Why not Breakfast with Baxter on National Poetry Day?

Last year, on National Poetry Day, Whanganui based community group; The Guyton Group Trust, organised a successful event named Recite with visiting poets Glenn Colquhoun and Bill Manhire. The Sarjeant Gallery was the host venue and it was filled to capacity with poetry lovers of all ages. The success of this event and subsequent positive feedback from the community has prompted the group to once again arrange an event to mark this nationally significant day.

This year they have partnered with The Grand Hotel to present Breakfast with Baxterat 7am on Friday 24 August.

As was last year’s motivation, this year’s event will be a fundraiser for the creation of a bronze, life-sized statue of the famed poet James K Baxter, to stand on the corner of Guyton and Wicksteed Street’s in Whanganui’s town centre. The sculpture will cost just short of $100,000 and the group have managed to raise $47,000 to date through a mixture of grants and donations.

Breakfast with Baxter will play host to a selection of local Baxter admirers sharing some of their favourite poems. Readers include Jenny Duncan, Whanganui’s Deputy Mayor, Donald Trott, opera singer and one of the founders of the New Zealand Opera School and local artist and community leader Rere Sutherland.

Local journalist Paul Brooks has also agreed to read as has Whanganui’s previous Mayor Annette Main and local thespian and director Kerry Girdwood. An eclectic variety of local businesses have donated services or goods to the Guyton Group Trust for a fundraising auction. The auction will take place directly after the breakfast. Guyton Group Chair, Lesley Stead says, “Thank you to the businesses who have so generously donated a wide array of goods for our auction, all of which will support our goal to see one of New Zealand’s literary giants recognised in bronze.”

Goods to be auctioned at the end of the breakfast include: a trailer load of firewood, a gourmet dinner for 6 provided by JY Catering, a Sheaffer pen provided by Inkt, two tickets on the Waimarie, an overnight stay at The Flying Fox in the James K Baxter cottage, art from the Red Door Gallery and books from Victoria University Press and Auckland University press. The Grand Hotel has kindly offered up their beautiful heritage dining room on the ground floor as the venue as well as all the catering for the buffet breakfast. Silks Audit Chartered Accountants and Kate Joblin Accountant have also made this event possible by donating their services to the trust free of charge.

Tickets to the breakfast are limited and are available now from Paige’s Book Gallery on Guyton Street for $30 each. Contact Paige’s on 06 348 9095 or email Rochelle@steadanddaughters.com

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