ID 0:02
This is a Vision Australia Radio podcast.
Kate Cooper 0:04
On Vision Australia radio, radio, welcome to our conversations with emerging and experienced creative voices in our community. I'm Kate Cooper, and our guest on today's program is Jazz Fechner-Lante. Jazz is a spoken word poet, photographer, open mic organizer and co host who takes part in poetry events around Adelaide. Jazz is the founding partner with Pam Makin of Ellipsis Poetry, and many of our listeners will remember that Pam was a guest on our program in early November 2024 and again last week, jazz has been volunteering in the community since they were 14.
Welcome to the program, Jazz. One of my favourite questions to ask in conversations on this program is about where our guests grew up and what their childhood home or hometown means to them now - Jazz, would you tell us your home story?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 1:16
Yeah. So I grew up in the eastern suburbs of Adelaide, until I moved to the Barossa Valley when I was a teenager. While I do love where I spent my younger years, I still feel like the Barossa is more my home, because until we moved there, we were always moving houses, but the Barossa was steady, and it's also where my mom's side of the family are, and where I met most of my best friends, including Pam Makin.
Kate Cooper 1:42
Fantastic. Now we're recording this conversation not far from the Adelaide CBD. What is it about living in the Greater Adelaide area and embracing the Barossa as well that appeals to you?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 1:58
Especially I actually used to think I craved the big city life and life in Melbourne, but when I was there in 2020 during lockdown, I realized that I appreciated Adelaide a lot more. I loved the relaxed pace and the relative smallness of the city. It's not as overwhelming and confusing as to me as the biggest cities are, and while the different communities here are smaller, I also think that makes them more tightly knit, and there's someone you know around every corner.
Kate Cooper 2:30
That's true, and that's one of the reasons why I really love being here, even though it's good to visit other places, but it's fantastic to come back home here, isn't it? Jazz, we mentioned in the introduction that you're a photographer as well as a poet, and I'll ask you more about your photography later in our conversation for now, would you tell us about your earliest memories of working creatively?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 2:53
Yeah, so as a child, I would always wake my mom up at about 6am asking her to do arts and crafts, and then I just never stopped. In primary school, I wrote poetry, short stories, skits and songs. I was forever using my mum's digital camera, and her and my Nana taught me how to sew at a young age, and I would design dresses in my sketchbooks. I was very lucky to be raised in households and families that valued creativity and encouraged my love for art.
Kate Cooper 3:26
And do you keep up sewing nowadays?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 3:29
Yeah, yeah, I still do. It's still one of my favorite hobbies.
Kate Cooper 3:33
Brilliant Jazz, before we continue, would you read one of your poems for us?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 3:37
Yes, of course. This one is called An Artist, a Sellout.
So many words thrown away, my brain washed them out to sea, never to see the light of day. Is it art if no one sees it, if I write it down, then bury it deeper in the pile of words that can never be unscrambled? Is it art if it's not even there, not written down, not spoken, a fleeting thought, and my brain moves on. Maybe I should give more thoughts a shot, to be written, to be seen, to be heard, and maybe then I'll feel like I can call myself an artist, or do I need to follow through? Throw those words at people, shove my work in their face and tell them not to ignore me. Is it art? If no one responds, is it worth anything? If no one will pay for it, throwing every idea at the wall and reproducing what sticks 1000 times until my time is finally worth something, and maybe then I'll feel like I can call myself a sellout.
Kate Cooper 4:36
Well, I think you can call yourself an artist and a poet, and I've heard you perform live. You're most definitely a poet that's beautiful. Thank you. Jazz, we mentioned in the introduction that you're a spoken word poet who performs at poetry events around Adelaide. So my next question is in two parts. Firstly, what is it about poetry that led you to choose this form of creative expression... and [?are thrown another bit]... and when did you start writing poetry?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 5:06
Well, I started writing poetry in primary school, and I'm not sure whether I chose poetry or if it chose me. As I started writing so young and continued through high school, I felt like poetry just gave me the freedom and variety to express myself. I didn't have to fully explain what I was talking about to get the emotion across to the listener, and I was able to explain some things that I would never have the guts to tell people without poetry, outside of poetry, I love the flexibility of the media and how different, how many different forms there are, how many different ways to share it there are, and how absolutely unique it is when you find your own voice and what you want to say.
Kate Cooper 5:56
Following on from that, what inspired you to first start going to that other dimension and perform your poetry at spoken word events?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 6:09
Well, I guess that starts with the first poetry event I ever went to, which was a group excursion to one of the heats of the state poetry slam, where I met the late and an absolutely amazing Alison Paradox. And it was her and Pam Makin that first invited me to poetry open mics and then encouraged me to get up on the mic myself, their belief in me and what I had to say was really the biggest influence for me to start sharing my work.
Kate Cooper 6:37
That's lovely to be inspired and to have those ongoing interactions, as you do with Pam Makin. Now I've asked a number of spoken word poets this next question, and we've had quite a range of answers for anyone getting up and performing poetry takes a lot of courage. It's one thing to put pen to paper or finger to keyboard in writing. It's yourself and the medium you're using to get the expression recorded, but to get up there and put your work out to a live audience, how do you prepare for a performance, and what strategies do you use to manage any feelings of nervousness?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 7:18
When I started at open mic nights, I was very shaky before, during and after, and it's a bit cliche to say, but the more practice I got, the more comfortable I got up on that mic. Also, one of the things that really helped me was being too busy to be anxious. As the photographer for a lot of the gigs that I was at, I was so busy taking photographs before I got up on stage that I didn't let myself have time to get shaky and feel anxious before I just got up there and shared my words.
Kate Cooper 7:56
What about in terms of feedback? Do you get immediate feedback when you're performing on stage?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 8:03
Yeah, definitely. I often feel like the first time I read a poem is like my first official edit, because I'll see the audience response and feel whether they connected with it, whether they liked it, and if the lines flow well enough for them to keep going with the poem, with you.
Kate Cooper 8:31
Jazz, would you read another of your poems for us?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 8:34
This one does not have a name yet....
Rip my name off my face. Take it far away from here and keep it safe. Make me pretend that I don't want to leave this place. My name outlives my face. You won't miss me too long after I'm gone, when my imprint in your mind is just a fading silhouette. How long has it been since I saw you? How long has it been since you've said my name, how long will it be till you ask where I am? How long will it be till you find out where I've been? I haven't been quiet without a name, pretending I only have my face for anybody to recognize me by. My words are all the same. But what's a poem without a name? Just a collection of words that could really mean nothing and mean everything all at once.
Kate Cooper 9:26
That is very lovely. You could keep it as a poem without a name.
Jazz Fechner-Lante
I think so too. I think that would work really, really well.
Kate Cooper
We spoke just before about preparing for a performance. I'm interested in knowing how your experiences of performing your poetry, both in terms of the feedback, but also the difference between reading something and then saying it out loud, how those experiences influence the way you now create your work.
Jazz Fechner-Lante 9:57
The experience of performing my poetry really gave me a sense of confidence when I was writing, actually a sense that people wanted to hear what I've got to say and that I would get the feedback when I did tell it to them. And when I was younger, I often felt very voiceless and lost, and I've ended up using those feelings to write more poems and try to make my younger self proud of having a voice and sharing it with others. I also feel like most of my work has been written to be spoken more than it has been written to be read in a book or anything. I love the feedback and the back and forth you can get with the crowd. And I've actually also written a few poems on how it feels to share my work on stage and listen to other people's words.
Kate Cooper 10:59
So in terms of how the feedback and the performance experience influences how you write. How do you go about editing your work? When you finish something, do you read it to yourself? Think about the flow. What sort of techniques do you use to self edit?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 11:15
Yeah, generally, I speak it out loud to myself or to my housemates, even to the cats, just to make sure that when it's coming out of my mouth, it's rolling off the tongue. And I know that if I get caught up on saying something, then I generally need to change it, because it just isn't flowing right.
Kate Cooper
Have you ever performed a poem, listened to the feedback, and then gone back and further edited it?
Jazz Fechner-Lante
Yes, definitely. I had a few poems where I got up and I read the end of the poem, and the audience didn't understand that it was the end of the poem, and so that made me realise I needed to change the ending words to make sure they knew that, yes, this was the end of the poem, and this was meant to be the impactful bit.
Kate Cooper 12:11
Have you published any of your works in print at this stage?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 12:16
Not yet. I make zines for my own poetry, and I'll sometimes put them out at zine fairs, but I've never actually published a piece of poetry yet.
Kate Cooper
Now, zines are interesting, and for the sake of our listeners who might not be familiar with them, could you explain to us about what zines are and how they are circulated?
Jazz Fechner-Lante
Yeah, zine, the name zine comes from magazine, and they're just kind of short little the ones I make are short little booklets made out of a four pages where I just write my poems in and I put some drawings together with them. And it's... I find it a very fun way to share poetry and very inexpensive art form to be able to use to get your work out there.
Kate Cooper 13:06
And we'll talk a little bit later about Ellipsis Poetry. But from memory, people bring zines along to events like that as well.
Jazz Fechner-Lante 13:16
Yeah, there's a lot of trading zines once, if someone sees that you've got one and they've got one, you're just like, Oh, yep, we'll trade them and keep everything spreading, which is really lovely.
Kate Cooper 13:29
So do you get much of a chance through exchanging zines to read other people's poetry as well as listen to it at live events?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 13:38
Yes, so much. I have a collection of zines made by local poets in my house, and I love just reading them on a slow morning with a cup of tea. And it's so lovely to experience people's poetry, even if they haven't had the chance to be published yet.
Kate Cooper 14:00
On Vision Australia Radio, you're listening to our conversation program, Emerging Writers. Our guest today is Jazz Fechner-Lante, spoken word, poet, photographer, open mic organizer and co host and long time community volunteer. And Jazz, how do you go about creating your works? Do you have a favorite place where you like to write? Does it vary what inspires you?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 14:15
My favorite place to write is Paige and Turner in the Adelaide Myer Centre, where I usually go with my friend Pam, and we'll sometimes go with other writers as well. We just rock up, we put our headphones in, and we just write for a couple hours, and that is when I get my most work done. I can get a week's worth of writing done in one morning there, but when I'm writing alone. I generally have to go through a bit of a ritual of making myself a cup of tea, sitting down with the right music, and making sure I'm in the right head space to get any work done. Otherwise, it just doesn't seem to happen if I don't do all of that.
Kate Cooper 15:20
Do you have days where you feel like, Yes, I can write today, and days where you think it's not happening for me and it's not going to...?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 15:29
Yes, definitely. I on days where I can't get anything out, I'll generally try to at least write a stream of consciousness for a few minutes just to make sure that, yes, I haven't got anything to say right now and then I'll come back to it when I'm more in the mood to be able to write and get things down the way I want them.
Kate Cooper 15:56
That's a really good discipline, though, to have that stream of consciousness. It's really great to do that. Jazz, can we have another of your poems now?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 16:05
Yes, of course. This one is called Perfection...
Perfection down to the last touch, columns leading up in straight lines, ceilings held up by perfect beams. Stairs seemingly symmetrical and perfect, glossy counters, not a speck of dust or scent of any odor. Perfection down to the very last touch, No one here can enter without perfection in their stature, perfection in their dress, perfection in their manners, and perfection in their mess. These patrons would rather die than see the place where chaos grew life, red sand in every crevice with 1000 crevices to hide dead trees out the front and dead dreams inside walls built of tumbling stone found on the side of the road, counters that will give you splinters and enough bugs to drive you mad, the feeling of never being clean And the lack of odour of bleach, yes, those patrons would rather die than set one well shined shoe in the place where chaos grew alive.
Kate Cooper 17:10
And we know that chaos is very creative. And where would we be without that creative chaos and without that randomness? And I think what is perfect anyway, exactly for sure. And Jazz, as we mentioned earlier, you're the founding partner with Pam Makin of Ellipsis Poetry, which is held on the second Thursday of each month at the Arthur Art Bar in Adelaide. Would you tell us about Ellipsis Poetry? What events are coming up, including a special performance as part of the 2025 Adelaide fringe, and how our listeners can find out more?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 17:46
Yeah. So as you said, Ellipsis Poetry, we hold our open mic each month on the second Thursday of the month, and we aim to make it a really safe and accessible space for any poet, whether it's your first open mic or your 100th we hope that you can find yourself a home on our stage. It's free to come along and $5 to sign up to read. So if you've wanted to see an poetry open mic and see if it's something that you would like to do, it's free to come along. You can find us at Ellipsis Poetry underscore Essay on Instagram and Ellipsis Poetry on Facebook.
And the Fringe event is happening on the 13th of March. It's called Eclipse - What is Obscuring Your Heavenly Body, where we have eight amazing poets, including myself, talking about body image and how it affects how we interact with the world. Personally, my set contains a journey through mental health and chronic illness and how it all impacts how I see myself.
Kate Cooper 18:52
We also have Pam Makin hosting this event, and tickets are $10 and are up on the fringe website right now, and I've already bought mine. I'm really looking forward to that, and we certainly encourage our listeners to get in before they sell out. Jazz, would you read another of your poems for us?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 19:09
Yes, of course. This is called I'm Not Stingy With My Words...
Share my words. I'm not stingy with them. In fact, I have too many of them. Please take some shoulder some of my burden. Collect some of my similes. You can print 10 to their yours, if you like. I give them to you freely. These words right here are quite light. You can carry a lot of them. Pile them up on top of each other, till eventually, the stack leans over and falls. My words on the floor again, just where they started, the very dirt under your feet. But I'll sweep them up. I'll clean them up, put them back in some sort of order. They'll never be like they were before, neat and Chris falling off the tongue as they're spoken to your face. But maybe we can make them dark, cover them up so you don't notice. Lost metaphors and broken rhymes. That's about the end of it, till the words are dropped once more, and I'll pick up every letter just to talk to you again.
Kate Cooper 20:10
Thank you for giving all of us your poetry. Jazz. You're also a photographer, and you have your own photography Facebook page, which is Jazzman Photographs Stuff. What drew you to photography and what do you especially enjoy about it?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 20:27
Now, I was drawn to photography by being able to catch so much expression of one moment in time into something that you could just look at forever. My first experience with photography was having my mom's camera, but then my uncle is a great photographer, so when I was on holiday, I got to borrow his DSLR camera, and I had the most fun getting photos of anything and everything I thought was interesting. And when I got to be the recipient of a young carer grant, I used that to buy myself my own camera, and that's how I started my photography business and started photographing events for local bands.
And I love watching someone on stage and getting the rhythm of them talking to figure out when I can take the best photo of them, and I also love the joy it brings people when they see a photo of themselves that they really love.
Kate Cooper 21:27
Jazz, we said in the introduction that you are a longtime community volunteer, and you mentioned before about the young carer grant. So how long have you been volunteering, and what do you get from community volunteering?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 21:42
I've been volunteering since I was about 14. I did things like Youth Advisory Committee, and I was a young carer mentor, and I did volunteering for some disability community events, and it's really given me a lot of skills that I don't think I could have learnt from anywhere else. I really love seeing my impact on the community and seeing something and think I changed that for the positive, I was able to make someone's life a little better, even if it was just in a small way, that's brilliant. I've always said that you get so much out of volunteering. Meet some incredible people I know in my volunteering on this radio program and through the station here, the people I've met so rich and rewarding I couldn't be without it.
Kate Cooper 22:38
This next question really follows on regular listeners to the conversations on this program, will know that I like to talk about community. Would you share with us your reflections on being part of the community of spoken word poets here in Adelaide?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 22:53
Yeah, I absolutely love being a part of the spoken word community here. It's given me so many great opportunities, and I've been able to share those opportunities with others as well. I've met so many amazing people that I would have never had in my life otherwise, and have made my life so much richer and more varied. Sometimes I get a bit frustrated that as a disabled person, I can't get to as many events as I would like to, but I love supporting the rest of the community when I can, and seeing how different events cater to the different parts of the community, and seeing how it all comes together as one big jigsaw puzzle of the interconnectedness of Adelaide.
Kate Cooper 23:35
Jess, would you read another of your poems for us?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 23:38
Yes, of course. This one is about my fellow poets...
I stand here tonight lost in the poetry of hearing something so important that so many people forgot to listen to but we're hearing it even when you're silent, even when you don't think you could push one more word out of your lips. We will hear you, your words shining bright on the stage, your face reflecting the bare truth right back at us. I lost my truth, so I'll borrow yours just for tonight, using the last of the spotlight to remember who I am and who I want to be when I grow up as a poet, I want to be just like you, strong words and stronger truths and a delicate handle on everything held so well in balance, you wouldn't even realise you were still juggling, held well in balance.
Kate Cooper 24:31
That's absolutely beautiful.
Jazz Fechner-Lante 24:34
Thank you.
Kate Cooper 24:35
When you're not creating or performing poetry or engaged in photography, Jazz, what do you enjoy doing?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 24:43
Honestly, a majority of my time is spent creatively. I crochet a lot, especially earrings and make beaded jewelry that I sell online and at markets and to relax, I crochet or cross stitch or embroider or... so, and if you somehow find me at a moment when I'm not doing any of those, then I'm probably at home with a cup of tea and a good book, as I feel like the more I read, the better writer I can become.
Kate Cooper 25:12
What are you reading at the moment? What are you enjoying?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 25:15
I'm going back and reading all of Jane Austen's books as they're my favourite books.
Kate Cooper 25:21
Excellent. Jazz, I'd love to hear another of your poems now.
Jazz Fechner-Lante 25:25
Yes, of course, this one is called Faded...
All my ticket stubs and receipts are faded, leaving the reality of our world to be remembered in only memories of which I certainly lack lost I wonder through my life of fading paper and ripped up lines a mis settled over recollections. I'll ask for your version, the closest I can get without pulling apart the files in my brain. But your version seems different than I think mine would have been. A mist settled over your recollections made of bias and subjection. Find Now my memories are under all that too. Maybe the truth of the world is in the very middle of the room, roped off and unattainable, yet close enough we can glimpse tiny versions of reality if we squint hard enough.
Kate Cooper 26:16
It's lovely. Jazz, would you tell our listeners how they can find out more about your work?
Jazz Fechner-Lante 26:22
Yep. So as I said, you can find Ellipsis Poetry on Facebook and on Instagram at Ellipsis Poetry underscore essay. My photography, as you said, is on Facebook as Jazzman Photographs Stuff. My physical art and crochet is on Instagram at Threads of Jazz, and they can find me personally at That Weird Jazz on Instagram, as I usually post about anything within my realm of art and creativity. And obviously don't forget to check out our Fringe show Eclipse on the 13th of March on the Fringe website.
Kate Cooper 27:00
Jazz, it's been delightful speaking with you. Thank you so much for coming in and talking with us. Our guest on Emerging Writers today was Jazz Fechner-Lante, spoken word poet, photographer, open mic organiser and co-host and long time community volunteer.
This program is produced in our Adelaide studios, and can be heard at the same time each week here on Vision Australia radio, VA radio, on digital online, varadio.org and also on Vision Australia radio podcasts, where you can catch up on earlier episodes. [?] thanks for listening to this Vision Australia Radio podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on your preferred podcast platform. Visit varadio.org for more.
ID 28:02
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