It’s a Wrap! Spelling Bee and Shakespearean Rap at the 6th Biennial Literature Festival
The 6th Biennial Literature Festival at Newington College ran from Wednesday 21 to Friday 22 March 2013. Featuring more than 36 authors, illustrators, graphic novelists, poets and researchers who came and gave lectures, participated in Theatresports and helped run a spelling bee competition, the festival was a roaring success with boys walking out of lecture halls and classrooms buzzing with enthusiasm.
Among the luminaries who attended included Good Weekend magazine editor Judith Whelan, children’s authors Felice Arena, Andrew Daddo and Deborah Abdela , along with industry heavyweights Archimede Fusillo, Benjamin Law, Peter Goldsworthy, Linda Jaivin and Barry Heard just to name a few. Many entertained and engaged the boys through writing workshops, sharing insider tips and ideas. One memorable presenter, Charlie Thomson aka The Educator rapped about Shakespeare in the Old Boys Lecture Theatre emulating the atmosphere of a hip hop club.
In collaboration with the Centre for Ethics 2013, a panel discussion “Words, Words, Words” was held on the opening night of the festival. The panel discussed the future of language in the digital age and many parents, boys and members of the public attended. While there was some debate about the disapopointment of receiving a text rather than a letter being like, “opening a shorthand version of what used to be beautiful discursive language”, the general consensus of the panel was that language has always met the needs of communication and we fashion it to suit our needs. The plea was simply that youth keep engaging in complex reading and writing as well as enjoy new styles of expression.
During the festival, a select group of boys under the guidance of Ms Caterina Troncone produced a festival magazine Postcript showcasing the talks given each day which was distributed to boys and staff. On the last two days of the festival, children from neighbouring public and Catholic schools in Stanmore, Leichhardt and Dulwich Hill travelled to Newington College as our guests to take part in some of the activities and a sausage sizzle was held at lunch to help raise funds for the festival’s chosen charity Room to Read in particular their work in Nepal.
Click here to see the student publication Postscripts
