Published 12 September 200912 September 2009 · Main Posts pre-nostalgic photo-gazing Maxine Beneba Clarke Photographer and Melbourne poet Michael Reynolds has been following the 2009 Overload Poetry Festival around, camera in hand, for nine days. With two days left of the festival, we’re taking a look back at the launch of Overload 2009. That’s right folks: the festival hasn’t even ended yet and the nostalgia’s already setting in. At the Overload 2009 launch, Reynolds snapped Jack Charles’ spirited Welcome to Country, Overload President Jon Garrett’s speech, The Heart Chamber’s Matt Hetherington, Lia Hills, Tom Joyce, Michelle Leber and Marian Spires, MC Myron Lysenko, poet Jennifer Harrison, and Santo Cazzati declaring the start of the 2009 Overload Poetry Crawl. Michael has been there, eagle-eyed despite the torturous schedule, at most Overload Poetry Festival events, crouched low on musty carpets, adjusting his camera lense from the back of the room, creeping up toward the podium for that rare close-up. Here are just a few examples of the moments Reynolds captured at the Overload Poetry Festival launch: (anti-clockwise from right: Jack Charles’ welcome to country, Overload President Jon Garrett, MC and poet Myron Mysenko & poet Matt Hetherington of The Heart Chamber.) (Above: The Heart Chamber, and poet Jennifer Harrison delivering her heartfelt Dorothy Porter tribute). Poetry crawl MC, poet Santo Cazzati, declares the launch officially over and points the way to the first poetry crawl venue, emphasising the point with, well, what looked like some kind of mountain-goat herding horn. Overload photographer and poet Michael Reynolds will be appearing tonight in the Skype Slam between Overload at Bristol Poetry Festival at ACMI. Maxine Beneba Clarke Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian author and slam poet of Afro- Caribbean descent. Her short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 ABIA Award for Best Literary Fiction and the 2015 Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her memoir, The Hate Race, her poetry collection Carrying the World, and her first children’s book, The Patchwork Bike, will be published by Hachette in late 2016. More by Maxine Beneba Clarke › Overland is a not-for-profit magazine with a proud history of supporting writers, and publishing ideas and voices often excluded from other places. If you like this piece, or support Overland’s work in general, please subscribe or donate. Related articles & Essays 8 November 20248 November 2024 · Poetry Announcing the final results of the 2024 Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers Editorial Team After careful consideration, judges Karen Wyld and Eugenia Flynn have selected first place and two runners-up to form the final results of this year’s Nakata Brophy Prize! 4 October 202418 October 2024 · Main Posts Announcing the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers 2024 longlist Editorial Team Sponsored by Trinity College at the University of Melbourne and supporters, the Nakata Brophy Prize for Young Indigenous Writers, established in 2014 and now in its ninth year, recognises the talent of young Indigenous writers across Australia.
