Amazing! Filled our hearts full of goodness and hope! Spoken word combined with music and the depth of the soul. Sounds very hippy but it felt like an invite to a private intellectual society gone punk with a touch of burlesque. My fav review from my attending friend, "I love boobs; words and boobs."When I shared my short review with another friend, she exclaimed, "Best review ever." So I thought it was worthy of a wider audience. Plus, how often in life can you say that an event has filled your heart so full?! It’s a lucky moment and one that should most definitely be celebrated.
I first saw Candy Royalle at a spoken word event earlier in the year which was held at a local pub in Glebe, Friend in Hand. She was hosting a poetry night and I was in need of a life injection. Quickly the night shed more than light into a world of inspiration and titillating existence that I thought died in storybooks from the Renaissance era or the Age of Enlightenment.
Frida People was birthed out of a combination of Candy Royalle’s words and Sloppy Joe’s funk. The result is moving, exciting and naked! Literally naked as they were joined on stage by Emma Maye Gibson (aka Betty Grumble) – an energetic punk, sometimes dramatic, but always fun dancing queen.
From the start of the night with guest poets sharing a few of their writings, I was deeply moved. True stories from the heart of a girl’s struggles as she watches her immigrant grandfather toil in life to lists of love unrequited to historical references of hate, racism and religion – each told honestly and from spaces deep within.
Then Frida People honoured the stage and the night escalated to open minds and hearts to life combined in a room of strangers. When I last saw Royalle she had dreads down her back with shaved sides but this time, she was bald with a crown of horns. She even joked halfway through the show when she asked the audience if her eyebrows were bleeding down her face (as they were painted on). Royalle had to end her touring earlier in the year after getting diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She has gone through treatment and is in recovery now. I can only wish this extraordinary woman the very best as she’s a light in the world that shouldn’t be dimmed.
With a trumpeter, grand piano, drums, bass and Royalle’s rhythmic words of the impermanence of life, challenging the norm, and bringing people together through performance – ultimate success was achieved. Royalle thanked the audience for giving her the energy to feed off and lift herself to perform. It is clearly us who need to thank her!
I walked home as the third night of thunderstorms and lightening crashed down on Sydney but it felt like life announcing itself with a fierce and powerful exclamation. I heard it and was happy for doing so.
So this show is over and maybe you won't get to see Royalle on your side of the world but the takeaway here is "words" - check out a poetry reading in your town or jot a note to your partner and leave it on their pillow to see their reaction.Words are meaningful. My mum used to write me notes on my napkin in my lunch bag. Totally embarrassed me but secretly I loved it! The little things do make a difference.
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