Ben Apfelbaum

POETS PICNIC 2019 – 30 YEARS YOUNG

Attracting  politicians, poets and high school students, the Poets Picnic was held at the beautiful Blackburn Gardens adjacent to the Woollahra Council chambers and the former Woollahra Library.  Both the crowd and the poets were in a celebratory mood as this was the 30th time that Woollahra Library had hosted this event.

In honour of this occasion beautiful cupcakes emblazoned with the number thirty were handed out to those participating in the picnic.

Another veteran of the Poets Picnic was ABC presenter Simon Marnie who emceed the poetry performances for the 18th time.

The theme of this year’s poems was Change but as is the case with free wheeling poetry not every poem stuck to this subject. Naturally nobody minded as the spectators enjoyed a balmy night in the most beautiful harbour side setting with white cockatoos circling above and birds song complemented the lovely oratory of the poet presenters.

The proceedings were kicked off by Mayor Peter Cavanagh introducing the local member Gabrielle Upton who read the poem ‘Change’ by Kathleen Raine. Others such as Mark Tredinnick, Fiona Wright, Arielle Cottingham, Toby Fitch, Holly Friedlander Liddicoat, Judith Beveridge and Geoffrey Lehmann read out their own poems and high school students from Ascam- Mimi Kind and Eliza Howard,  Kambala- Natasha Ludlow and Anoushka Saunders, Moriah College –Jasper Gabay and Beck Rosen and Kincoppal – Isabella Zaide and Angela Della-Franca demonstrated that poetry was alive and well in the hands of these youths. From Kambala, Anoushka Saunders read one of her own poems  entitled life is messy. The others selected their favourite poems ands accordingly performed their favourite works with great sensitivity, emotion and feeling.

The proceedings were brought to conclusion by Woollahra Library Manager Vicki Munro and the capacity crowd  left the gardens under a appropriately lyrical purple and red  twilight sky.

This enduring event which one attends for free is a precious jewel in Sydney’s cultural life.

Poets Picnic took place at Blackburn Gardens on Tuesday 26th February, 2019.

All pics by Ben Apfelbaum ©

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.