Word Collective events

Wellington poetry events info from the Word Collective:

Kia ora Spoken Word Whanau

A couple of updates:

Newtown library is hosting a spoken word evening this Friday July 18

"Read your own or someone else's"

Call Monty Masseurs (whata poetic name!) at the library for more info

Belfast Touring Poets
Happy
Monday 28th July

You may remember these hep cats from a Howltearoa show last year - they are big on the Poetry against Racism Kaupapa and are great performers. Apparently they want some Word Collective whanau to get up and speak and are keen to catch up with us before or after to nut out some ideas, re: World Domination or some such folly.

And of course if you need your weekly fix of spoken word, don't forget one of Wgtn's longest running open mics, at a new venue:

Poetry Studio is a weekly open mic poetry venue. Established in April 2004, it has happened every Sunday since then. It now runs from 3 til 5 pm at 128 Abel Smith Street. It's a relaxed gathering where you can listen to poetry of all shapes and sizes, or have a go at performing poetry yourself. Come along! Gold coin koha.

Get along and tell Steve Booth you heard about it from the Word Collective and he'll look after you!

Peace

Howltearoa, Monday 7 July

From the Word Collective:

This is another announcement to inform you that HOWLTEAROA will again be taking place at Southern Cross this Monday the 7th of July from 7:30pm.

Brave the winter night and warm your soul with some of Wellington's finest poetry and spoken word.

All are welcome to contribute, be it with verse, song, limerick or doggerel, your own or a favourite author.

7:30 start. It would be splendid to see you there.

Nga mihi nui

June Howltearoa - tomorrow

From the Word Collective:

I would like to announce another evening of Howltearoa this coming Monday, 2nd of June, at the Southern Cross, at 7:30

As with all Howltearoa events it will be stacked with poets, rhymers, singer/songsters, fans of doggerel and high verse. We would love to see you there to be a part of or simply listen and enjoy.

To accompany this open mic set will be a performance of work from local artist/filmaker and poet Dra McKay.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Howltearoa news from the Word Collective

This from the Word Collective about Howltearoa. I intend to actually make it this month, all going well.

Kia ora koutou!!

Howltearoa continues this year, with our second open mic nght on Monday the 5th of May at 7:30pm, at the Southern Cross.

The first Howl of the year, held in April, was really successful with a good turnout, heaps of people keen to contribute to the open mic session and a great set from our special guest and long-time Howltearoa contributor Andy Coombes.

Howltearoa this Monday is an opportunity for anyone wishing to contribute, be it with their own poetry or something by a favourite poet or writer. There will be no special guest this month, so there will be plenty of time for all who turn up wanting to perform.

Howltearoa will continue to be held on the first Monday of each month for the rest of this year. Poetry begins at 7:30pm. Come along and experience and contribute to the best of local poetry and spoken word in Wellington.

Newtown Spoken Word

Due to my own misorganisation, I can't make it to the Newtown Spoken Word open mic night on Friday, but if you can, you'll want the details:

Newtown Spoken Word is Back!

Come and join us for the latest instalment of Wellington's busiest and best open mic night, on leap day Friday 29 February.

Since mid-2005 the Word Collective have been teaming up with the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre and the Newtown Festival to deliver these rambunctious and rowdy seasonal Spoken Word nights. More than poetry, more than storytelling NSW is your chance to rant, rave, dance and tear up the stage. Or just take the opportunity to sit back end enjoy the strange and wonderful art being made in your own backyard.

Come Newtown, Come Wellington, Come one, Come all

Newtown Spoken Word Summer 08
Friday 29 February
Doors open 7.30pm
Mic opens at 8.00pm
Newtown Community and Cultural Centre
cnr Rintoul and Colombo streets
Newtown

Entry by koha

Word Collective Summer Events

The following are some upcoming poetry-related Word Collective events around Wellington.

Bottled (S)Words
A crazy treasure hunt around Fringe 08 venues, for the duration of the festival. Twenty bottles have swallowed the (s)words of 20 wordsmiths. Each vintage is a unique art package put together by a Word Collective favourite, but only bottle one has a golden ticket in its belly. Will you be the lucky Charley who finds the golden ticket and claims the Word Collective Prize Pack? Look out green bottles with orange labels at various fringe venues - be brave enough to uplift the gift- but a warning do not consume the art!

Artists involved include: Dick Whyte, Ruby Nekk, Curtis Nixon, Dra McKay, and Markus McIntyre.

What We Walk By by Dra McKay, at DAF: 106 -106 Aro Street.
This exhibition continues the Word Collective tradition of celebrating informal, guerrilla word art on our city's streets.

Dra, an accomplished photographer, has captured images of Wellington's inner-city street art. Whether they be paint, pencil, paper, or stencil these are witty, eclectic, full of social commentary and part of our daily visual diet. These are pictures of art ... what we walk by.

Opens 5.30 pm Monday 18 Feb and runs to the 28 Feb. Gallery opens at 11.30am each day.

Newtown Spoken Word Summer 08
Right in the middle of this madness the Word Collective will be holding Newtown Spoken Word Summer 08, at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre, 7.30pm on Friday 29 February.

This is part of the ever-popular Newtown Festival and is one of the largest open mic nights we have ever seen - often attracting over 100 people to listen to 40 plus readers/ranters.

Leap into the year with a celebration of poetry, song, stories and the distinctive beat of Newtown. Entry by koha

Howletearoa
Finally an announcement that Howltearoa open mic with a featured guest will be returning in April 2008. Stay tuned for dates and guest info.

Howling at Howltearoa

So last night I finally made it down to Howltearoa, at the Southern Cross. And indeed, there was actual howling to be heard.

It was lots of fun and lots of variety in both performers and performances. There were a lot of keen people in the open mike section. While it was mostly poetry, there was also prose, song and mixtures of all three. Pieces ranged from funny to intense to political to love poems to limericks to Mike Tights reading a poem using some device to make his voice sound like a robot (which unfortunately also made it impossible to make out any words, except ‘Can you hear me?’)

My own contribution was to read my poem ‘Handicrafts with Minnie Dean’, wherein I knit baby clothes with the notorious murderess.

Highlights included Matiu’s intense song, Andy’s poem about the corpse of Saddam Hussein (really it is much better than it sounds from that description) and Hamish’s piece about Jack who wrote secrets on his shoes.

If there was a prize for best use of the Shortland Street theme song in a spoken-word performance, it would have to go to Craig Ireson (Karaoke Poet, Word Collective stalwart and co-MC for the night), who introduced ‘Is it you or is it me? Lately I’ve been lost it seems. I think a change is what I need’ into his opening and welcoming ‘address’. (Which also included him singing the familiar ‘Come aboard, we’re expecting you’.)

My previous experience of the Word Collective is of a group that is welcoming and encouraging, and last night was more of the same. Howltearoa is taking a break until March or April next year, but I’ll be back.

In other news: today I went to L’s graduation (finally!) Congratulations.

Howltearoa

If you're in Wellington and you like a bit of spoken word/performance poetry, you might like to pop down to Howltearoa. Howltearoa is a monthly event, which I haven't managed to make it to so far, but have very good intentions to go this time.

Howltearoa is run by the Word Collective, who have also run the Word Festival, which I did manage to make it to once. The thing that struck me most about the open reading at the Word Festival was what a cosy, supportive and non-judgemental atmosphere there was, and I'm told (by a reliable source) that Howltearoa is the same.

There will be an open mike and a guest reader. They say:

This year's final guest is Markus McIntyre: a stale wart of the Word Collective and all round kiwi renaissance man reminscent of Crumpie mixed with Curnow. This man catches his dinner on the South Coast of Wgtn then composes homages to Kina and Paua in his beaut little batch- catch him whilst you can my little rose buds.

Howltearoa December 2007
Monday 10th
8pm
Southern Cross Bar and Restaurant
Abel Smith St
Free entry