Words that slam: Bacchus Marsh to host national poetry heat

ASPIRING poets are being invited to take their writing out of their notebooks and bring them to life on stage as Bacchus Marsh hosts a heat of the Australian Poetry Slam this month.

The national spoken word performance heat happens at the Lerderderg Library on Saturday 18 July and will follow a workshop led by award-winning slam poet and wordsmith Jo Yang.

Melbourne-based Yang is a secondary school teacher and host of a podcast about rethinking the current education system, and was 2022 Australian Poetry slam champion.

Every year since 2007, not-for-profit arts organisation Word Travels has run the Australian Poetry Slam heats and workshops in over 60 locations across the Asia-Pacific.

Poets who are game get to grab the mic for two minutes and share their words, throwing their ideas into the slam-storm.

For their efforts, they have a chance of being chosen as the 2026 Australian Poetry Slam-bassador and offered an international writers’ festival tour worth about $20,000.

This month’s upcoming APS Heat audience at Bacchus Marsh get to send two writers to represent Moorabool in a performance at the Victorian Final with the top 16 in the country then qualifying for the National Final at Sydney Opera House on 25 October.

The Moorabool heat will take place from 1pm to 3.30pm and follows a free workshop – or a “wordshop” as they are known – led by Yang from 10am to 12pm at the same venue.

Registrations are needed for both free events and can be made through the library website.

Moorabool Shire mayor Cr Steve Venditti-Taylor said the slam heat promises to be an entertaining event.

“Our library team always have exciting activities running, they do a fantastic job. This poetry slam event is no exception,” he said.

“It will be a super fun and entertaining event and I encourage anyone with even a passing interest in words and poetry to go along and join in.”