Contains Strong Language 2024 Program Announced
Australian Poetry Goes Global: Red Room Poetry Brings UK's Biggest Poetry and Performance Festival Down Under
Poetry is beyond time. It’s a way of bringing together the countless generations of humanity. It’s a means of connecting past and present. It’s a way of imagining the future.
Poetry Month 2024 invites the nation and the world to revel in Australia’s poetic talent on a scale never seen before thanks to a partnership with the BBC’s much-loved UK poetry and spoken word festival, Contains Strong Language, and a nation-spanning program.
Over 4 days, from 28-31 August, Contains Strong Language, the UK’s leading poetry and spoken word festival, will leave British shores for the first time to put a spotlight on Australia. Together, the BBC and ABC, working with Red Room Poetry, will broadcast Australian poetry throughout the nation, to the UK, and over 200 countries across the world.
Live performances, broadcast, talks and workshops will take place at iconic venues across Sydney including the State Library of NSW, the Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney Theatre Company, and Riverside Theatre Parramatta. Events include:
- A recording of the BBC’s flagship arts show Front Row in front of a live audience at the State Library of NSW, with guest host Michael Cathcart and a range of artists and performers.
- Two recordings of the BBC’s ‘cabaret of the word’ The Verb – recorded at the State Library of NSW and Riverside Theatres Parramatta respectively – hosted by UK poet Ian McMillan, featuring readings by many of Australia’s finest poets, including Eileen Chong, Omar Sakr, DOBBY and Sara Mansour.
- A special edition of the BBC World Service Arts Hour, hosted by Rudi Bremer, focusing on First Nations poets, for broadcast across the world.
- A series of talks by Brendan Cowell, Farz Edraki, Luka Lesson, Sara Saleh and Daniel Browning recorded at the Sydney Theatre Company, for broadcast as a series on BBC Radio 3 The Essay.
- A recording for ABC Radio Australia showcasing Australian poets with connections to Pacific countries. Hosted by Hau Latukefu and recorded at the Riverside Theatres Parramatta.
- UK poet laureate Simon Armitage will lead two creative-writing workshops for children and adults, respectively.
Other participating poets and performers include Jazz Money, Paul Kelly, Eileen Chong, Chika Ikogwe, Ali Cobby Eckermann, Winnie Dunn, and Rob Waters.
Red Room is proudly partnering with the ABC and the BBC, with support from the Commonwealth Office for the Arts, the British Council and City of Sydney, to give Contains Strong Language 2024 a distinctly Aussie accent.
This August, as part of Poetry Month, Red Room Poetry is taking Australian poets and poetry to the world. Working with local poets and artists, together with our partners, we will showcase the remarkable diversity of poets and poetic forms in Australia today, giving a rounded picture of who we are, and reminding the world that we are, above all, a nation of exceptional creativity.
