2016
February 2016 - Harry Baker
In 2012 he fought off all competition to represent his country at the World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris and going head to head with 19 other national champions was crowned the youngest ever World Slam Champion aged 20, and since then his career has gone from strength to strength. Having been asked to share his work at a Local TEDx event in the UK, this was then selected and shared on the main TED.com website last year and has since been viewed over a million times and translated into 15 different languages. Having toured the UK and Europe extensively as well as being invited out to North America and South Africa, 2016 will mark Harry’s first visit to New Zealand and Australia. Harry will be sharing poems and stories from his debut collection ‘The Sunshine Kid’ published with Burning Eye in December 2014, which also inspired the Solo Show of the same name, voted “Best Spoken Word Show” of the Edinburgh Fringe 2015.
March 2016 - Ken Arkind
Ken is an American National Poetry Slam Champion, TEDx Speaker, Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion and educator who has performed his work in 49 States, 6 countries and at over 200 colleges and universities. He currently lives in Auckland, NZ and attends the Manukau Institute of Technology as a creative writing student.
April 2016 - Sara Hirsch & Ben Fagan
Sara Hirsch is a London based performance poet with punch. A UK Slam Champion, Sara also ranked 3rd in the World Slam Championships 2014 and now runs London's only regular 3 round slam. Sara has performed across the UK and abroad and recently premiered her award winning debut solo show "How Was It For You?" at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sara is currently working on a series of projects, is one of 4 poets in training on the acclaimed Spoken Word Education Programme and will be touring New Zealand in March/April 2016. Sara is known for her witty, honest and heartfelt poetry that challenges the world around her, tells a story, or simply entertains. For more information visit www.sarahirsch.co.uk or @sarsbars89.
Ben Fagan is Poetry in Motion Wellington's international correspondant. A TEDx alum, Ben has performed across the USA, UK and NZ. After taking a solo show to Edinburgh Fringe in 2015, he settled in London to learn the ways of the British Spoken Word community. He has poems to share about his time working for a high-end fashion store, life in the big city, and how the kiwi accent can be your best friend and worst enemy.
May 2016 - Mohamed Hassan
Mohamed is a journalist and poet from Auckland. He is the 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion, and has performed his work across New Zealand and overseas including at TEDx, Splore and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
June 2016 - Panhandlers
Panhandlers is the inspired pairing of writer Callum Gentleman and guitarist Joel Vinsen. Like Lou Reed jamming with Louis Carol, while Brian Eno gets high with Sam Hunt. They pair their poems with prepared guitar, add effects pedals, then roam the streets for stories.
July 2016 - Serena Simmons & Samson Tafolo
Samson and Serena are both alumni of the Brave New Voices international youth spoken word competition and hail from Hawai'i.
Samson Tafolo is a 23 year old writer from Hawaii. He was a part of the 2012 Brave New Voices team that competed in L.A. alongside Denver and other dope teams from around the world. He is currently hosting monthly slams around Honolulu and coordinating weekly open mics as well as working on several musical projects he's hoping will come to fruition this year.
Serena Ngaio Simmons is a writer of Maori and Pakeha descent born and raised on the island of O’ahu and is currently an undergraduate in the English department at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Serena is a former member of the 2011 and 2012 Youth Speaks Hawai’i slam teams that competed at the Brave New Voices international youth spoken word competition and has had her poems published in Blackmail Press, Hawai’i Review, and Lit Hub.
August 2016 - Liz Breslin
Liz Breslin doesn’t know the difference between rhyme and reason but she can write her way out of a paper bag. Her writing is diverse – poems, plays, short stories and a regular column for the Otago Daily Times. Liz is comfy on the page and the stage and was second runner up in the 2014 New Zealand Poetry Slam in Wellington.
Her website is lizbreslin.com
September 2016 - Michael Howard & Michael Gray
Michael Howard and Michael Gray are poets. The worst kind of poets. A smug mixture of horrible puns and needlessly complicated rhyme schemes, they're the sort of guys who give open mics a bad name. Their show is equally as awful.
October 2016 - George Fowler
George Fowler is a writer, a drag performer and an event manager and a Wellingtonian through and through. He writes the kind of poetry you wouldn't want your mum to read.
He'll be accompanied with music by duo 'Women Ruin Everything'.
November 2016 - Carrie Rudzinski & Olivia Hall
Lift women’s voices. Burn the Patriarchy down.
How We Survive is a feminist spoken word performance featuring internationally acclaimed poets Olivia Hall and Carrie Rudzinski. This two women show presents a biting and honest narrative on what is to be a woman living and surviving in 2016.
Addressing everything from rape culture to body image to heartbreak to Hermione as a feminist role model, this show carries a switchblade and a hallelujah. Hailing from New Zealand and America respectively, Hall and Rudzinski blend their voices into a powerful one hour performance promising to heal, nurture, and spark discussion.
Carrie Rudzinski ranked 4th in the world at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam and has performed her work across New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India and in almost all 50 of the United States. She is the author of four collections of poetry and has had her work featured in Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, and Bustle. Carrie is the 2016 Programme Director for Rising Voices Youth Poetry Movement and is currently a Guest Lecturer at Manukau Institute of Technology's Faculty of Creative Arts teaching Spoken Word.
Olivia Hall is the 2015 Matariki Slam Champion, the 2015 Capital Slam Champion and placed third at the New Zealand National Slam Finals in Hamilton. Performing poetry since 2013, Olivia is one of the organisers for Wellington's acclaimed poetry organisation, Poetry in Motion, and is currently completing her Honours degree in Sociology at Victoria University of Wellington.
In 2012 he fought off all competition to represent his country at the World Cup of Poetry Slam in Paris and going head to head with 19 other national champions was crowned the youngest ever World Slam Champion aged 20, and since then his career has gone from strength to strength. Having been asked to share his work at a Local TEDx event in the UK, this was then selected and shared on the main TED.com website last year and has since been viewed over a million times and translated into 15 different languages. Having toured the UK and Europe extensively as well as being invited out to North America and South Africa, 2016 will mark Harry’s first visit to New Zealand and Australia. Harry will be sharing poems and stories from his debut collection ‘The Sunshine Kid’ published with Burning Eye in December 2014, which also inspired the Solo Show of the same name, voted “Best Spoken Word Show” of the Edinburgh Fringe 2015.
March 2016 - Ken Arkind
Ken is an American National Poetry Slam Champion, TEDx Speaker, Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion and educator who has performed his work in 49 States, 6 countries and at over 200 colleges and universities. He currently lives in Auckland, NZ and attends the Manukau Institute of Technology as a creative writing student.
April 2016 - Sara Hirsch & Ben Fagan
Sara Hirsch is a London based performance poet with punch. A UK Slam Champion, Sara also ranked 3rd in the World Slam Championships 2014 and now runs London's only regular 3 round slam. Sara has performed across the UK and abroad and recently premiered her award winning debut solo show "How Was It For You?" at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sara is currently working on a series of projects, is one of 4 poets in training on the acclaimed Spoken Word Education Programme and will be touring New Zealand in March/April 2016. Sara is known for her witty, honest and heartfelt poetry that challenges the world around her, tells a story, or simply entertains. For more information visit www.sarahirsch.co.uk or @sarsbars89.
Ben Fagan is Poetry in Motion Wellington's international correspondant. A TEDx alum, Ben has performed across the USA, UK and NZ. After taking a solo show to Edinburgh Fringe in 2015, he settled in London to learn the ways of the British Spoken Word community. He has poems to share about his time working for a high-end fashion store, life in the big city, and how the kiwi accent can be your best friend and worst enemy.
May 2016 - Mohamed Hassan
Mohamed is a journalist and poet from Auckland. He is the 2015 National Poetry Slam Champion, and has performed his work across New Zealand and overseas including at TEDx, Splore and the Adelaide Fringe Festival.
June 2016 - Panhandlers
Panhandlers is the inspired pairing of writer Callum Gentleman and guitarist Joel Vinsen. Like Lou Reed jamming with Louis Carol, while Brian Eno gets high with Sam Hunt. They pair their poems with prepared guitar, add effects pedals, then roam the streets for stories.
July 2016 - Serena Simmons & Samson Tafolo
Samson and Serena are both alumni of the Brave New Voices international youth spoken word competition and hail from Hawai'i.
Samson Tafolo is a 23 year old writer from Hawaii. He was a part of the 2012 Brave New Voices team that competed in L.A. alongside Denver and other dope teams from around the world. He is currently hosting monthly slams around Honolulu and coordinating weekly open mics as well as working on several musical projects he's hoping will come to fruition this year.
Serena Ngaio Simmons is a writer of Maori and Pakeha descent born and raised on the island of O’ahu and is currently an undergraduate in the English department at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa. Serena is a former member of the 2011 and 2012 Youth Speaks Hawai’i slam teams that competed at the Brave New Voices international youth spoken word competition and has had her poems published in Blackmail Press, Hawai’i Review, and Lit Hub.
August 2016 - Liz Breslin
Liz Breslin doesn’t know the difference between rhyme and reason but she can write her way out of a paper bag. Her writing is diverse – poems, plays, short stories and a regular column for the Otago Daily Times. Liz is comfy on the page and the stage and was second runner up in the 2014 New Zealand Poetry Slam in Wellington.
Her website is lizbreslin.com
September 2016 - Michael Howard & Michael Gray
Michael Howard and Michael Gray are poets. The worst kind of poets. A smug mixture of horrible puns and needlessly complicated rhyme schemes, they're the sort of guys who give open mics a bad name. Their show is equally as awful.
October 2016 - George Fowler
George Fowler is a writer, a drag performer and an event manager and a Wellingtonian through and through. He writes the kind of poetry you wouldn't want your mum to read.
He'll be accompanied with music by duo 'Women Ruin Everything'.
November 2016 - Carrie Rudzinski & Olivia Hall
Lift women’s voices. Burn the Patriarchy down.
How We Survive is a feminist spoken word performance featuring internationally acclaimed poets Olivia Hall and Carrie Rudzinski. This two women show presents a biting and honest narrative on what is to be a woman living and surviving in 2016.
Addressing everything from rape culture to body image to heartbreak to Hermione as a feminist role model, this show carries a switchblade and a hallelujah. Hailing from New Zealand and America respectively, Hall and Rudzinski blend their voices into a powerful one hour performance promising to heal, nurture, and spark discussion.
Carrie Rudzinski ranked 4th in the world at the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam and has performed her work across New Zealand, Australia, Canada, India and in almost all 50 of the United States. She is the author of four collections of poetry and has had her work featured in Huffington Post, Teen Vogue, and Bustle. Carrie is the 2016 Programme Director for Rising Voices Youth Poetry Movement and is currently a Guest Lecturer at Manukau Institute of Technology's Faculty of Creative Arts teaching Spoken Word.
Olivia Hall is the 2015 Matariki Slam Champion, the 2015 Capital Slam Champion and placed third at the New Zealand National Slam Finals in Hamilton. Performing poetry since 2013, Olivia is one of the organisers for Wellington's acclaimed poetry organisation, Poetry in Motion, and is currently completing her Honours degree in Sociology at Victoria University of Wellington.