Suspense

I sent out invitations to a bunch of people to take part in the first of our monthly workshops today. We start at the end of May, and Toi Ora, a wonderful community arts trust has kindly given us some space to hold them in. Which will be a relief for the partners-of-the-literartists and their flatmates, I'm sure. :o)

I can't wait to see what happens. We will surely learn more ourselves as we try to share our own skills, while fresh eyes, ears and perspectives will surely offer new and useful feedback. We share our skills and we also learn from the people around us. This is true community. So we've contacted a bunch of locals who we think are heading in our direction, and we'll just have to see what happens, creative connections seem inevitable. bliss.

This was always part of what we wanted to do, part of Shane's original vision. To involve a wider set of people, who were all supporting each other, even if they weren't all involved in shows. To build an active performance poetry scene in Auckland. Workshopping with other people is part of that.

It's also on the agenda to offer workshops to the public, to anyone who wants to get a few skills - more one-off kinds of things. If anyone is keen for one of them and can get a group together, we'd be more than happy to oblige. OR you can take part in the workshop on July 18th, which is open to the public as part of Poetry Live's Montana Poetry Day event, Resurrection Night. This involves preparing a performance of a poem by your favourite dead poet. Aside from preparing for the Poetry Live event this workshop is useful for developing skills without the pressure of worrying about the poem itself. Contact details are on our homepage, which has recently been beautified. www.theliteratti.co.nz

But for now, the focus is on getting right into what we all got involved in this for in the first place - to play around with poetry and performance, to see what you can do, how far you can take it, where you can take it and how many people you can do it with. These are exciting times. I feel like a small child, in a white dress, faced with a big mud puddle. Can't wait to jump in and mix it up.