Brisbane's Green It Up
By Lynda Hansen
BRISBANE — What do you get when you mix healthy politics, live music, poetry and Guinness? It's called Green It Up and it happens every Thursday Night at the Brisbane Celtic Club.
Green It Up is a fundraiser for Green Left Weekly. The event is backed by a tireless fundraising committee, which also coordinates regular film nights and famous solidarity dinners.
Green It Up provides the public with an evening of political information mixed with a diversity of talented performance artists. It's the only venue in Brisbane that holds open platform featuring visiting activists speaking on current issues.
One of our biggest nights was in celebration of the NOWSA conference in July: more than 200 women from interstate were entertained by a bevy of female performers, highlighting a range of women's issues. Green It Up supported the NOWSA collective in a special benefit night to raise funds for the bus crash victims from the conference and raised $700 to assist in medical expenses. All artists gave their performance for free.
With ongoing support from the fundraising committee and other activists, Green It Up will continue to function as an essential avenue of political awareness in Brisbane.