#17: On The Future
I’ve made a big deal these past few weeks about leaving.
There was a newsletter on it. There was a farewell poetry event. Right now, I’m in a Canberra hotel room on my little ‘farewell tour’ seeing friends and family before I go. And during this process, a few people have asked: what’s next for The Braddyton?
For those who don’t know, The Braddyton is a literary community my housemates and I created in Moorooka, unofficially renaming our house and hosting events in it. As the events grew, we moved some into the Woolloongabba venue Can You Keep A Secret? and online on our Discord server.
We started hosting events because we felt Meanjin had lost some of its vital creative spaces in the past few years. This project was aimed at inspiring creators to continue sharing their work while giving organisers time to regroup after some heavy venue losses. And it worked. For those already attending poetry events and looking for more, SpeakEasy Poetry is returning at Echo & Bounce. We are so, so proud.
The truth is, we don’t know if we will continue The Braddyton’s in-person events after the move. We’re moving to a small town in New South Wales. Its creatives will likely have vastly different needs to those in Meanjin. In my opinion, the saddest and stupidest thing we could do would be to copy and paste this project in a different place. We would be neglecting local artists’ actual problems by serving our own egos. The Braddyton was made to help, so we need some time to figure out how best we can do that anew. That means we will take a break from running in-person events for a while.
However, I previously mentioned our Discord server. This was initially set up to facilitate a month-long writing sprint in November last year. Since some writers found it helpful then, we want to revive it for something more permanent.
Beginning the 1st of March, I will be hosting weekly two-hour-long writing sessions on the server from 7-9pm AEDT (6-8pm AEST). That’s every Saturday evening. Feel free to join as much or little as you like – just drop in for one if that suits you best. We also have a text channel for feedback if you’re not free at the allotted time but still want to share.
I’ve made a big deal about leaving, but I promise to haunt you. And if you still think of this as another loss, I dare you to do something even better.
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