Words Can Save the World
Description
Join us for this one-of-a-kind opening event to celebrate the launch of the 2026 Footscray West Writers Fest!
Art forms merge, and words become performance in live collaborations between local writers and artists. Emilie Collyer + Martha Latham, Jinghua Qian + Chris Ferric, Maxine Beneba Clarke + Angie Hart, Thabani T. Tshuma + The Orbweavers, and Snuff Puppets. With food from Aheda's Kitchen.
Sponsored by Hop Nation and Athletes of Wine.
IMPORTANT BOOKING INFORMATION
Please arrive 10 minutes early
Address: Footscray Drill Hall, 395 Barkly St, Footscray, VIC 3011
This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Entry
Front door faces Barkly St with doorbell on right side of door frame
Front door has one small step (no ramp)
During public events; main entry is via side carpark door with wheelchair ramp, this entry can also be used anytime
Transport
Train: West Footscray station (550m), Footscray station (1.4km)
Bus: Route 220 stops directly next door (15m), Routes 216 & 410 stop on nearby Gordon St (75m)
Bike: Bike parking next to carpark
Taxi/Rideshare: Can drop off directly in front.
Car: Limited street parking in area. Our carpark directly outside the entrance is reserved for Disabled Parking Pass holders only. There are about 100 free car parking spots at Whitten Oval carpark 150m west (brightly lit). Contact Front of House staff for escort to/from your car.
Bathrooms
Three gender-neutral toilets
One large accessible toilet with shower
Baby change table
Chill Out Space
Small room with sofas behind band stage
Carer Tickets
A support person accompanying a person with disability is entitled to free entry.
Please select one Carer / Support Person – Free ticket with the purchase of a paid ticket. A valid Victorian Carer Card or Australian Companion Card must be presented at entry.
One free support ticket per eligible attendee.
We’re committed to creating an inclusive experience for everyone. Please let us know any accessibility needs when registering for this event or send us a message.
Lineup
Maxine Beneba Clarke
Maxine Beneba Clarke is the author of over fifteen books for adults and children, including the short fiction collection Foreign Soil, the memoir The Hate Race, and the picture books When We Say Black Lives Matter and The Patchwork Bike (the latter illustrated by street artist Van T Rudd). Her poetry collections include Carrying the World, How Decent Folk Behave, It’s the Sound of the Thing: 100 new poems for young people, and the recently released collections Beautiful Changelings and Stuff I’m (NOT) Sorry For. Maxine was the inaugural Peter Steele Poet in Residence at the University of Melbourne (2023-2025).
Angie Hart
Angie Hart is a writer and musician. A founding member of ARIA award winning, indie-pop band, Frente, whose debut album, Marvin The Album garnered hits, Accidentally Kelly St, Labour of Love and Ordinary Angels. As a solo artist under her own name, she has released albums, Grounded Bird and ARIA nominated, Eat My Shadow, plus EP, Loving Hating It. She is a current member of bands; Ladychoir, Holidays On Ice, and Four Hours Sleep, recording three albums respectively with the latter two projects. She has appeared on television cult-classic, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Firefly, performing her own songs and that of duo, Splendid - a band she founded with Jesse Tobias (Alanis Morissette, Morrissey), including a song, Blue, that Hart wrote with the shows’ creator, Joss Whedon. Angie is a regular guest on 3RRR Radio’s JVG Radio Method, where she is known as “Our Only Other Poet’. She has performed her spoken word at Adelaide Fringe as well as the Melbourne Spiegeltent, and has read her poems and short pieces on air for Radio 774 and ABC Melbourne. Her written works have been published in the ‘Women Of Letters’ collections, ‘A Song For The Road’ edited by Kate Morgan, and pieces commissioned by ‘Going Down Swinging’,’ Lifted Brow’ and ‘Ampersand’ magazine. Angie is currently working on a memoir and will be releasing her third solo album this year.
Emilie Collyer
Emilie Collyer lives on unceded Wurundjeri Country where she writes poetry, plays and prose. She has two poetry collections published by Vagabond Press: Do you have anything less domestic? (winner Five Islands Prize) and As If I’m Really There. Her poetry has been recognised in Gwen Harwood, Judith Wright and Newcastle poetry prizes. Her plays have been produced widely in Australia and internationally and recognised with awards including Patrick White and Green Room. Super premiered at Red Stitch in 2025 and was shortlisted for both the Queensland and Victoria Premier’s Literary Awards.
Martha Latham
Martha (MJ) Latham is an emerging director, producer, and wing attack who believes firmly that independent arts will save the world. From child actor (Backyard Science, The Moodys) to NIDA MFA graduate (2020), she's directed work from Phoenix Theatre Wollongong (Slacktivism 2019) to the Melbourne Fringe Festival (Democracy Repair Services, 2025). She's developed new Australian writing including DRRRM Play (part punk gig/part classical theatre), Medea was a MILF (What if it was actually awesome that Medea killed her kids?), and The Girlfriend Experience (Sex work is real work). She works as Systems Manager at Auspicious Arts Projects, writes theatre criticism for Kaleidoscope Arts, has a monthly 15-minute play showings in Kensington and advocates for abuse survivors in tertiary arts institutions. She is tall, loud, and will discuss any topic with more passion than is socially acceptable.
Thabani T. Tshuma
Thabani T. Tshuma is a multi-award-winning Zimbabwean writer and performance poet. His work can be found in publications such as Dichotomi magazine, Cordite Poetry Review, CUBBY, and ABC ArtWorks’ SLAMMED segment. Thabani is co-curator of Thin Red Lines, and his debut collection, 'The Gospel of Unmade Creation', was released in 2023 through Recent Work Press.
The Orbweavers
The Orbweavers are Marita Dyson and Stuart Flanagan, multidisciplinary artists working in songwriting, music, performance and visual art, based in Narrm / Melbourne, on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woiwurrung people. The Orbweavers songwriting and creative work responds to local histories, memory and place, often with a focus on water. Their latest album ‘New Moon / Silver Moon’ responds to the many layered histories of two places: Narrm / Melbourne, and Broken Hill on Wilyakali Country, and surrounding Barkindji Country. The songs of New Moon Silver Moon contemplates waterways, ecosystems and the impacts of industrialisation, along with personal stories and reflections from the present.
Jinghua Qian
Jinghua Qian (ey/eir/em) is a writer who works across prose, verse, audio and television. Eir work appears in The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Overland, and ABC TV's China Tonight. Ey lives in Footscray on the land of the Kulin nations, and is the co-creator of Underfoot, a local history project uncovering the history of Footscray and Yarra Bend Park, alongside Liz Crash.
Chris Ferric
Chris Ferric is a Naarm-based painter, portraitist & visual artist. They are known for slow collaborations with sitters to create larger-than-life-sized oil portraits, and fast-paced drawings, live, in response to performance. In 2025 they were the winner of the Midsumma & Australia Post Art Award. Ferric's work explores social change, collaboration, and developing accessible practices using evidence-based tools like the Commons Social Change Library. Ferric's drawings have been unfolding in front of audiences as a Snuff Puppets artist since 2023.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
