Poetry: alive and kicking

Kate Wilson, a 25-year-old performance poet from Bunbury in Western Australia, was one of our local performers on Cooee Cabaret’s final tour this year.

Kate was writing what she refers to as 'on-paper poetry’ for a while, alongside studies in acting and speech and drama. In 2008 she discovered performance poetry through the work of American Mary Fons on YouTube and had a eureka moment. Kate was attracted by the more accessible and less perfectionist nature of performance poetry, and has been writing and performing her poetry ever since.

Although the performance poetry scene in Bunbury is small, it is thriving, and Kate has found that in the past year her poetry has gone from being a hobby to a second job. Kate teaches school workshops in performance poetry, as well as writing commissioned work and performing at poetry slams and festivals around Australia.

Kate performing her poem 'Away’ on the NFSA’s YouTube Channel.

Other poetry resources

• australianscreen features videos and audio of poetry-related material, including Dorothea Mackellar’s 'My Country’, an interview with Judith Wright, and Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker) reading her haunting poem 'We Are Going’.
• The Film Australia Collection features poetry-related titles: William Yang’s Sadness (1999), It Is of Eden I Was Dreaming (1983), and Australian Biography: Bruce Dawe (1998).
• Items in the NFSA collection relating to poetry.
• Kate Wilson’s YouTube Channel and her website.
• Youthspeaks YouTube Channel – poetry performed by students of YouthSpeak’s spoken word education program in the USA.
• Poetry slam and spoken word events based in Melbourne.