Zenobia Frost captivates audiences with original poems — eerie Brisbane tableaux, unexpected love stories, humorous self-portraits — and the occasional cover. In 2012, she toured with the Queensland Poetry Festival Regional Roadshow, after making her national debut with the Arts Queensland Touring Poets Program in 2009. At home, she appears all over the place — as attendee, performer, or engaging MC. Hobbit-height Zen has microphone-lowering down to a fine art.
Reviewing for Stilts, Aimee Lindorff writes: “They call you a graveyard poet. It’s a sombre title… But you bound to the mic in teal with your purple hair, and read with a fervour that belies your designation. Your dress is amazing and your prose is striking. A certain melancholy mixed with longing and nostalgia. Voices of the dead fill Riverbend like mist. It’s a celebration, a lament painted in the warm glow of memory. Your prose is honest, open, and urgent, and there’s something intoxicating about the spaces you paint.”
Zenobia recently made her cabaret debut with The Ragtag Band and Lady Marlene at West End’s The Loft. Tash D., over at Brisbane’s Factory Diaries, said they created “an eerie atmosphere that was dark, intriguing and, at times, really funny.”
Upcoming gigs
- Alchemy, Brisbane Square Library, 17 May, 5.30pm
Riverbend Poetry Series, Feb. 2013
Photo by Sarah Gory
Past performances
Deadly Nightshade Cabaret (with The Ragtag Band), The Hideaway (May 2013)
Whispers, State Library Cafe (Mar. 2013)
Riverbend Poetry Series 1, Riverbend Books (Feb. 2013)
My Vicious Valentine, presented by Lady Marlene, The Loft (Feb. 2013)
Poets Up Late, Wynnum Library (Dec. 2013)
Raw Poet Roar, The Box, West End (Dec. 2012)
Fresh: Poetry & Burlesque, Brisbane Square Library (Oct. 2012)
FreeVerse: Page Vs Stage, State Library of Queensland (Oct. 2012)
Voices in My Head, Melbourne (Sept. 2012)
West End Block Party, Brisbane (Sept. 2012)
Queensland Poetry Festival Regional Roadshow (2012)
Queensland Poetry Festival (2007, 2009, 2010, 2011)
Arts Queensland Touring Poets Program (2009)
Tasmanian Poetry Festival (2009)
From a Dying Land, Crossbows Festival (2012)
SPOKEN, State Library of Queensland (2012)
Pin a Poet Down, Brisbane (2012)
Brisbane Writers Festival (2006)
Passionate Tongues, Melbourne (2009, 2011)
The Spinning Room, Melbourne (2009)
Poetry at the Guildford Hotel, Castlemaine (2010)
Words or Whatever, Black Star Cafe, Brisbane (2010, with Madrigal Maladies)
SpeedPoets, Brisbane (2007, 2010 with Madrigal Maladies)
Riverbend Books: Poetry on the Deck, Brisbane (2009)
Under a Daylight Moon, Brisbane (2009)
Contraverse, Brisbane (2009)
No Frontiers, Brisbane (2008)
The Poetry Express, Brisbane
Poets for Pride, Brisbane
Not Aloud in the Library, Brisbane
Emceeing
Queensland Poetry Festival (2007–2012)
Postmodern Picnic, Brisbane (2008)
Gentlemen’s Tea Party (2009)
