Newtown Spoken Word – Summer 06

Media Release
10/1/06

Newtown Spoken Word – Summer 06

An open mike extravaganza with special guests, including such worded and weird luminaries as Craig Ireson, Andrew Savage, Richard Whyte, Robin Kenealy, The Unknown Rockstar, Gloryroad Topham, Damien Stewart, Matthew Simcock and more.

Just another Spoken Word Night? Not on your Nelly!

Wellington is in the midst of a spoken word revival. From the International Festival’s Writer s and Readers to Wellington International Poetry Festival and of course New Zealand’s only Word Festival, which attracted over 1000 punters to Thistle Hall in 2005. The last two Best of the Fringe awards have been won by spoken word acts - Karaoke Poetry and the Sk8Baord Poets. So isn’t there a danger of overload?

“Not at all”, says one of the event’s organisers Craig Ireson: ”We have a unique take on the open mike tradition. It is not just about the best and brightest, no one is awarding you points on some random scale of cool. We always produce intriguing original events- our philosophy is that if you are brave enough to stand up and say your piece then it deserves to be heard. There are no put downs, no prizes and no pretensions- just good honest words, well spoken.”

All local artists, storytellers or acoustic artists are invited to share their poems, songs and stories. The open mike will be interspersed with established performers such as the ethereal Ireson and Andrew Savage (Karaoke Poetry) Matthew Simcock (Mihi, Fringe 05) and an Audio Collage artist Damien Stewart who will be recording selected parts of the night to form a live cut up.

This event is a collaboration between the highly successful Word Collective (Word Festival, Karaoke Poetry and the Sk8Board Poets) and the Newtown Festival. Newtown Festival Organiser Peter Frater says “The Newtown Community and Cultural centre is the natural place for these poets and story tellers to converge and share their experiences- it sis a focal point for a wonderfully diverse and vibrant community- this event will showcase this diversity”.

Summer 06 is the second in a series of seasonal poetry nights at the Newtown Community and Cultural Centre. If you want to know why Spoken Word is on such a high in Wellington then look no further than the Newtown Spoken Word Summer 06.

Newtown Spoken Word – Summer 06
Newtown Community and Cultural Centre
Cnr Colombo and Rintoul Streets
Friday 24th February 2006
7.30 pm
Entry by Koha/Donation

ENDS

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