( originates from Australia / a small wooden box) A poet and performer in one!
David Stavanger was a psychologist and art therapist for 10 years before rediscovering
poetry in 2002 when two of his pieces were published as part of The Red Room Project
showcasing Australia’s best emerging poets. Since then his work has appeared in various
anthologies, street press and magazines. Primary poetic influences include the likes of
Yevgeny Yvetushenko and Michael Dransfield. David has also been the editor of outsider
magazine and a member of the QLD Poetry Festival Committee for the past two years.
Finally he is a parent and the husband of QLD poet Suzanne Jones.
Before the printing and publishing of poetry, there was the spoken word. Ghostboy
http://www.ghostboy.com.au first emerged in 2004 from a small wooden box following
a diagnosis by the W.H.O of acute performance poetry to infect a live audience at the
QLD Poetry Festival. Live he often collaborates with close muses and friends Golden
Virtues and Nefarius on decks as well as projected visuals describing the live show as
a mixture of surrealist vaudeville and spoken word theatre. His main sources of
infection have been the likes of David Bowie, Emily XYZ and Myers Bartlett, The
Beats, Sam Hunt, Oni the Haitian Sensation, Oscar Wilde, Jack Micheline, DA Levy,
Marc Kelly Smith and the depths of outtaspace. Ghostboy won the prestigious
Performance Poetry World Cup in 2005 and operates as QLD’s unofficial slammaster
including running the inaugural 2006 QLD State slam. He is also the ringmaster of
QLD’s premier performance poetry event - http://www.outsiders.ws
Collectively this odd couple within the one skin have performed and featured at a wide
range of festivals and venues in Australia including the Brisbane Writers Festival,
Broken Hill Poetry Festival, Montselvat Poetry Festival, Noosa Long Weekend Arts
Festival, Poetry After Dark, QLD Poetry Festival, Wordpool, the Sydney Writers
Festival as well as being invited to perform a 6 night residency as part of the Woodford
Folk Festival 2006/7 (see details that follow).
Both seek poetry which is visual, visceral and visionary both on the page and stage as
well as being highly accessible to a non-poet audience. Both believe in the importance
of a sense of theatre and voice -whatever it means to the individual poet – and that this
is central to a work translating to the stage and a live non-poet audience. An audience
wants great words but they also want to be entertained, moved and engaged rather than
relying on the printed page as the only access to the poems central essence. With the
majority of people likely to encounter poetry for the first time as a live performance at a
festival or local cafe, the importance of valuing the art of performing a poem in a way
that resonates with a person to make them want to read and see further live poetry is
a responsibility all poets hold when they step in front of a microphone.
BOOKS/CDS OF POETRY:
Station to Station BOOK with photography by Justin Leegwater (ouTsideR Press,
Sunshine Coast QLD 2006 with assistance from ARTS QLD);
If I Were a Rock’N’Roll Girlfriend CD with Golden Virtues, Nefarius and Bremen Town
Musician (ouTsideR Press, Sunshine Coast QLD 2006 with assistance from
ARTS QLD)
"Points of Relation"
Relate to the rent boys renting their scarred landscapes of flesh.
Relate to the man across the road who drinks a river.
Relate to a woman’s dress and their valley of flowers.
Relate to midnight phone calls that handcuff the stars.
Relate to borderline moments of cutting flesh paintings with nails.
Relate to rust.
Relate to ashes.
Relate to dust.
Relate to faceless hotel rooms with her lying guilty in these arms.
Relate to meeting in car parks wearing sunglasses that hide nothing.
Relate to lingered embraces that stain every attempt to sleep.
Relate to unsent love letters and pens confessing.
Relate to fantasies raping a virtuous man.
Relate to lust.
Relate to wanting.
Relate to dust.
So when the cliff promised a precipice
with a point of no return
the jump was never in question
though storm clouds offered their assistance.
On the way down flashed the sight
of people and places I could have been
which cushioned the sudden impact
of landing with no point of relation
just lust
and the ashes of it’s fire.
WORD FOOD:
“FAT WORDS FOR HUNGRY EARs"
Word Food hits the 2006/2007 Woodford folk festival for the first time with a blender
full of fresh word’s and beats. Featuring a nightly residency of Australia’s finest spoken
word performers mixing it up live and the inaugural Word Food Slam Deluxe - where
emerging word cooks claim the mike with exciting new recipes!
Every night performances sizzle with showcases from QLD’s surrealist performance
poet David “Ghostboy” Stavanger and internationally renowned spoken-word artist
Miles Merrill (NSW) stirring things up on stage with hot dishes The Spokes (NSW),
Brisbane 4 piece Golden Virtues, poetess Suzanne Jones (QLD) and Cook'N"Kitch
(NSW) as well as mystery slam guest - the Crazy Elf (VIC)!
Iron chef MC's & Slammasters Ghostboy & Miles Merrill will then throw out their
cookbooks as the Word Food Slam Deluxe break free from the QLD pantry in December
with heats burning up the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane, Ipswich and at the actual festival
site before the main event - the Word Food Slam Deluxe final on NYE itself! Slam is a
live spoken word competition that has become a global phenomenon since being created
in the 1980’s by Marc "So What" Smith in Chicago. Open to all people and all forms of
poetry - bush, hip hop, free verse, whatever! - each poet slams their words to a live
audience among whom 5 are selected to score each poet’s work. The audience at a slam
has the freedom to express itself in any way they see fit! - audiences can scream and
cheer - if they don't like a poet, they can get into finger snapping, foot stomping, and
even booing!…each poet entering the slam risks all and needs to give all to the slam
and it's audience.....this is an event for the people! After each contestant at Word Food
Slam Deluxe, two kitchen hands will provide live slam dish scores from our gastro inspired
judges - freshly plucked from the audience. DJ Nefarius (from ouTsideRs) will also takes
a seat at the final table, mixing lounge slam sounds in between rounds. And.. the final
winner aka Word Food master gets $1000 in cash & prizes (including a pass to Woodford
to defend their title in 2007/2008).
For further heat details got to the festival site http://www.woodfordfolkfestival.com or
call Ghostboy 0409 66 9391 / email ghostboy@aapt.net.au
Come check me out on MySpace
http://www.myspace.com/holyghostboy
or my official website
http://www.ghostboy.com.au
|
