Vale Candy Royalle

The award-winning poet, performer and activist has died aged 37, after years of struggling with ovarian cancer.
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Candy Royalle. Photo credit: Nicola Bailey Photography

Remembered as unflinchingly honest, a force of nature, eloquent, passionate and fiercely talented, Sydney-based poet, performer, storyteller, educator and activist Candy Royalle died on Saturday 23 June aged 37.

In a statement of her Facebook page the following day, Royalle’s family said: ‘She passed … in peace, after years of struggling with her illness. For those of you lucky enough to know Candy or see her perform, you would know that her strength, power, conviction, and all encompassing love was beyond anything that can be described, so we will not try now.’

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts