Friendly Street Poets

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Friendly Street is Australia’s longest running community open-poetry reading venue. Started in 1975 by Andrew Taylor, Richard Tipping and Ian Reid, Friendly Street was Adelaide’s first regular, open-to-all poetry reading. It has since achieved local and national recognition for its dedication to the nurturing, support and promotion of poetry.

It has achieved this through the regular monthly readings and, importantly, through its initially self-funded, then State assisted, publications. The earliest and most important of these was the Friendly Street Reader, incorporating the best of the previous years readings. Other publications over its 29 year history include the New Poets series and over 25 collections of individual poets.

Over the years, Friendly Street has provided a platform for new and emerging poets and a venue for more established writers to nurture their artistic growth. It secures prize money for two statewide annual poetry competitions. Some of the established poets who have strutted their stuff at Friendly Street include John Bray, Jenny Boult, Louise Crisp, Steve Evans, Peter Goldsworthy, Jeff Guess, Rory Harris, Jeri Kroll, Mike Ladd, Kate Llewellyn, Jan Owen, Neil Paech, Graham Rowlands and Richard Tipping.

The secret of Friendly Street’s longevity and success? Perhaps it is that Friendly Street remains true to its original vision. And above all, it remains a place where poets of all kinds can come together, and where poetry lives and breathes in its oldest form - the spoken word.

Contact details:poetry@friendlystreetpoets.org.au


Website: http://www.friendlystreetpoets.org.au  (language of website) english

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