Story-Fest 2017

Overview

Word Travel's literary festival Story-Fest is set to return this month. This three-day festival celebrates performing writers and the spoken-word. This festival will feature an eclectic line-up of creatives who manipulate the art of communication in powerful, innovative and unique ways by performing poetry, stories, lyrics and monologues.

With spoken-word performances and talks throughout each day at The State Library, the Opera House and around The Rocks, the featured artists will include Afro-Latina feminist poet and current Australian Poetry Slam champion Arielle Cottingham, first-generation Sikh storyteller and Australia's Got Talent contestant Sukhjit Kaur Khalsa and two-time Canadian national slam champion Ian Keteku.

And if you can only hit one event, then this one should be it. The star of the festival and main event, the Australian Poetry Slam National Final, will be held at the Opera House on Sunday October 15. The competition works by making the audience the ultimate judge, as the MC selects five members of the crowd at random to rule on each performance. The poets are given a microphone and just two minutes to capture the crowd's attention before the selected judges score the performance on a scale of one to ten. From these results the winner will be crowned and awarded an all-expenses paid tour to international writing festivals.

Have a bit more time to spare? Other events to add to your calendar include Guffaw, where it'll be hard not crack a smile and have a little chuckle as up-and-coming Sydney comedians Annaliese Constable, Sabrina D'Angelo, Benny Eggmolesse and Fran Middleton take to the stage; Queerhyme, which features queer poets Arielle Cottingham, Emily Crocker and Gabrielle Journey Jones performing poems on the fly; and Spoken-Word Women, a celebration of the best female slammers who'll be breaking stereotypes and destroying gender norms with their powerful poetry.