In this week's show, we talk with two of the poets featuring in the 2019 Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival, Arielle Cottingham and Tariro Mavondo.

00:00 - Arielle Cottingham
21:20 - Tariro Mavondo

Texas-born Afro-Latina artist, Arielle Cottingham, is now living in Tasmania and joins us on the phone to talk about the body and performance, microphone and stagecraft, differences in the US and Australian "slam scene", and the confluence of dance and poetry. She also talks about performer self-care, and the lasting friendships she has made in the Melbourne poetry community.

Tariro Mavondo is an awarding winning spoken word performer, actor, dancer, voice over artist, theatre director and educator. She is a Co-Founder of Still Waters African Women’s Storytelling Collective and Centre of Poetic Justice. Tariro talks about "embracing the shadow", her workshops with young writers, the anxieties that young people face and the role that the arts can play in affecting social change. She also discusses decolonisation as a poetic and practical life practice.

Tariro has been admitted to an International Summer School Seminar on the subject of decolonisation in Barcelona for a week starting on July 8th, and is raising money to help meet the costs.

The Melbourne Spoken Word and Poetry Festival begins on 12th July and runs until the 28th.