Roll Call

ROLL CALL, 2019-2021, is a collaborative lament exploring how our desire to win is fueling our demise. It is a poetry multi-media installation that reveals how supremacy thinking manipulates our grief and colonizes our minds. This multi-media eulogy offers keys to global solidarity and climate justice.

Find a free e-book at www.thisbreath.space/poetry and videos below.

How do we reveal that our self-interests continue to trump collective well-being and embrace our sorrows to re-imagine life?

Roll Call at Coral St Artspace Victor Harbor Oct 2020. Photo Johanis Lyons-Reid.

Poets: Geoffrey Aitken, Nick Carroll, David Cookson, Donna Edwards, Nigel Ford, Rory Harris, Kym Holly, Stephen House, In Her Interior, Emilijia Kasumovic, Helen Kelly, Carl Kuddell , Niyati Libotte, Jen Lyons-Reid, Johanis Lyons-Reid, Wallace McKitrick, Kathryn Pentecost, Avalanche, Mike Riddle, Clyde Rigney Jnr, Heather Taylor-Johnson, Cedric Varcoe, Doll Yoko.

Find the _this breath poetry anthology and video performances here: https://www.thisbreath.space/poetry

Bunker Rulz 2: Battle sorrow. Our addiction to competition ignores the true cost of modern life. The Colony demands we must compete with everything to survive.

In the race to survive and succeed we believe we can’t afford to experience sorrow, to feel collective pain, to imagine the screams of burning koalas, the muffled despair of people trapped in abuse, locked up, homeless, worked to the bone in meaningless jobs. We fear we will break down, give up, go mad.

Who defines insanity in a culture that fears sorrow?

Who benefits from a competitive culture? How do we reveal that our self-interests continue to trump collective well-being? How do we avoid competitive grieving? How do we acknowledge our sorrows and re-imagine life?

How do we re-enchant our shared existence?

Roll Call screen installation at Coral St Artspace Victor Harbor Oct 2020. Photo Johanis Lyons-Reid.

Provocateurs corner: We see poets as the witch-philosophers of our world, who weave spells that move beyond guilt and blame, howling against the extermination of life due to the wonders of civilization. As our competitive culture keeps us on track to maintain ecological collapse, we suppress the sorrow for our collective failure to protect the well-being and interdependence of all living things. And yet, as long as we still breathe it is never too late to sing.

Join the resistance: Notice your compliance. Disrupt our status quo. Rewrite the rules. And click here to submit your poetry.

Roll call live poetry performance at Coral St Artspace. Photo Carl Kuddell.

Credits

Creative concept, development and curators: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell

Facilitators: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell, Mike Riddle and Nigel Ford

Poets: Find the anthology of 50 selected poems from 23 poets here.

Geoffrey Aitken

Nick Carroll

David Cookson

Donna Edwards

Nigel Ford

Rory Harris

Kym Holly

Stephen House

In Her Interior

Emilijia Kasumovic

Helen Kelly

Carl Kuddell

Niyati Libotte

Lyn Lovegrove Niemz 

Jen Lyons-Reid

Johanis Lyons-Reid

Wallace McKitrick

Kathryn Pentecost

Avalanche Rehorek

Mike Riddle

Clyde Rigney Jnr

Heather Taylor-Johnson

Cedric Varcoe

Doll Yoko

Provocations, text and cartoons: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell

Video and photos: Jen Lyons-Reid & Carl Kuddell, Johanis Lyons-Reid

self portrait and Roll Call installations at Coral St Artspace Victor Harbor Oct 2020. Photo Johanis Lyons-Reid.

Venues: Coral St Art Space Victor Harbor. You can spot some of the poetry across all our venues. Selected poems are published in the _this breath anthology and on this site.