Category: News

Award-winning Brisbane singer Elly Hoyt and Natalie de Jager will both perform on Sunday, September 7 at the Telstra Spiegeltent as part of the Brisbane Festival.

Elly’s self-titled debut album in 2010 won her the Best Australian Jazz Vocal Album at the 2011 Australian Jazz Bell Awards and prompted Australian jazz great James Morrison to say: “From the moment I first heard Elly sing, I knew she had that classic, indefinable thing that makes one a jazz singer – this is the real thing.”

Natalie’s reputation as an extraordinary singer and songwriter stems from her expressive pop vocals and innovative jazz improvisation. At the festival she will be launching her new EP Tea with Natalie. A free sample of one of her tracks can be downloaded from her website,www.nataliedejager.com.

Both Elly and Natalie have made Brisbane their home and their contributions to the burgeoning local music scene have made them favourites of Brisbane jazz aficionados.

The two young divas of jazz will be performing from 3pm at the first Jazz on Sunday performance of the festival, in the ornate wooden Spiegeltent on Sunday, September 7.

<caption elly_hoyt.jpg>Elly Hoyt is one of the up and coming Jass soloists calling Brisbane home.

Robin Taubenfeld from Friends of the Earth Brisbane and the Brisbane Community Action Network (BrisCAN) has just sent the Westender details of some of the alternative activities and community programs planned for Brisbane during the G20 Summit. Her media release is here:

The G20 Leaders Summit will bring the leaders of the worlds’ 20 largest economies to Brisbane in November this year.  The “austerity” budget that has just been delivered to Australians is a small taste of what people around the world have been experiencing under G20 driven economic systems — systems which prioritise profit over community welfare and the environment.  The G20 outcomes affect us all. With Tony Abbott at the helm, the G20 meetings will continue to make economic decisions which benefit the few at the expense of the many.

There is an alternative!

You are invited to join us in developing and advancing community generated answers to world economic, social and environmental problems. Join us in Visioning another World. BrisCAN-G20 is a broad network of groups concerned about the social and ecological impacts of the G20.  Included in this are concerns about the immediate repercussions of hosting the G20 in our region – such as the current diminishing of civil liberties – and the local and global perpetuation of the economics of privilege.  We see the G20 as an opportunity to unite and work on transforming our society to a more just and sustainable one.

Peoples Convergence: We will be hosting and supporting a week symposiums, workshops, idea sharing, marches, film screenings, and other creative events, November 8 -16 in Brisbane.

Visioning Another World: The G20 Peoples Summit will be a three-day festival of symposiums, idea-sharing, art, creative activities, education and action. It will take place in various location in Brisbane November  12-14, before the G20 Leaders Summit. This will be followed by two days of creative action, education and solidarity while the G20 Leaders Summit is taking place, including the Peoples Rally and March on November 15.

The First Nation’s Decolonisation Before Profit program of events will run through the week Nov 8 – Nov 16 and will include a Global First Nations Conference – November 15-16 and an Eco-Village forum space. See: http://brisbaneblacks.com/g20/program/ We welcome your involvement in any, or all, of these events.

The Peoples Summit (Nov 12-14):  will bring together local and international thinkers to collaborate on broad themes: The Economy: Growth Vs Sustainability, Environment, Climate, & Earth Rights, Dispossession Decolonisation, Politics, Democracies …existing and beyond?, Social Justice: Human, Labour, Gender Rights.., and De-militarisation & Peace. The Peoples Summit will provide a safe, inclusive, family-friendly space to discuss the issues that really matter to us. You are invited to get involved by proposing, developing and collaborating on a section of the Peoples Summit program and/or organising a satellite event.  Your involvement can take any shape: This may be a panel with a string of speakers, a key speaker with discussants, or a collaborative conversation space. It might be music or theatre or an art exhibition. It may be a film showing, a debate or a DIY workshop… it may be some other form of talk fest, forum, installation, performance or happening…

The Peoples Rally and March – Nov 15:  While demonstrations will be taking place throughout the G20 Summit week, we are calling the community to rally together on the first day of the Leaders Summit. The Peoples Rally and March will be a colourful celebration of diversity and unity in action. Join us in this united call for global social and ecological justice!

Week of action:  We are planning for vibrant community action to take place throughout the week of the G20 Summit.  You are invited to contribute to the planned events and to organise your own creative response to the G20.  Help form a peoples choir, start a radical cheerleading group, host an art event, put on a comedy or film night or gig… A calendar of events will be available on our website soon.  You will be able to add your event, ideas or meeting to the program there.

More details: While we are still in the planning stages, venues and details of events are yet to be finalised. As your hosts, the Brisbane community hopes to make your participation easy and enjoyable!  We are planning for both camping and billeting options, as well as support with food, First aid, transport and other daily needs. How you can help: You can help by coming to organising meetings, organising an event of your own, contributing to our website, hosting a visitor, donating food, volunteering to cook, donating or loaning marquees, photocopying and printing, providing space for an event or meeting, sponsoring a guest speaker, participant or performer from overseas, volunteering to translate, interpret – sign language and other, play at a gig, donating some money…

To register your interest in the Peoples Summit, volunteer, donate your time, skills or money or for more information, please contact:  info@briscan.net.au

We look forward to Visioning Another World with you in the lead up to the G20 Summit in Brisbane and beyond.

In peace and solidarity,
Robin Taubenfeld Friends of the Earth Brisbane/Brisbane Community Action Network (BrisCAN)
Mbl  (61) 0411 118 737
email:  summit@briscan.net.au
www.briscan.net.au   www.facebook.com/briscan.g20

If you have any questions about the forthcoming G20 Summit being held at South Bank in November, here’s your opportunity to ask them in person, to the people who have all the answers.

Uncle Sam Watson, noted community activist, will talk about the protests planned by the First Nations people in Musgrave Park during the summit.

Scott McDougall, coordinator of Caxton Legal Centre, will answer your questions about your legal rights during the summit, and give details of the Independent Legal Observer project planned for the occasion.

Robin Taubenfeld of Friends of the Earth/Community Action Network will give an overview of concerns and opportunities from the perspective of groups involved in community-based responses to the Summit.

Helen Abrahams, Councillor for The Gabba Ward, will have details of the changes to traffic and pedestrian movement in the local neighbourhood.

Jackie Trad MP, Member for South Brisbane, will pay a flying visit from Parliament House to explain the State Government’s plans for the Summit.

Deputy Commissioner Ross Barnett and Assistant Commissioner Katarina Carroll from the Queensland Police G20 Task Force will also be on hand to answer your questions about security arrangements during the Summit.

The Community Forum is being organised by local independent newspaper The Westender.

Moderator: Geoff Ebbs

G20 Community Forum
6.00 pm Tuesday 9^th September
Upstairs, Souths RLFC Club Davies Park,
Jane Street WEST END

Enquiries:
Kerrod Trott, Editor,
0412 029 663
kerrod@westender.com.au

Queensland Shakespeare Ensemble’s production of Tempest was launched on a rainy Friday night in the Roma Street Parklands: A fitting setting for a play set in an extreme weather event. A stunning cast, a creative production and a magic setting had the audience laughing and engaged in a way that Shaespeare often fails to deliver to modern audiences.

The combination of an outdoor venue, modern music and a big dosde of irreverence brought the text to life in a way that had me going back to my Compleat Works to check what I had been missing all these years.

Zac Kelty’s Caliban creeping out of the shadows and among our feet still chills days after seeing the production. Rebecca Murphy as Ariel is as bewitching and enticing as old Will could ‘ere imagined and Johancée Theron as Miranda brings us directly into the relationship with Prospero, the island and its challenges that is as remarkable as the words that make it possible.

The undoubted star of the show, though, is Rob Pensalfini in the lead role, Prospero. Without declaiming too much, or dominating with his enormous presence all the time, he leads us through the wiles and whims of a powerful man hanging on however desparately to his last shreds of glory. As does the character himself, Pensalfini draws on all the rich talents at his disposal to enchant us to support him in his quest to regain nobility from his fallen position.

The Napolitans provide much needed light and contrast to the intensity of all that and there is great character acting from the rest of the cast.

The music is a remarkable insertion. The use of modern and folk music creates a decidedly Elizabethan engagement. The desire to sing along and catcall is exacerbated by the audience in the round set up. If you make one of the final performances this weekend you will be sitting on the stage of the Roma Street Parklands ampitheatre with the action sprawled across the ampitheatre proper and the stage itself.

The cast members are the musicians as well and entertain during intermission while chatting to friends, family and guests. It is a startling, warm and friendly production.

Director Zoe Tuffin has pulled off the remarkable feat of putting the bawd back into the bard without belittling the text.