Onkaparinga: aka The Night the Bus Driver Turned Down his Radio to Listen to our Sing-along

It is said that change is the spice of life. Flinders Speakeasy has a standard and successful formula of two events on campus, and two off campus. Thrown into this mix was a new endeavour undertaken by the Speakeasy team as the club hosted an additional event off-campus in November last year. Held at the Onkaparinga Arts Centre in Port Noarlunga, the event offered a new venue, and a new atmosphere. Readers were able to showcase their writing talents not only to other Flinders students, but also to some of the locals who showed up. The locals were not just observers at the Speakeasy, as a reader was even included from their number.

     This event was one to test out the skills of the Speakeasy team in new and unique ways as the club branched out to attempt something new. It took the club out to a new place and showcased the skilled Flinders writers in a foreign environment – what would have been less obvious is that the smooth running of the event was testament to a successful team operating a well-oiled machine. The only problem that occurred throughout was the late arrival of the pizzas. Missing pizzas are certainly the sort of thing to haunt many people’s nightmares, but a follow-up call later and everyone was enjoying their pizza. There are just some things you can’t prepare for.

     The readers showed as broad a scope of works as ever with nearly every form of prose present and a good helping of poetry to go with it. The latest Speakeasy zine was on show at the door, looking stunningly designed in its eclectic style. (I picked up a sepia-toned one that looks a beautiful Tolkienesque map, but there are also more colourful options).

     The people at the Onkaparinga Arts Centre provided a great space, well set up for the readings. A bus was provided to take everyone from the university down to Port Noarlunga, and then return. The bus trip leant a convivial air to the already inviting event. The event itself was such a supportive one that even the most anxious of people would be sure to feel at least a little warmed to the idea of speaking. It is this good-natured camaraderie that has seen the club manage to achieve the successes it has.

     This new undertaking offered the club the chance to show off the talents of the undergraduate Flinders students in a brand new way. Whether there will be more events of this sort remains to be seen, but one can only hope there will be other new and original things in the new year of Speakeasy. The club’s horizons were pushed out a little further with this event to thorough success so hopefully there will be many more opportunities of this sort in the future.

Words by Liam McNally

Speakeasy at the Wheaty: aka The Night Riana's Mother Turned Up for Twenty Minutes and Won the Raffle

Mid-November of last year saw our wonderful Speakeasy family flock in waves of goodwill and excitement to our favourite backyard in Adelaide—the outside area at the Wheatsheaf Hotel. Our second public event of 2015 was set to be an absolute cracker, with an array of our favourite speakers set to return, as well as a few undergraduates more than ready to pop their Wheatsheaf cherry.

We had Riana Kinlough’s famously funny prose, which flowed seamlessly into Kayla Gaskell’s masterful excerpt from a larger body of work. Cameron Lowe did not disappoint for lovers of horror, whilst Lise Van Konkelenberg bared her soul in an exceptionally brave performance.

Our first break saw the long-awaited presence of pizza and the chance to buy a copy of our fresh-off-the-presses zine, which was in colour for the very first time—and in two styles of colours at that! As always, thanks must go to our marvellous and very hard-working Zine Team for giving up their time to edit, contribute, craft and print our zine into colourful being.

Our lovable regular Richard Falkner kicked off the second set with an exciting foray into the second-person technique; Taeghan Buggy’s poetry was as stunning as ever, and Amelia Hughes wowed us in her first Wheatsheaf performance! Sean Stockham proved himself a worthy Speakeasy veteran, closing off the set with his famously calm and chilling on-stage demeanour.

Ordinarily, this would be the end of our night—but this was no ordinary event. Our fearless retiring Director Lauren Butterworth then took the stage as our Very Special Guest, treating us all to a slice of her PhD novel in what was, oddly enough, only her second Speakeasy performance as a reader.

As Lauren’s applause at last died down, there was only the raffle to go, after which, with a bundle of fond new memories and a handful of inspiration for new creations, we scattered into the night towards our beds.

A gigantic thank you to everyone who read, listened, zined and helped out in any way—and a very special thanks to our MC CJ McLean who entertained us all from start to finish. Our readers are growing more electrifying, our zines are growing more impressive, our pizza orders are growing more expensive, and our little club is growing the fastest of the lot—who knows the talent and fun that 2016 has in store!

Words by Jess Miller