Monday, November 28, 2011

Catalyst presents... In Transit + Open Mic


Catalyst Open Mic + In Transit book launch
Tuesday 6th December, 8pm
Pegasus Arms upstairs
14 Oxford Terrace
+ live music by The Fontanelles

Catalyst is proud to support Doc Drumheller in the launch of his latest collection of poetry In Transit.

To mark the triumphant return of Catalyst to the live poetry scene we are excited to host the Christchurch launch of this exceptional work by our very own Doc. In Transit is a collection of 100 haiku inspired by the travels of our globe-trotting editor Doc Drumheller. Translated and presented in 11 languages the collection also features haiku responding to the earthquakes in Christchurch and Japan.

“I feel a kind of kinship between New Zealand and Japan after we have shared in these experiences and have decided to dedicate and donate all sales of this book to earthquake relief in both countries.” says Doc.

The night will feature the traditional open mic as well as live music from The Fontanelles.

In Transit will be for sale for $15 (all sales to earthquake relief in NZ & Japan)

We will post a full copy of the media release soon. In the meantime, In Transit is also available for sale online here:


Thursday, November 24, 2011

Drum roll please... Catalyst Open Mic is back!

Behold, the new home of Catalyst!
Pegasus Arms (upstairs)
14 Oxford Tce (opposite Antigua Boat Sheds)
That's right, rub the sleep out of your eyes and dust off your notebooks 'cos the Catalyst crew are back and ready to rip it up at the Pegasus Arms in their fantastically atmospheric lounge bar upstairs.

We've paid our respects at the site of Al's Bar, our home for more than 3 years, now just a hole in the ground - our hearts go out to you Al. But now we're ready to recite, read, slam and generally bring the poetry back to the stage, front and centre.

We've got a brand new home, a brand new day and plenty of brand new poets out there raring to go.

Lately there's been a good amount of poetry in performance on show in our shaky city with Beat Street Sessions and the latest season of Canterbury Poets Collective evenings (themselves in a new home at CPIT Students Association) and we're glad to be back in the saddle too. There's nothing like mixing poetry and alcohol. Pegasus Arms does amazing food too, so why not come early, have some kai and hang out with the poets.

Our new details are:

Catalyst Poetry open mic
FIRST TUESDAY of the month
Pegasus Arms upstairs
14 Oxford Terrace

Stay tuned for a post shortly with the details of our very first night there in December which doubles as a book launch for Doc Drumheller's new collection of haiku - the multi-lingual In Transit.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Beat St this Thursday

Beat St Sessions this Thursday 17 November @ Beat St Cafe, cnr Barbadoes & Armagh Sts  Sign in & schmoozing from 6pm + live music by bad boy busker Jon Adams  Open mic poetry from 7pm + guest poets Joanna Preston and Sean Joyce  www.facebook.com/BeatStSessions

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Christchurch gets a Zinefest


Yup. It's happening and we're proud to promote such a great event. All you need to know is right here. We'll be there celebrating eight long years of publishing (even though I'm sure purists probably don't consider Catalyst a 'zine', we're still stalwarts of self-published literature - Neoismist Press has published 17 book projects including Catalyst in 8 years and done production duties on a further 4 including a novel). So yeah, we'll be there alright!

The deets are:

Zinefest Christchurch
Saturday 3rd December - 11am - 4.30pm
The Archive
336 St Asaph St