Poetry Month Ends with On Having Been Here with Powerful Australian Voices

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POETRY MONTH finale with 'One Having Been Here.' Directed by producer, writer , actor Alexis Fishman.

Poetry Month Ends with On Having Been Here with Powerful Australian Voices

The audience was overflowing as Alex McNeill played the clarinet bringing harmony into the hall. The Poetry and Music of On Having Been Here is directed by the acclaimed producer, writer, actor Alexis Fishman.

Featuring Jewish poets Judi Hall, Rosalie Fishman and award winning poet Michael Leibowitz, three distinctive Australian voices performed powerful poetry shaped by deep memory and a restless curiosity about the world. Mark Tredennick poet, essayist, winner of Montreal International Poetry Prize, Cardiff International Poetry Competition, author of thirteen books writes that Michael Leibowitz’s poetry book To Live By These “... it is a book for all who care to understand how others in their midst might by thinking and feeling and struggling to live out the values of their culture.”

On Having Been Here offers a rare opportunity to encounter artistic Jewish voices actively questioning, seeing and responding to the world around them, both past and present. By turns funny, philosophical, intimate and haunting, the poets explore ancestry, migration, love, loss, aging and being human.

Alexis Fishman — Director

Director, theatre-maker and performer whose work centres on Jewish stories, storytelling and live connection. Creator of six original solo cabaret works presented internationally, she is known for bringing together music, text and theatrical framing across performance, direction and storytelling practice. Currently performing in Fiddler on the Roof

"In this large cast, Alexis Fishman is a standout, gratifyingly complex as Tevye's wife Golde. She sings with strong purpose and is, praise be, far from the scold that seems a default position for Golde." The Australian

Michael Leibowitz - Poet and painter based in Sydney. Originally from Johannesburg and trained as a medical practitioner, he has published the poetry collections Looking In, Wardrobe of Secrets and Mellow Fruitfulness, with work also appearing in international journals.

Judi Hall - Writer, poet and former teacher and lawyer whose work is shaped by experiences of migration, community and belonging. She has shared her poetry publicly over the past decade and remains interested in the ways place, community and urban life shape human connection.

Rosalie Fishman - Writer and poet whose work draws on experiences of migration, memory and Jewish life. Following a career in education, leadership and culture-building, she turned her attention to poetry and continues to approach writing as a practice of learning, renewal and connection.