The spring season of the 2024 Poetry in Performance season starts this Thursday 10 October with guest poets HINEMOANA BAKER, JOR DANSAREN, and PHILOMENA JOHNSON. 

Poet and performer HINEMOANA BAKER (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Toa Rangatira, Te Āti Awa, Ngāi Tahu, Ngāi Kiritea) is the author of four collections of poetry. Her latest, Funkhaus (THWP 2020), was a finalist for the 2021 Ockham Book Awards. Funkhaus has also just been released as a bilingual edition (German and English, tr. Ulrike Almut Sandig) by Voland & Quist AZUR Edition in Berlin (2023). Hinemoana is spending the coming months in Wellington as the 2024 Randell Cottage Writer in Residence. (Photo credit: Ashley Clarke, 2019) [top left in photo]

JOR DANSAREN is a pagan, pansexual, powerlifting, poetry powerhouse. She is a multiple regional poetry slam finalist and host of the popular 6pm Speakeasy series in Ōtautahi/Christchurch. Her work is themed largely around nature, Nordic deities, neurodivergent experience, and the inevitable chaos of life. [too right in photo]

PHILOMENA JOHNSON graduated from The Hagley Writers’ Institute in 2017 where her portfolio was short-listed for the Margaret Mahy Award. Her poetry has appeared in The Quick Brown Dog, The London Grip, takahē, Fuego, a fine line; in the anthologies broken lines / in charcoal and Voiceprints 4; and forthcoming in the New Zealand Poetry Society Anthology 2024. Mena is a tutor at WRITE ON: School for Young Writers and she won The John O’Connor First Book Award in 2024 for her manuscript not everything turns away which was launched on August 23rd, National Poetry Day. [bottom left in photo]

Tickets are $10 for the night or $30 for a season/supporter ticket which gives you all 4 nights for the price of 3 plus the option to join via Zoom (perfect if you suddenly can’t make it in person one night but you don’t want to miss out!).  Two hours of poetry including our warm and friendly open mic! Arrive early to add your name to the open mic list, mix and mingle, and grab a good seat before we get started at 6.30 pm sharp.

All funds raised go to support future CPC events and poetry in Canterbury. Door sales with eftpos available or buy online: https://canterburypoets.org.nz/tickets/

Big thanks to our venue sponsor Ara Institute of Canterbury for use of their Imagitech Theatre.

Coming up next…
17 October: Richard von Sturmer, Marjory Woodfield, and Tarn Wright
24 October: Sue Wootton, Cadence Chung, and Davien Gray
31 October: Dan Goodwin and the Airing Cupboard Women Poets