Events

Getting out and about with Friendly Street Poets

In case you missed it – or if you would like to see it again: The FSP 50th Anniversary Poetry Love In on video.

As part of the FSP 50th Anniversary celebrations, The Poetry Love In was held at the Box Factory on 7th November 2025. It was a big night with an all-star line up of FSP poets on the microphone. If you missed it, or of you were there and would like to re-live the experience, click on the link below to see a video of the night, thanks to Jude Aquilina.

click here to watch the video on YouTube

Jude is also putting together a video of the Anniversary Dinner so if you have photos from the night she could use, send them to her at: jude_poet[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – October 2025 – Kathryn von Bergen

The Poem of the Month for October 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is Penguin Blood by Kathryn von Bergen. The commended poems are Mathematician’s Oath to the Infinite by Claudia Raddatz, Half Light by Fred Willet and Pebble Hunt at Aldinga Beach by Martha Landman.

Penguin Blood
Kathryn von Bergen

Now
late in my life,
a discovery
resonant with wonder,
recalibrating my sense of self:

1940 –
University of Adelaide
Kerr, Pfeiffer, Dutton, Harris
poets avant-garde
birthing Angry Penguins
from ashes of Phoenix –
the journal, a movement
in those heady days
of Modernism.… Click for more

FSP December City Meeting – Launch of Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street and Open Mic

Friday, 5th December, 2025
Doors open at 6:00pm for 6:15pm start

The Box Factory
59 Regent St, Adelaide, SA 5000

To celebrate the first 50 years of FSP, we are launching:
Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street

This is an important history of one of the South Australia’s cultural landmarks (us). Supported by a grant from CreateSA, we can sell it to members for $5.00 (one copy each). Each of our 50 contributors will be acknowledged with the presentation of a free copy of this special publication.

A more elaborate second edition with colour and updates about the Love In and other FSP 50th Anniversary events will come out in the new year.… Click for more

Poem of the Month – September 2025 – Elaine Barker

The Poem of the Month for September 2025, selected by 2025 Anthology editors Val Braendler and Ben Adams, is Installation in Cast Iron by Elaine Barker. The commended poems are Performance by Veronica Cookson, Food Writer by Leon Ferrante and Between the River and the Sea by Alan Branford.

Installation in Cast Iron
Elaine Barker

Jonnie Dady Standing Work, no.3, 2008

It’s unsettling to see you planted here
free standing, perhaps abandoned,
your three legs lanky and rising
roughcast, surrounded by low bushes,
a grassy plot, a jacaranda grove.

It’s a quiet spot with music floating down
from the Conservatorium close by –
Constantin Shamray perhaps, rehearsing
Rachmaninov for the concert tonight.… Click for more

Poetry Laboratory – poetry forms

Tuesday 21 October 2025
7:15pm – 10:15pm

Brookside Cellars Community Arts Centre
17 Moore Street, Tranmere (off Glynburn Road)

$5, cash only
Refreshments provided

An evening when great poetry and great poets are put under the microscope. Come along and be entertained, informed and even make your own poetic contribution.

Hosted by Bruce Greenhalgh, this session examines different forms in poetry with Maeve Archibald (haiku), Maria Koukouvas (sonnets) and Bruce Greenhalgh (villanelles).

Click here of the Facebook event.

Schedule of FSP 50th Anniversary events

2025 marks 50 years of operation of Friendly Street Poets. To celebrate this momentous milestone, we will be hosting a series of special events, summarised below. Put them in your calendar and keep an eye out for more details of specific events closer to the time. Everyone is welcome, but some events require pre-booking.

Sunday 26th October 2025
Launch of the New Poets 26 and Single Poet 2025 books.
Effective Living Centre, 26 King William Road, Wayville.
Doors open at 2.00pm for a 2.30pm start.
Click here for the Facebook event and more information.

Friday 7th November 2025
The Poetry Love In
Box Factory, Regent Street South, Adelaide.… Click for more

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