⚡VOLTA is co-presented monthly by Queensland Poetry and Brisbane Square Library, bringing you electric poetry, spoken word, and the unexpected.
This Volta special event is curated by Blue Bottle Journal, #EnbyLife Journal and swim meet lit mag, as part of Queensland Poetry Festival 2023 - Story/Verse.
This event features readings from local poets Jackson Machado-Nunes, Spencer Moreau and Sharlene Allsopp.
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IN-PERSON
Volta will be held in-person in the Tiered Theatrette at the Brisbane Square Library.
BOOK YOUR FREE TICKET BELOW.
Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible.
COVID Safety - QP encourages you to: stay home if you feel unwell; maintain social distancing; use hand sanitiser; and consider wearing a mask.
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ONLINE
Can’t make it to Volta? No need to book a ticket - simply tune into our Instagram Live from 6pm AEST.
Didn’t catch the performance or want to revisit it? All our live videos will be archived on our Instagram Profile.
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About our performers:
Jackson Machado-Nunes is a 22 year old Meanjin based writer. They graduated QUT in 2023 with many proud accomplishments such as chairperson-ing the QUT Literary Salon for 2021, working on the Editorial Board of ScratchThat Magazine, and seeing their work published in QUT Glass. They write across all forms about their struggles with their identity, bad dates, and whatever else. Their biggest inspirations are Richard Siken, Jordan Peele, and Charli XCX. Jackson hopes to one day write queer characters into terrifying sci-fi scenarios from a cold cabin deep in the Tasmanian wilderness.
Spencer Moreau is a creative who loves words. How they sound, look, and feel, and how they have grown and changed over time. They love ancient myths and poems, but they also love scrolling through TikTok for three consecutive hours – so why not join the two? Spencer’s favourite mythological tale is that of King Midas, and their favourite TikTok trend is the Zoolander trend.
Sharlene Allsopp was born and raised on unceded Bundjalung Country. She studied Writing and Literature at the University of Queensland and has been published in the Portside Review, Aniko Press, Jacaranda, and Griffith Review. She is the 2021 Ford Memorial Poet of the year. As a recipient of The Wheeler Centre’s Next Chapter program in 2020/21, she completed her debut novel The Great Undoing, due for release with Ultimo Press in 2023.
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About the journals:
Blue Bottle Journal is a young Meanjin-based online publication releasing poetry that stings, that burns long after reading. Blue Bottle's ever-growing catalogue of over 100 poems has been built on emerging voices from the Australian poetry scene and abroad. Blue Bottle hopes to elevate marginalised voices including people of colour, queer, emerging, older and disabled poets. They are invested in work that is emotional rather than esoteric, for poems that pulse, writhe, and stick to your skin. A key focus of their catalogue has been the natural world, animals and land through ecocritical frameworks.
#EnbyLife Journal is an online publication for non-binary and gender diverse creatives. #EnbyLife started out as a zine, born in July 2016. It was a paper and digital zine of collected stories, poetry, comics and art by non-binary and gender diverse people from Meanjin (Brisbane) and so-called Australia. Since its publication, #EnbyLife has been reborn and revived as an online journal, featuring non-binary and gender diverse artists and creatives worldwide. In 2020, #EnbyLife journal paired with Baby Teeth Journal to create the queer digital zine Leaf Pile. In a world where diverse and marginalised voices are so often not heard, considered or understood, #EnbyLife Journal aims to showcase the creative works of non-binary and gender diverse people, and pay them for their work.
swim meet lit mag is a new online literary publication based in Meanjin. Swim meets bring people together; swim meet lit mag seeks to offer an accessible space to read and publish all kinds of creative work from around the world, with a particular focus on emerging local contributors. Now in its third year of operation, swim meet lit mag plans to continue expanding its catalogue, which is, and will always be, free to access. Each issue is framed by a swimming-related theme, to which the responses are always wonderfully surprising and diverse.