Under the West Gate Dreaming

Tram View

Never, ever

He knew their love
was born from literature
the day he realised
they had never, ever
spoken
on the phone.

Going Down Swinging # 28 launched tonight!!

I'm pretty excited to be performing at the launch of the latest issue of Going Down Swinging tonight. GDS is in my humble opinion the greatest lit mag in Australia. Always great content and edited by two of my favourite people, Lisa Greenaway and Klare Lanson. I'll be reprising my 'Static' piece especially commissioned by GDS. I'll be taking on the role of myself, the heart eating lion and Harvey Keitel!
Also performing is Chloe Wilmott Jackson, Quinn Stacpoole and the irrepressible Nathan Curnow.
The whole shebang is hosted by Melbourne's greatest MC, Mr Michael Nolan.

Last Tuesday Society

artwork by the lovely Tai Snaith.


I'm very pleased to be part of the psychedelic carnival that is The Last Tuesday society tonight!
I'll be performing a poem that involves a heart eating Lion, Harvey Keitel and Larry Emdur.
Also appearing is...
2009 Golden Gibbo Winners The List Operators
Tek Tek Movement
Captain Ruin from The Caravan of Doom
Dance Master Di Reid
Fresh from the oven of the Melbourne Comedy Festival A Lot of Bread
Poet Laureate Telia Nevile
Bron Batten’s Welcome to the Jungle
Hosted by Baron Richard Von Higgins

7.30pm.
Yah-Yah's.
99 Smith St, Collingwood.

North American Tour Dates!!

I leave on Tuesday afternoon for our amazing tour of Canada and the U.S. with my poetry posse, the super wonderful Alicia Sometimes and Emilie Zoey Baker.
What an amazing adventure this will be.
All the dates below for my North American Peeps or for any poetry groupies who simple want to follow us on tour. Come on, there must be some of you out there?!

Vancouver
Wednesday Feb 4 2pm Wax Poetic 102.7FM
Co-op radio
Then at 7.45pm
The Spillious Speak n Sing
Cottage Bistro 4468 Main street

Ottawa
Friday February 6
11:30am
An invitation from The Australian High Commissioner! His Excellency Justin Brown
the High Commissioner's Residence, 407 Wilbrod Street.

Then the next night:
06 Feb 2009, 7:30PM, Hear from Melbourne - National Arts Centre - Fourth Stage
53 Elgin Street Ottawa, Ontario Hear from Melbourne.
Four of Australia’s Hottest Performance Poets!
The A B Series in association with Kevin Matthews presents four acclaimed Australian performance poets,
Alicia Sometimes,
Emilie Zoey Baker,
Justin Ashworth and
Sean M Whelan,
on The National Arts Centre’s Fourth Stage.
The evening’s program will be hosted by CBC Radio’s Alan Neal. Cash bar Reception and book/CD signing to follow
Tickets $18 available at The National Arts Centre Box Office and online through Ticketmaster http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=42371229108&h=H4tjO&u=O8XB0
also check the website here at
http://abseries.org/node/63

Toronto
Feb 7th, 08:00 PM @ Cervejaria 842 College. Toronto, Ontario Cost:$5
:A night of Poetry and Poets slammin, reading and jazzin Emilie Zoey Baker, Sean M Whelan and Alicia Sometimes along with Toronoians David Silverberg and crew plus American poet Christian Drake $5

Montreal
February 8-13, 2009 Festival Voix d’Amériques FVA showcase February 10, 8.30pm
MEL versus YUL ou Melbourne meets Montréal Casa Del Popolo
4873, Boulevard Saint-Laurent
with Emilie Zoey Baker, Sean M Whelan, Justin Ashworth and Montrealers Corey Frost, Puggy Hammer and The Capital of Plastic Daffodils. Hosted by David McGimpsey

Going Down Swinging #27 launch
Lancement de la revue
Wednesday February 11, 5 – 7pm Casa Del Popolo
4873, Boulevard Saint-Laurent with Emilie Zoey Baker, Sean M Whelan, Justin Ashworth, David Prater and Montrealers Ian Ferrier, Victoria Stanton and Fortner Anderson.

New York City
15 Feb 2009, 06:00 PM - The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery Street (Between Houston and Bleecker) New York City, New York Emilie Zoey Baker, Cristin Aptowitz O’keefe, Shappy, Sean M Whelan and Justin Ashworth Three of Australia’s top performance poets battle it out with New York’s finest, a night of spoken word, sass, vagina’s, spacemen, music and the word moist. mail@bowerypoetry.com
212-614-0505

Chicago
22 Feb 2009, 08:00 PM - The Green Mill Bar in Chicago. Green Mill Jazz Club 4802 N. Broadway Ave. Chicago, Illinois 60640,
Best Slam in Illinois! the Uptown Poetry Slam. Sean M Whelan and Emilie Zoey Baker book: 773.878.5552
email: greenmill@comcast.net
web: http://www.greenmilljazz.com/poetryslam.html

Postcard Poetry No. 6.

Featured at Indiefeed Performance Poetry Podcast

On the cusp of my impending tour of North America I'm pretty damn thrilled to be featured at Indiefeed's Performance Poetry Podcast, straight outta New York!
Alongside my buddies alicia sometimes and Emilie Zoey Baker.

Thank you Mongo and Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz for making this happen.
Have a listen here!

Interviewed at Literary Minded

An interview with myself and my very good friend (and amazing poet) Nathan Curnow appears today at Literary Minded. A freaking incredible Literature blog run by Angela Meyer. I am blessed to be amongst its pages. Thank you Angela, you are wonderful.

postcard poetry no. 5. come back when it's cold

A Walk Through Westgarth

Woodford and Online Interview.

Okay, one of my New Years resolutions is definitely to be a better blogger.
In the meantime I'm about to get on a plane and fly to Queensland to perform at the Woodford Folk Festival! I'm doing two shows with The Mime Set and Emilie Zoey Baker. And a solo spoken word set. These are my last shows with The Mime Set! Which is quite sad.
Also Graham Nunn has started a new blog for which he interviewed me. You can see the interview here.
http://grahamnunn.wordpress.com/

See you in the new year, a better blogger I will be!

smw.

Melbourne launch of my new collection of poetry.

Tomorrow night (Thurs 6th Nov) I'm very proud to say I'll be launching my new collection of poetry titled 'Tattooing The Surface of the Moon'. It's published by Small Change Press. This will also be a very special (and slightly sad occasion) because this will be my very last gig in Melbourne with musical act The Mime Set. We have been collaborating since 2005 and have done many amazing and rewarding shows together. If you've never seen us perform together and have been curious then tomorrow night in Melbourne is your last chance! (Our ultra last gig together will be at the Woodford Folk Festival in QLD over New Years.)
Below is the details of the gig. Hope to see you there.

SEAN WHELAN BOOK LAUNCH
Launch of Tattooing the Surface of the Moon
A new book of poetry by
Sean M Whelan
With special guests THE MIME SET
Small Change Press is excited to launch it's final title for 2008, Tattooing the Surface of the Moon by acclaimed Melbourne spoken word artist, Sean M Whelan.
Whelan is a writer of poetry, prose, visual poetry and works for performance. His work has been widely published in the likes of Going Down Swinging & Best Australian Poems 2008. In 2007 he was a special guest of the Utan Kayu International Literary Biennale in Indonesia.

Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz - New York City Slam Poet Champion - says:
"Haunting, provocative and lavishly surreal, Sean M. Whelan's latest collection of poetry is a glittering stand out."
Special guests: The Mime Set (last Melbourne performance ever!)
Small Change Poets: Graham Nunn & Pascalle Burton
hosted by David Stavanger
Launched by Steve Grimwade (Melbourne Writers Festival, Triple R FM)
8.30pm free entry
Thurs 6th November.
Bar Open, 317 Brunswick St, Fitzroy.

Signs as Prophets

Brisbane Launch of Tattooing the Surface of the Moon.

I'm very excited to say that this coming Thursday I'll be launching my brand new book in Brisbane! My publisher, Small Change Press are based in Brisbane so I'm really looking forward to catching up with the two fine poets behind SCP, David Stavanger and Graham Nunn. I'm very grateful for their faith in me.
I have very fond memories of Brisbane from my involvement with the Queensland Poetry Festival and my performance at the Love Poetry, Hate Racism event with The Mime Set. It's also where my friendship blossomed with such golden souls as Mandy Beaumont and Giselle Di Paolo.
The launch is at the Queensland Writers Centre on the 23rd October, 6.30pm.

I'm also performing at the State Library of Queensland on Sat 25th October. This event is the State Final of the National Poetry Slam. I'll be doing a set between the poets slamming it out for their chance to represent QLD at the National Final being held at the Sydney Opera House.

If you're in Brisbane, I hope to see you sometime this weekend.

x.
s.

ps Melbourne launch of Tattooing the Surface of the Moon is on Thursday Nov 6th at Bar Open. More details here soon!

The Confession Files.... in pictures!

Last night was the second performance of The Confession Files. For me personally I felt a bit more relaxed about it all. It's such a nice change to do a repeat performance of a show as so many of the shows I do are for one night only.
Tonight is the last night! So if you're curious about the crimes we're confessing to, then come along!

I can hear my footsteps bounce off the wall.
Change moving in my pocket.

The light
throws my fingertips across the concrete.

Static - Melbourne Writers Festival

Doing a very big show this weekend at The Melbourne Writer's Festival. It's called Static and is a collaborative piece that's been commissioned by those sexy folk at Going Down Swinging. (use many, buy lots.) I'm very lucky to be doing this show with the help of alicia sometimes, Nathan Curnow and musician and good buddy of mine, Quinn Stacpoole. Also it's been a pleasure to be directed by Kieran Carroll. A long time acquaintance but this is the first time we've really worked together.
We've all written separate pieces based on the theme of Static, with Quinn scoring it all. I decided to write my piece about a lion with the face of Harvey Keitel who comes to my door to eat my heart. Now you'll have to come along to see what happens.
This Friday night, at the BMW Edge Theatre in Federation Square.
On the same bill is the highly rated American poet, academic and performer, Tracie Morris. I'm really looking forward to seeing her.
To book tickets go here.

Pecha Kucha

This Thursday I'm very pleased to be involved in an unusual event called Pecha Kucha. Basically the format of the night is that each presenter is given 6 minutes and 20 frames of images each showing for twenty seconds each. The night first started in Tokyo. I think for the most part the presenters are visual artists or architects, so I think it's unusual for a writer to get the gig. I will be presenting in tandem with the amazing Beck Wheeler. A wonderful visual artist who has been turning my poems into incredible works of art. I'll be reading my story Disappointment is the Evil Bunny of Misery's best friend to a slide show of Beck's art work.
Below are more details of the event.


Pecha Kucha is a night of creative presentation!

eight creative types get 6 minutes of time to present their ideas, designs, stories or artwork over a
slideshow of 20 frames.

20 seconds a frame = six minutes of fame.

on the menue is...
Jeffrey Bernett - NYC based designer - guest of Saturday In Design
Hugo Davidson - Industrial designer
Sarah Parkes - Artist
Steven Cornwell - Graphic designer

Sean M Whelan - Performance poet (with artist Beck Wheeler)
Rory Hyde - Architect + RRR broadcaster
Harald Grundle - Vienna based designer - guest of Saturday In Design
Nathan Gray - Artist + musician

DJ Declan Kelly plays before and after the presentations
Horse Bazaar - providing digital art for your viewing pleasure
BYO business card for door prizes!

Night opens at 6, presentations at 8.


Pecha Kucha is a worldwide thing.
www.pecha-kucha.org

Overload Poetry Festival Opening Night

I'm performing tonight at the opening to the Overload Poetry Festival.
Also joining me on stage will be the following talented indivuals;
Jennifer Harrison
Geoff Lemon
Ella Holcombe
Steve Smart.
The whole evening will be hosted by the wonderful Josephine Rowe.
The gig is at Dantes Restaurant, corner of Napier and Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.
Should be a hoot.
Come on down.
Kicks off 8.30pm.

s.