TWiSK #364

$11M St Kilda Library Redevelopment abandoned?
Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir @ Espy
Mother’s Day Jazz @ Memo
Frank O’Connor’s eulogy for Fr Bob

Scroll down for Council stories, they are after the events!

Keep Fit with Bollywood @ Artful Yoga (1 Vale Street)
Weekly on Mondays starting 8 May, 6.30-7.30pm
For five weeks Jhoom Bollywood will take you through a step-by-step dancing workout, get fit and have fun! $150 for five sessions
More information 
Comedy Club @ Espy Basement
Monday 8 May, 7.30 pm
Every Monday, hosted by Ty Gray. Free
Info
No Wheelchair access

Liar Liar @ Espy basement
Thursday 11 May, 8 pm
“3 well-versed musicians pushing sound barriers to the extreme with a mash of garage rock/post-punk.”
Info

Wings of Desire @ Astor
Friday 12 May, 7 pm
German Film Festival screening: Wim Wender’s heartfelt opus Wings of Desire offers a black & white cinematic symphony of emotion.
Featuring appearances by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds along with the brilliant Peter Falk as himself, the production occurred just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, with the art and music of the period and region heavily influencing Wenders.
Other German Film Festival offerings at the Astor are
Sunday 14 May Liebeslieder: Einsturzende Neubauten
Tuesday 16 May: Decoder
Friday 19 May: Christiane F.
Astor  | German Film Festival 

Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir present ‘Disco Faith Express’ @ Espy Gershwin
Friday 12 May, 8 pm
Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir are set to move you. Born with a dream to impact the world, the Disco Faith Choir was the brainchild of Sunshine, renowned DJ and producer, who fused her infectious club-ready house and techno vision with a live gospel choir. $50
Tix

Interesting Cowboy & The Hanging Fruit @ George Lane
Friday 12 May, 7 pm – 11 pm
Interesting Cowboy and the Hanging Fruit are made up of Tim Rizzoli (The Voice), Stacey Gray, Tom Kende, Scott Rice, Pete Soultanidis.
Tix
Saturday Seminar – A Life in Botanic Gardens @ U3A PP Zoom
Saturday 13 May, 2.30 pm – 3.30 pm
Professor Tim Entwisle will talk about his life as a botanist and in botanic gardens, based on his 2022 memoir Evergreen: The Botanical Life of a Plant Punk.
Tim has been Director and Chief Executive of Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria since 2013, following two years in a senior role at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and eight years as Executive Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust in Sydney.
Info and link
Urban Wine Walk 2023 @ St Kilda
Saturday 13 May 
Urban Wine Walk is a self-guided wine-tasting experience across some of St Kilda favourite drinking holes
Sold out
www.urbanwinewalk.com.au
Celebrate Pat Grainger’s Port Life @ Port Melbourne Town Hall
Saturday 13 May, 11.30 am – 2.00 pm
Friends, family and members of the Port Melbourne Historical and Preservation Society invite you to socialise, reminisce and admire Pat’s contribution to community and civic life since settling in Station Street in 1983.
RSVPs have closed.
333 Bay Street, Port Melbourne
Lift access available
Collage & Clay: New works by Amanda Proctor & Kate Wilkins @ Bright Space
Saturday 13 May 2-5pm, exhibition until 27 May
Gentle works inspired by nature and travels within this island.
InfoThe 64 Falcon @ St Kilda Sports Club
Saturday 13 May, 7.30 pm
Free

Henry Lawson’s words, John Schumann’s music @ Memo
Saturday 13 May, 7 pm
Now Lawson – A Life in Words and Music will be brought to life on stage with John Schumann and The Vagabond Crew performing the album in its entirety, with an emotional and compelling narrative delivered by South Australian ABC broadcaster and journalist, David Bevan. $70 / $60 /$50
Tix

RJ Andrew @ George Lane
Saturday 13 May, 7 pm – 11 pm
Richard Andrew (aka RJ Andrew) is probably best known as the ‘whirlwind of arms’ behind the drum kit for Melbourne’s legendary Underground Lovers and past member of Black Cab, Crow, a touring member of The Scientists and has also fronted Registered Nurse.
Tix

Three classy singers on Mother’s Day @ Memo
Sunday 14 May, 2 pm
Enjoy a Mum’s Day afternoon with three great local singers; Nichaud Fitzgibbon, Nina Ferro and Julie O’Hara accompanied by one of the hottest swinging quartets. All class. $50/45/30+bf
Tix

Tijuana Surf @ Espy Basement
Sunday, 14 May, 6 pm
“Straight out of the dusty hell of some forgotten border town, Tijuana Surf, the R&B Surf Soul combo that exceeds the sound barrier of groove and swing.”
Info
Nature in Relief Group Exhibition @ Space2b
Until Sunday 27 May
Eleven artists come together to exhibit their recent 3D Bass clay works, created during a Space2b workshop led by Artist Leila Ashtiani. Using traditional Iranian building techniques, each artist has touched on themes such as nature, religion and connection. An exciting new ceramic clay wall mural will also be unveiled in our laneway
More information
Selling Kabul @ Red Stitch
Until Sunday 21 May
Australian Premier of a Pulitzer nominated drama that powerfully portrays the humanity and courage of one Afghan family, and asks ‘what would you do to save another person’s life?’ Brett Cousins directs this work by New Yorker Sylvia Khoury with a local cast including Claudia Greenstone, Khisraw Jones-Shukoor, Nicole Nabout and Farhad Zaiwala.
Tix
Opposite the Astor Theatre
Access is limited – contact box office
Candy Nelson Nakamarra @ Vivien Anderson Gallery
Until 27 May
This Candy Nelson Nakamarra’s first solo show in Melbourne, and she will be travelling to Melbourne for the opening event, opened by John Kean, curator, writer, Papunya Tula art advisor from 1977-1979, and friend of the artist.
“The exhibition will feature nine major multidimensional paintings that uniquely energize the ancient and abiding songline of Kalipinypa as taught to the artist by her late father, the eminent Papunya Pioneer, Johnny Warangkula Tjupurrula.”
Info
284–290 St Kilda Road
Tuesday to Friday 11 am — 5 pm, Saturday 12 pm — 4 pm
Access is limited
Facing Up @ Theatre Works
Wednesday 3 May – Saturday 13 May, 7 pm
Facing Up is truth telling theatre about Australian policy and attitudes towards First Nations people from federation to the present. This is juxtaposed by a parallel story of Indigenous protest, a rarely acknowledged historical sequence; the creation of a nation at the expense of the disintegration of many others. Both histories contain direct quotations, summaries of government action and law.
Facing Up is delivered with a lot of emotion and meaning to the actors involved. The combination of officialdom and deeply emotional moments are presented in a rhythmical pattern utilising repetition, symbolism and straight talking. 45 minutes followed by Q&A. $45 / $35 / $20
Tix 
Video trailer 

Next week 15 May – 21 May

No Laughing Matter Podcast Launch @ Alex
Wednesday 17 May, 6.30 pm
No Laughing Matter is a podcast series on intra-familial child sexual abuse (incest).
With nearly 30 short stories of victim/survivors, they are narrated by well-known voices of comedians, media and sport personalities.
The opening event MC is Adam Hills, with Keynote Speaker Tracy Adams CEO Kids Helpline, and live oerformaces by Rachel Berger & Luke Heggie with music by Peter Northcote, plus interviews with Tanya Lee OAM & Dr Russ Pratt – Forensic Psychologist. $60
Tix
1/135 Fitzroy St
Moth @ Theatre Works
Wednesday 17 May – Saturday 3 June, Tues – Sat 7.30pm
“An action-packed graphic-novel fiction fantasy erupting on the stage, Moth is a love-letter to every teen… and to those who used to be.”
This funny and heart breaking two-hander starts as just another night drinking but soon gives way to an ecstatic vision that leaves fifteen-year-old Sebastian unconscious and his only friend, Claryssa, gone. Suitable for ages 15+ $50/$42
Tix 
14 Acland Street, St Kilda.

Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission @ Memo
Friday 19 May, 7 pm
The release of “Where Only Memory Can Find You” marks the return to the fray of Mick’s former Weddings, Parties, Anything bandmate, violinist Jen Anderson – joining founding WPA accordion player Mark “Squeezebox Wally” Wallace in the Roving Commission ranks. Together with Brooke Taylor, who also happens to be a recent addition to Mick’s Roving Commission. $50/45/35+bf
Tix
88 Acland St
Accessible venue with wheelchair booking options
Richard Clapton’s 50th Anniversary @ Palais
Friday 19 May, 8 pm
Richard Clapton and his merry band of old mates / excellent musicians will be playing the whole show (two sets). $99
Tix

Robert Forster ‘The Candle and The Flame’ Album Launch @ Memo
Saturday 20 May, 7 pm
From Go Betweens to the world, Robert is a class act and stylish man. $55/48/43
Tix
The Bloody Long Walk @ ending in St Kilda
Sunday 21 May, 6 am to 6 pm
A 35 km fundraiser for Mito disease research and cure from northside to St Kilda.
Get walking

Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party @ Espy
Thursday 25 May, 6 pm
You know he can act, but can he rock? Find out for yourself. With Russell Crowe, The Gentlemen Barbers, Janet Devlin, Lorraine O’Reilly & Myth of Her. $55
Tix
Fire and Food Truck Carnival @ South Beach Reserve
Saturday  27 May –  Sunday 28 May, 12 pm to 10 pm daily
Flame Fest and Food Truck, beer and performance, beachside jollies.
Early bird tix $15 Adults and $10 Kids – 4 years and younger Free 
Tix
Christ Church St Kilda’s Trivia Night @ Middle Park Bowling Club
New date Saturday 27 May, 6 pm for 7 pm start
BYO nibbles & food. Drinks (alcoholic, soft drinks) must be purchased from the bar (no BYO). $30
Please book on website  (no walk-ups)

Knitting Circle with Kate Just @ Linden
Saturday 20 May, 11.30 am – 1 pm
Your last chance to be part of a live knitting circle, connecting with your community while contributing to artist Kate Just’s latest art project entitled Conversation Piece.
Extended from Just’s exhibition Self Care Action Series, this public knitting circle celebrates the rich traditions of women crafting textiles collectively and creates space for participants of all genders to engage with conversations, share stories, and generate something powerful as a community. All materials provided and free.
Bookings and info

Fr Bob was universally loved and admired.
He used humour and irreverence as weapons of mass instruction.

Frank O’Connnor Eulogy at Friday’s State Funeral

“It’s sometimes hard to comprehend how a young lad from an impoverished upbringing in Prahran, with a drunken father, orphaned at 15, has ended up having a State Funeral here in this magnificent Cathedral.”
“He might have argued that he wanted as few interactions as possible with Head Office, as he called it. But this celebration is what he deserves after 63 years as a priest, preacher, raconteur, rebel, but mostly as a doer and an inspiration to so many people.
“He had empathy in spades for the unloved and the unlovely, and for those who were doing it tough. His passion was to make the world a fairer place.
“The late Fr Ted Kennedy once used an expression in relation to somebody else which I think fits Fr Bob perfectly: ‘He has swallowed the Gospel whole’. What made him special and so loved was that he lived it.
“The base metal of the Gospels may have been the source of the tools hewn by Fr Bob, but he dipped them in humour and irreverence to make them more effective as weapons of mass instruction.
“We know he has done so much and he has inspired so many others to follow that path. The world is a better place because of his work. But as Fr Bob would say, there is still much to be done and we have such little time to achieve it.
“Time for you Fr Bob to rest in eternal peace and may your messages and inspiration over the years continue to drive us and the broader community to get on with the work.”
Read full text of Frank O’Connor’s eulogy to Father Bob
Watch full service on YouTube (Frank starts at 25 minutes)
Uncle Vanya @ Theatre Works
From 7 – 17 June
This June, multi-award-winning director Bronwen Coleman (Dirt, Naomi, Ignis) and the Anthropocene Play Company breathe immediacy and new life into Anton Chekhov’s renowned classic, Uncle Vanya. Performed by Dion Mills, Pia O’Meadhra, Alex Marshall, Sebastian Gunner, Catherine Morvell, Ismail Taylor-Kamara, Clare Larman, Helen Doig, and Thilan Ahangama. $45 with some tix $20
Bookings
TWiSK has 2 double passes for readers at the 7:30 pm show on Thursday 8 June.
Email before 16 May with subject “Uncle Vanya”  to go in the draw for a double pass.


A month of extra Pride @ Pride
From 1 June
Pride has programmed a big month of extra activities in June which is Pride Month. They’ve got something happening every day.
Full program
Minus 18 @ Library
Now planned for Pride Month in June
Rescheduled from May to June. Learn about LGBTQIA+ identities, concepts, and terminology, and discover ways to support diversity. Plus, create your own badges and enjoy delicious snacks!
Suitable for high school aged teens. LGBTQIA+ folk and allies welcome. 
Details TBC
St Kilda Film Festival @ St Kilda and South Melbourne
Thursday 1 June – 12 June
Starting at the Palais and then moving to host most screenings at the Astor, the SKFF focuses on short films.
Highlights include: Australian Comedy Showcase; International Family Animation Explosions (kids free); Australian Documentary Showcase; and Made in Vic
Strangely (as if there were no suitable locations in the eponymous ‘hood), this year SKFF also has a range of screenings in bars and hidden venues in South Melbourne.
Program now on line 
Entries are open @ Seniors Festival Writing Awards
Entries close Friday 30 June.
Entries are now open for Port Phillip Writes, an annual event that showcases the imagination, writing skills, and creative expression of local Seniors. It’s open to all Port Phillip residents, workers, and Library members aged 55 years and over.
For more information or if you require assistance to translate, type your entry, or any other enquiries please contact: portphillipwrites@portphillip.vic.gov.au
Application form 

Local and independent coverage
of Council news and decisions

Much needed St Kilda Library Redevelopment quietly abandoned

A deep dive into the draft Council budget and plan reveals how Council wants to quietly abandon a previously promised
$11m St Kilda Library Redevelopment.
In only 2021, Council budgets and plans included an $11M line item for the St Kilda Library Redevelopment due in 2026.
This was included after extensive community consultation about a city-wide library plan.
To quote from the plans distributed to the public, Council said this is what the community could expect in 2016:
“[In 2016] The redeveloped St Kilda Library is the City’s largest and most used library, with creative production capacity such as creative labs, an exhibition gallery and recording and rehearsal spaces. It is an iconic library destination seen as a benchmark for urban libraries in Australia”. 
The very same plan said:
“The St Kilda Library has had no major investment to increase floorspace in recent years and at many times of the day is operating at high capacity. This is likely to have contributed to the declining rate of visits as the population increases.”
Keen readers of the monthly Council CEO reports will know that visitor numbers to the St Kilda library have dived below expectations – but we don’t know by how much because the door counter has been broken for many, many months.
Yes, sad but true, and indicative of the sad state of the library.
From redevelopment to refurbishment
Now in the latest draft council budget, deep in the fine print is this Orwellian renaming of the library plans:
“Library Facilities Improvement Program (previously St Kilda Library Redevelopment) – the project has been broadened to cover all library facilities and spread out over the life of the 10-year plan. A library facilities improvement plan will guide the future expenditure.
In the interim this will fund minor refurbishment and replacement of furniture.”
But guess what, we don’t have a library facilities improvement plan as yet, as we found out when we asked Council these questions:
TWiSK’s questions to the Mayor about the St Kilda Library
What happened to the previously announced St Kilda Library Redevelopment (scheduled for 2026) $11,000,000 (Council Plan 21-31)?
Are there still plans to redevelop the St Kilda Library? If so when?
When and how where any changes to the $11m activity foreshadowed in the 10 year plan communicated to the community?
Where can we read the “library facilities improvement plan”?
Mayor’s response in full
Mayor Heather Cunsolo provided this response though her media team (reproduced in full)
“Our Library Action Plan 2021-2026 outlines Council’s plans to undertake a 10-year asset renewal and redevelopment program to meet the growing and changing needs of Port Phillip residents. This includes:
– Refurbishing St Kilda Library to increase flexibility of spaces, and to integrate a creative production focus.
– Refreshing other library branches to enhance their local character and service delivery, to accommodate where possible more programming, technology, gaming and spaces for creativity.
– Exploring options to extend community access to Library spaces utilising technology and infrastructure differently.
– Identify and new library builds required in developing communities.
– Developing engaging and interactive children’s areas at all branches that provide opportunities for programming, collaboration and parents/carers coming together.
The Library Facility Improvement Program includes improvements and upgrades required to all five libraries, including the St Kilda Library. Our Council will be able to provide an update on the program of works later this year.
In the meantime, we continue to undertake maintenance, repair, and programmed renewal of Council library facilities, updates to its collections and renewal of furniture to ensure these much loved community facilities continue to provide valuable services.”
Readers, are you feeling any more informed about the $11m St Kilda Library plan?

What hope for an $11M St Kilda Library as promised?
TWiSK editorial

On background, a councillor (and other sources) have told TWiSK that the $11m library redevelopment was not an expansion of library services but actually an expansion of council office space – with much of the new space to be occupied by bureaucrats rather than librarians.
Tricky, seems we were being asked to judge a book by its cover!
Eventually the plans were buried, but on the QT.
But the fact remains, the community was promised a better St Kilda Library in the order of $11M but all we are getting is another plan yet to be revealed.
Shabby but not so chic
Regular visitors to the St Kilda Library don’t need to be told how run down it looks and feels.
The once fashionable ‘brutalist’ architecture now looks more like Soviet style office space or the set for a low budget 1980’s TV show.
It’s embarrassing, its crowded and it’s behind the times.
Both the staff and visitors deserve better.
And now three years into the library plan, the promise of creative production capacity such as podcast studios seems like a cruel broken promise.
Big on plans, poor on delivery
Annually, the community is asked to sign off on council budgets and plans.
We are asked to attend meetings, fill in feedback forms, go to pop-consultations and earnestly wade though pages of strategy plans.
This process and the community’s input seems futile if the outcomes can change without notice and on the sly.
Redevelopment downgraded to refurbishment
As illustrated in this case, Council can not bring itself to say that the plans to deliver the $11m redevelopment of the St Kilda Library have been scrapped, cancelled, abandoned or dropped – equally they wont say clearly that its going to happen.
Instead, redeveloped became refurbished. St Kilda Library became all libraries.
And ominously, the carrot of a new library elsewhere gets added to the mix.
Seems if we want something new or better, we may need to move to Fishermans Bend.
Greg Day
Happy to chat anytime 0418 345 829
Content suggestions and community questions are always welcome.
gday@archives.gdaystkilda.com.au
Recent editions
Monday 1 May – Sunday 7 May
Monday 24 April – Sunday 30 April
Monday 17 April – Sunday 23 April
Monday 10 April – Sunday 16 April

This Week in St Kilda respectfully acknowledges the Traditional Owners of this land, the people of the Kulin Nations. We pay our respect to their Elders, past and present. We acknowledge and uphold their continuing relationship to this land.

TWiSK is always free and proudly independent. 
Subscribe for free or with a voluntary option of paid support from $5 per month or $50 annually
Venues are also invited to subscribe