3 Poets.
1 Musician.
4 grazing platters.
Many Conversations.
Café Philosophique was born out of a conversation between sisters Jess and Kaarin Fairfax. They wanted to create a space where diverse members of the community could come together in conversation, to share food and question the parts of our lives we often take for granted or struggle to understand. It follows the model of the Philosophy Cafe, founded in France in the early 90s.
To help the conversations come alive, the night begins with short performances from poets and musicians, that aim to inspire thought and new ways of seeing the seemingly obvious. Next come the grazing platters and we break out into small groups to delve deeper into the topic.
Having run since 2018, previous seasons have explored the themes of love, family, death, and grief. It’s been educational and enlightening.
In 2024, Café Philosophique will be presented by the Werribee River Association. Over four nights in February, we will explore what we must overcome to push against the powers, hindering our transition to a more sustainable and just future.
THE PROGRAM:
Thursday night is our final Café Philosophique de la Révolution and we are conquering Apathy! We'll begin the evening with spoken word/poetry performances from Nomad, Manisha Anjali and Tumi and music from Senegambian Kora player Amadou Suso. We'll then get the conversation flowing with cheese and crackers to share experiences, tips and tools. Link to book in comments.
Meet the poets:
NOMAD
Damon Paraha (A.K.A. Nomad) is an APRA award-winning, rapper/poet of Maori & Samoan descent. Based in the West, Nomad is a co-founder of independent Record Label The Movement Recording Company, a father of two, and the second oldest of six talented siblings. Nomad, can be found at various Melbourne venues heating up the stage and more often then not more often than not, you can find Nomad in the community facilitating youth programs.
TUMI THE BE
Tumi is a Motswana poet and rapper who began his creative journey as a teenager, after seeing his first rap cipher. Captivated by the sound syncopated speech over a fat beat, he wrestled a pen to an empty page and turned churning thoughts to rhyming verse. Tumi's style is a vibrant blend of poetry and rap, which he uses to share abstract ideas, as well as real life experiences.
MANISHA ANJALI
Manisha Anjali was born in Suva, Fiji. She is a writer and artist. Manisha is the founder of Neptune, a research and documentation platform for dreams, visions and hallucinations. She has been a Hot Desk Fellow at The Wheeler Centre, a Writer in Residence at the Incendium Radical Library and an Artist-in-Residence at BLINDSIDE’s Mooramong residency. Manisha is one half of Whelk, a sonic collaboration with multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Genevieve Fry
ACCESSIBILITY INFO: Wheelchair Accessible