We are so impressed with the quantity
and quality of the events happening all over New Zealand to celebrate this National Poetry Day on Friday 16 August, we thought we might do an all-on-one-blog summary of everything that is happening. From sidewalk chalking, to poetry slams; from poetry competition awards events, to journal launches; and from school events to an all out house-party, this Poetry day we’ve got it all.
The event descriptions are shortened versions of what is available here on our calendar. Many of these events you will need to RSVP or register for, please check the full information before heading off on your poetry adventure.
Nationwide
Auckland
Bay of Plenty
Hawke’s Bay
Wairarapa
Kapiti Coast
Hutt Valley
Wellington
Nelson
Christchurch
Dunedin
Southland
Nationwide
Poetry Phone 309.POEM
Call 09 309 POEM on National Poetry Day
Auckland
Landmarks with The Literatti
Voyager Maritime Museum, Viaduct, Auckland , 10.00am – 5.00pm
There is a Lunchtime Performance from 12.00 – 1.00pm
Join The Literatti at the Voyager Maritime Museum to experience innovative local performance poetry with a free lunch-time show while an all-day interactive poetry exhibit gives you the rare opportunity to read The Literatti’s work on the page and contribute to a collaborative poem being created by the public throughout the day.
Chalking Station Square Newmarket
Station Square Newmarket, 1.00-2.00pm
All welcome to write poetry on the paving. Chalk provided. Wet or fine. We are supported by Paper Plus (Newmarket).
Poetry Central 2013
Whare Wananga, Level 2, Auckland Central LIbrary, 44-46 Lorne Street, 5.30 – 7.00pm
Celebrate National Poetry Day with wine, poetry, performances, and prizes. Join us in celebrating National Poetry Day and the NZ Electronic Poetry Centre’s 12th birthday with live poetry readings by Janet Charman, Murray Edmond, Michele Leggott, Jack Ross, Lisa Samuels, Robert Sullivan, and New Zealand Post Book Awards finalists Ian Wedde, and Anne Kennedy.
Minarets Journal
USEC: Union Street Event Centre , 47 Union St, Auckland, 6.30 –10.00pm
Usual Suspects: Minarets 12–13
This National Poetry Day, Minarets Journal celebrates the success of its first year of quarterly publication (Issue 1, Aug 2012 – Issue 4, Jul 2013). This reading event features poets from all four issues.
The Divine Muses X Poetry Reading
Gus Fisher Art Gallery, 74 Shortland Street, Auckland 6.30 – 8.30pm
The Divine Muses, an annual poetry reading featuring a stellar line-up of New Zealand poets. The guest readers for Divine Muses X will be C. K. Stead, Albert Wendt, Riemke Ensing, Kiri Pihana Wong, Siobhan Harvey and MC, Rosetta Allen.
National Poetry Day House Party
Hum Salon, Grafton Bridge, 9.00pm – early hours of Saturday morning
To celebrate National Poetry Day Page2Stage and Printable Reality are hosting a house party at that big old mansion in Grafton. Prepare for adventures around every corner, down every hallway, and spilling out on to the lawn. Featuring arts & crafts with Raewyn Alexander in the Writing Room, and a special spoken word set from the infamous Tourettes in the Reading Room, a night of renegade madness and music awaits. $5 on the door R18
Hamilton
Open Mic Night
Garden Place Library, 9 Garden Place, Central Hamilton, 6.00 – 9.00pm
Join Poets Alive and special guests for a fantastic evening of poetry at Open Mic Night. Read one of your own or one written by one of your favourite poets or just listen to the work on offer.
Poetry & Spoken Word Slam
Stack, Garden Place Library, 9 Garden Place, Central Hamilton, 6.00 – 9.00pm
Poetry & Spoken Word Slam: Free to enter. Prizes & spot prizes .
Bay of Plenty
Having fun with poetry
Matahui Primary School, 10.00 – 11.00am
A visit to a primary school getting the children involved with different forms of poetry including lots of visual dues and movement.
Katikati Student Writers’ Club
Katikati College, 3.15 – 4.30pm
A visit to an after-school young writers’ group encouraging them to read their favourite poems, create poems and discuss the different forms of poetry.
Open Mic poetry Night at Kumeu Arts Centre
Kumeu Arts Centre, 300 Main Road, Huapai, 7.00 – 9.30pm
To celebrate National Poetry Day 2013 Kumeu Arts Centre is holding a Poetry ‘Open Mic Night’, all welcome to come along and recite your own or your favourite poetry or to hear other poetry. Poet, Dawn Kendall will be M.C for the evening.
Hawke’s Bay
Napier: Reveal of our Knitted Poem
Beattie & Forbes Booksellers, Napier, 5.30 – 6.30pm
Come and join us to the reveal of our competition winning poem that with community involvement we have had knitted and sewn together. All welcome, drinks and nibbles will be provided.
Wairoa: Freeing your inner poet
Wairoa Arts Society Room, 1:00 – 3.00pm
Freeing your Inner Poet”- a free workshop for beginners. Bring notebook and pen, any poems you have already written, and your sense of fun. Please register by phoning Trish Lambert 06 838 7684
Wairoa: Open Mic event
Vista Motel Lounge, Wairoa, 7.00 – 9.30pm
Nau mai Haere mai. An Open Mic event will be held at the Vista Motel Lounge. Entry is free. Come and read your poems, or just to listen.
Taupo
Local poets share their creations
Taupo Post Shop, 12:00 – 1.30pm
Poetry reading in the Post Shop hosted by Live Poets and Postmaster Dennis Jenkins. Come and hear local poets share their creations. Bring along your own to share. All welcome.
Whanganui
Poetry Marathon
Whanganui Regional Museum, 12.30 – 2.30pm
Students from local schools will read original poems. Book vouchers and spot prizes are up for grabs in three age categories.
Street Corner Talking
Mischief on Guyton Cafe, Guyton Street, Whanganui, 6.00 – 7.00pm
Local poets Chris Moisa, Lee ‘Thomo’ Thompson and Airini Beautrais will read their work, accompanied by visual projections.
Wairarapa
“16” Free Performance at Gladstone Vineyard
Gladstone Vineyard, Gladstone, 6.00 – 8.30pm
Featuring Agnes Jones, Carterton / Anne Taylor, Greytown / Catherine Day, Gladstone / Clare McLennan-Kissel, Masterton / Gaye Sutton, Carterton / Janette Gerritsen, Masterton / Jo Thorpe, Cape Palliser / Jodie Dalgleish, Kaipororo -Mount Bruce / John Ansell, Martinborough / Justine Eldred, Greytown / Kerry Popplewell, Pahiatua / Madeleine Slavick, Carterton / Mary Buckner, Masterton / Pat White, Gladstone / Rhondda Greig, Matarawa / Simon Fleck, Featherston
Kapiti
Poetry reading and open mic
Paraparaumu Library, 9 Iver Trask Place, Paraparaumu, 7.00-8.30pm
Poetry reading by Rob Hack followed by Open Mic and announcement of Kapiti Coast District Libraries poetry contest prize-winners.
Hutt Valley
Upper Hutt:13th Annual Poetry Competition Prize Giving
Upper Hutt Library, 844 Fergusson Drive, Upper Hutt
Featuring Glenn Colquhoun and the winners of the Poetry Competition
Lower Hutt: “Landscapes” Poetry of the river, sea and hills; Poetry reading and open mic
St Marks Church Complex. 58 Woburn Road, Lower Hutt, 7.30– 9.30pm
Come and hear poetry of the river, sea and hills. Poets from around the region will read their poetry on the theme of landscapes. We will have an open mic and a place to display your written poetry and any books you have published.
Wellington
Finalists in discussion
Unity Books, 57 Willis Street, Wellington, 12:00 – 12:45
Join us at lunchtime to hear fiction finalists, Gigi Fenster and Emily Perkins, and winner of the NZSA Hubert Church Best First Book for Fiction award, Lawrence Patchett in discussion with Fergus Barrowman of VUP.
Buller’s Birds of New Zealand illustrated talk
Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, 12:15 – 13:15
Geoff Norman, author of the award-winning Buller’s Birds of New Zealand: the Complete Work of JG Keulemans from Te Papa Press, will give an illustrated talk about the fascinating history of ‘Buller’s Birds’, some of our country’s most recognised and reused images, seen on everything from billboards to cake tins. $5 entry.
Hue & Cry, Selected Poems
The Moorings (31 Glenbervie Terrace, Thorndon, Wellington), 6.00 – 8.00pm
Hue & Cry Selected Poems Award-winning Wellington writers read some of their favourite New Zealand poems in an evening event. Featuring: Lawrence Patchett, Pip Adam, Sarah Jane Barnett, Therese Lloyd, Steven Toussaint, Isobel Cairns, and Rachel Sawaya.
Nelson
Poetry Flash Mobs
Trafalgar St and Elma Turner Library, 1.00 – 2.00pm
Look out for Nayland College performance students popping up with words and poems on Trafalgar St. near Page & Blackmore Booksellers and at the Elma Turner Library prior to the Open Mic Poetry session!
Christchurch
UBS: Poetry For Lunch
University Bookshop Canterbury, 12.30 – 1.30pm
Featuring Feffrey Paparoa Holman, Bernadette Hall and James Norcliffe will give readings, as will UBS’s 2013 Poetry Competition winner
A Celebration of Hagley Poets
The Writers’ Block, Hagley Community College, Hagley Ave, Christchurch, 6.00 – 7.30pm
Hagley Writers’ Institute invites all poets and lovers of poets to join them in poetry readings to celebrate NZ National Poetry Day. Students and graduates of the Institute have been asked to write poems in response to the artworks which are part of the Outerspaces exhibitions curated by the Chch Art Gallery.
Phantom Billstickers Presents: Kiwi Poets
Addington Coffee Co-op, Christchurch, 7.30pm
Dunedin
National Poetry Day 2013: Poetry Portal
Port Chalmers Library, Beach Street, Port Chalmers, 6.30 – 8.00pm
Enjoy a glass of wine and some nibbles in the company of seven wonderful Dunedin poets, in the cosy confines of Port Chalmers Library. Featuring: Rhian Gallagher, Emma Neale, Vincent O’Sullivan, Brian Turner, Lynley Edmeades, David Goodwin. MC: Sue Wootton
Southland
J & K Rolling on Whistle Stop tour
Gore Library Friday 16 August, 10.30am
Winton Library Friday 16 August, 2.00pm
Invercargill Library 17 August, 10.30am
Jenny Powell and Kay McKenzie Cooke will be heading south to celebrate National Poetry Day. Local poets are welcome to participate at each stop. After Jenny and Kay have read they will be happy to answer questions.
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