A new era for Slama

Today I have all the feels as I am ready, nervous, humbled and excited to announce that after producing 35 Slamalamadingdong events in the span of five years, it is time for me to step out of my role as the main Producer and hire a new passionate fire keeper (or two) committed to taking Slama in a new direction and to new heights which serve our community at large, our crew and the Poets in Melbourne and beyond.

It's been some of the most fantastic experiences of my life and OH MY the valuable lesson's I've learned personally and professionally. Keeping a monthly event going while continuing to keep the vibe ablaze as well as the personal motivation to keep going has been a huge challenge. I've pushed myself to burn out, pulled all nighters to get grants in and I've taken risks and been the most vulnerable I've ever been on stage and off. It's really helped me to realize what it means to be in the ring on the regular and how to maintain and unite my integrity, service and passion. Keeping these bits of myself intact while always remembering to bring everything I did from my heart, from what mattered most.

This connected me to a deeper lineage of Poets and Artists in history who have always fought for evolving and transforming our social sphere. And this ... this is simply more than I ever expected to understand and experience. It's one of the things that makes life real for me and something I'm ready to cultivate and gift to the next Slama creator that is ready and willing. There have literally been so many local artists, buisness owners, friends and audience members that have been the life line to keeping me going, supporting our mission and by golly even stepping in when times got pretty tough for me. Like that time when Morganics immediatly swooped in to host the 2014 Season Finals and the whole crew ran the show without me while I was in Canada taking care of my dear Papa. And Meena Shamaly, making sure my video message got played. All the little technical tasks we'ved all completed in order to do the best job possible. That's when you know you've built a family, and it was extremely humbling. I get really emotional when I look back on photos from the past five years, re-live the ups and downs and reflect on how much we grew and what we achieved. Slama's success is indebted to Artists and people who do what they do for the pure love of expressing our voices in a way that heals us all as a collective. Purely just doing it- is a stunning act of bravery. Standing to a room and saying "this is who I am." In October 2015, the crew and community gave me a huge gift by taking care of most of the production tasks so that for the first time I could do a feature set on the Slama stage. It was an insane experience to have felt that supported and to be able to recieve something I've been creating for so many years, but from an audiences/feature artist perspective. I recon that's a pretty sweet seat to sit in and I'm so grateful that I got to have that so freely and calmly, fully trusting in my team and fellow collaborators. Honestly. Sometimes, I do that "Live Your Own Funeral" exercise and I try to reflect on what I'd be remembered by. I know that to date, Slama has been a noteworthy achievement in my life and I would really hope you'd all have a huge amount of Love Swamp Slama vibes and spoken word performance with music at my farewell shindig- but I also know, there's a big fat slice of myself that has stayed in the backseat, martyred herself at times to keep the circle of Slama alive and thriving. Essentially, it's my duty and responsiblity to stay true and bring the biggest version of Michelle Alina Dabrowski to the forefront. Of course, I ain't really goin nowhere- infact I'll probably be MORE PRESENT as I am really excited to be involved in Slama's evolution from more of a mentorship role, supporting and training the new Producer/s and stepping in to help out each month at the live event. This will also mean that with the monthly event is taken care of as I'll be more available for creating programming outside of the monthly event calendar like workshops and other bigger showcase shows.

So all of you Slama heads from 2011-2016, I hope you'll join me in this new era for Slama. Spread the word that we're hunting down the right person to step into a Creative Producer role and have a look at the Position Description and relevant documents on our website and social media channels. The deadline to apply is March 1st and interviews with myself and members of the slama crew will occur in the weeks directly afterwards. Yes, this is a paid role and will be deeply fulfilling, creatively/professionally enriching and life changing for our new captain or captainess of the ship. Sign up to our newsletter at www.slamalamadingdong.com.au and get ready to hear lots of big news about this coming year and what's on offer. All Love and Light, Michelle Alina Dabrowski