Emerging Writers Series: Jaidyn Luke Attard
“Everyone thinks they know what’s right and what’s wrong, but sometimes this feels alienating. I think street poetry, which has never been funded by any council or commissioned by anyone, is a way of reclaiming public spaces that feel mechanical, industrial, and altogether removed from emotion, discourse and love.”
Caught Emily’s review of The Street Poet (2023) by Jaidyn Luke Attard and keen to learn more about the mind behind this subversive creative form?
You’re in luck!
Jaidyn Luke Attard, aka ‘The Street Poet’, agreed to join us for a chat all about what street poetry means to him, how he got started on his own adventures in street poetry and how the form is a significant step away from the often “unattainable and gatekeeperish” barriers in traditional publishing.
I always like to start these with an easy one; tell us a bit more about yourself and where your passion for poetry began?
I’ve been writing since I knew how to form words into sentences. At times I think I’m a writer before I’m a person. I wouldn’t know who I am without writing – but any writer will tell you that.
I never used to read poetry, let alone write it, but I found it cathartic in moments of emotional turmoil as I transitioned from adolescence to adulthood, and it stuck around.
The subjects of my poems often give away the things I’m interested in – street wandering, punk music, tight friendships, literature and – more recently – comfortable, domestic life.
You're also a part of the Degraves Circle, an art collective for punk poets and misfit writers. Can you share a bit more about the collective and its purpose?
The Degraves Circle is an assortment of people with a passion for art and poetry, formed in 2021 after my ‘revelation’ that writers are stronger in packs than alone. The whole point of the group was a rebellion against the idea that writers had to be solitary and alone to produce great works.
I find my writing, when totally isolated from other artists, becomes dull and devoid of essence. But with a group – with whom I can share my words and learn from other writers – I feel connected, whole, and inspired. The Degraves Circle is a collective specifically for young emerging writers – the ‘emos’, ‘goths’, ‘punks’ and ‘misfits’ of the 2010s. This group is a space for them to connect, get crafty with paper and zines, express themselves with words, wear as much black, leather and chain as they desire, and with the ultimate goal of having published works circulating in Melbourne.
Traditional publishing often feels, to emerging writers, unattainable and gatekeeperish unless we write about trending topics at the right time. So I established the Back Shed Press, operated by the Degraves Circle, so that we can publish ourselves. We’re rebels in every sense of the word.
As a long-term fan of street art around the world and the ways it opens up a platform for exploring creativity, I’m really digging the idea behind ‘The Street Poet’ and using poetry in the same way. What are the origins and influences behind the collection?
Street poetry is a strange concept even for me – because I still can’t really specify what it is. It came about when I met a man named Jay, who was an English backpacker trapped in Melbourne during the lockdowns.
He was finding the whole Melbourne experience to be a lonely one, and so he started writing these Dear Stranger letters that he’d stick around the city to help other people feel less alone. He certainly made me feel less alone, so I reached out to him, and before long, the two of us were heading onto the streets to observe people and write about them. We called it ‘street writing’ or ‘street poetry’, where we’d select moments from the things we’d seen on the streets and build a narrative out of them with prose or verse.
Sometimes we would stick our pages on the walls in the hopes that some stranger would be inspired by our words – and sometimes, people were really moved by this.
I began to enjoy this rebellious form of street art, something I’d never seen done before, so it became ‘my thing’. One page became hundreds of pages, and we turned our street writing into a book – There’s a Tale to This City. When Jay left Australia, I still had hundreds of unpublished poems and diary entries from our adventures around Melbourne, which is what I used to form the skeleton of my new book, The Street Poet.
Street art, in all its forms, has roots in political messaging and claiming back public spaces in a vivid and visual way – especially in a city like Melbourne. In a world of keyboard warriors and council-funded wall murals, what role do you think street poetry still plays?
I think street poetry, being a punk activity with a punk attitude, is inherently political. While I don’t believe the entire CBD should be tagged up with senseless graffiti – which is ugly, not to mention illegal – I don’t see the harm in little flyers or notes scattered about the place for people to find since the purpose of this is to uplift people.
They can take the poems home if they like, stick them above their desks and keep my words for a mantra or an inspiring message.
Everyone thinks they know what’s right and what’s wrong, but sometimes this feels alienating. I think street poetry, which has never been funded by any council or commissioned by anyone, is a way of reclaiming public spaces that feel mechanical, industrial, and altogether removed from emotion, discourse and love.
I also saw that you’re an incredible spoken word poet! Is there a significant creative difference for you between developing a poem for spoken word versus the page?
Every poem that I write, I also read aloud – if it sounds right in my voice, it feels right on the page. I would gladly read any of my poems aloud for an audience, although despite my dabbling in spoken word, I find it far more nerve-wracking as someone with intense anxiety.
When I read my poetry to others, I find myself shaking and stuttering, my heart hammering in a way I don’t really like – but I do like the adrenaline. It’s the adrenaline I’m chasing.
Writing poetry for the page and writing poetry for spoken word both give me the adrenaline that keeps me feeling alive.
What advice would you have for anyone keen to use street poetry as a platform to get their own art out into the world?
While I won’t encourage people to stick things up on walls without permission, I do think that if someone were to do this, they would get a kick out of the adrenaline rush and, more importantly, feel ‘involved’ in a community of emerging street writers. It definitely isn’t a bad way of getting one’s writing out there.
If we’re talking about street poetry in the sense of wandering the city and writing about strangers, then I wholeheartedly support this. Get out there, take out a pen and observe your surroundings.
It’s a great way of finding characters and stories that you might otherwise miss if you keep your eyes trained only in front of you as you go about your day – and it feels authentic to readers, who can recognise raw truth in this kind of writing.
Who are some street poets, aside from yourself, we should keep a look out for when we’re next walking the streets of the city?
Look out for Boy Under the Bridge. He’s been doing the street poetry stuff even longer than I have – and his stuff is really uplifting, accessible and easy to read. I often find his poetry in Hosier Lane.
And lastly, what’s next for you? Are you working on anything at the moment you could share with us?
I’m actually working on a third book, once again, with my good friend Jay, who is currently living between England and a few other European countries. We wrote the first draft of the book shortly after he left Australia, over FaceTime while we were still in lockdown.
This book is street writing once more – and perhaps for the last time, at least for a little while. I can’t say too much, but I can say this: the whole book is set over one day, and our characters wander through Melbourne during the height of the 2021 lockdowns. So you’ll see brutal anti-lockdown protests, the intense division between Melburnians, and two hopeful artists trying to make sense of the world side-by-side. It’s all inspired by the truth as we saw it on our walks through the city.
Aside from this, I’m also trying to focus on helping my fellow Degraves Circle members get their works published in zines, anthologies and books published by the Back Shed Press – which we expect will properly kick off in 2024.
Jaidyn Luke Attard, ‘The Street Poet’, writes poetry and fiction inspired by his life as a street wanderer and observer in Melbourne/Naarm. He explores trauma and paranoia with a raw edge, often deliberately breaking literary conventions. His punkish paste-up poetry can be found on various laneway walls in the city. His spoken-word films can be found on YouTube. In 2021 he co-wrote ‘There’s a Tale to This City’, dropping out of his Master’s degree in publishing to dedicate more time to writing. He went on to found the underground collaborative writer’s collective, the Degraves Circle, as well as his own independent publishing press, Back Shed Press.
Find him at jaidynpoetry.com, @jaidynpoetry or on Substack. Buy a copy of his book here.
Elaine Chennatt is a writer, educator and psychology student currently residing in nipaluna. She has a special interest in bibliotherapy (how we use literature to make sense of our lives) and is endlessly curious about the creative philosophies of others. She lives with her husband and two bossy dachshunds on the not-so-sunny side of the river (IYKYK). Find her online at wordswithelaine.com.
