National Final – Australian Poetry Slam
Two slam champions from every state and territory slam their poetry. Whittled down from heats in tiny towns and metro centres, the crowd now crowns our nation’s next 2025 Australian Poetry Slam (APS) Champion.
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Chasing Change: Poetician Performance
Poetician blends language and lyricism to craft worlds that shimmer with emotion and imagination. You are invited to where poems come alive and stories whisper secrets of the unturned stone.
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Chasing Change: Art Fair and discussion
Creatives and artists Idil Abdullahi and Zeinab Mir explore the power of change through their work.
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Chasing Change: Author’s Hour
In Authors’ Hour, we listen to voices that span continents and cultures. Words swing doors wide open to unexpected worlds. Stories burst ideas into vibrant life.
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Chasing Change
Chasing Change brings together creatives to explore the power of change through the eyes of writers, poets, painters, and storytellers.
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Speaking Fire: Showcase
Poets and musical acts, speak fire and sing Story as Indigenous people have since time immemorial. Watch, dance, sing-a-long and cheer with a powerful line of First Nations performers.
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Speaking Fire: One on One – Talk
Join Speaking Fire Curator Rob Waters as he delves deep into A Savage Turn, the searing debut poetry collection by Gamilaroi poet, folklorist and musician Luke Patterson.
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Speaking Fire: Our Voice – Our Way
Looking to learn and understand Indigenous languages from around the state?
In cooperation with the NSW Aboriginal Languages Trust language practitioners will present multiple language workshops in the Downstairs Space.
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Speaking Fire – Con-Verse: Radical Hope in Times of Helplessness
Radical hope in times of helplessness invites First Nations writers into deep discussion and poetry sharing.
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Speaking Fire – Write to Speak: Spoken Word / Hip Hop Wordshop
Whether you’re a young person or young at heart, learn from seasoned performers SOLCHLD and MICKILLAKID.
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Speaking Fire – Open Mic
Poets and story tellers spark the stage fire warming up the microphones and kicking off the celebration.
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Speaking Fire – Opening Ceremony
Speaking Fire begins with a Smoking Ceremony, clearing and cleansing the way forward for a day of discussion, deliberation and deliberate conversations.
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Speaking Fire – First Nations Stories and Ideas
Speaking Fire: a gathering of First Nations truth-tellers and truth-listeners, celebrating survival, resistance and Blak brilliance
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Multi-lingual Story Sharing
That feeling of being different because of skin tone and / or language, how do we own it? Celebrate it? Call it our superpower? Multilingual Stories is a sharing circle where we celebrate languages other than English, share stories and poems about being new to a place and weave diverse perspectives into a vibrant evening mesh. The door is open. The multilingual mic is yours.
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Multi-lingual Stories: Con-Verse – Bring the Community With You
The arts celebrates artists. Yet everyone has a story. How do we celebrate people with stories?
Participate in a Con-Verse-ation with artists who work with communities to amplify their stories through workshops, events, festivals, recording any way they can.
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Multi-lingual Stories: A Night of Conversations and Stories
A night of conversations and stories. Come for the discussion, the story-sharing or grab some food and catch both. Con-Verse: Bring the Community With You and Multi-lingual Story Sharing will both take place at this event.
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Poet-Taster
Would you like a poem with that?" Instead of taking a number when you order, you take a word. Then a poet comes to your table and says, "I see you've chosen Friendship. That's from one of my poems. Can I share it with you?" Creative connection ensues.
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Story Dinner: From Little Things…
You are invited to share a story about a moment in your life that got bigger than you could handle. This is your chance to hear and tell stories in their natural habitat around the dinner table. This Story Dinner experience is limited to eight attendees.
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A Dinner Time Story Circle
Feast on the diversity of the human experience while enjoying authentic Ethiopian food!
We offer an evening featuring a shared meal and story circle to feed your body and soul. Join us at the African Village Restaurant; a place of connection, born from the hope and resilience of owner Mohamed Bayan.
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Con-Verse: Making Mountains
Creative people can let their ideas overwhelm them. How do we channel thoughts into actions in a sustainable way? This Con-Verse-ation brings writers and the community together to talk about how we make mountains out of mounds in a good way.
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My First Time
This is a call out to all the wordsmiths who’ve never unleashed their poetic diatribes into the mic. It’s an invitation to first time poetry slammers to step up and spill for two minutes. No judges. No scores. Just straight up openness.
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Story Dinner – A Smell, A Taste, A Journey
Can a meal be a memory? Can a single taste or smell transport you to another time, another place? At this intimate dinner, food becomes a portal—drawing you into stories of journeys, discovery and connection. Come taste, remember and be transported.
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Con-Verse: How Is Poetry?
Quick, get the blood pressure pump! It’s time to give poetry a check up. We see it pulsing through ceremony, protest, and community. Is poetry alive and evolving? Poetry’s vital signs are strong. It’s pulsing everywhere.
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Poet-Taster
Grab a cuppa and a snack then be joined by a selection of spoken wordsmiths at your table. The literary arts organisation Word Travels offers up a full course of hot poetry served ala carte. All you have to do is order and we’ll ask, “would you like a poet with that?”
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Story Dinner – Your Moment of Change
Can a meal be a memory? Can a single taste or smell transport you to another time, another place? At this intimate dinner, food becomes a portal—drawing you into stories of journeys, discovery and connection. Come taste, remember and be transported.
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Con-Verse: Who Controls the Story?
You want to share your story. You tell it. You record it. You publish. Once you put it out, do you the creator need to control what happens next? What if the story you want to tell belongs to someone else or a whole community but you’re getting the applause, accolades and cash.
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NSW State Final – Australian Poetry Slam
Australian Poetry Slam 2025 (APS ’25) travelled all over NSW to unearth the best spoken word artists from country towns to metro centres. Now it’s up to you to cheer, snap and hold up scorecards in this state-wide celebration of wordsmiths.
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Sydney Final – Australian Poetry Slam
We ask writers to dig deeper. Find that vulnerable place inside and turn it into bravery. Spill little truths and light up the crowd with their flow. They nailed the city-wide heats. Now, catch the best Sydney spoken-word folks ripping up their notebooks and slamming head first into this finale.
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Queensland State Final – Australian Poetry Slam
The Queensland Poetry Slam Final is more than a literary take-over. It’s a take back. We’re giving the bullhorn back to the bards. The word nerds. The oral storytellers. Now it’s up to you to cheer, snap and hold up scorecards in this state-wide celebration of wordsmiths.
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Victoria State Final – Australian Poetry Slam
After heats with the top spoken-wordsmiths from across Victoria, poets storm the State Library stage. We drop the mic into their open palms. Watch them strive for beauty, curiosity, respect and – yeah let’s go there – love. There will be tears and cheers as they electrify your imagination.
