For all those interested in poetry and gaining new skills, this is a workshop for you. The free workshop is led by Robert Sullivan and Courtney Meredith. Robert Sullivan is Nga Puhi and emerged as a distinctive Maori poet with his first collection, Jazz Waiata in 1990. He is a graduate of Auckland University and is now an accomplished poet who alternates relaxed, conversational narratives of everyday events with “disjointed, free-verse, experimentation, and wild bursts of verbal exuberance”. Sullivan is a qualified librarian and currently works at Auckland University Library. Courtney Meredith has over a decade’s experience in public speaking, debating, singing, spoken word and musical performance. She is a slam champion winning Auckland’s two most prestigious poetry slams – Montana and Going West. She is also an English Major from the University of Auckland, where she studied under renowned writers Witi Ihimaera and Emily Perkins, before working under their guidance on the formation of Spectrum 5, which she co-edited. The workshop runs at Fresh Gallery Otara from 6 to 9pm on Friday 11 February, 2011. To book a place, email Nicole.Lim@aucklandcouncil.govt.nz.

