Matcho Cassidy
“Matcho Cassidy is a hurricane force in the arts, if he’s not writing or performing poetry, he’s dancing, if he’s not dancing he’s dance fighting whilst thinking of writing.”
Performance Poet | Movement Artist | Events producer
A conceptual writer and performance poet, Matcho explores themes that are heart wrenching and thought-provoking. He dives into the divide of diaspora and brings to light POC-related issues that aren’t mainstream. He delves into the stigma and spectrum of being an artist while being introverted; creatively passionate; and spiritual.
A leader in the Adelaide Krump Community, Matcho has not only participated competitively inter-state, but has taught Krump in schools, community centres and juvenile prisons across South Australia.
Matcho is heavily involved in a range of art forms. He played the role of a zombie in the 2017 Australian film Cargo and filmed alongside Martin Freeman. He wrote for ActNow X State Theatre Company’s 2020 Ruby Award Winning Online Film Production Series Decameron 2.0. In 2021 Matcho Produced a twice sell out show Journey for Adelaide Fringe.
He has been the feature artist at Captain Rehab, Tenx9Adelaide, Ozasia’s Lucky Dumpling Market, The Hearth, Poetry & Prose, Al Salam Festival & Dithyrambia, Mixed Bag Poetry, Whitewalls Poetry (Manila, Philippines) and Word! (Leicester, UK). He was the Runner up in the Draw Your Swords Slam 2017 and voted People’s Champ for the Goowla Poetry Cup 2018.
Matcho has been a part of ActNow Theatre’s Theatre of The Global Majority since its inception. Together, they have put together a very deeply personal, cultural production which premiered at Sanaa Storytelling in February of 2020. It was also presented at Whyalla’s Unearth Festival 2021.
Matcho was the only SA artist that was shortlisted for the Diverse Arts Australia’s “I Am Not The Virus” project that focuses on art responding to xenophobia and racism. He created “Disease Prone” a film in collaboration with Nina Philips and can be seen on Diverse Arts Australia website: https://iamnotavirusaustralia.org.au/matcho-cassidy/
Soul Lounge Australia
Every month, you can find Matcho running Soul Lounge, a monthly poetry event exposing talent of People Of Colour and giving them a platform to perform. He took over Soul Lounge Adelaide in 2017, and has been running it ever since. He introduced themes, workshops, online challenges and videography.
Matcho has played a key role in expanding the scope of Soul Lounge Adelaide and now has created Soul Lounge Melbourne with dreams of it becoming a national poetry movement. Soul Lounge is a specialised space for People of Colour to share their poetry, thoughts, words, drafts and ideas. He plans to run collaborations and productions between cities.
Externally, Matcho has been involved in hosting and creating workshops for the community, whether it is Poetry Therapy, WTM: Writes To Mic, or just endeavours of Soul Lounge to help writers write and perform, feel confident in their voice and to truly be as much of themselves as possible. worked as the cultural event manager for Finsart Co and Sabayan Youth Filipino Events.
Matcho is ever so slowly working on his own book – Ellipsis: In-between the dots. The book revolves around Adelaide’s poetry community as well as including his analysis and transcript of how some of his poems came into being, how he feels about certain issues, and how his work transitioned from inception, development and ideology.
Get in touch
I am available for collaborations and talks worldwide. If you want to chat about poetry, community growth, Soul Lounge, or anything else, don’t hesitate in reaching out.
Matcho Cassidy 