Using performative poetry to inform change practice

Storytelling is foundational to my practice as a change facilitator in a regional Australian University. The focus of this paper is on how writing and performing poetry and stories has enhanced my practice. This work stemmed from my doctoral studies in which I interviewed other internal change practitioners to find out more about and to improve our practice. Practice stories emerged from these interviews. I used fragments of these stories, of my experiences and those of a change agent in another Australian University (Sommerville & Vella 2015) to produce poetry. I have performed one poem titled The Shapeshifter in a number of forums where the meaning of the poem in relation to change practice has been explored. My poems throw light on the political and personal lives of internal change practitioners. My performative poetry is written based on the performative autoethnographic methodology of Tami Spry (Spry 2011a). This offers practitioners a method for writing and performing poetry to sustain practice.