Nico’s Artistic Revolution: Blending Genres, Challenging Myths, and Inspiring Change Through Flash Poetry

Chat session 167 with Nico

🎧 Catch Up Link

Topic- From Silence to Stage: Nico’s Story

Monday 10^th August 2026 1pm https://rppfm.com.au

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/5b9fb9_47440e8dba1a40f3baed2c994e243a4c/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Zoom Video chat session with Nico

Flash Poetry: A Philosorapper’s Journey 

Flash Poetry blends spoken word, hip hop and alt-rock instrumentation into lyrical epics — songs that pick fights with modern myths and middle-class anxieties, set to a live band rather than a backing track. 

The route here wasn't direct. Nico studied physics and journalism at university, worked as a copywriter, and only moved into poetry and freestyle full-time after that month of enforced silence in Colombia rerouted things.

Nico's lyrical journey began with a month of silence. While living in a remote community in the jungles of Colombia and working on a debut singer-songwriter EP, he was struck down by a debilitating lung infection. Unable to speak, he spent a month recovering in silence, the musical project halted indefinitely. Whatever else that month cost him, it also meant the world was spared, at least temporarily, from yet another straight man with an acoustic guitar.

Poetry filled the gap instead. What emerged became The Silent World That Won't Stop Talking — a collection that's since raised over $3,000 for the Fred Hollows Foundation through sales alone, with half its profits going to charity.

From IGA to TEDxMelbourne

In 2021, fresh off publishing that collection, Nico set up outside Warrandyte IGA and freestyled for shoppers. First hour's takings: thirty dollars. He quit copywriting for good shortly after, swapping a desk job for a folding table and whatever rhymes he could find on the spot.

Three years on, he returned to that same IGA car park, presumably a little more practised than the first-time round. A passer-by who liked what he heard became a friend, who later invited him to perform at the Winter Solstice Festival at Montsalvat, Eltham's old artist colony — a considerable step up from a supermarket forecourt.

The Montsalvat crowd was not, by any reasonable estimate, the audience for this. People in long coats stood by the fire with wine and cheese, the kind of gathering where the entertainment is usually a string quartet rather than a freestyle rapper working without a script. Nico performed anyway, for as long as the moment held, and it landed. A stranger in the crowd messaged him afterwards asking him to perform at her fiftieth birthday party. He bought a second-hand orange suit jacket from the Whittlesea Salvos and turned up to do exactly that.

At that party, he met someone who runs TEDxMelbourne. Ten days later, Nico was booked for the city's flagship TEDx stage. You can view his performance here. 

Moving forward

These days, Flash Poetry gigs multiple times a week, often in venues where nobody expects to see a freestyle rapper — libraries, councils, markets, the odd festival stage. He hosts an open mic in Collingwood and runs freestyle workshops, always looking to expand the impact of his lyrical and artistic passion. 

Flash Poetry is about using art as a platform not only to inspire, uplift & provoke thought, but as a catalyst for change in the community and beyond. His debut poetry collection ‘The Silent World That Won’t Stop Talking’ has raised over $3,000 for the Fred Hollows Foundation through book sales alone with 50% of all profits going to charity. In 2024, Flash Poetry raised $6.3k from the community & his supporters through the Flash Poetry  Kickstarter to fund his debut album Reality, Now, now culminating in a live band experience that has been playing to consistently packed venues this year.

Connect with Flash Poetry!

If you're keen to book in a date for a chat, here are all the links:

Official Website:  https://flashpoetry.com.au/ 

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/_flashpoetry_/

Linktree - https://linktr.ee/flashpoetry

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@flashpoetry

Spotify – Flash Poetry

Would love to connect and explore opportunities together!

My hope is that when you’re looking at yourself in the

‘The Daily Mirror’

YOU SMILE

EMBRACE BEING YOU

AND FIND 10 MINUTES IN YOUR DAY TO NOURISH YOUR SOUL!

To get in touch with Cathy email smileinthedailymirror@gmail.com 

'The Daily Mirror' acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and acknowledges and pays respect to their Elders, past and present.