Last year coinciding with National Poetry Day, colleagues and friends Kathy Voyles and Katy Soljak and myself ran a successful poetry event on Waiheke called Poetry Love Jam. We held a poetry competition for young school children, teenagers and adults. Winners were announced at the Poetry Love Jam event held at the library in Oneroa, Waiheke. The winners read their poems, and we had performances by visiting and local poets and musicians. Not to mention the food – made by myself – and Waiheke wines.
This year we are doing it all again, but on a grander scale, with fabulous musicians, fabulous poets and a fabulous emcee. Yep, you guessed it, it is going to be FABULOUS!
Last year winners and runners-up received prizes which I curated from local businesses. They were so popular, and I am sure encouraged some of the little ones to have a go. This year local businesses have been outstandingly generous. See below!
We (the Love Jam crew) all work on a volunteer basis, and we do it because we want to encourage the arts on Waiheke, and to give the written word and music a platform on which to flourish.
We’d love to have you attend so we can show off the amazing talent on this island!
The Love Jam Saturday August 25th Waiheke Library
Tickets can be booked through me [email protected] Further Information here https://www.facebook.com/events/400226830476668
Performers on the night
Poets Michelle Chote, Kathy Voyles and Julie Biuso will read poems, along with last year’s Love Jam winner, Brent Simpson, and the runners-up and winners of the poetry competition will also read their poems. Words will be interspersed with original songs and music by Tommy Pickett, The Domestics, Jaimie Stone, Nikki Ngatai, Half A Beard, Gabriel, The Electric Bananas & Katy Soljak
Poetry Competition
We have divided the poetry Love Jam competition into three groups: 5-12 year-olds / 13-19 year-olds and Adults
The competition closes 4th August and is only open to Waiheke residents, but you may well find a similar event being held in a town near you, so get your kids or grandkids writing poems right NOW, or put pen to paper yourself. Poems can be set to Katy Soljak at [email protected] or deposited in the poetry boxes at the Waiheke Library in Oneroa.
Check out poetry events around New Zealand www.poetryday.co.nz
And have a perve on these magnificent prizes!
A bunch of cinema tickets from Mattias at Waiheke Cinema https://www.waihekecinema.co.nz
Bottles of freshly pressed 2018 extra virgin olive oil from Rangihoua Estate and Waiheke Herb Spread https://www.rangihoua.co.nz
Gift packs from Waiheke Water http://waihekewater.com/index.html
Packs of gorgeously fragrant teas from Timmy Smith https://timmysmith.co.nz
Ceramics from Peter at Factory Ceramics Waiheke http://www.factoryceramics.co.nz
$50.00 voucher from the lovely Nicky and Simon Cairns at Island Grocer http://www.theislandgrocer.co.nz
A gorgeous basket of fresh fruit and vegetables from Richard Wilton at RAW https://www.facebook.com/rawatwaiheke/
Fullers Ferry Tickets https://www.fullers.co.nz
Food products including:
Katy’s Chili BBQ Sauce; Shared Kitchen Marinated Olives; Shared Kitchen Preserved Lemons; Shared Kitchen Hazelnut Dukkah
And an amazing array of poetry and fiction books from the Ockham Book Awards and Macmillan Publishers and Te Rā Aroha Press:
This is it! It’s your life. Live it by Amanda Mortimer, published by Your Life Live It.
Fishing for Maui by Isa Pearl Ritchie, published by Te Rā Aroha Press
I’m Just No Good At Rhyming by Chris Harris, published by Macmillan Publishers
And these titles courtesy of Macmillan Publishers:
Sonnets, The:MCL Standard Shakespeare, William
Poetry of the First World War Clapham, Marcus
Collected Poems:MCL Standard Yeats, W B
Acknowledgements
For the evening:
Wines donated by Coopers Creek (thank you Andrew and Cyndy!)
https://www.cooperscreek.co.nz
Loads of gorgeous water from Waiheke Water http://waihekewater.com/index.html
Waiheke’s amazing Te Matuku oysters from Duana Upchurch https://www.tematukuoysters.co.nz
* If you are a food producer and would like to donate some gorgeous produce or products for the evening, give me a shout! [email protected]
And more acknowledgements
The stunning poster is by Miles Gillet (contact Katy Soljak if you’d like him to turn his talents to your project [email protected] )
Waiheke Library have donated the venue (last year’s Love Jam was the biggest event the library has held … guess we must have behaved ourselves as we have been invited back!)
And thank you to Liz Waters at Gulf News and Weekender newspapers http://www.waihekegulfnews.co.nz
Thank you also to Phantom Bill Stickers for all the support they give to poetry events in New Zealand https://0800phantom.co.nz
(if poetry is your thing, which it must be if you are reading all of this, sign up for their quarterly magazine Café Reader)
and Radio Waiheke https://waihekeradio.org.nz for all the support.
And, finally, a big thank you to our fabulous judges Rose Davies and Greg Treadwell
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