What Matters? Queer Poetry Slam

What Matters? Queer Poetry Slam

LOCATION: Cell Block Theatre
DATE: Friday 28 February
TIME: Doors open at 6.30pm for 7pm start
TICKETS: $20/15

Discover Australia’s most subversive and boldly original queer poets at our raucous poetry competition. Our slammers tell us what matters as we heat up the historic Cell Block Theatre with words of protest, love, rage and power. With a special guest host and some guest performances throughout the Slam, we’ve got the night before Mardi Gras Parade completely covered.

Poets and guests announced closer to event date.

Add on to your poetry slam experience with our Moonlite pop-up bar, Print with Pride workshop and a curator’s tour of Mistfit: Collage and queer practice and i hate my dad.

Artist line-up

Host: Kween G
Renowned for potent content, Kween G delivers dynamic style as an MC, performer and Hip Hop artist. She makes consciousness-raising music that excites, entertains, and enlightens her listeners. Her fighting spirit – for women’s rights and those in disadvantaged communities – courage and humility have earned her respect across the country. In strong demand as a MC, performer and host, Kween G is a community icon.

Special guest performer: Betty Grumble
Emma Maye Gibson (AKA Betty Grumble) is a Sydney-based performance artist. Largely through the avatar/war mask/love letter/totem critter of Betty Grumble she engages her body as a political and medicinal site of performative catharsis, often in a genre smash of ritual physical theatre, cabaret, performance art and multi-media. She is a proud ecosexual and believes in the shamanic/shawomanly power of live space. She has her Masters in Fine Arts/Arse and has presented work at Dark Mofo, Sydney Opera House, Glastonbury, Edinburgh Fringe, Perth & Adelaide Fringes, Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Festival of Dangerous Ideas (FODI), Belvoir St Theatre, The Bearded Tit, Berlin Fringe, and beyond. She believes in the flesh riot and is currently engaged in developing a new work under the guidance of mentor Annie Sprinkle in her world-saving trilogy of performance ceremony.

Music act: KYVA
Crafting a delicate balance of alternative pop influenced by the likes of The CurePrince and Elliot Smith, KYVA embodies a union of worlds: drawing equally from spheres of Dark Wave and Soul to create something entirely new and sonically beautiful.

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We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for the Prudence MacLeod Prize. 

The Prudence MacLeod Prize, which will continue for a further three years, supports a recent National Art School graduate to undertake a six-month residency at @acme.art, London.

Supported by the Lansdowne Foundation, the Prize provides an emerging artist with an opportunity to step forward into an expanded, international context at a vital time in their career. The artist will live and work in London, one of the world's great art cities, in a supportive artist community. This important opportunity will enable the artist to forge professional international contacts, explore London's art world and rich cultural resources, and produce a new body of work.

The recipient of this Prize will receive:
– Return travel to London. To be arranged for the artist by NAS.
– Studio accommodation and workspace at Acme Studios for 6 months.
– Living stipend of $AUD3,500 per month for 6 months. Total $AUD21,000.

Application deadline: Sunday 1 February 2026, 11.59pm
Residency: Monday 6 July – Friday 18 December 2026

The Prudence MacLeod Prize is open to eligible NAS alumni who have graduated within the past five years and meet the selection criteria.

Learn more 🔗 in bio. 

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Acme Fire Station, 30 Gillender Street, 1999 © Acme Archive
Thank you to everyone who joined us at the opening of The Grad Show!

Find works by this year's cohort exhibited throughout the NAS campus until 14 December. Open daily from 11am — 5pm and until 9pm on Fridays. 

View online via 🔗 in bio.

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Video: Tim Connolly
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