Sonic Poetry Festival Supplement Contents

Angela Costi: Four poems

Angela will be performing in two events for the festival: Sustain – What We Carry Across Time and Place and Sound Poets at the Cherry Tree: poetry by Angela Costi and Peter Davis performed with Soundscapes and Music

For the Sustain event, Angela is exploring the polyphonic quality of two of her published poems. ‘The Good Citizens of Melbourne’ which was first published in Mascara Literary Review, 2019 https://www.mascarareview.com/angela-costi/

This poem will be accompanied by a tram soundscape and a clarinet played by Anoushka Lenffer, as well as Laura Brinson as the narrator’s voice for the film ‘Citizen Tram’ and the tram conductor’s voice, Mary Chydiriotis as the voice for Thelema, and Vasilka Pateras as the voice for Deena.

Her second poem, ‘Frontline’, is dedicated to workers on the phone lines such as RESPECT. First published in Hecate Vol 45.1&2, 2019, and read by her at her book launch of An Embroidery of Old Maps and New 

For ‘Frontline’ there will be a chorus of voices focusing on the repetition of words throughout the poem and interspersed, will be various voices of women on the phone, endeavouring to escape domestic violence.

For the Cherry Tree event, Angela is honouring the 20-year anniversary of her collaboration with Peter Davis, on her CD poetry collection ‘Prayers for the Wicked’. In 2003, CD making for poetry and music was the norm. Angela Costi recorded her poems in a studio called Sunshine & Text, interweaving spoken word with mandolin and Byzantium chant. Original music performances were by Duncan Graham, Paul Huntingford and the late Rex Watts. Further information about the process of producing ‘Prayers for the Wicked’ and its launch can be found at InnerSense http://www.innersense.com.au/salonim/prayers.html

A review of ‘Prayers for the Wicked’ by Ashley Brown at Cordite Poetry Review http://cordite.org.au/reviews/brown-costi/