Tag Archives: grace Iwashita-Taylor

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: Grace Iwashita-Taylor’s ‘Prelude to Lagimalie’

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Prelude to Lagimalie

when imposed on a body birthed from the moana

it squeezes the vastness

into tiny confined spaces

compact

identified 

and foreign

 

the body birthed from the moana twists

when the breath is not honoured

craves the salt

how you expand at the sea

 

but the body remembers where it once was

 

tā & vā   |   time & space

is malleable

multidirectional

multidimensional

multitransactional

 

our nervous system                           a sacred internal ecosystem

                                           not            a shock absorber

 

restore lagimalie    |    balance

Grace Iwashita-Taylor

Grace Iwashita-Taylor, breathing bloodlines of Samoa, England and Japan. An artist of upu/words led her to the world of performing arts. Dedicated to carving, elevating and holding spaces for storytellers of Te Moana nui a Kiwa. Recipient of the CNZ Emerging Pacific Artist 2014 and the Auckland Mayoral Writers Grant 2016. Highlights include holding the visiting international writer in residence at the University of Hawaii 2018, Co-Founder of the first youth poetry slam in Aoteroa, Rising Voices (2011 – 2016) and the South Auckland Poets Collective and published collections Afakasi Speaks (2013) & Full Broken Bloom (2017) with ala press. Writer of MY OWN DARLING commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company (2015, 2017, 2019) and Curator of UPU (Auckland Arts Festival 2020 & Kia Mau Festival 2021). Currently working on next body of work WATER MEMORIES.

Poetry Shelf noticeboard: A Going West video – Grace Iwashita-Taylor and director Ursula Grace’s Edgewalker

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Poet for stage and page Grace Iwashita-Taylor and director Ursula Grace combine their rich cultural traditions and disciplines of poetry and film to explore their deep connection to the ocean.

This is a stunning video – the movement between word and image, ocean and body sublime.

Watch here

Poetry Shelf connections: Grace Iwashita-Taylor’s ‘my heart is in my mouth’

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my heart is in my mouth

 

 

my mama didn’t prepare me for this, but her illness did

a forced pause for the heartburn of a worlds over consumption

isolation, a foreign concept for villages of homes

with more bellies than the home-belly can house

but indeed the sky has stopped bleeding, is now naked and breathing

standing outside under nights blanket I try to sink my breath in tune with it

the mouths of the monsters to our own making are now unveiled, are you listening?

my heart is in my mouth

baited

&

breathing

 

 

Grace Iwashita-Taylor

 

 

 

 

Grace Iwashita-Taylor, breathing bloodlines of Samoa, England and Japan. An artist of upu/words led her to the world of performing arts. Dedicated to carving, elevating and holding spaces for storytellers of Te Moana nui a Kiwa. Recipient of the CNZ Emerging Pacific Artist 2014 and the Auckland Mayoral Writers Grant 2016. Highlights include holding the visiting international writer in residence at the University of Hawaii 2018, Co-Founder of the first youth poetry slam in Aoteroa, Rising Voices (2011 – 2016) and the South Auckland Poets Collective and published collections Afakasi Speaks (2013) & Full Broken Bloom (2017) with ala press. Writer of MY OWN DARLING commissioned by Auckland Theatre Company (2015, 2017, 2019) and Curator of UPU (Auckland Arts Festival 2020).