Salisbury Slam Heat, SA

The Salisbury heat was held on Saturday 24th September.
The heat was won by Eileen Ting and runner up was Mira Pavlovic - congratulations!

Mira was lucky enough to represent SA at the National Final in 2010.

Check out Eileen, Heat 1 winner perform
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kwWUo1alGwQ

Check out Mira, Heat 1 runner up perform
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1rr8EITZO0

Eileen Ting Interview

Age - 21 yo

Location - Adelaide, SA

Level of Education - 4th year physiotherapy student at University of South Australia (tertiary)

Experience with writing and performing - First slam poetry experience at RebelSlam July 2010. Other than that, this poetry slam is the first time I’ve performed anything to an audience. I don’t really have any outstanding experiences with writing. It’s something I usually have to steal time for in amongst uni and work, and is usually secondary to all these obligations, but it makes it all the more precious to me when I do get the chance to do it.

A small testimonial outlining your experience of the slam, why you entered and your relationship with poetry -
I entered the slam after another poet from the Friendly Street Poets suggested I should after seeing me perform at an FSP reading night. That was the first I’d heard of the national competition and really was only eager to go to meet Miles Merrill, who I’d been told was the man who had brought slam poetry to Australia. I performed at the Launch night, and got the top score, but went over the time limit by a few seconds, so consequently lost a point and the wildcard entry into the state final. I performed the same piece a couple of weeks later at the first heat and was lucky enough to come first there, but again it was extremely close between the top performers so anyone could have won!

Mini Interview -
Have you performed in front of an audience before?
Haven’t really performed anything in front of an audience since this poetry slam. I did a couple of pieces in front of a small crowd of Friendly Street Poets a couple of weeks before the slam.

How did you feel performing your own writing?
I feel pretty exposed when performing my pieces – I’m putting my rawest emotions on the line. But I love this exhilaration – the anxious wait for the scores to see if I have actually moved the audience and connected with them. To be able to express these emotions makes me feel uninhibited, free.

Do you have a favourite style of writing or a favourite writer?
My favourite writers are Henry David Thoreau, Emerson and Jack London. Their writing captures nature’s beauty so perfectly I often would rather read an excerpt from one of their pieces than look at a photograph. They instil another dimension of beauty and wonderment into a natural image - to see the world through their eyes is really just magic.

Do you think it is important for Australians to write and perform their own work and why?
Of course not, why on earth would it be important for Australians to seize the opportunity to express their uniqueness and creativity and visions and interpretations of the world through words which could possibly inspire others; move people to stand up and change the world we live in for the better or just embrace their individuality and thoughts in a world so bent by straightness? We ought to live in a world authorized by censored speech and barely audible murmurs of the truth, with hands too cramped from being pinned beneath ever-burgeoning butts planted firmly to seats to be able to pick up a pen and write... Sorry, but, this is a silly question. Write write write! Perform! Do what you want without fear of judgment.

Mira Pavlovic Interview

I am 51 years old, live in Northfield . SA, and reached year 12 in High School.

I have always had an interest in language, especially reading and writing poetry and short stories, and used to read them in front of the class at school, and to people at work. It gave me enormous satisfaction and pride to make them laugh and smile! That is as far as my 'experience and performance' goes, but I've always had a dream of becoming a song writer...

I never knew about 'Poetry Slam', until I read about it in the Greenacres Library on the notice board, and immediately got excited! My poetry had been 'dormant' for so long, and here was my chance to 'resurrect' it again, so I entered! I have always believed that poetry is the strongest, deepest, and most thought provoking and entertaining form of expression there is. Nothing can move the soul more, than a heart wrenching poem, and nothing can make you pee your pants laughing more, than a 'witty ditty'!

Mini Interview

# The only audience I have performed to before, are at school and at work (as stated above).

# I felt very excited and nervous to be performing my own writing,and to have people hear it. I also am a very self-conscious, depressed person who lacks public speaking skills and confidence, so that is something I need to over-come to do well, and get the 'balance' right.

# I love to write humourous, sarcastic, satirical poems, and make fun of everyday life and people, but then again, I also like to write the 'deepest and darkest' poems. One thing my poems have in common is that they all rhyme, as I love the challenge of playing with words, and making them rhyme.
I enjoy writing poems in the 'Pam Ayres' style, and I absolutely love her poetry and wit.

# I think is important Australians perform their own work, as they best know how it should be performed and read. No-one has the same passion for a piece of writing, as the person who wrote it, and they can make it more meaningful, and believable by doing it themselves. BUT, on the other hand, if you get as nervous as I do performing, then it's not a good idea at all!