Sunday, July 03, 2022
Book Launch - Drinking With Li Bai by Doc Drumheller
Drinking With Li Bai features one hundred haiku composed by New Zealand poet Doc Drumheller while he was visiting Enshi, Guangzhou, Guizhou, Suiyang, Shengze, Shanghai, and Beijing in China, and Odisha, Bhubaneswar, Kolkata, New Delhi, Varanasi, Agra, Bodh Gaya, and Allahabad in India.
On his travels Doc Drumheller has represented the Waimakariri District as a Cultural Ambassador to Enshi in a Sister City Cultural Exchange. He was appointed as the New Zealand Director of the Silk Road Poetry Project, and has represented New Zealand at international poetry festivals in China and India.
Drinking With Li Bai, 100 Haiku from China and India, by Doc Drumheller is published by Cold Hub Press 2022, and features Chinese translations by Liang Yujing, and calligraphy by Gong Qin.
Haiku from this collection were selected for Ōrongohau Best New Zealand Poems 2018, and Ōrongohau Best New Zealand Poems 2020.
Special thanks to the Asia New Zealand Foundation for funding Doc’s travels to Asia, and to Waimakariri District Creative Communities for funding the publication of this book.
Links:
https://www.bestnewzealandpoems.org.nz/past-issues/2018-contents/doc-drumheller/
https://www.bestnewzealandpoems.org.nz/past-issues/2020-contents/doc-drumheller/
Sunday, February 06, 2022
NZ Poetry Slam 2021 goes ONLINE in 2022!
After two postponements due to COVID-19 in 2021, the NZ Poetry Slam national final for 2021 is happening online on 12th February 2022.
Here we go! It's a tough decision but the crew really have to take people's health and safety in consideration - poets flying into Christchurch from around the country are taking a risk and possibly facing 10 days isolation away from home, if they happen to be a close contact on a flight or at an airport.
Details for the event and the link to join in from the comfort of your own home are on the Facebook event page here. It is happening at the same date and time as the scheduled live event.
Existing tickets will be refunded and new tickets available for the online version.
Monday, November 22, 2021
Ōtautahi Tiny Fest - a feast of art - Two stand-out shows featuring poetry
Ōtautahi Tiny Fest is a remarkable two day festival of epic proportions - 45 artists and 21 shows over two intense days - featuring theatre, poetry, dance, story-telling and intersectional forms showcasing the cutting edge of performative practice in Ōtautahi/Christchurch.
Here's a couple of shows that we think you might want to check out from two of Ōtautahi's most electric performance poets and theatre practitioners.
Gay Death Stock Take
Ōtautahi and NZ Poetry Slam Champion Nathan Joe presents a 'theatrical performance essay (with poetry elements)!' Kind of part TED-talk, part performance poem, part museum of personal history. Where
birthday party meets mourning ritual. A brand new work by Nathan Joe,
made in collaboration with Daniel Goodwin.
Nathan
Joe is an award-winning theatre-maker and performance poet based
between Tāmaki Makaurau and Ōtautahi. Recent work includes curating
BIPOC spoken word event DIRTY PASSPORTS at Basement Theatre, a staged
reading of his play Scenes from a Yellow Peril at Auckland Arts
Festival, co-creating Slay the Dragon or Save the Dragon or Neither with
A Slightly Isolated Dog, and directing Yang/Young/杨 for Auckland
Theatre Company. He is also the current National Slam Champion.
Saturday 27th November, 10am
Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall
Notes on a Migration
‘I think of my mother and father, standing by sunflowers
the plane tilts
in a slow motion leapfrog
to limboland
tucked knees under my chin
the lights dim
leaving, heading
with both feet in’
'an
imaginative journey traversing the entire world in this intimate,
electric, political, part-memoir, part-story dreamscape drawn from
Ullyart’s poetic journaling since leaving Heathrow and stepping foot in
Ōtautahi in late 2017. She is supported on stage by experimental music
maker Admiral Drowsy in a new collaboration especially for Tiny Fest.'
Hester Ullyart is an award-winning multi-disciplinary maker- writer, actor, visual and spoken word artist based between England and Ōhinehou since 2017. Original plays include; ‘The Ballad of Paragon Station’ (Stellar Original Content NZFringe, Ed Fest) ‘Paragon Dreams’ (Hull Truck, LAF). Original film includes ‘I am all the rooms of the house’ (Best Poetry Short DoDFest2020). Other Ōtautati work includes ‘How Dare You’ (Free Theatre), ‘Ship of Dreams’(Delaney Davidson). Directing includes ‘Our Town, Gladys and Alfie, Gladys and Daphne’ (LAF) and Robin Judkins’ ‘Free Bus to God’. Aotearoa screen work includes One Lane Bridge S2 (TVNZ/Great Southern). She is a National Poetry Slam 2020 finalist.
Saturday 27th November, 5.30pm
Ron Ball Studio, Christchurch Town Hall
Thursday, November 11, 2021
Chop. The. Mop! Close shave for a good cause
Thursday 11th November, 7pm
Victoria Park Band Rotunda, Rangiora
Tonight as part of WORD Christchurch, Catalyst's own Doc Drumheller goes under the clippers for the Cancer Society.
Supported by guest poets, waiata, and poetry from several workshops facilitated for the Cancer Society, Doc will perform live while being shorn of his trademark beard and locks. The effort is in support of a call for donations to Doc's fundraising page for the Cancer Society.
This event is operating under Covid Alert Level 2 restrictions (please wear masks, respect physical distancing and capacity limit is 100 people). If the Alert Level is increased, attendance will be cancelled and the event will be live-streamed via Facebook.
Guest poets include: Bernadette Hall, Ben Brown, John Allison and Ciaran Fox.
It'll be a brave, new Doc come tomorrow morning.
https://www.youcanforcancer.org.nz/jason-clements https://www.youcanforcancer.org.nz/jason-clements
https://www.youcanforcancer.org.nz/jason-clements
Christchurch Poetry Slam 2021 - we have a winner!
Congratulations to 2021 Christchurch Poetry Slam Champ Nathan Joe!
Runner-up - Ray Shipley
3rd place - RiktheMost
On a balmy night in Foundation Cafe at Tūranga the top 10 poets from the preliminary heat in August slugged it out across 3 rounds. It was the 10th anniversary of the Christchurch Slam being part of the national network of slams (for the pre-history, look up Poetry Idol here).
To mark the occasion, poet and artist Melanie McKerchar created a stunning trophy (the first since Poetry Idol) and lifted for the first time by Nathan at the end of a challenging and fierce three rounds.
The field of 10 were mighty and diverse - half of them were previous Slam winners (including international Slams) or runners-up, and the other half included first-timers this year.
The top 3 will go forward to the 2021 NZ Poetry Slam (to be held February 2022).
Thank you to WORD Christchurch for once again incorporating the Slam into the festival and for pulling off a postponed festival in very challenging and uncertain times.
Thank you UBS Books for sponsoring prize vouchers for our winners.
Thank you to Foundation Cafe at Tūranga for being brilliant hosts and problem solvers.
Friday, November 05, 2021
Christchurch Poetry Slam - it's on (again!)
After holding our breath through this latest Covid outbreak, we're excited to let it all out in the 10th edition of the Christchurch Poetry Slam Final on Wednesday 10th November.
Get ready!
Note: the event is going ahead under Level 2 restrictions - that means wear a mask and venue capacity is limited to allow spacing so get along early if you want to get in and grab a seat. We apologise in advance if you cannot gain entry due to the venue capacity limit. (Obviously that doesn't apply to the Slammers!)
If Christchurch is moved to Alert Level 3 or 4, the event will be cancelled.
Christchurch Poetry Slam Final
Wednesday 10th November, 7pm (doors open 6pm)
Foundation Cafe, Tūranga, Cathedral Square.
Door charge: $10 cash only
Monday, November 01, 2021
Catalyst volume 18 book launch!
Catalyst volume 18 book launch (& open mic!)
Wednesday 3rd November, 7pm
Space Academy, 371 St Asaph St, Christchurch
It's been a helluva ride to get here (do we just say that every year now?) but we're delighted to announce the release of the latest issue of Catalyst into the world. Volume 18, edited by Doc Drumheller marks eighteen years of indie journal Catalyst and eight years under the imprint Republic of Oma Rāpeti Press. Join us to celebrate another outstanding collection of local and international poetry (the best way is by buying a copy, and one for your lover/enemy/whatever)! There'll be a little bit of speechifying, some readings by various contributors and we'll even make time for an open mic - because after all: Catalyst!
Tuesday, August 17, 2021
Chop the Mop! New date: Weds 11th November
Wednesday 11th November, 6.30pm entry by koha
Rangiora Library
Doc's chopping the mop!
Our very own Doc Drumheller, aka Jason Clements is taking the big cut to his lustrous locks and beard for the Cancer Society as part of WORD Christchurch 2021.
Join us for some excellent poetry readings and of course the main event - chopping the iconic beard and hair! Even if you can't join us on the night, we encourage anyone keen to support the work of the Cancer Society to dig deep and contribute to the fundraising effort by visiting:
youcanforcancer.org.nz/jason-clements
Thank you for donating - and good luck spotting Doc in a crowd after this!
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