Literatti Launches Competition to Demystify Madness

Literatti Launches Competition to Demystify Madness

Auckland performance-poetry group The Literatti launched the reTHiNK Possible Worlds Youtube Competition yesterday, in association with National Poetry Day and the NZ International Film Festival.

As winners of a 2011 reTHiNK Grant to creatively promote the value of madness, The Literatti are encouraging others to explore life’s ups and downs with a national Youtube competition that asks the public to make a video response to the statement ‘We are all human beings navigating the maze of life’.

These well known New Zealand performance poets are putting themselves and their stories on the line to help others find hope through creativity.

Jai MacDonald is putting himself in his father’s shoes to write about living with depression and struggling to feel accepted. Simone Kaho is examining her own journey with growing up Polynesian-Pakeha in New Zealand. Shane Hollands is reflecting on his experience of living with a form of arthritis that is slowly turning him into a hunchback. Zanni YEAH is drawing on her experience of surviving violence, while Daniel Larsen taps into his experience of psychosis and Miriam Barr brings in her journey of overcoming suicidality and depression. And then there is Christian Jensen, who crossed the world to another country and had to build a place to belong from scratch.

The Youtube Competition, gives the community a chance to add their perspectives to the mix.

Themed “Navigating the maze of life” the Youtube competition winners’ work will be used in collaboration with other performance artists to stage a massive multimedia performance for mental health awareness week in October. Entries close on September 5th. The finalists will be exhibited at Corbans Estate Arts Centre as part of the annual Metonymy Exhibition.

Christian Jensen, creative director of The Literatti and recipient of The Grant, says “We want to create a communal dialogue that transforms our collective attitudes about the experience of mental unwellness. By tapping into every mode of communication available – film, music, movement, song and poetry – we can create a message that everyone is able to connect with.”

Taimi Allan, team leader for the Like Minds, Like Mine team at Mind and Body Consultants says, “Stigma is the biggest barrier to reaching out when we need to. We are thrilled to be supporting a project with such a creative and participatory approach to improving attitudes.”

reTHiNK Possible Worlds competition guidelines are available at www.theliteratti.com.
For more information about The reTHiNK Grant visit www.rethink.org.nz.

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