Category: Printable Reality Events

Stephanie Johnson

Stephanie Johnson’s training as an actress is evident in her powerful performance of her often political poems.
On National Poetry Day she also offers a preview from her up-coming novel, The Open World, set in 19th century Auckland and London, which has a link to the poetry of Byron.
A purposeful sense of such larger concerns balances novelist, poet and dramatist Johnson’s precision with the small details of situation, character and voice that give veracity and colour.
Co-founder of the Auckland Writer’s and Readers Festival, Johnson has published collections of poetry and short stories, and her numerous novels have received many significant awards.
Her dramatic work for stage and radio is similarly recognised.
Johnson’s writing is not restricted to any particular genre, and her subject matter varies between books, her style ‘marked by a dry irony, a sharp-edged humour’.
Her writing is recognized locally and internationally, and the awards she has been nominated for reflect her broad appeal.
Guest poet @ In VOICE and Music @ Pah 22 July 2011 National Poetry Day

Jeremy Roberts

Grey Lynn poet
A primary school teacher, and father to a teenage musician daughter.
Jeremy has been writing and making visual art for several “blurred eras” – mostly about the “torn & frayed” subject of humanity.
Writing and performing poetry is his main creative goal in life.
He is an MC at Poetry Live at The Thirsty Dog pub in the city, and reads at other locations around the city.
He has also read his work in Texas, USA.
He believes that language is the best medium to express whatever it is that lurks inside him and the world.
His work has been published in Side Stream, Live Lines IV, and will also be seen this year in Poetry NZ #44, Takahe Magazine, and the NZ Listener.

James Crompton

James Crompton is an earlier host of Poetry Live and a regular poet there.
He has had several poems published in various journals such as “Tongue in Your Ear” and “Live Lines”.
His poetry crosses from the worldly to the otherworldly, with a lot of his poems drawing influence from his experience of staying 10 months in an ashram type setting in America training to teach a type of meditation called the Ishaya’s Ascension.
There is therefore regularly a contemplative or philosophical viewpoint expressed in much of his work, often with a slightly humorous bent.
He is releasing a selection of poems entitled “Autumn” in the second Tuesday in May at “Poetry Live”

Jahra ‘Rager’ Wasasala

Jahra ‘Rager’ Wasasala is a contemporary dancer, choreographer and spoken word artist.
She successfully completed her technical and choreographic training at Unitec in 2012 graduating with a Bachelor of Performing and Screen Arts, Majoring in Contemporary Dance.
During her three year training at Unitec, Jahra worked with and performed for innovative New Zealand choreographers, whilst choreographing/collaborating and performing in over eight contemporary dance works inside and outside of Unitec.
Outside of dance Jahra is a successful spoken word poet, continuously working with intertwining the medium with movement.
In 2012 she qualified and placed in various slam poetry competitions such as Poetry Idol and Going West, and represented Auckland at the National Poetry Slam held in Wellington.
She pours soul and spirit into her work, and performs and collaborates regularly with Auckland based live poetry group ‘DECOLONISE’.
Guest at Poetry at Yoga Festival.

Ian Wedde

For more than 40 years novelist, essayist and curator Ian Wedde has also been one of New Zealand’s foremost poets.
He has published 14 collections and is a multiple award winner.
Guest at in VOICE and Music – AUP special event on 7th May 2011 at Pah Homestead

Iain Sharp

Iain Sharp is a prolific and highly-entertaining columnist, reviewer and critic and practiced performer of his poetry.
Sharp is well-known for his humour and good-natured satire of the high serious of his own literary heritage, and many of his poems draw on the lyric tradition.
He has published several volumes of poetry and non-fiction, including Real Gold: treasures of Auckland City Libraries (where he is a specialist librarian).
Guest at in VOICE and Music – 16 April 2011 at Pah Homestead