JULY 2018 ARTeFACT Magazine

Ballarat
sQribblers
hosted by
Wrainbow
Writers
This LGBTIQA+ friendly writing group is for people age 25+
Please bring with your notebooks, pens and inspiration!
Spread the word and let everyone know.
Thursday evenings
JULY 19 & 26
6:30 - 9pm
Meeting Room,
Central Highlands Library,
178 Doveton Street Nth, Ballarat
Entry will be by the main doors, but exit will be the after hours exit
Looking for a shared experience with other lovers of words and ideas?
WORD BANQUET* meets at the magnificent Ballarat Mechanics Institute for
about an hour and a half at 7.00 pm on the 2nd Wednesday of each month,
March to November.
Come along to read and listen to poetry, prose, plays - a different word form
each month. There’ll be themes. Read work you love - yours or someone else’s
- or join moderated big conversations on a topic we’ll post beforehand so you
can think about it.
IMPORTANT: Want to read on a particular night? Look out for the Facebook
EVENT PAGE for that date, and add your name in the comments. If you
forget, you can add your name to a list at the BMI on the night and you can
read if there’s time. Count on up to five minutes, maybe more, depending how
many of us are there.
Word Banquet. ‘Letters: The Lives of Others’
Let’s read letters aloud. Let’s talk about them. Bring letters you’ve kept, or
for tantalising glimpses of other lives, find letters that excite or intrigue you
among anthologised letters or letters found online*. Remember receiving
letters? When you were in swift sensory relationship with the sender before
even reading it? A tongue moistened the envelope’s line of fastening glue, soft
breath whispered over the paper’s surface, warm fingers left DNA traces now
mingling with yours. And folded within, trembling among the words, invisible
messages ripe for decoding (we’ll decode in our discussions)-people always
reveal more than they intend. Join our table and reignite your enthusiasm for
letters-we all miss them! Readings up to 5 minutes each round-if unsure, do a
little pre-event timing.
*BYO snacks and drinks. We’ll kick on over the road at The Lost Ones
Basement Bar after 8.30 to 9.00-ish if we have more to say. Entry by gold coin
donation to cover operational costs.
*Letters of the famous right here: http://www.lettersofnote.com/p/archive.html
Examples to get you thinking.
NICK CAVE TO MTV: “I feel that it’s necessary for me to request that my
nomination for best male artist be withdrawn and furthermore any awards
or nominations for such awards that may arise in later years be presented to
those who feel more comfortable with the competitive nature of these award
ceremonies. I myself, do not. I have always been of the opinion that my music
is unique and individual and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those who
would reduce things to mere measuring. I am in competition with no-one.”
VIRGINIA WOOLF TO VITA SACKVILLE-WEST: “Look here Vita-throw
over your man, and we’ll go to Hampton Court and dine on the river together
and walk in the garden in the moonlight and come home late and have a bottle
of wine and get tipsy, and I’ll tell you all the things I have in my head, millions,
myriads -They won’t stir by day, only by dark on the river. Think of that. Throw
over your man, I say, and come.”
MARILYN MONROE: ‘Last night I was awake all night again. Sometimes I
wonder what the night time is for. It almost doesn’t exist for me’it all seems like
one long, long horrible day.’
TED HUGHES’ TO DAUGHTER FRIEDA: “T.S. Eliot said to me ‘There’s
only one way a poet can develop his actual writing - apart from self-criticism
& continual practice. And that is by reading other poetry aloud - and it doesn’t
matter whether he understands it or not (i.e. even if it is in another language.)
What matters, above all, is educating the ear’.”
Wednesday July 11 at 7pm
Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute
117 Sturt Street, Ballarat CBD
Entry by gold coin donation to cover heating
Find us on Facebook!
enquiries via the group page:
www.facebook.com/susiesurteeshost/
*A BMI cultural event hosted by Susie Surtees and Amy Tsilemanis.
July 2018 ARTeFACT Newsletter
39