. Slam poetry
should make your audience see and feel
what you have seen and felt. What will you
let your audience see? How will you draw
on the audience’s other senses?
36
USEFUL LINKS
What is poetry slam?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_
continue=9&v=DFaY8zpwrEE
Running a Poetry Slam in School –
National Literacy Trust
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0001/6013/Write_On_poetry_
slam_toolkit_v2.pdf
9. There are many other poetic devices that
you can rely on to shape the content of your
slam poem. Use the search term ‘poetic
devices’ to develop your knowledge and
understanding of these techniques.
10. While slam poems are closely associated
with the vocal delivery style found in hiphop music, the style of delivery is yours to
decide. Just like your slam poem is an original piece of writing, your delivery should
also be unique. Watching other slam poets
perform will allow you to refine your style.
Practice does make perfect. Recite your
slam poem aloud until you are certain about
volume, pace and intonation, and have
committed your poem to memory.
HOLD A POETRY SLAM
A poetry slam is a type of competition where
people read their poems, usually without props,
costumes, or music. These performances are usually judged by selected members of the audience
or by a panel of judges. Poems are usually judged
on a scale from 0 to 10.
A Theme Slam is one in which all slam poems must
conform to a specified theme, genre, or other constraint. Perhaps every year level participating in your
school poetry slam could be given a specific theme.
Literacy Week may be a good time to hold a school
poetry slam or showcase the slam poems that you
have been writing in your English classes.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Over the production, the crew filmed over a dozen
live performances across the country where
young poets, rappers and spoken word artists of
all races and cultures shared their stories. From
the all-female Sisters for Sisters event to Speech
Therapy (featuring rappers doing spoken word) and
Slamalamadingdong – Melbourne’s longest running
poetry slam –
Literacy Week
may be a good
time to hold a
school poetry slam
or showcase the
slam poems that
you have been
writing in your
English classes
the Australian spoken word poetry scene is thriving
everywhere.
One night the crew attended Can I Kick It – the
Australian Freestyle Championships in Melbourne’s
inner city laneways. While a break took place in the
venue, the dedicated audience filled with MCs took
to the street and gathered into ‘ciphers’ – circles of
rappers and beatboxers – practising their rhyme flow
and freestyle techniques. Our crew set up lights in
a graffiti-filled alleyway and filmed a twenty-minute
continuous cipher that circled around over a dozen
rappers and poets while a chorus of beatboxers kept
the energy moving. We were taken by the dedication
to the craft, the passion for words and the intellectual
challenge of the freestyle rap artform. Away from the
stage or the recording studio, this was a culture of
young poets deeply engaged in their love of wordplay
alive and in the streets.
© ATOM 2016
In Maningrida, Arnhem Land we stayed with Alice
Eather for five days and got a chance to learn more
about her culture. Alice and her mother Helen took
us out onto their homelands – the land outside of
37
Slam poetry links
ABC Splash
http://splash.abc.net.au/home#!/search/Australian%20
Poetry%20Slam
Australian Poetry – Schools Program
http://www.australianpoetry.org/schools/
Australian Poetry Slam
http://www.australianpoetryslam.com/
Bankstown Poetry Slam
http://www.bankstownpoetryslam.com/home/
town that their family are the traditional owners
of. That evening while we ate fish and bushtucker
cooked over the camp fire, Alice told us about how
she had taken on the role of a public spokesperson
for the Protect Arnhem Land campaign to speak
out about the dangers she saw in underwater coal
seam gas mining. Alice has a way of talking that
always speaks from the heart and her words carry
wisdom and resonance beyond her years. It’s easy
to see how Alice’s poetry is a part of the oral traditional of her indigenous culture, but it’s a muse that
all of our poets were
channelling. Although it has been around for as long
as human language, there is no more direct, unmediated form of communication than spoken word.
Melbourne Spoken Word
At the Somerset Literature Festival on the Gold
Coast, we filmed Luka Lesson give a speech to an
assembly full of young primary school students.
He spoke about rediscovering the beauty of poetry
after being put off it in school, about the history
of poetry slams, hip hop and the power of spoken word. After his speech we saw dozens upon
dozens of these kids queueing up to get their copy
of Luka’s book signed. I realised that through the
workshops he and the other poets were doing at
schools across Australia, they are opening up a
whole new generation to their own poetic inner
voices.
http://melbournespokenword.com/
Timothy Parish
Digital Poet
http://www.digitalpoet.net/
Emilie Zooey Baker
http://www.emiliezoeybaker.com/
teaching-and-schools-1/
Power Poetry
http://www.powerpoetry.org/
Young Australia Workshop
http://www.youngaus.com.au/high-schools/
english-drama-p-e-p-d
Youth Speaks
http://youthspeaks.org/bravenewvoices/#
© ATOM 2016
38
KEY CREATIVES
Co-director | Timothy Parish is a writer and
director based in Darwin, Northern Territory. His
previous credits as a director include the feature
length documentary Aya: Awakenings (2013),
the theatrical production The Book of Shadows
(2014) and the short documentary Ghost Story
for the Art X North series on ABC Arts Online.
Co-director | Darius Devas has established
himself as one of the leaders of multi-platform
filmmaking in Australia. This was solidified with
the international success of his interactive multiplatform documentary series Goa Hippy Tribe
for SBS, which won the prestigious 2012 SXSW
Interactive Award for Film & TV.
© ATOM 2016
Producer | Adam Farrington-Williams is a
Melbourne-based independent documentary
producer. He has produced Rohan Spong’s
feature documentaries T is for Teacher (2009),
All the Way Through Evening (2012) and more
recently Winter at Westbeth (2015) for Screen
Australia, Film Victoria, DDP Studios and
Unicorn Films.
39
Credits
PRODUCER…………………………………………………………Adam Farrington-Williams
CO-WRITER, CO-DIRECTOR, CO-PRODUCER, EDITOR……Timothy Parish
CO-WRITER, CO-DIRECTOR, EDITOR………………………….Darius Devas
POST PRODUCTION SUPERVISOR, EDITOR…………………Shannon Swan
This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2016)
ISBN: 978-1-74295-975-7 editor@atom.org.au
To download other study guides,
plus thousands of articles on Film as Text,
Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies,
visit <http://theeducationshop.com.au>.
© ATOM 2016
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Sign up now at <http://www.metromagazine.com.au/email_list/>.
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