In a first for Pop Poetry, music will join projection to lift words off the page.
From 4 March, for five consecutive evenings at Pigeon Park, Aucklanders will see literary artists’ work typed in projected light on a giant screen, accompanied by musicians creating their own unique soundtracks.
Pop Poetry, created by Alt Group and proudly supported by Auckland Council and Waitematā Local Board, is now in its fourth year of bringing urban sites to life through large-format, typographic projections by night.
This year, five local wordsmiths have each teamed up with a musical maestro, and in a true collaborative jam each pair will infuse words and notes with wit and charm and a palpable passion for their neighbourhood – K’Road.
Entry is free and visitors can listen to DJs from 5.30pm and enjoy tasty treats for sale from visiting food trucks, featuring CrateKitchen Monday to Thursday and NomNom on Friday.
With bean bags scattered on the lawn, poets and musicians perform from 8.15pm until 9pm - all are live performances except Courtney Sina Meredith.
Waitematā Local Board Chair Pippa Coom is delighted to see creativity step out of galleries and theatres and into Auckland’s public spaces with a playful line-up of Pop projects again in 2019.
“Each summer Pop brings fun and play to our everyday spaces. It allows Aucklanders to connect with their city and each other in different ways through their own personal creativity.
"If you see a Pop project, have fun with it in your own way,” she says.
She suggests taking in five of the Pop projects in one day. Walk between three venues in the city centre and join the dots:
- Start at Pop Marbles and build a giant marble run while composing your own birdsong as if by magic. Then bounce on two giant water droplets at Pop Drop. Pop Marbles and Pop Drop are at Karanga Plaza in Wynyard Quarter.
- Walk to Pop Ping Pong in Freyberg Place for a game of pinball-pinging ping pong. You can’t miss the black and white polka-dot tables.
- Land at Pop Plinths in Pigeon Park where K’Road meets Symonds Street. Be your own living sculpture with a choice of 18 different Pop Plinths before getting set to be spell-bound by Pop Poetry at 8.15pm – also in Pigeon Park.
Pop Poetry Event Details
For more information on Pop including dates, times and locations, check out all of the Pop events on OurAuckland.
Be part of #popakl online with Facebook and Instagram.
Pop Poetry line-up:
- Monday 4 March – Christina Asher and Riki Bennett (Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Whakaue, Te Arawa, Ngāti Porou)
- Tuesday 5 March – Hillary Ord and Joost Langeveld
- Wednesday 6 March – Words from Courtney Sina Meredith (not a live performance), Kingsley Melhuish
- Thursday 7 March – 'No Fixed Abode’ (Radio NFA) and Benjamin Morley
- Friday 8 March – Tourettes aka Dominic Hoey and Abraham Kunin
