Month: August 2018

New Words from June Perkins at the QAG

For More Information visit QAG – Quiet

Spring Program will be up on the site soon!

Reading at Sprout Sunday

To see small video of  June reading ‘Discovering Magic, visit to the  Sprout Sunday event page.

A big thank you from Renee and June for all those families who braved the weather to reach the beautiful  venue, and stopped to listen to story and poetry about nature and Queensland and to the Sprout Sunday organisers, Gold Coast Green Living and Botanical Bazaar, and venue Host, the Surfer’s Paradise Golf Club, for having us at this day.

The indoor fairy lights and the hall of the Surfers Paradise Gold Club were quite magical, and we were happy that the farmers received their rain and thankful it cleared up a bit later in the day.

A special thank you to the wonderful young people  who helped read the dialogue poems and  show many of the animals featured in the Discovering Magic poem.

We hope that all those people who brought copies of the book will love them and would love it if they let others know about them.

Do let June know if you enjoy the educational materials link that she provided for all people wanting to make greater inspirational use of Magic Fish Dreaming at home or in the classroom to spark the imagination of children and their love for poetry, nature and discovery.

Renee and June do school visits, and June is increasingly doing commissions and collaborations and is scheduled to do an activity at the Queensland Art Gallery in October (more details soon).  You can check with them for their rates and the kind of activities they are able to do.

Thank to James and David who provided heaps of support on the day for June and Renee.

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Collaboration of Poetry and Art

World Citizen Dreaming

atmybooklaunchwithruha With Ruha at the Launch of Magic Fish Dreaming 2016

I am presently working on a chapbook of poems accompanied by some black and white  illustrations from Ruha Fifita.

This work is inspired by  poems I exhibited during the Illumine Exhibition.

Some of the poems reflect my spiritual upbringing as a Baha’i and depict stories from Baha’i history.

I have spent some time inviting friends of different religious and spiritual backgrounds to respond to these works, and thank them for their input into being beta readers for the poems.  They have asked some beautiful questions that have assisted me in the process of poetry as building a bridge of understanding.

I read some of them at the Ink of Light Festival as well.

I was very keen to work with someone who has a diverse background, and for Ruha to give a visual contemporary Pacific feel to this work.

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The Diviner

Margaret Barr’s “Strange Children” [ballet], 1955 / photographer unknown

 
With her forked stick
she walks the surface of the drought.
 
She walks the future of their farms
calling water to sing through the twig
wherever it may be.

She looks for The Dog stars
in the sky
waiting patiently at the twin’s table.

Cosmic dogs with dry throats sing,
‘the land will once again
have need of boats.’

She throws her forked stick
into the expanse of sky, whispers
‘Little Dog and Dog star hunt for water
Give us rain.’

But for now she must find the underground stores
to tide them over until that rain is found.

The Great Dog rises before dawn
at the end of summer.

Now hunting
of the rains can end.

All will feast on her tears
soaking into earth
giving seeds birth to
saplings
and a land without drought.

 

(c) June Perkins

 

Notes on the photograph

Margaret Barr (1904-1991) was born in Bombay, India. She went to school in California, USA, and in the 1920s studied dance with Martha Graham in New York and choreographed her first works. During the 1930s she taught at Dartington Hall in Devon, England, an experimental school run by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst, and opened a studio in London. The productions of her own dance dramas often featured original music by composers such as Michael Tippett, Donald Pond and Edmund Rubbra. With her husband Bruce Hart, a conscientious objector, she travelled to New Zealand at the outbreak of World War II, where she accepted the position of Director of Movement at the Auckland School of Drama. She moved to Australia ten years later, and for four decades made a unique contribution as a choreographer, director and teacher. She formed the Margaret Barr Dance Group in Sydney in 1952, was Director of Movement at the National Institute of Dramatic Art from its inception in 1958 to 1975, and conducted classes at her Annandale studio. Her choreography was motivated by strong social and political concerns, and her dance dramas ranged over diverse topics such as the work of Mahatma Gandhi and Margaret Mead, drought, and the Melbourne Cup. She died in Sydney on 29 May 1991

 

Visit for More Details visit Flickr: Margaret Barr’s Strange Children

In a Gentle Way Shake the World

June Perkins ©

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.”
–Mahatma Gandhi

I matched this quote and image, because the gentle art of henna, can be a way for people to spend time together to build friendship and community. We had a henna workshop recently, which uplifted all who attended. Whilst we learnt to apply the henna we talked about traveling and feeling connected to the world. There were many nationalities, experiences, cultures and spiritual backgrounds in our gathering, and in our diversity we also felt oneness and unity.

 

This month’s contribution to Nineteen Months, for more visit NINETEEN MONTHS