Support Tristan's Poetry Education!

Those of you that know me, know I have loved writing and improv a long time. I guess these come naturally for me, growing up in a comedy writer family.

I started writing my sports blog at age 14.  I got a bunch of followers reading my posts, and that really encouraged me to keep writing. (My mum even made sure I could see the important games all the way from Australia. )

Around the same time, I also  started to rap and record. My passion to rap is due to my passion for playing with language and spontanaiety. Mom noticed a bigger picture and helped me be able study at the world-reknown Idyllwild Arts summer camp and boarding school.

There I learned perfomance skills and to write non-fiction and fiction and poetry. I found that I really liked exercises in sub-concious writing, and reading the French Surrealist poets like Andre Breton and modern Surrealists like Zachary Schomburg. Performing my work also was hugely cool. I realized my humor, improv skills, imagination, and risk-taking could move an audience.

My ability to use language and theater in an unique way keeps expanding! I have plans! Join me!

Now back in Melbourne, I am striving to start a serious theater program to study acting, theater tech and design, and writing for the stage; I am enrolled in the preliminary class. 

Also, I am writing and working on a book of poems, titledToo Many People Talking About Infinity . I am almost finished. Then I will publish the book with Wild Idylls Press -- a small press focused on young writers.

The first goal of this fundraising will be spent to do the book design, cool graphics, and of course edits and spell checks!

The second goal of this is to raise funds for my poetry and continuing education.

This has been a really awesome experience. I feel like the book and poetry lessons really help me move forward with my other struggles. I don't do well in a regular classroom, but writing and improv seem to be my strengths...for instance, poetry helps me process and respond to the world in these crazy times.

The poet Katherine Factor has been mentoring me, helping me with writing prompts, revising, and reading lists . . . and lifeskills like what to eat for brain health and the importance of following-through.  I have learned a lot from her: performance tips, surrealist methods, prose poems, grammar, poetics, and visual art. All these things are so valuable in helping me devlop my own style of writing and performing.

This is what she wrote about me:

"Tristan demonstrates a love of poetry and a dedication to the art form that offers him an outlet for his emotions and observations, processing the loss of his father, his growing pains, astute observations, while also providing a platform for his advancing musical memory, a meditation on the world, and a format for him to make further fruitful connections. This deserves to be cultivated."

Plus, Kat is the book supervisor and I have a lot of work still to do writing, revising,  and completing the pre-production phase.  This fundraisier aims to raise funds to have her visit so I can continue learning pre-professional training in the arts, and so we can work on my performance skills, the book, its promotion, and distribution! 

Finally, I wish to continue connecting my poetry in with theater and spoken word studies. Through the spoken word community here, I discovered breathing techniques and and performing tips. My mom has been great taking me all over for open mics and spoken word workshops. I would be stoked to take more workshops and record a cd of my spoken word poems.

My poems and my rap and recording mixes can be found here -- I like to play around with sound, my voice, and strangeness: https://soundcloud.com/tristan-sather-1 

I will also be posting poems from the book and other stuff as updates on souncloud and this site. Stay tuned!

In order to get this lifted off the ground, though, we need funding.  The goal here is $16,000; the money will go toward mentoring (lifeskills, art, & writing) and book production (designer, printer, promotion, and distribution), continued poetry studies and theater coursework. Any extra money raised will go straight into a fund for continued mentoring, a writer's retreat, theater studies or other creative tools, submission fees for journals or contests, and for my 2nd book or project. 

What's cool is Gofundme.com is a platform that allows anyone to raise more (or less) than our goal.  We hope to outdo our goal so that I can continue my studies in Creative Writing while I work toward college.

Any  money is appreciated and will ensure I can keep pursuing poetry and improv and making connections in the world. Thank You! 

Tristan