Speakeasy Back on Campus

A crowd gathers on the lawns of the Humanities Courtyard, trailing a string of colourful bunting. They bundle together, grinning and squinting into the setting sun as Speakeasy Co-director, Lauren Butterworth, readies her camera. Students, teachers, friends – a community of creative writing enthusiasts at Flinders University. A click. A flash. Just one moment of delight from one delightful evening.

But wait, let me set the scene. It’s Friday April 10, the last day of classes before the mid-semester break, and somewhere on campus excitement is brewing. Speakeasy is back at Flinders for the first event of 2015.

 It’s 2pm and, as the first few people trickle through the door, one thing is obvious: the Humanities 101 tutorial room has been transformed. Chairs have been pushed to the back of the room and the floor is covered in an eclectic myriad of blankets, cushions and bean bags; the whiteboard is now a wall of Speakeasy history, covered in the posters of past events; multi-coloured fairy lights are strung above, not-at-all-precariously kept in place with gratuitous sticky-tape; and, off to the side, people are already congregating around a table of food and drinks. Speakeasy is here.

Sean Stockham opens the event with some emotional whiplash that characterised the sheer diversity of the afternoon—beginning with his self-described ‘depressing’ piece of creative non-fiction that mused on death and grief in humans and dogs, and then moving to a tongue-in-cheek sestina about Die Hard. Three first-time speakers follow: Richard Falkner dips into history, exploring his uncle’s experience at Gallipoli, Taeghan Buggy’s poetry gives the audience some vivid imagery to soak in, and Jordan Early’s humorous narration rouses many a laugh during a piece of contemporary fiction that deals with serious themes of body image and self-worth. Susan Double’s usual blend of science and creativity rounds off the first set with a rich and descriptive non-fiction piece about the life cycle of salmon. As congratulations are given and snacks are retrieved, the quality and variety of work from speakers both new and old is already making an impact.

                                                     

Simone Corletto opens the second set with a vibrant sci-fi romp that touches on speculative explorations of sex and gender. Kayla Gaskell follows with rich characterisation in her short fiction piece ‘The Americans’, and Carina Pearce’s short story elicits several shocked laughs with its combination of humorous character voices and graphic violence. Jess Miller closes the set with a combination of the familiar and the surreal in her short story, ‘Capello’, which brings a touch of the apocalyptic to a fictional AFL match.

                                       

                                         

CJ McLean begins the third and final set by transporting the audience to Oxford, England, with a reflective exploration of the ups and downs of a relationship. Lise Van Konkelenberg embodies characters, with expert use of accents and dialect, in what was not so much a reading as a performance, and Jason Smith follows with emotional and passionate performances of his slam poetry. Justina Ashman concludes the afternoon’s readings with a humorous short piece about haunted apartments and the trials of dealing with modern day ghosts.

                                          

                                        

The readings are followed with the customary door-prize raffle of books, books and more books, and the exciting announcement of the resurrection of the Speakeasy Zine. Thanks are given to the Speakeasy Committee, the two Co-directors Lauren Butterworth and Alicia Carter, and of course to the talented and diverse group of readers who shared their work.

After the last word has been spoken, the fun carries on as people chat animatedly about the readings and about writing in general. It becomes abundantly clear that the cosy atmosphere of Speakeasy is not due to the lights or the posters or the blankets—it’s the people. Speakeasy is a community characterised by creativity, openness, and enthusiasm for reading and writing.

And that brings us back to where we started. In the blinding light of the setting sun, a group of writers, listeners, readers and thinkers brought together by free food and a shared passion for creativity and literature, staring into the lens of a camera. A click. A flash. An afternoon of thousands of words distilled into a single photograph.

Words by Justina Ashman