FOJAM Slam Night Spun Stories - Is This My Story To?

Melbourne’s FOJAM (Festival of Jewish Arts and Music) is excited to announce some good news in light of recent Victorian lockdown restrictions. After being forced to recently postpone the 2021 edition of their popular storytelling and slam poetry night Spun Stories, the festival is thrilled to reveal a new rescheduled date in the second half of the year on Wednesday 11 August. This year’s edition of the event will be titled Spun Stories - Is This My Story To Tell? and will dissect and discuss ideas around authorship, authenticity and cultural appropriation in storytelling.

Who has the ‘right’ to tell which story? Are we only able to tell stories that we have experienced ourselves? Is it ok to try and embody another character and tell their story as an act of empathy and compassion? Can we separate the character of a person from the work they create?

The lineup of performers includes writer, journalist, broadcaster and descendent of Holocaust survivors, Ramona Koval; nonfiction writer, poet, artist and high school teacher, Alice Chipkin; proud Birpai-Thungutti man, writer, journalist and senior editor for News Online at NITV, Jack Latimore; celebrated producer, artist, multi-instrumentalist and sometimes rapper, Joelistics; and multi-award winning Zimbabwean writer and performance poet, Thabani Tshuma.

The evening will be moderated by FOJAM Artistic Director, Lior Albeck-Ripka. Lior had this to say about the responsive nature of the live music and creative industries in the midst of sporadic snap lockdowns, “In these uncertain times, thank god the creative community is creative and wants to work. There’s so much good will to look for creative and collaborative solutions that goes into rethinking, reimagining and rescheduling events, and it takes everyone working together to make it happen. So whilst the constant uncertainty is exhausting, I’m buoyed by the willingness of the artists and arts industry at large to adapt and keep going.”

Taking place Wednesday 11 August at Howler in Brunswick, Spun Stories - Is This My Story To Tell? will also be broadcast live, available to stream online for up to four days following the event, wherever you are in the world. In-venue and online tickets are available now from the FOJAM website, but places are limited so don’t delay.

FOJAM presents Spun Stories - Is This My Story To Tell?
Doors: 7.30pm
Digital Live Stream commences: 8.00pm
Show duration: 8.15pm - 9.45pm

Alice Chipkin, Ramona Koval, Jack Latimore, Thabani Tshuma, Joelistics and Lior Albeck-Ripka