Queensland State Final '25, Australian Poetry Slam (APS) – Story Week 2025

QUEENSLAND STATE FINAL – AUSTRALIAN POETRY SLAM
Story Week: Grow Deeper

The Queensland Poetry Slam Final is more than a literary take-over. It’s a take back. We’re giving the bullhorn back to the bards. The word nerds. The oral storytellers. The quiet thoughtful ones. The romantics. Dreamers, lovers and those just searching for a damn meaningful life.

How can you get involved? Show up, listen, applaud and vote.

Elect a Poet – the Queensland Slambassador for 2025. The prize? Two poets head to Sydney Opera House sharing their creative thoughts and inspiring audiences to speak their own poetry.    

Poets get your guts ready. Here, wrap your fingers around this mic. 

Each year from 2007 to today, Australian Poetry Slam runs heats in Queensland country towns, metro hoods, outer burbs and Brisvegas. Local poets (a.k.a your neighbours) get two minutes to wow you with their ideas in a form of spell casting called Slamming Poetry. They electrify your imagination. Then you – the audience – elect two of these writers to represent at National Finals in Sydney-town with nothing but a mic, words and deep exhales of super-honest. Turn on the amp. Listen, cheer, feel your heart swell and hand over the keys to the House because POETS RUN THIS!

Hosted by Huda the Goddess
Featuring SOLCHLD and the APS 2025 Queensland Finalists

Huda The Goddess is the 2021 Australian Poetry Slam Champion and two-time Queensland champ. Huda is a spoken word poet, educator, mental health advocate, dancer and workshop facilitator. She describes poetry as one of her senses that allows her to turn her experiences into art and has recently released her first chapbook, Introducing Me. As a proud African-Muslim woman it is important to her that young women from her community are represented and their stories are shared. Poetry is her connection to communities, land and her people. Having the chance to make people feel something will always be her goal as an artist.

SOLCHLD is a Magan-djin based Arrernte-Afro-Jamaican multidisciplinary artist. Her performance, music, and spoken word delve into her personal experiences, using metaphor, faith, and place-based storytelling to explore the threshold of metamorphosis. Her work centres regeneration as blueprint to navigate the reclamation of ancestry, liberation, and healing.

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Content Warning: Most Poetry Slams are all ages and some content may not be suitable for children. Performances may include strong language and / or adult themes.

Presented in partnership with Word Travels, Australian Poetry Slam, Black Ink, Alternator Poetry, Cairns Festival, Liquid Lyrics Poetry Slam and Mackay Poetry Slam.

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. This project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW. Also supported by Ubud Writers and Readers Festival, Mumbai LitFest, Singapore Writers Festival and Byron Writers Festival. 

Supported by BEMAC.

7:00pm, Thursday 16 October, 2025
Queensland Multicultural Centre
102 Main Street, Kangaroo Point
Tickets $38.50 (Full) - $27.50 (Concession/First Nations sovereign land tax ticket) - $19.80 (Under 18s)

There is limited parking at the QMC. We encourage all guests to use public transport. QMC is only a 2-minute walk from the Holman Street Ferry Terminal and bus route 234. You can find more info about how to get to QMC at http://qmc.org.au/visit

APS 2025 Queensland State Final artwork features 2021 Australian Poetry Slam Champion Huda the Goddess – photo credit @sooky_princess_studio, Amber Joy. Artwork design: Rachel Stone Designs. APS 2025 concept: Miles Merrill and the Word Travels team.