Blues and poetry cure for Common Cold

24 Jun 2008 | Kate McIlwain

A group of poets who started writing together while studying at UOW’s Faculty of Creative Arts will host a night of live music and poetry at the Balgownie Hotel this Saturday (June 28).

The Common Cold Poetry Collective began in March 2007 as a group of three UOW students who would meet at the Unibar to workshop their poetry.  Since then, the Collective has grown into a community writers’ group that has three public events under its belt, a publication in the works and another planned for next year.

The group’s upcoming event is called Blues, Booze & Poetry and will combine poetry with a performance by Melbourne blues group The Goodtime Medicine Band.

“Ultimately, we want people to think of it as a good night out, not a poetry read—poetry isn’t fragile, you don’t need to cloister it,” founding member of the Collective, Bede Payne said.

Combining his experience gained through studying a double degree in Creative Arts and Commerce at UOW, Payne said he and his classmates started the Common Cold Collective because they saw a gap in the poetry market.

“We didn’t see the right forum, the opportunity to actively engage the community with what we do,” he said.

“When I was studying I was in a group of young poets who were living in Wollongong and Sydney. We were all very close, and supported by these amazing writers in [the Faculty of] Creative Arts. I believe it’s important to keep this connection going after graduation.”

The Common Cold Collective works closely with the South Coast Writers Centre to strengthen bonds between artists and the public in the Illawarra and Sydney regions. Payne said that events like Blues, Booze & Poetry help to develop talent in the local community by creating performance and publishing opportunities for writers.

“Part of encouraging and developing local writers is getting access to the public, and vice versa,” he said.

“We’ve run a few public events before, which were really successful. This encouraged us to think a little bigger this time. The band is from Melbourne, some poets from Sydney—and hopefully well have an audience of Illawarra locals.”

Blue, Booze and Poetry is on June 28 at 6.30pm at the Balgownie Hotel and June 29 at 5pm at the Empire Hotel, Annandale. For further information email info@commoncold.org.au