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sly and the family

Nobody gets anywhere alone, even the road has to help you walk it sometimes. And Betsy and I are delighted to say that we’re going to be heading to 4ZZZ, radio station to the stars this Wednesday between 7-9pm. So, how does it work?
Easy.
You listen on 102.1FM Program Guide for lesbian news, views, music and general bollocks with Davina & Ruth. What you get is:

Dykes on Mykes 7 – 9pm Wednesday evenings features news, views and music for and about the queer women’s and lesbian community in Brisbane. We agitate to end homophobia, educate about issues facing lesbian and queer women, and organise to promote lesbian and queer women’s events locally, nationally and internationally.

What we give is a little interview talking about Chosen Family and the Anywhere Theatre Festival and how you can get in on the ground floor. Thank you with the kindly ways. And the never ending rainbow of puns and other metaphors. It’s been a long time coming this show, but it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.

Posted by  |  May 15, 2013 | Categories: chosen family | Tags: , , , | Leave A Comment »

mother, may I?

In the past week or three, we’ve let you know about some of our lovely opening readers – kind folk that Betsy and I admire and respect who have agreed to warm up the stage each night with a word or two. They are our friends, roam-ens and countrypeople. Scott Sneddon, Thomas Day, Andrew Phillips, Trudie Murrell, Liz Bennett, Ahliya Farebrother and John Wainwright – I humbly thank you in advance.

Humblest thanks however must go to Betsy Turcot, for all the generous hours of collaboration and thought. We may not be rock star poets, but we are people who have offered each other call and response. I’m nervous in the pit of my stomach, proud in the belly of my laugh, and excited in the rock paper scissors of making the best choice you can with the stuff you got in your hand at the time.

I’d also like to thank her families: chosen, biological, original, unique, newborn, naturalised and beloved.

For giving her so much beauty to write.

—

For those who missed it:

Chosen Family is an extended poetic dialogue between Betsy Turcot and Eleanor Jackson, two of Brisbane’s most dynamic and interesting spoken word performers.

Set in a post-modern family, this poetic dialogue subverts the classic children’s story question, “Are you my mother?” to embrace kin in all kinds of flux.

Tickets: $15/$10
Dates: Thu 16 to Sat 18 May @ 6:30pm & 8:00pm
Place: Justice Earth Building, 192 Boundary St, West End, QLD 4101    website
Duration: 40 mins

Hope to see you there.

Posted by  |  May 13, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , | Leave A Comment »

the moon my man

john wainwright

So changeable and we all love a girl with bangs. John Wainwright writes and wanes at Mirror Mosaic of Sounds. He loves a good ginko. Even when we cannot see him, celestial and magnetic, he seems somehow to be (t)here.

Betsy and I grow large with nerves, light with fright and hopeful of receiving you – just like our friend John – at a showing of Chosen Family for the Anywhere Theatre Festival. Hopefully by now, you have found the website, invited a friend, been held by an angel, developed a slight tic and are harnessing the moon. For we are harnessing the moon for you. The glow casts high and over the Cuckmere River valley. We are river people.

Thanks in advance, we had a real nice night.

—

It is from the progeny of this parent cell that we all take our looks; we still share genes around, and the resemblance of the enzymes of grasses to those of whales is in fact a family resemblance.

– Lewis Thomas

Posted by  |  May 8, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

village people

 

Are you my mother? You’ll have to come see us to find out. Maybe you’ll be the father figure, maybe not.

Posted by  |  May 7, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

Anywhere Fest: Chosen Family

Reblogged from a storm of tea cups:

Click to visit the original post

Poets Eleanor Jackson and Betsy Turcot (The Belles of Hell) wowed Brisbane at last year's Anywhere Fest with She Stole My Every Rock 'n' Roll. This year, they've got a new poetic dialogue in store: Chosen Family.

Q. Describe your show in under 25 words.
A. Two women trading poetry about the strange, painful-beautiful of family, piecing together a montage of grainy family photographs and giving them a glossy finish.

Read more… 317 more words

We are getting proper excited now - the lovely Zenobia Frost asked Betsy and I few lovely questions about Chosen Family, here's what we said. Super sincerely, I believe.

Posted by  |  May 6, 2013 | Categories: Uncategorized | Leave A Comment »

drive me down to the river

Trudie Murrell

Although you can never stand in the same river twice, you can paddle alongside some good-hearted people.

Trudie Murrell is one of those people. Betsy and I have shared our affection and admiration for Trudie and her work in the past and I have to encourage you to snatch up a copy of her micro-collection (with Vuong Pham) for Brisbane New Voices IV.

We feel so delighted that she might join us, at a time convenient to her and the family of her own, for a little Chosen Family opening words of wisdom. If you’re available too, we would gratefully include you in the chosen people. Let’s make out in the car and accidentally conceive grandchildren. Tickets here.

—

We cannot destroy kindred:  our chains stretch a little sometimes, but they never break.

– Marquise de Sévigné

Posted by  |  May 6, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | 2 Comments »

moving pictures

 

Just like a real boy, just like a real girl, just like one of the family.

 

Posted by  |  May 5, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

kiss me, hardy

One monkey don’t stop the show. But goddamn me if one word is too many from me.

If the travel doesn’t take her, Betsy and I hope to have the pleasure of Ahliya Farebrother joining us as a special guest for Chosen Family. It’s a maybe yes a maybe no, up to you kind of an arrangement. It is, as always, up to you – we’re not ambivalent, it’s just that we only want you to be there if you want to be there.

We’re preparing you a cup of tea, just in case, maybe bring a blanket for your little knees if the night looks cold. Check the Anywhere Fest website for the locale, the rationale.

—

In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family’s story embodies its hope and despair.

– Auguste Napier

ahliya kite

Posted by  |  May 4, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

you can’t count

Is it clear yet? That Betsy and I are having our extended poetry family come calling? That you and yours can join us and ours at the Anywhere Festival in May?

God I hope so. The clouds are peeling back from the sky. Look up and love.

Andrew Phillips was a part of the Words or Whatever women’s showcase, honoring local poet Lucy Blackman. He stood beside me and Doubting Thomas in his collaborative work with Tiggy Johnson at the Queensland Poetry Festival. Andrew’s words are strong and gentle, affirming and firm, equal parts moon rising and the pull on the tide.

Maybe you’ll come see us when he comes sees us and you can meet. No pressure. Only if you want to.

—

Peter: Oh my god, Brian, there’s a message in my Alphabits. It says, Oooooo. Brian: Peter, those are Cheerios.

– Family Guy

Posted by  |  May 1, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »

rattle the chains

Our little stone is gathering moss, or lichen, or loved ones. Either way, we have the lovely Liz Bennett joining the line – she was also a fabulous feature at Words or Whatever last year, you may remember – and she will be gracing us with her particular firebrand of awake and alive and a part of the wor(l)d one special sometime in May.

Please make her welcome, on whatever night you may or may not be able to join Betsy Turcot and me at Chosen Family for the Anywhere Theatre Festival (16-18 May, details on the line).

—

If you don’t believe in ghosts, you’ve never been to a family reunion.

– Ashleigh Brilliant

Posted by  |  April 29, 2013 | Categories: chosen family, performances | Tags: , , | Leave A Comment »