By Dave Riley
BRISBANE — The days when Fortitude Valley was the major local night spot have passed. It's slim pickings down Brunswick Street, the main thoroughfare, in these times of recession after the Fitzgerald Inquiry. Nightclub sparkle, neon and glitz have been replaced by a seediness relieved only by real estate hoardings.
Nonetheless, near a five-way intersection across from the Glad Tidings Tabernacle is the home of the Irish Republican movement — the Celtic Club. Each week the club is the venue for Brisbane's version of Cultural Dissent: Green It Up. Every Thursday from eight to late, it sports a unique evening of performance linked to Green Left Weekly.
"It's an alternative space where people can get together", says Maurice Sibelle, one of its organisers. "Green It Up is a cabaret atmosphere which allows people to meet each other and talk without having their ears blasted."
Free to GLW subscribers and a cheap $1.50 for others, entrance gives access to an intimate gathering and some of the cheapest drinks in town. The small stage is home to Brisbane's best alternative performance.
In its 18 months, Green It Up has grown in stature as a venue combining art and politics. As Sibelle puts it, "Green It Up is for new and alternative artists as well as for people who just want to make a political statement".
The mix seems to work. On stage the drift from song to poetry to soapbox oratory occurs casually, without special ceremony, as the evening wears on. Anyone is invited to step up to the mike to entertain or arouse. The atmosphere is easy going and open to ready banter between stage and audience.
A few of the artists who have performed their music and song are Hot Potatoes, Ruth Apelt, Sister Moon, Chris Maver, Figment, the Fabulous Monesque, Ian Oliver, Allan Toovey, Lachlin Hurst and Sue Monk; Duncan Richardson, Willie Bach, Michael Abbot, John Dorkin and Peter Howard are among those who have read their poems at Green It Up.
Fadod Roshanbin, who runs the bar, considers the evening's open platform a highlight. "People can get up on stage and talk about any issue they want. Whatever is happening around the city — a rally, demonstration or picket — can be announced from the stage so that people get to know about it."
Sibelle agrees. "It's a venue for promoting political causes. We have had theme nights which look at particular issues. For example, we have had a night in solidarity with Central America, another as part of Gay Pride week. Some of our biggest nights are like this. Our women's S>IWD drew a huge crowd. These nights have a clear political message as well as promoting an alternative culture."
Part of the method of Green It Up involves extensive networking among many political campaigns and groups. Many nights are set aside as joint efforts with other organisations. The group concerned gets to promote itself through Green It Up as well as receiving a cut in the profits. Groups like People Against Rainforest Destruction, Friends of the Earth, the Aidex committee, CISLAC, Aksi and community radio station 4ZZZ have all been involved in this type of joint fundraising. Another is due soon with the Environmental Defenders.
Compared to what is on offer in the local pub scene, Green It Up's blend is very different. The partisan spontaneity of these nights is immensely appealing. For political activists, attendance is like touching home base to meet the like minded and recharge. For the newcomer, the lasting impression is of the vitality of the progressive movements in town and the vigour of their music and poetry. But the key ingredient is dedication to promoting an alternative niche that dares to insist that seeking difference does matter.
"It is a safe venue", says Sibelle, "a venue where you can be free to be gay, free to be black; you can be free to be whoever you are. You can hold a political opinion and you are not discriminated against. That's basically a condition of entry — there's no sexism, no racism, no homophobia."
"It does in a practical way", says Sibelle, "through the medium of performance art, what Green Left Weekly does through a newspaper."
Green It Up runs every Thursday from 8 p.m. at the Celtic Club, 264 Barry Parade, Fortitude Valley.