Perth Voice Interactive

A SPACE for “celebration, resistance, and community” will be opening at the Fremantle Fibonacci Centre this weekend at the latest iteration of Chilli Jam Open Mic. 

Held on the first Saturday of every month, CJOM is a platform for poetry, stories, and music, with a focus on amplifying diverse voices who have “been marginalised” by Perth’s existing open mic scene. 

Chilli Jam was founded by acclaimed Singaporean writer and creative Judith Huang and her partner, Bobby Liow in an effort to “shake things up” and actively create a space for diverse musicians, poets, comedians, and writers to share their work. 

Ms Huang is a three-time winner of UK Poetry Society’s Young Poet of the Year, and has graduated in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard. 

Her 2018 novel Sofia and the Utopia Machine was shortlisted for the Epigram Books Fiction Prize and the Singapore Book Awards, and Mr Liow is a comedian and spoken-word poet under the stage name Bobby Sun. 

There’s long been an issue with diversity and inclusion in the Perth writing scene according to Ms Huang, who describes it as “quite cliquey” and “very old, white, and straight”. 

“When I came to Perth, I realised I had to start from scratch, because nobody cares if you’ve been published elsewhere… it’s actually really hard for somebody who is of a different background to get published here. 

“I’ve found that the attitude of a lot of writers here have been that if you’re not published in Perth, you’re no one to us… it doesn’t matter what the quality of your work is. 

“I mean, I’m published in many anthologies and have my own book out, and it felt like people were patronising towards me because of my race… it was exhausting.” 

The idea for Chilli Jam was borne when Ms Huang performed as a resident poet at the Perth Poetry Festival, where she performed a love poem for Mr Liow called We Are Just Two Hats Together in a Rainstorm at the festival’s finale. 

Confidence

“It brought the house down,” Ms Huang said. 

“It just gave me the confidence to try and start our own thing and see whether people join me, because I know my work is good.” 

The first iteration of Chilli Jam 2025 is happening this Saturday, and will feature performers Ange Yang, Juan Mora, Ross Belton, Suraj, Sophie Burrow, as well as Ms Huang and Mr Liow. 

It’s “so important” for performers to have a safe space to share their work which can often be an incredibly personal experience, according to Ms Huang. 

“You’re really bearing a bit of your soul to the audience, and sometimes you do that without knowing anyone there,” she said. 

“I wanted to create a space where people feel safe to present new work, and work that is very meaningful to them, where they will not be judged… if we keep feeling excluded from [the existing] spaces, then we have no space to perform.

“My primary aim is to form a community through having these events where we can have creative exchange and just enjoy each other’s work.” 

In performing more dynamic and culturally diverse work, Ms Huang hopes Chilli Jam will cater for an audience who can appreciate having their stories told in a communal and understanding environment. 

“We try to publicise our events so that we can reach people who normally wouldn’t think of coming to a poetry, music, or stories event,” she said. 

“We have had some pretty decent ticket sales so there is definitely a market for it.”

The next iteration of Chilli Jam Open Mic will be held at the Fremantle Fibonacci Centre today (Saturday, February 1) at 6.30pm. 

Tickets are available via Humanitix.

by KATHERINE KRAAYVANGER