https://events.humanitix.com/host/speakeasy-poetry, https://linktr.ee/speakeasypoetry, https://substack.com/@speakeasypo

SpeakEasy Poetry, 596 Stanley St, Woolloongabba (2026)

27/08/2026

Workshop 13.09

"Sensory Performance" | Workshop with Katie Lohner (Naarm) | SpeakEasy Poetry | echo&bounce

Come delight the senses, finesse your performance & share in the magic of writing ekphrastic poetry with curious creator Katie Lohner, visiting us interstate from Naarm.

When: Sunday 13th September from 2pm-3:30pm
Where: Upstairs Studio at echo & bounce
Facilitator: Katie Lohner (Naarm) Katie Lohner
Format: Single 90min Workshop

Meeting in the early afternoon on Sunday the 13th of September, you are invited to join us on a deliciously sensory journey through two different performance characters crafted by the magnificent Katie Lohner, visiting us from Naarm for a special feature one-off workshop.

The echo&bounce cafe is open during the day, so you are welcome to come along early on Sunday to get your coffee and creative juices flowing. We will be beginning the workshop at 2pm sharp, with a 90 minute workshop that wraps at 3:30pm. The venue remains open during that time, but we encourage you to order & secure your sandwiches, warm food or cafe beverages in advance of the 2pm start. Light & themed catering will be provided as part of the workshop.

We are deeply thrilled to be hosting a fascinating multi-talented spoken word artist like Katie Lohner This workshop will be a tantalising exploration of food, hunger, creativity & character work.

Spaces are somewhat limited, so please book in advance & share your dietaries with us when you do. For more info on Katie & the itinerary, check the event out through Humanitix

Otherwise, our next SpeakEasy Poetry open mic is the 17th of September, with feature poet El of Burnt Trash & ORPHAN GEARS in the basement space of echo&bounce !

☕️❤️📃

21/08/2026

Open Mic Vol.6 20.08

Wow! What an electric feeling in the room last night. We were lucky enough to grace Season Three Space upstairs at Echo&Bounce for another special edition of SpeakEasy Poetry Open Mic.

Our Open Mic poets were so spectacular. We had the lovely Luna announcing Snaps Poetry (mark your calendars for the 10th of September), Fabiola performing her first poem & inviting us to whisper in echo of her work, Dushan's poems playing walk off music - it was a carnival of curiously creative delights. There were so many impressive first time poets, including poets from the workshops who brought their work to life behind the mic with heart & courage. Each poet brought a gorgeous thread woven into the tapestry of SpeakEasy. We couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous selection & more heartwarming audience reception.

Kim Kenyon brought us to literal tears. We were reminded that her poetry journey started with our open mic a year ago, and her memorisation & the power of her performance blew us away. She shared stories of gum trees, of the Australiana in liminal hotel rooms, of loss & of being at fu**in capacity. In a week where so many heartbreaking government cuts were announced, Kim held us & helped us channel our rage & grief. Her feature set was truly marvellous, a highlight to host. Find her at

Big thanks to all the people involved - to boy renaissance for your work on the door & your banishment spell for shame. To Joel of txturl for entrancing us with gum tree psychedelia. To Dani Ringrose for being our poignant & passionate open mic host. To Season Three & echo & bounce for setting up our space & being the place we call home.

Our next open mic is the 17th of September with feature poet El of ORPHAN GEARS & Burnt Trash but before then we have the wonderful Katie Lohner coming up from Naarm to host a Sensory Performance workshop with us on the 13th of September - keep your eyes out for tickets in the next few days. Otherwise we have our Open Mic dates until November up on Humanitix so you can plan ahead!

with love,
Nikita Kostaschuk

13/08/2026

Vol.6 20.08 Themes - ‘ajar’, ‘departures’ & ‘rising’

Our themes for the 2026 season of SpeakEasy Poetry Open Mic will be taking a new shape each year! Last year we wrote a poem together & this year we will be creating a poetry prompt puzzle together, alongside the feature poets for each event. Each feature poet will be offering three key words that reflect themes or imagery in their sets. These words will form our theme for the month, evoking the serendipitous magic possible when people participate in writing to the same images or concepts, and share those reflections together.

So, with the new possibilities brewing, our theme words for Volume 6 come from the pensive Kim Kenyon of . Those three words are “ajar” , “departures” & “rising”

We combine these with our key three words from the theme for Volume 1, “hope”, “eternal” & “spring” ; from Volume 2, “elder”, “moth”, “blue” ; from Volume 3 “birds”, “boats”, “flames” ; Vol.4 with “courage”, “innocence” & “rebirth” ; Vol.5 with “solitude”, “glitter” & “collapse”. At over half way through the season, we can see the magic has woven the themes of our years, our lives, our connection to each other & the time that has passed, our shared bond growing with our poems & power.

For those of you who are new to SpeakEasy Poetry & our monthly theme, it is an entirely optional invitation to participate. You are welcome to bring your own words on any theme, and we look forward to sharing in the serendipitous & magical way our monthly theme weaves through our various poetic offerings.

This month, we are settling into the Season Three Studio upstairs at echo&bounce. This space has the biggest projection screen and a higher capacity for tickets, meaning more of you are able to attend comfortably & share in the special magic of poetry.

We have also launched tickets all the way out till November! So if you like to be prepared early & pencil poetry into your diary, check out Humanitix for the dates, details & features.

Snap up your seats at the usual places!

with love,
Nikita Kostaschuk

12/08/2026

Open Mic Vol.6 20.08

The next volume of SpeakEasy Poetry Open Mic is just over a week away!

Firstly, on a personal note, thank you all for your patience with the information for this month’s SpeakEasy Poetry! I hit a bit of a burnout wall after the beautiful magic of July & my surgery in June, but we are back with renewed rest & so much gratitude for all the wonderful poetry & connection our community creates.

So, for Vol.6 of SpeakEasy Poetry next week, we will be gathering in the upstairs Season Three Space at echo & bounce to share our poetry & celebrate August as National Poetry Month! It is lovely to be settling into the Season Three with the capacity to accommodate so many of you. On the 20th, next door to us in the studio of echo&bounce will be a joy & whimsy art exhibition, so there will be creatorship abounding at echo&bounce! Snag your tickets for Vol.6 & check out the joy&whimsy vibes on the night

This month, our wonderful feature is none other than the astoundingly poignant poet Kim Kenyon!

“Kim (she/her) has been a sailor, adventure guide and youth worker and is now knees-deep in a sea of motherhood and words. She was recently a finalist in the Joe Lynch Memorial cup for spoken word, Liquid Amber Poetry Prize and the Ros Spencer Poetry Prize. Kim also competed in the 2025 Australian Poetry Slam QLD state finals. Her work pays attention to the imagined lives of the inanimate. Kim writes from unceded Jinibara Country. Find her at "

We are delighted to have Kim featuring for us at this month’s SpeakEasy! Kim’s poetry appeals to a really soft & deep part of my spirit, and I know her words will pull at the heart & hearth-strings.

We have also launched tickets all the way out till November! So if you like to be prepared early & pencil poetry into your diary, check out Humanitix for the dates, details & features.

With love & gratitude
Nikita Kostaschuk

💜🌟🎙

29/07/2026

Workshops 28.07

Well, that was a marvellous run!!

Our first series of SpeakEasy Poetry Workshops, 'Rhyming & Ramen' with Amber Clare has come to a glorious close

We wrote & crafted together last night, honouring the connections we have made over the last three weeks. Thank you to each of the workshop participants who comitted to all three, and to those who spontaneously joined us for one or two. You bring the energy & body-doubling that made the room such a powerful productive force.

We all walked away with something more than we came to these workshops with. Some of us broke writing droughts & some of us challenged our doubts. Some of us wrote poems that belong to future books & some of us wrote to take the tenterhooks of the past out of our spirits. Whatever we went away with, I know the room felt lighter for the transmuting that took place in our quietly contemplative scribblings.

I cannot thank Amber Clare enough for their gracious hosting of this series. It is a rare gift (though less rare in this poetry community) to meet somebody you can wholeheartedly trust with your name. Someone you can trust to co-create & carry forwards the spirit of a community you have lovingly fostered. Amber is one of those people. They are a dedicated & delightful energy to work with, and I couldn't have asked for a better compatriot in this process.

Rounds of thanks also go to Bron, for helping us make zines; to Pheobe & Joel for being the best supports Amber & I could ask for; to echo & bounce for opening on a Tuesday evening & to Charlie Maycraft for their venue organising excellence! It makes it easy to dream big when there is so many talented people behind you helping make it happen.

We will be back around with more workshops in future, both with Amber & with a slew of new hosts. In the meantime, our next SpeakEasy Poetry Open Mics are August 20th & September 17th - both on Humanitix now!

With a heart full of love & pride,
Nikita Kostaschuk

28/07/2026

Workshops ! 28.07

Tonight we gather for our third & last Rhyming & Ramen Workshop with the marvellous Ambacious in the cosy basement of echo&bounce.

For week 1, we focused on laying down the groundwork of our new community & skills. In week 2, we deepened our connection & wrote to our ecological grief.

Tonight, the 28th, we are celebrating our practice of presence, connection and new friendships, combining craft and words with a found poetry, zine-making activity to send you off with a souvenir

We have just a few spots left to join us for tonight, with tickets through Humanitix. Use the code ZINE for a cheeky discount. We are loving the crew who have joined us for all 3 weeks, and the spontaneity of those joining us for a single workshop. It has been so lovely to get to know you all on a deeper level, and we are looking forward to writing alongside these budding wordsmiths again tonight.

6:30pm start & wrapping at 8pm.

See you soon!
💜✒️✨️

24/07/2026

Open Mic Vol.5 - 23.07

A lovely gathering in the cold of winter. We warmed our bones together with words worn of pain & wild with pleasure.

We had wandering tales of wonder, we had delicious moments of delight. The poets were concise in their creations, with tales of love, of loss, of friendship, of the body & its disorders. There were weighty poems of vulnerability, ones that asked us to step into ourselves and hold the hurts. There were gloriously dark poems about desire, of longing & the power in solitude.

Our feature poet Tori Brown delighted us with glittery poems of dystopia, of our present & future collapse. Her heartfelt poetic eye catching love, friendship, belonging & existential dread all into a powerful feature set. Make sure to check out the Scratch That Mag submissions & her writing at Tori Brown

I can't thank each of our open mic poets enough. You are who all of this is for. When you sign up to share your souls to an audience of strangers, we all become friends. You co-create the magic of connection. I am repeatedly amazed by the talent, authenticity & bravery. There is a vulnerable strength in sharing our thoughts to an audience. Seeing returning poets grow more confident is a treasure, a proof that this SpeakEasy thing brings something sought after & empowering.

The biggest thank you to Amber Clare for their first ever SpeakEasy MC!! They have been a fabulous workshop lead & it is a delight to invite them in to host our open mic sections. I am still struggling with my strength & nervous system, but the silver lining of that struggle is co-creating with talented spoken word artists like Amber.

Final thankyous to echo & bounce & Season Three and to both Joel txturl for providing the AV & projections wizardry, and to Emily Jayne for hosting our door, tickets & signups. It's so special to make things with your best friends, chosen family & loves.

We are back writing & papercrafting for the last workshop in our series on Tuesday night the 28th. You are welcome to join us, even use the discount code ZINE to snag your ticket. Otherwise our next open mic night is August 20th, so check out Humanitix & see you soon

💜🎉

22/07/2026

Our second .easy_poetry workshop last night was so cosy & creative. We had a few regretfully unable to make it & a few new faces, which brought fresh liveliness to this evolving group of poets.

After a bit of movement practice led by we all got to know one another more & shared our works from last week. Then we were back into some short prompts & exercises that encouraged us to envision our eco-grief. These invitations really struck a chord with the room. Our emotions around the loss of our natural environments were given the space to transmute to the page, an experience I found really special. There was a lightness in the air after sharing and in the close of the evening. As we broke off afterwards into the night, I feel we each took a part of one another with us, knowing we were more seen & understood than we might have thought.

If you’ve missed these two workshops but are wanting to join us for the last episode on Tuesday the 28th, bring along a shorter piece of poetry to co-create little zines with us!

Otherwise, our July volume of SpeakEasy Poetry Open Mic is tomorrow night - what a busy little schedule for our community! With feature poet Tori Brown and theme words ‘solitude’, ‘glitter’ & ‘collapse’, it’s going to be a beautiful night.

With love,
kostaschuk

SpeakEasy Poetry

27/08/2026

21/08/2026

13/08/2026

12/08/2026

29/07/2026

28/07/2026

24/07/2026

22/07/2026

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