Ben Fagan
Artistic Director
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Ben is a spoken word poet and producer from Te Matau-a-Māui / Hawke's Bay, and has shared his work across the UK, USA and NZ. Ben has taken two poetry shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and 2016 - 2018 was a digital coordinator for Apples and Snakes, the UK's leading spoken word poetry organisation.
He is a TEDx performer and organiser, and loves joining the dots. Ben is part of the team behind the annual New Zealand Poetry Slam, Poetry in Motion Wellington, and the National Youth Drama School. His first poetry collection was published by Burning Eye Books' imprint Bx3 in 2017. |
Sara Hirsch
Education Director / Associate Artist
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Sara is a London grown poet and spoken word educator. She is a former UK Slam Champion, third ranked in the World Slam Championships 2014, winner of the European Poetry Slam in Madrid 2016 and a 2017 BBC Slam Finalist. Sara has performed at Glastonbury, is a TEDx speaker, has featured on the BBC and toured extensively both in the UK & internationally.
Sara recently graduated with distinction with a Master's in Creative Writing & Education from Goldsmiths University and completed the acclaimed Spoken Word Education Programme. She worked as a poet in residence at a London secondary school for two years and regularly runs workshops in schools and communities around the world. For more information click here. |
Te Kahu Rolleston
Associate Artist / Educator
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Te Kahu Rolleston (Ngāi Te Rangi) is a spoken word poet, a slam poet, a teacher and University of Waikato alumni. He was awarded the Banff in Canada residency to participate in the Indigenous Writing Programme, which included two weeks of intensive writing followed by 10 weeks of working with a mentor where he received one-on-one editorial feedback. Te Kahu has been very successful in recent years. In 2014, he was named the winner of the National Poetry Slam Competition and has performed at various events all over the country, spreading messages that are dear to him. He says “I create poetry that links people to people and people to places. That’s a big part of our kaupapa because if you have respect for your people and the place you are in, there is nothing greater than that.” Te Kahu has also done a lot of work with rangatahi and communities and has taught spoken word at universities, schools and community classes.
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Nicole Hawkins
Associate Producer
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Nicole Hawkins (Ngāti Kahungunu ki te Wairoa, Ngāti Pāhauwera) is a novice writer, avid home-baker and proud aunt. She lives in Pōneke and works at a local high school teaching English, Social Studies and tikanga Māori. Nicole is also involved in pastoral care and facilitates Kapa Haka. She established Kōrero Mai, a bi-annual regional speech competition to get the youth of Kāpiti talking about issues of biculturalism in Aotearoa. In 2018 Nicole has collaborated with other writers to host 'Coffee with Brownies', which are open mic events for people of colour to share their work in safe spaces. In September she co-hosted 'Rhyme Time', a regional youth event, with Poetry in Motion, to encourage a diverse range of youth to perform their incredible poetry. Nicole has work published by Overland, Capital Magazine, Blackmail Press and The Spinoff Ātea and credits her courageous students with inspiring her to write.
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Anya Tate-Manning
Associate Educator
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Anya is an award-winning performer, writer, and director who has worked in the New Zealand Theatre Industry for over fifteen years. Anya is a graduate of Otago University and Toi Whakaari; NZ Drama School. She also has an MA in Scriptwriting from the International Institute of Modern Letters at Victoria University. Anya is co-creator of the popular political satire show Public Service Announcements, now in its 8th year of making working and mounting its 15th production at Circa Theatre in Wellington for this years Christmas season. Anya performed in the popular poetry show Fiery Tongues at Glastonbury Festival, Edinburgh Fringe and Wellington Fringe. In 2017 Anya toured New Zealand with Silo Theatre's Hudson and Halls Live! (Winner of Best Supporting Actress, Wellington Theatre Awards 2016), and is currently touring her solo show My Best Dead Friend around festivals in New Zealand and Australia (winner of Best in Fringe, New Zealand Fringe Festival 2018).
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Travis Cottreau
Associate Producer
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Travis is an IT/technical guy who found a creative outlet in poetry when randomly arriving at Poetry in Motion's first ever event at Happy Bar in 2011.
Blown away by the experience, he began performing at and now running PIM's monthly events. Short poetry suits his attention span, and he was runner up in Poetry in Motion's 2012 Haiku Death Match and then the winner in 2013. He was also runner up at PIM's only Limerick Death Match in 2013. |
Kate Spencer
Associate Producer
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Kate recently escaped the corporate cage to live the life of a starving artist and she's loving it! Poet, performer, writer, editor, photographer - you name it, she does it.
Check out her website www.creatifkate.com and hire her: you know you want to. |
Courtney Rose Brown
Associate Artist
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Courtney Rose Brown is a Te Whanganui-a-Tara based creative. She is interested in creating thought provoking art through a female and queer lens. Her work aims to lift minority voices within Aotearoa’s creative content and spark conversations in communities.
Courtney has a masters in scriptwriting and spends her days writing emails lol. Poetry is the only personal writing she does so #BetYouRueTheDayYouKissedAWriterInTheDark |
