KATE WILSON - POET AND PERFORMER

Remix

2012-01-26T16:40:00.003+08:00

Hello there!

Here's something new to kick of 2012. A remix of my poem, Sisterhood, by Fatty vs Mo. Check it out here:

http://soundcloud.com/kooly

IndieFeed

2011-11-21T17:47:00.001+08:00

I featured on IndieFeed: Performance Poetry today!!!

I am a long time IndieFeed fan and all my favourite contemporary poets have featured on there, so it's a huge honour and thrill to make my debut!

Click here to listen!

Slammin with Sophie Joy Madison

2011-11-21T17:20:00.001+08:00

Picture from Sophie Joy Madison's album, Coming Home

Last night I was honoured to jump up on stage to perform a poem as a special guest at singer-songwriter Sophie Joy Madison's gig at The Ellington.

Sophie, her guitar and her gorgeous voice make beautiful, honest, catchy music from the heart. Last night she was joined by her sister Melody on piano and harmonies, and Garrard Fairbrother on drums. Melody even performed a couple of her own lovely songs. Such a talented family!

Sophie and the band performed a song I penned the lyrics to, called The Story of My Life. So exciting to hear my words in song. Hopefully she'll let me have a recording to post sometime!

Dunsborough SongFest 2011

2011-11-13T03:07:00.001+08:00

This weekend I am privileged to be performing at Dunsborough SongFest!

The opening concert on Friday night was spectacular. So many talented musicians, singers and performers, from the hilarious and haunting Spooky Men of the West giving a rendition of 'I Like To Move It', to the local choir Cleanskins singing a brilliant arrangement the beautiful 'Africa'. We also heard from Kate Rowe and Ryan Morrison, a lovely and talented couple I met down in Denmark in June. Kate Rowe's mum is Emily Rodda, the author! How cool is that.

Thanks to all the people who came up afterwards and told me you enjoyed my poetry. I had a blast performing it. Not long now and I'll be on again for a 20 minute set. 1:50pm at the Old Dunsborough Hall. Concert starts at 1pm - get in on it!

TERRIBLE!

2011-11-13T03:01:00.001+08:00

August 2011

Hello blogreaders! (If there are any!)

Sorry this is only my second blog post! I think it's because I hate sitting in front of a screen for longer than I have to... maybe when I get my tablet (soonish!) I'll have more motivation to blog more regularly. Or maybe just more excuses not to... ahhh dear.

I have just been away at RhythmSong music retreat having the time of my life! I sang my heart out all weekend, got to perform some poetry with musical backing and had the pleasure of hearing many, many songs performed by extraordinarily talented and giving people. If you love music, get along to RhythmSong next year, you will not regret it! I've never been so inspired, relaxed, overjoyed, encouraged and entertained in all my life. Seriously.

MARGARET RIVER READERS AND WRITERS FESTIVAL 2011

2011-11-13T03:00:00.001+08:00

May 2011

OK! So, it has taken me a long time to get around to writing this, but here I am!

On 13th May I cruised on down to Margs to run a workshop and give a solo presentation at Arts Margaret River's Readers and Writers Festival. What a privilege to be part of such an outstanding event!

The theme of the festival was Passion, and the atmosphere was certainly abuzz with passionate energy and enthusiasm for writing of all kinds.

After performing a poem on ABC Radio with Ron Tait on Friday morning, in the afternoon I ran my workshop, which was loads of fun!

The opening of the Festival on Friday night was lovely and I met some of the people I would be seeing around for the rest of the weekend.

Saturday morning bright and early, my friend Kaitlyn and I headed to the Cultural Centre for my solo session called 'Poetry in Motion'. I had a wonderful time getting the audience to stand up and warm up their bodies and voices before presenting them with a whole lot of poetry and a whole lot of talking about poetry!

The Saturday afternoon session was a First Tuesday Book Club style panel discussion called Second Saturday Book Club, hosted by the one and only Jennifer Byrne! Kaitlyn and I were a little bit star-struck! Especially when we got to meet the stunning Ms Byrne at the Boho Bar in Margaret River afterwards. And can I just say, the dessert we had there, a Strawberry Cheesecake with Persian Fairy Floss, was the single most delicious thing my taste buds have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

Sunday morning was my favourite session, and the one I had been looking forward to ever since I heard that the wonderful Liz Byrski was going to be at the festival. Liz's latest novel, Last Chance Cafe, has been generating a lot of buzz around the issues of the place of feminism in the modern world and the sexualisation of children. Things that I also like to buzz about! I first heard Liz speak on a panel at the Perth Writers Festival a couple of years ago, and what I saw was the kind of woman I aspire to be when I'm older - comfortable and even joyful about aging, having a jolly good time, and encouraging others to do the same!

After rather a passionate discussion amongst the audience at the end of Liz's talk, I was able to buy Last Chance Cafe, chat to the author and give her a copy of my chapbook! Like me, but on a much larger scale, Liz is talking to a lot of groups about the issues raised in her novel, and I think the question that came through from the audience in Margaret River is 'what can we do'?

What can be done to stop us Gen Y kids from falling in a heap when we get to an age where we lose the youth and beauty that is sold to us as the very picture of success?
What can we do to stop young girls from falling prey to the culture of music videos that show them that they need to be sexually alluring and even sexually aggressive in order to get attention and be successful?
What can we do to stop the degradation of females (and males for that matter) that are propagated and reinforced by media images everywhere we turn?

I don't have all the answers to these questions, but I am going to give it a lot of thought, then I'm going to work out some kind of action plan to keep making the ripples that will make the waves that will turn the tide.

Any thoughts and suggestions are welcome! I want to be a pro-activist, which by my definition is someone who creates positive change by waving a banner for the positive rather than wasting all my energy trying to scream down the negative. We all have talents and skills that we can use to affect awesome change right where we're at. It's just a matter of seeing the need and taking the steps to fill it. (To use the wisdom of Robots, a seriously cool kids movie about making positive change!)

Poetry is my first step. But there's much more to be done. Have a look at what Enlighten Education are up to. This needs to be in every school in the country. In the world, even.

I'll keep you updated with any developments here. For now I'm just keeping engaged with all these issues, reading, watching and checking it all out.

So, to sum up, Margaret River Readers and Writers Festival left me feeling incredibly inspired and even more passionate than before. Bring on Denmark Festival of Voice this weekend!

Thanks so much to Kaityln Plyley for being such great company and an awesome one-woman cheer squad for the weekend. As well as being the WA Ambassador for National Young Writers Month (June!), Kaitlyn is an ace performance poet, storyteller and writer of all kinds of awesomeness. Do yourselves a favour and check out her blog!

Thanks so much for reading my rantings! Much love.

Until next time :)