The Brisbane scene today is vastly different to the one I entered almost ten years ago. I attended my first poetry event at the end of 1999, looking for something fresh and exciting, a change from the band scene that I had been part of since the early 1990's. I had long been into spoken word - artists like Burroughs, Laurie Anderson, Steve Kilbey and Patricia Smith - and I was interested to see if there was anyone playing with soundscape and pushing poetic boundaries on the local scene. I went away from the event feeling both satisfaction and discontent. Satisfied that there were events and opportunities out there and some incredibly innovative artists, but I wanted more… something raw, something with sustained energy.

In 2000, I teamed up with another local poet, Rowan Donovan and together we started performing at Open Mic events, incorporating song, drama, costumes and cut-up techniques into our performances. The response was positive and by the end of the year we had developed a complete show and had featured at a couple of events. In 2001 we were invited to perform at the Queensland Poetry Festival and it was here that we met the nucleus of what would become SpeedPoets - Fakie Wilde, Stefanie Petrik, Brentley Frazer and Robert Lort. There was an immediate electricity between us and a unified desire to take the poetry scene by its ankles and give it a damn good shake. Emails and phone numbers were exchanged and before the end of the year, we got together on Fakie's verandah, each of us armed with poetry and the thrill of something new. That night it was agreed that we would put on a live event that combined the best elements of the live music scene and poetry scene, an event that was inclusive, an event that created the sense of community we all craved, a community where all poets were welcome and encouraged to push the boundaries of their own work, to constantly question their voice, an event where no one person stood in the spotlight for more than two minutes, an event driven by spontaneity - hearing a piece of music and going with it, and we would call it SpeedPoets.

What we needed now was a venue and we found our first home upstairs at Belushi's, a café/bar on the corner of Fortitude Valley's (in)famous Brunswick St. Mall. Like most first gigs, ours was fairly underwhelming, performing to an enthusiastic crowd of 10 including girlfriends and family, but the spark was spreading and by the end of 2002 we moved downstairs, started releasing a monthly magazine showcasing the poets who were coming along to the event and had developed a rotating core of artists and a reputation for putting on events that were raw and unpredictable. The magic was working.

Belushi's remained our home until the end of 2003, when the event outgrew the tiny basement where we had gathered to sweat, talk and read poetry. In 2004 we moved across the mall to a larger venue, The Royal George Hotel. SpeedPoets was evolving. The format changed to incorporate feature sets from local and touring artists and longer open mic sessions. Many of the core group that had driven the event from its inception had come and gone but the passion for the event was stronger than ever. The Royal George saw some of our best gigs ever, but with the installation of pokies and large screen TV's that screened an endless stream of sport, we found the energy failing toward the end of 2005 and in need of a new home.

The Alibi Room came to the rescue and it was like we had come full circle. It was 2006, four years after we had established the event and here we were, back below the stairs in a tiny basement, eager to create a spark and a stir and put on some of the best poetry readings this city had ever seen. The format evolved again. There were now two distinct open mic sets - one backed by live music and one without, two feature artists each month - one poet and one musician and the magazine had taken on an international focus, featuring poets from all over the world. SpeedPoets had moved beyond its second coming and was embracing its third.

In 2008 we are now in our third year at the Alibi Room and our seventh year as an event. The event is now part of the cultural landscape that makes up Brisbane's vibrant poetry scene. Alongside events such as Contraverse, Kurilpa Poets, No Frontiers and ouTsideRs, SpeedPoets showcases the best local and touring talent and continues to provide a much needed sense of community. Today, unlike the Brisbane of the late 1990's, it is not unusual to read about poetry in the major papers and street press and to have new poetry events pop up regularly. SpeedPoets has been at the forefront of paving the way for this growth in the poetry scene.

Seven years on, SpeedPoets has maintained its sense of urgency and spontaneity and unique blend of live music and poetry/spoken word. The raw passion that started it all still burns in the gut of everyone involved. I look forward to seeing how the event will evolve over the next few years and continue to promote poetry as a vital and exciting artform in Brisbane and beyond.

	Graham Nunn Graham Nunn was the organiser of the New and Selected Readings in 2001 and co-founded legendary Brisbane spoken word event SpeedPoets in 2002. In 2003, his first collection of haiku, A Zen Firecracker was published. This publication was well received by the critics and as a result Nunn was invited to run a series of workshops on the art of haiku at the inaugural Bali Readers and Writers Festival in Ubud (2004) and The Byron Bay Writers Festival (2005). In 2004, he was invited to become Artistic Director of The Queensland Poetry Festival: spoken in one strange word. In the same year he released his first full-length collection of poetry Share the Tragedy. 2005 saw the release of two new collections, an experimental chapbook co-written with Mandy Beaumont To the one who comes at dawn and Measuring the Depth a collection of haibun and haiku. 2007 was another busy year, with Nunn founding Small Change Press and releasing his fifth book Ruined Man (Small Change Press). Nunn's poetry is taut and concise. His work has been described as assured, achieved and ambitious.
	Rowan Donovan Beautiful and Organic. I have never heard a more charming sound than Mr. Donovan describing his passion for living. His commitment to his soul is the architecture in his words
	Brentley Frazer Methodical and Damning. His approach has been likened to WS Burroughs and his campaigns include a vast history of texts both published and non. His is editor and lord at Retort Magazine.
	Fakie Wild Fakie Wilde, aka "Lord Fakington De'Vilde," aka "The Godfather" ( Also writes under a slew of other alias's.) A writer of poetry and various other forms of text. Dubbed as a Psycho-Dellic or Post-Futurist, his writing is as slippery to define as current gender trends. Renowned for his "irresponsible" approach to monotonous formality. One of the loudest and most definitive performers in Australia has recently reverted to include sensitivity and reservation to his dynamic approach. Previously, he wrote "POX" (poetry) in 1999. His new book "XONNOX" (a prose novel) is available as of early January 2004. His current tinkerings are vast and include his new book "Love like Blood", as well as an ongoing autobiographical poem called "King Ton" and a Nasty Suburban masterwork co-written with Brentley Frazer called "Brilliant Future" (the first story is close to publication in a delightful mini-book...-so stay tuned!), as well as something special that he and Graham Nunn and he are doing. Something to do with pirates... Constantly in and out of studios with a horde of different musicians, he is in the process of producing a precious documentary called "MAJESTY" based on Brisbane poets whom he considers to be important. This film will win awards and be a "beautiful new foundation..." There is also his solo acoustic project "Blue Star Airlines", as well as recording uncountable mixes and remixes of various scripts over drum 'n bass music mixed by DJ Pharmakon. In addition to this he turns up all over the place with various other musicians and projects of many mediums. His Current underlying theme is "Throw it all out on the road and see what happens..." Why not ask him about it, if you see him and buy him a beer(Newcastle Brown Ale is best). In a couple of years Fakie plans to retire to the Victorian countryside and write a conventional novel based on rural life.
	Stefanie Petrik Stefanie Petrik has been imagining things since first opening her eyes. Ever since that point, she has been experimenting with ways to prove her existence, the most recent and relevant - writing and film-making. Her textual experiments may or may not explain why the world has gone insane.
	Robert Lort Grotesque and heinously dark, writing with an inconceivable vitality that draws from the darkest and creepiest corners of a debauched human psyche. With multilingual skills, he has worked across theoretical, fictional and poetic realms, inspired by everything from Surrealism to Deleuze & Guattari to avant-garde music and film. Robert Lort maintains the Azimute website Azimute and is an occasional art critic for RealTime. The SpeedPoets website is maintained by Robert Lort.