Teach

I teach in two capacities. First, at the Australian Writers’ Centre (AWC). More information here. Second, a music journalism class I developed.

My music journalism class is offered in the below formats.

Full-day course
I ran the course in the full-day format for Guardian Australia in Sydney and Melbourne. I ran it as part of the Blak Critics program at Yirramboi Festival and independently for Music Tasmania as part of Game Changers: Celebrating Women in Music.

Four-hour workshop
Part of Dark Mofo festival in Hobart.

One-hour presentation
Presented at South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. Class description here.

Evening workshops
I was hired by Information + Cultural Exchange (I.C.E) in Parramatta to deliver two 3-hour evening sessions to a group of 14 young, female, transgender and non-binary people who are part of the Parramatta-based New Age Noise Collective (a program of I.C.E).

Please contact me directly if you’d like me to run the course for you or your organisation/festival: contact@thesmallestroom.com.au

TESTIMONIALS:

“Kate Hennessy ran her music journalism course in May 2019 for 14 young female, transgender and non-binary people who are part of the Parramatta-based New Age Noise Collective (a program of Information + Cultural Exchange).

Kate’s course was thorough, engaging and tailored to the group of young people she was working with. The entire Collective gained insight into the world of journalism and had multiple opportunities to put Kate’s teachings into practice.

Kate was generous with her time and feedback, and she ensured the course was adapted to fit the specific needs and focus areas of the New Age Noise Collective.

All of the participants (myself included) left feeling empowered by the knowledge and skills Kate shared.”
Morgan Graham – Producer, Youth Engagement, Information and Cultural Exchange [I.C.E.]. 

“Thanks for giving your talk, it inspired me to come back to this medium that I love so much.”
Sam Jackson (Texas)

“I learnt so many things and I liked that the day covered live music, CDs and interviews. I feel like it was a thorough look at how to best write for those different music industry areas. It was great to have the practical activities and class interaction.  I liked the real-life examples and the subsequent discussion around use of words and structure. I am practising these points as I write my articles for our newsletters here.”
Helen (Hobart)

“I did a ‘Writing about Music’ course through my current University and I was severely let down. I mostly learnt about how to write a bio as a musician, nothing about how to write about music in a journalist sense. Kate Hennessy taught me more in a day than that course did in 10 weeks. Kate was thorough and covered every aspect of music journalism that I want to focus on. Whilst Kate covered all aspects, she went into depth on various sections of music journalism such as reviews and interviews which were incredibly useful to an aspiring music journalist like myself. Not only was it useful, this day was a hell of a lot of fun as well. This course not only helped me develop the basic skills to be a good music journalist, but helped me create my path to become a great music journalist.”
Mackenzie (Hobart)

“Thanks so much for your truly insightful, candid, and very thorough presentation on Writing About Music. It was so valuable!”
Ryan Rhea (St. Louis)

“I thought it was a really, enjoyable & inspiring day which I hope to get the most out of.” 

Anonymous (Sydney)

“I loved the course. Kate was so amazing as a teacher. I feel rejuvenated after having attending this course.”
Anonymous (Melbourne)

“I was particularly impressed by Kate Hennessy. She is an exquisite writer, the kind who offers beautifully dense sentences that make you stop, look up from the screen, exhale, and savour the insight. What’s more, she’s proudly feminist and I found that particularly inspiring as a Blak and gay man.

What I loved most about her masterclass was she had thought about us as Blak Critics and how we might learn from her teachings, but also how our skill and expertise as Aboriginal people might best be employed.

To do this she asked us to review a review she’d written on an Aboriginal musician and the resulting discussion was like witnessing fireworks. We acknowledged the difference between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal perspectives and the baggage we each have (yep, white mob have baggage too); how the arts can often be seen as a space for both solidarity and division; how the arts was still bound by a non-Indigenous agenda that upheld another imposing paradigm as the benchmark, to the detriment of Aboriginal art & culture in some respects; we discussed Reconciliation and its political and social shortcomings; and the role of Aboriginal artists, multicultural audiences and reviewers in creating a dialogue; we discussed values. All from a simple yet considered exercise that empowered all of us, including Kate.”

Bryan (Melbourne)

“Thank you for the informative presentation. Your session was really helpful for framing live reviews.”
Jaison Oliver (Texas)