Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street – The Second Edition celebrates half a century of the longest-running poetry collective in the Southern Hemisphere. Friendly Street’s first meeting was held on the evening of November 11th 1975, the date of the Whitlam Government’s sacking. A group of poets led by Ian Reid, Andrew Taylor and Richard Tipping met in Gordon Choon’s old fireworks factory in Adelaide. Ever since, poets have met monthly to share their poetry at the open mic and to submit poems for the annual Friendly Street anthology. With the ‘first nighters’ on that politically-terrible night, and as long as he lived, was the Chief Justice of South Australia, Dr John Bray, a classical poet mentored by Professor Charles Jury.
Edited by Erica Jolly and Jude Aquilina, published by Friendly Street Poets in 2026, Chronicle was to be launched at the fated 2026 Adelaide Writers’ Week, which was cancelled. Instead, Chronicle was launched at ‘Constellations’, the substitute writers’ festival. Funding from Creative SA enabled the publication of the first edition that could not be sold commercially. Therefore, ‘The Second Edition’ with colour, more poetry, plus articles and photographs from the 50th birthday celebrations, was published and is now available for sale.
The Prologue in Chronicle is by Professor Jeri Kroll, one of Friendly Street’s early and on-going supporters from Flinders University; and the book contains articles, vignettes and poems about Friendly Street by over 50 contributors. The boozy, smoky 1970s meetings were legendary and have been captured in many photos and memoir pieces. Articles also convey the arts and literary scene in the ‘60s, ‘70s and beyond. Many reviews, newspaper and journal articles are also included, documenting Friendly Street’s rich, colourful and sometimes controversial history, such as when Friendly Street Reader No. 12 was banned due to its cover image and was subsequently sold with a brown paper wrapping!
During Friendly Street Poets’ 50-year lifespan, over 100 poetry books have been published, including the annual readers, and collections of poetry by single poets, providing the springboard to many well-known writers’ literary careers. Chronicle’s index contains the names of every poet who has ever been published in a Friendly Street anthology, as well as some of the best poems published over the years.
To purchase your copy of Chronicle – The First Fifty Years of Friendly Street – The Second Edition:
Either come along to the regular city meetings of FSP at the Box Factory, 59 Regent Street South, Adelaide, on the first Friday of each month from 6pm, where Chronicle is for sale at $50.
Or contact Jude Aquilina – jude_poet[at]yahoo[dot]com[dot]au – to arrange payment and postage ($65).