Assorted Sporks is a  free, queer friendly regular poetry and performance night at Mamma Chen's on Thursday February 26th

Featuring; Rosie Shute

Theme: Alive Writing

Imagine: your writing is… alive. The space between each word a set of staggered breaths, the ink we use to write a pair of tired lungs. Each line of language a neck crooked and folding through a window. A poem moving about inside a page, tasted in our gums or heard as ancient thrum. What if every story was as afraid of dying as the people that attempt to write them? What if all our essays gathered in abandoned union halls to plot collective revolution against our answers because all they ever really wanted is for us to listen to their questions? What if the best stanza you’ve ever written would rather be a ballerina, a garbage truck driver or a child sleeping on their parent’s shoulder? And, what if, right now, as you read this, the thing inside you that you’re writing is alive and dreaming, sat beside a desk just like yours, writing you?

Themes are not mandatory, they are just to encourage you to experiment with your writing and improvisation. Feel free to make it weird.

Rosie Shute is a spoken word performer, creative event organiser, poet, experimental lyric essayist, prose writer, visual artist and creative writing honours student at the University of Melbourne reframing academia as what trans and neurodivergent people practice every day in order to make sense of being alive. Also, they think the ingredients at the back of cereal packets is a poem.

7:00 pm for a 7:30 pm start, sign up will be available on the night.

5 minute limit.

Perform your poetry, creative writing or performance art on the open mic to a friendly audience or come and be part of the crowd.

Hosted by Loran Steinberg (they/them) Music by George O'Hara (he/they).

To keep this event a safe space for everyone, there will be no hate speech or your mic will be turned off and you may be asked to leave the stage.

In 2026 Assorted Sporks alternates every two weeks on Thursdays with Musical Sporks. So dates are:

26 FEB / 26 MAR / 23 APR / 21 MAY / 18 JUN / 16 JUL / 13 AUG / 10 SEP / 8 OCT / 5 NOV / 3 DEC

COST: Free but you can support the event with bonus benefits at https://www.patreon.com/AssortedSporksPoetryandPerformance

ACCESSIBILITY: Wheelchair accessible venue. Stage is not wheelchair accessible but microphone can be handed down. Toilets are wheelchair accessible.

Full statement of venue accessibility here: https://mammachens.com.au/access/