Tag: community

Library Journal on Play For Grown-Ups: Dark Night Burlesque at Auckland Libraries

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Dark Night at Auckland Libraries
Image by Dylan Horrocks

Over in the US, Library Journal has just published my piece on last year’s Dark Night burlesque season at Auckland Libraries in New Zealand.

The festival for over-18s aimed to “question, celebrate, and challenge sex and sexuality on page, stage, and screen” – and it led to exciting new projects such as this year’s award-winning XXUnmasked media literacy event.

You can read more about Dark Night in my original post from 2013 and there’s a few words on the season from American library maven Heather McCormack over at her blog, too.

Ephemeral words can mean so much: Alison Miles on coffee cup literature

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As part of my Researcher in Residence project, coffee cups in the cafes of Parkes, New South Wales have been printed with stories and poems written by local writers.

Parkes Library Coffee Cups

Queensland librarian Alison Miles wrote about our cup project, and the wider trend of “locative literature”, for her website reading360. Go read her blog post on the power of ephemeral words!

Guest post: XXUnmasked at Auckland Libraries

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I’m pleased to announce that Auckland Libraries’ XXUnmasked media literacy project for teenage girls has just won an award for community outreach. This week on the blog, Tracy Dawson of Parkes High School Library in Australia reports on the project led by Ali Coomber of Auckland Libraries and Dr Pani Farvid of Auckland University of Technology.

XXUnmasked – double the power, not the standards!

Something that always amazes me is when young girls say “I’m not a feminist.” When any woman says it, actually. I remember several years ago, in my previous guise as an English teacher, talking to a group of top senior English students studying what was then called 3 Unit English in New South Wales. We were discussing the brilliant Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, and despite that horrific and unsettling story of the loss of female identity, voice, independence, none could see the value of feminism.

Now when feminism is often seen as a dirty word at the same time that all-pervading media images of women are more blatantly misogynistic than ever, how do we help our young women avoid being active participants, let alone passive observers, in their own diminution? Read more →

Easter holidays!

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It’s holiday time for me…As I pack up my bags in Parkes, New South Wales, I’m almost at the end of my stint in the southern hemisphere. Last week, Robert Virtue of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation profiled me and my work in a short report on radio and online.

I’ve got a couple of new projects in the pipeline, but for now I wish you all a happy Easter.

I’m back on the road. See you after the break!

Parkes Radio Telescope - "The Dish"
Parkes Radio Telescope – “The Dish”

Book publishing workshops for your library

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Last year, Parkes Shire ran a series of one-day publishing workshops for local teens. Our local libraries, high school, and TAFE joined forces to offer teens a game-based look at the business of selling books. This write-up lets you see what we did and run your own version.

Why publishing workshops?

Publishing is changing fast in the 21st century and people aren’t always clued in on how writers get their words out to readers. We wanted local teens to think about the business side of publication. What are the challenges of acquiring books for sale? How do publishers market their choices to the public in an age of social media? We wanted our event to be locally devised but relevant to the global publishing industry.

What did we do?

Read more →

EXIT: Screenwriter and critic Martyn Pedler visits Parkes Shire

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EXIT (2011) movie poster

“Growing numbers of men and women believe that this city is a maze. They are leaving their jobs, their families, their entire lives behind. Every day, they walk the streets, opening doors. They are searching for a door they are convinced has been lost for thousands of years: the exit. What’s behind it? Something else. Something new. Using a strange system of maps, symbols and measurements, one believer — Alice — now thinks she has found it.”

Hot on the heels of the successful Central West Comics Fest last weekend, I’m pleased to announce that award-winning Melbournian writer Martyn Pedler will be visiting Parkes Shire on Tuesday 25th February for a one-day event kicking off a series of gaming and storytelling activities which interrogate the boundaries between fantasy and reality.

Martyn will work with students at Parkes High School, before appearing at a Q&A discussion and screening of his 2011 movie EXIT at Parkes Shire’s Coventry Room at 6.30pm.

For more details, contact Parkes Shire Library on 02 6861 2309 or at library@parkes.nsw.gov.au

VALA Remixed: Ten Magic Words for Australasian Libraries and their Friends, 2014-2016

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Last week I gave a keynote at VALA in Melbourne. It’s a biennial conference for people who work in galleries, museums, and libraries. The text below builds on key ideas from my speech – you can see a full video at the VALA website.

TARDIS on the Powell Estate, graffiti;ed
Think of the public library as the TARDIS on your streetcorner…a local gateway to human knowledge and dreams

Read more →

Radio, radio: Australian Broadcasting Corporation coverage of Central West Comics Fest

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The final preparations are being made for the first Central West Comics Fest this weekend, bringing together retailers, comics creators, and fans from across New South Wales to celebrate the art of graphic storytelling.

You can hear an interview with me and Parkes branch librarian Tracie Mauro on the ABC website by clicking on this link (mp3 audio). You can also read more about the festival on the ABC website.

If you live in the Central West and love comics, we look forward to seeing you on Saturday!

Information for the 2014 Central West Comics Fest

Central West Comics Fest, VALA, Parkes Writers’ Group, Sci-Fi and Squeam

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Aaaand we’re……back from the long summer holidays in the sweltering Aussie heat! And straight into the whirlwind of adventure.

Saturday, February 15th 2014 is a historic date for comics fans of all ages from across the Central West region of New South Wales – marking the first comics festival for this part of rural Australia.

Australian comics creator Pat Grant, author of the acclaimed meditation on youth, migration, and coastal identity Blue, will be offering workshops to adults and older teens alongside Marcelo Baez, who has drawn for everyone from Marvel to Microsoft, National Geographic to GQ Magazine, and will be schooling us in the ways of comic-book storytelling. In addition, the lovely folk at Sydney’s Kings Comics are venturing out of the CBD to offer their wares to people from across the region – a chance to peruse and purchase the latest comics, merch, and memorabilia without making the epic voyage all the way to Sydney.

More information can be found on the Central West Comics Fest poster:

Information for the 2014 Central West Comics Fest

In related news, I was recently interviewed for Melbournian radio station Joy FM’s Sci-Fi and Squeam podcast, talking about pop culture, libraries, and, inevitably, zombies, with the smart and suave Emmet O’Cuana – you can find my segment on their podcast, from 26:50 on the Joy FM website.

There were also some kind words for Parkes Writers’ Group from 2013 Banjo Patterson Poetry Award winner Jim Cassidy (although I’m not sure how I feel about being compared to Andrew Flintoff!) – you can read them at the Parkes Champion Post website here and see the kind of strange, all-ages, continent-hopping, Barbra Streisand-themed activities we get up to at the group here.

Finally, next week sees my keynote speech to the biennial Australasian culture-and-technology conference VALA – expect Doctor Who references, current affairs, the history of librarianship, and musings on hipsterity alongside the usual celebration and championing of public libraries.

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Zombie column, technology keynote, festive wonder

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It has just been announced that I’ll be one of six keynote speakers at VALA 2014, the biennial technology conference for culture professionals in Australasia – you can see more about the event, which runs 3-7 February, on the VALA website.

My paper’s called ‘The Book of the World: Pushing Boundaries in Culture and Outreach”, and the organisers have assigned me to the conference’s publishing strand – so I expect they chose me on the basis of the recent debate about e-books, centralisation, and public libraries in Australia.

You can get a flavour of my views on technology and libraries in the latest edition of the American journal Reference and User Services Quarterly (RUSQ). My guest column, “Less Like A Lesson, and More Like An Adventure”, was written earlier this year and describes the vision behind our original 2012 zombie roleplay in the Australian town of Tullamore. Thanks to the wonders of open access, you can read a proof copy of the article for free here. You can also find the finished piece online at the RUSQ site. (To see how the zombie game developed in 2013, check out this coverage from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

2013 has been an incredible – and incredibly busy – year for me, ranging from Foyles’ Future of the Book consultation in London to work at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in Manila, via library burlesque in Auckland, live-action gaming in rural Australia, and interactive storytelling at the New South Wales Writers’ Centre. I’m looking forward to the coming year, but now’s a time for rest, remembrance, and celebration.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year; see you in 2014,

Matt