Reverse Verse On High Seas

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22nd December 2009, 01:19pm - Views: 1024





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PO Box 1389

Darlinghurst NSW 1300


Telephone 02 9319 5090

Mobile 0425 312 334


info@redroomcompany.org

ABN 35 103 464 446

MEDIA RELEASE

22 December 2009


VERSE IN REVERSE ON HIGH SEAS


The crew of the Royal Navy yacht “Adventure” will be carrying

special “cargo” during this year’s Sydney to Hobart Race – and getting it

safely to Tasmania will be part of their “orders.” 


The British sailors on board the maxi yacht – one of three UK services competing in the race as part of a

trans-global training expedition - have the added task of returning a duffle bag full of poetry collected

for a national literary project called Sea Things.


Over a six week period, starting in Hobart and Devonport on 1 October and finishing on Thursday Island

on 16 November, a series of vessels traversed the nation’s east and west coasts picking up verse, stories

and recorded messages reflecting people’s thoughts on Australia’s love affair with the ocean. 


The collection was expanded to more than 300 works by commissions from professional poets and

submissions from the public online and through the post.


The skipper of “Adventure”, Commander Richard Tarr, the Rear Commodore Offshore of the Royal

Naval Sailing Association, has agreed to undertake the “mission possible” of delivering the bulging duffle

bag to Constitution Dock.


The mix of works – including those of scores of Tasmanians, including primary and secondary students -

is scheduled to go on public exhibition at the Maritime Museum of Tasmania next month as part of a

national tour.


The project aimed to build on Australia's maritime poetry tradition in a contemporary context, imagining

the nation’s sea history through new work that can be shared nationally and internationally through

print, audio, film and web forms.


Tasmania’s leading poet Graeme Miles, who contributed to the project, will take possession of the

itinerant duffle bag. 


“Sea Things has been a quite an adventure, so the journey of the duffle bag back to Hobart on the Royal

Navy yacht Adventure is just a magical maritime way to wrap-up the project,” said Johanna

Featherstone, the Artistic Director The Red Room Company, the event organiser. “There is also that

fascinating historical link - the British Navy had a bit to do with Tasmanian settlement.” 


Media inquiries: Johanna Featherstone, Red Room Company, on 0425 312 334, or Graham Cassidy,

Cato Counsel, on 0419 202 317


The Red Room Company creates, promotes and publishes a spectrum of poetry by Australian writers, in unusual

ways. The company is not-for-profit and is supported by The Vincent Fairfax Family Foundation, The Australia

Council for the Arts, Arts NSW, The Ian Potter Foundation and The Keir Foundation.







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