Poetry as medicine: Panel and performance

Description

Celebrating poetry month, join us for an afternoon of poetry, readings and conversation. In partnership with Red Room Poetry.

Poetry can be a powerful healing tool. More than just a balm, poetry can use language to construct community, can be a form of care, and can build resilience of the spirit to weather life’s storms and cater to our own well-being.

Hosted by Rachael Mead, join poets Natalie Harkin, Heather Taylor Johnson, Tessa Leon, and Peter Goldsworthy who have all experienced poetry’s intersections with health and the holistic, as part of this live panel with readings.

Rachael Mead is a South Australian novelist and poet and author of the novels The Application of Pressure (Affirm Press, 2020) and The Art of Breaking Ice (Affirm Press, 2023) as well as four collections of poetry, the most recent being Weathered (Recent Work Press, 2024). 

She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Adelaide, and she was the recipient of the Barbara Hanrahan Fellowship at the Adelaide Festival Awards for Literature in 2022. 

Natalie Harkin is a Narungga woman and activist-poet from South Australia. She is a Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University with an interest in decolonising state archives, currently engaging archival-poetic methods to research and document Aboriginal women’s domestic service and labour histories in SA. Her words have been installed and projected in exhibitions comprising text-object-video projection, including creative-arts research collaboration with the Unbound Collective. She has published widely, including with literary journals Overland, Westerly, Southerly, The Lifted Brow, Wasafiri International Contemporary Writing, TEXT and Cordite. 

Heather Taylor-Johnson is a multi-form writer living on Kaurna land near Port Adelaide. Her most recent poetry books are the verse novel Rhymes with Hyenas and the collection Alternative Hollywood Ending. She’s the editor of Shaping the Fractured Self: Poetry of Chronic Illness and Pain, winner of the Mascara Avant Garde Award and read in disability circles around the world. Her latest novel is a work of autofiction called Little Bit. Her novel Jean Harley was Here was shortlisted for the 'Readings Prize for New Fiction'. With her essays on illness and art, she won Island’s Nonfiction Prize and was shortlisted for ABR’s Calibre Prize and also received a major Arts South Australia Fellowship to continue writing more. 

Tessa Leon is a teacher of meditation and movement, a student of contemplative sciences, and a philosopher poet. Her work sparks wonder, reconstructs meaning, and helps find fluency in our shared humanity. As Co-Founder of Human.Kind Studios, on Kaurna Land, she has spent the past decade guiding thousands of people to shape their presence in the world. 

She is currently the Poet-In-Residence for the SA Nature Festival, offering portals to awe, insight, and eco-social healing. Through ongoing enquiry into the mystery and art of living, Tessa is a cartographer of connection for this time in our world. 

Peter Goldsworthy's poetry can also be read and heard online at The Poetry Archive, read online at the Poetry Foundation and at The Australian Poetry Library. Individual poems have been widely published in the English-speaking world, from journals such as Poetry magazine and The London Review of Books to anthologies ranging from The Twentieth Century in Poetry  to Roger McGough’s recently edited Happy Poems. His New Selected Poems was released in Australia and the UK in 2001. 

His first collection, Readings from Ecclesiastes won the Anne Elder Award, the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, and the Adelaide Festival Award for Literature. His second, This Goes With That, shared the 1988 Australian Bicentennial Award for Poetry with Philip Hodgins. His most recent collection is The Rise of The Machines and other Love Poems (Pitt St Poets, 2015).

FAQs

How do I get to the State Library by public transport?

The 'State Library, Art Gallery, Museum' tram-stop is just outside the State Library. There are bus stops close by, near the War Memorial on North Terrace. The closest train station is the Adelaide city station on North Terrace.

You can plan your journey via Adelaide Metro.

Is there car parking near the State Library?

The nearest car park is Wilson's Adelaide Central car park, 225 North Terrace, next to David Jones.

There is paid (metered) street parking along Kintore Ave and Victoria Drive.

Where is the wheelchair and stroller access?

Access to the Spence Wing first floor and the Mortlock Chamber is via the lift in the glass foyer entrance of the library.

There is on-street disabled parking available on the nearby roads. View more information and maps of Adelaide City Council's Disability parking for permit holders.

How do I check if the Mortlock Chamber is open when I plan to visit?

The Mortlock Chamber may close for private events, check our opening hours for any closure times.

When it is open you can visit the Mortlock Chamber on the ground floor to look at the exhibition bays.  The upper levels of the Mortlock Wing include quiet study areas.

Is there a cafe at the State Library?

Yes, the State Library Cafe is open Monday to Friday from 8am to 4pm and Saturdays from 12 to 4pm.

Find out more about the cafe and resident organisations at the State Library.