Slam means competition and community

OutLoud was started in 2010 By Emilie Zoey Baker in collaboration with Australian Poetry and is Victoria’s first team slam for young people. Over the last 13 years The OutLoud program has grown to include over 100 schools culminating in a state final.

OutLoud isn’t just a competition it’s a community, a chance to express yourself and an opportunity to meet new amazing people.

Who is Emilie Zoey Baker ?

Emilie Zoey Baker is an award-winning Australian poet and spoken-word performer who has toured nationally and internationally performing and writing. She was the winner of the 2010 Berlin International Literature Festival’s poetry slam 'Slam!Review', as its first Australian guest. She performs regularly at arts and literature festivals, and has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, TEDx Melbourne and ‘Do’ Lectures Australia. Emilie was a 2014 Fellow at the State Library of Victoria, and has previously been poet-in-residence for Museums Victoria and coordinator for the National Australian Poetry Slam. She teaches poetry and slam in primary and secondary schools and has undertaken residencies in over 40 Australian schools. She has taught poetry everywhere from the central Australian desert to a Chicago university to the Green School in Bali. In 2014 Emilie gave the keynote address at the annual conference of the Victorian Association for the Teaching of English, and in 2013 was core faculty for the spoken word program at Canada's Banff Centre. She is also the author of fourteen children’s books and has been published widely both in Australia and overseas, including in Best Australian Love Poems (Inkerman & Blunt) Sincerely, and Yours Truly. (Penguin) 

Her letter 'Why It’s Utterly Essential to Teach Poetry To Teenagers’, was recently published in Women of Letters internationally distributed anthology Airmail (Penguin, April 2015).

Who Are Australian Poetry?

Australia Poetry exists as a national poetry body to interconnect and support a flourishing community of Australian poets, to enhance and promote their poetry, here and internationally, and to reach and engage directly with readers, lovers and potential admirers of Australian poetry, and promoters of it.

We do this by offering an extraordinary nation-wide calendar of events which are, usually, either high profile artistic activities, connecting poets with their audiences across all major literary festivals in all states and territories, for example, or accessible, affordable professional development activities, which cater to all poetry practitioners, no matter what their vocational level, ability, cultural background or geographical location. We see this program as streaming into three divisions: LIVE, PUBLICATIONS and DIGITAL. Of course some projects will go across two or more.

Australian Poetry was formed in 2011 when two former poetry organisations, based in NSW and Victoria, merged to create the first national poetry body. It is based at the Centre for Writing & Ideas, The Wheeler Centre, Melbourne, but its motivating influence is to initiate and run exciting, meaningful programs across the nation. It acknowledges the critical funding support, organisationally, which it receives from the Australia Council for the Arts and Creative Victoria.

Can you give me a very brief history of poetry slam?

It all started in 1986, when poet Marc Smith was inspired by the “Beat Poets” in Greenwich Village who used to read their work out loud in bars. He held an open mic night at a small jazz club in Chicago which soon gained momentum these events spread across other cities like wildfire! The 90s saw a wave of French-style slams sweep across Europe; most notably France, Switzerland and Austria. Unlike their American counterparts which celebrate competition through audience engagement; French-style slams focus more on creating an atmosphere that is conducive for poets to come together without fear of judgement or failure. Australian Slam is somewhere in between. Art, community, competition and expression are all key.