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Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word
Over the past decade, Spoken Word has established itself as a central part of contemporary Australian & New Zealand poetry. For the first-time ever, these voices are transported from the stage to the page, captured in print so that the spoken-word experience can be shared with a new and broader audience.
Solid Air showcases the work of more than 100 performance poets - combining elements of slam, hip-hop and experimental performance poetry - to deliver an unforgettable reading experience that is both literary and loud. Poems capture themes of modern culture, identity and resistance.
Contributors include: Ali Cobby Eckermann, Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Taika Waititi, Quan (Regurgitator), Claire G. Coleman, Tayi Tibble, Hera Lindsay Bird, Behrouz Boochani, Luka Lesson, Steven Oliver, PiO, Candy Royalle, Michelle Law, Courtney Barnett, Quinn Eades, Selina Tusitala Marsh and many more.
Solid Air showcases the work of more than 100 performance poets - combining elements of slam, hip-hop and experimental performance poetry - to deliver an unforgettable reading experience that is both literary and loud. Poems capture themes of modern culture, identity and resistance.
Contributors include: Ali Cobby Eckermann, Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Taika Waititi, Quan (Regurgitator), Claire G. Coleman, Tayi Tibble, Hera Lindsay Bird, Behrouz Boochani, Luka Lesson, Steven Oliver, PiO, Candy Royalle, Michelle Law, Courtney Barnett, Quinn Eades, Selina Tusitala Marsh and many more.
256 pages, Paperback
Published August 6, 2019
6 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
August 12, 2019
A really diverse range of poets, who have a hugely diverse range of styles, subject matter, and atmosphere. It makes me really proud to be an Australian poet! Because there's such variety in style and subject, I'd recommend this to anyone, regardless of how 'into' poetry they are. There's some more conventional, easy to read stuff, and some really hard-hitting stuff, and really experimental, boundary-pushing stuff. It's a real win of a book.
October 6, 2019
I can think of no higher praise for a book than to call it Andrew Bolt's worst nightmare - and Solid Air is just that.
It pushes the bounds of what we think of as a "poetry collection", challenging the erasure of performance poetry, slam, and hip-hop from the publishing world. It is a comprehensive view of the spoken word landscape of the past decade, with poets and performers coming together in chorus to amplify and echo a diverse community voice. This book will - literally, at times - force you to look at poetry from a kaleidoscope of angles.
A must-read for poets and non-poets alike. The next time someone says they "don't read" poetry, force it into their hands.
It pushes the bounds of what we think of as a "poetry collection", challenging the erasure of performance poetry, slam, and hip-hop from the publishing world. It is a comprehensive view of the spoken word landscape of the past decade, with poets and performers coming together in chorus to amplify and echo a diverse community voice. This book will - literally, at times - force you to look at poetry from a kaleidoscope of angles.
A must-read for poets and non-poets alike. The next time someone says they "don't read" poetry, force it into their hands.
September 24, 2019
Equal parts beautiful, powerful, and engaging as hell, Solid Air is a master class of poetic artistry, and a comprehensive list of Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word artists to fall utterly in love with. If you love poetry that isn't afraid to talk about (or poke fun at) the biggest, most complex issues of the day, you're going to need a copy of this immediately.
October 16, 2020
Shit, but there are some talented writers and performers in this part of the world. For an easy place to start you must check this out. So many good pieces in here.
February 7, 2023
An incredible and assorted array of some of the best poets and writers across Australia and New Zealand. You will love, you will feel joy and laugh and you will cry, feel the whole range of the human experience.
Read on paper or read them aloud, enjoy the ways that these poets play with space and tone.
Read on paper or read them aloud, enjoy the ways that these poets play with space and tone.
January 8, 2022
This was an ambitious project and more than worth a shot to try and increase our exposure to some of the important work that spoken word can do and is doing, but unfortunately, the poems felt like they lost so much of their power when confined to paper.
October 10, 2019
This was a gorgeous and diverse collection of spoken word poetry from both New Zealand and Australian artists. The collection seems to focus on indigenous voices, both first nation australians and Maori peoples, with pieces that explore the themes of dispossession, culture, invasion and colonisation.
It is eye opening, stark and unapologetic.
It is eye opening, stark and unapologetic.
January 4, 2020
Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by AB Endacott
Featuring Ali Cobby Eckermann, Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Taika Waititi, Quan (Regurgitator), Claire G. Coleman, Tayi Tibble, Hera Lindsay Bird, Behrouz Boochani, Luka Lesson, Steven Oliver, PiO, Candy Royalle, Michelle Law, Courtney Barnett, Quinn Eades, Selina Tusitala Marsh, and many more.
Let me be brutally honest about one thing. I love poetry. I read, teach, and have studied it. I think it is an under-focused medium, and a unique way of expressing a feeling, thought, or perspective of the world. Spoken word and slam poetry is a particularly interesting form of poetry as it is specifically performative—while all poetry is theoretically intended to be performed, slam is for a group audience and specifically focuses on hot-button and emotionally charged subject matter. But whenever I hear the term ‘slam poetry’, I am unable to not think of that scene from 22 Jump Street, and I have to have a little giggle.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can be serious.
Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word is a collection of spoken word pieces that have been translated from fleeting moments of performance to the solidity of the page. Collecting the work of Australians and New Zealanders who have diverse backgrounds – immigrant, first nations, LGBTQIA+, the sheer multiplicity of voices and perspectives speaks to the elasticity and relevance of the medium. Only in an anthology which places these disparate experiences side by side without comment or critique but merely as presentation to the reader, is it possible to draw such a conclusion so unequivocally.
Many of the poems have clear inspiration from the beatnik tradition (gritty realism, the depiction of pseudo-intellectualism, drug use, and quest for self-knowledge) or the poems of Bukowski. Indeed, some are personal to the point where reading them offers a vague sense of discomfort. The intimacy of seeing them performed must be almost intrusive. But the counterargument to such a perspective is that poetry is often an act of pure self expression. So if you want to quite literally describe an act of onanism, maybe that’s just a metacommentary of the form.
What particularly struck me as curious was the experience of reading something intended to be performed. In much the way that the experience of reading Shakespeare to oneself is totally different to seeing it performed, many of the poems within Solid Air are a ghost of what it must be to see them given voice by the person who wrote them and intended them to be read in a specific way. I was fortunate enough to see Dr Denise Chapman performing one of her poems at the Emerging Writers Festival this year (she is not featured in this anthology). As a black woman in Australia, you can imagine that the subject matter of ‘I just had to touch it’ is hardly pleasant, but the raw emotion through which Dr Chapman conveyed the sense of violation and anger that was running through her mind when a male colleague touched her hair and then justified it with the line which became the title, made it is so much more powerful than simply reading it on a page. My favourite poem in Solid Air (and indeed, possibly my favourite poem of the entire collection) which is a little lost in its transcription is Tim Evans’ ‘Poem, Interrupted’. Yet the act of noting down these works is nevertheless important, even if the reader experiences only a diminished version of the actual product, there remains a power in the words on the page that provoke thought and reflection. In the words of David Stavanger and Anne-Marie Te Whiu in the introduction, “on these pages sit words that have often first been performed in a live context to an audience. The pulse of those moments still hangs between the lines.”
Perhaps the most powerful of works within the collection are those written by indigenous artists. The rawness of the medium means the profundity of the connection to country and the anguish of being marginalised is conveyed perfectly. Highlights include ‘Fern Your Own Gully’ by Evelyn Araluen, ‘I am the Road’ by Claire G Goodman, ‘Sedition – a letter to the writer from Meri Mangakāhia’ by Anahera Gildea, and ‘Give Nothing’ by Taika Waititi & Emily Beautrais.
This is a very distinct work. Even if you are not traditionally a fan of poetry, the diversity of voice and subject matter will still mean that there is something in here for everyone.
Featuring Ali Cobby Eckermann, Omar Musa, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Taika Waititi, Quan (Regurgitator), Claire G. Coleman, Tayi Tibble, Hera Lindsay Bird, Behrouz Boochani, Luka Lesson, Steven Oliver, PiO, Candy Royalle, Michelle Law, Courtney Barnett, Quinn Eades, Selina Tusitala Marsh, and many more.
Let me be brutally honest about one thing. I love poetry. I read, teach, and have studied it. I think it is an under-focused medium, and a unique way of expressing a feeling, thought, or perspective of the world. Spoken word and slam poetry is a particularly interesting form of poetry as it is specifically performative—while all poetry is theoretically intended to be performed, slam is for a group audience and specifically focuses on hot-button and emotionally charged subject matter. But whenever I hear the term ‘slam poetry’, I am unable to not think of that scene from 22 Jump Street, and I have to have a little giggle.
Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can be serious.
Solid Air: Australian and New Zealand Spoken Word is a collection of spoken word pieces that have been translated from fleeting moments of performance to the solidity of the page. Collecting the work of Australians and New Zealanders who have diverse backgrounds – immigrant, first nations, LGBTQIA+, the sheer multiplicity of voices and perspectives speaks to the elasticity and relevance of the medium. Only in an anthology which places these disparate experiences side by side without comment or critique but merely as presentation to the reader, is it possible to draw such a conclusion so unequivocally.
Many of the poems have clear inspiration from the beatnik tradition (gritty realism, the depiction of pseudo-intellectualism, drug use, and quest for self-knowledge) or the poems of Bukowski. Indeed, some are personal to the point where reading them offers a vague sense of discomfort. The intimacy of seeing them performed must be almost intrusive. But the counterargument to such a perspective is that poetry is often an act of pure self expression. So if you want to quite literally describe an act of onanism, maybe that’s just a metacommentary of the form.
What particularly struck me as curious was the experience of reading something intended to be performed. In much the way that the experience of reading Shakespeare to oneself is totally different to seeing it performed, many of the poems within Solid Air are a ghost of what it must be to see them given voice by the person who wrote them and intended them to be read in a specific way. I was fortunate enough to see Dr Denise Chapman performing one of her poems at the Emerging Writers Festival this year (she is not featured in this anthology). As a black woman in Australia, you can imagine that the subject matter of ‘I just had to touch it’ is hardly pleasant, but the raw emotion through which Dr Chapman conveyed the sense of violation and anger that was running through her mind when a male colleague touched her hair and then justified it with the line which became the title, made it is so much more powerful than simply reading it on a page. My favourite poem in Solid Air (and indeed, possibly my favourite poem of the entire collection) which is a little lost in its transcription is Tim Evans’ ‘Poem, Interrupted’. Yet the act of noting down these works is nevertheless important, even if the reader experiences only a diminished version of the actual product, there remains a power in the words on the page that provoke thought and reflection. In the words of David Stavanger and Anne-Marie Te Whiu in the introduction, “on these pages sit words that have often first been performed in a live context to an audience. The pulse of those moments still hangs between the lines.”
Perhaps the most powerful of works within the collection are those written by indigenous artists. The rawness of the medium means the profundity of the connection to country and the anguish of being marginalised is conveyed perfectly. Highlights include ‘Fern Your Own Gully’ by Evelyn Araluen, ‘I am the Road’ by Claire G Goodman, ‘Sedition – a letter to the writer from Meri Mangakāhia’ by Anahera Gildea, and ‘Give Nothing’ by Taika Waititi & Emily Beautrais.
This is a very distinct work. Even if you are not traditionally a fan of poetry, the diversity of voice and subject matter will still mean that there is something in here for everyone.
October 31, 2019
Full disclosure: I'm friends with a few people involved with this collection (and wish I was friends with many others). In any case, my partially biased review is that this collection is vibrant, vital and necessary. It showcases a breathtakingly broad selection of styles, themes, and genres. If you wanted to explain to someone what spoken word looks like in the modern era the best thing to do would probably be to throw this book directly at their heads and proclaim: "FEAST YER EYES ON THIS, YE KNOWLEDGE-THIRSTY SCOUNDREL!"
They'll thank you later. Probably.
If this book was an animal it would be a pansexual gryphon with cybernetic enhancements that crochets festive covers for molotov cocktails.
Did I mention I like this book? Because I quite liked it.
They'll thank you later. Probably.
If this book was an animal it would be a pansexual gryphon with cybernetic enhancements that crochets festive covers for molotov cocktails.
Did I mention I like this book? Because I quite liked it.
June 16, 2021
As a lover and performer of spoken word poetry, this was a real treat!
So many awesome poems, and some interesting presentations too.
The world needs more books like this.
So many awesome poems, and some interesting presentations too.
The world needs more books like this.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews