In Voice and Music

South Auckland comes to The Pah Homestead.

Pacifika poetry and jazzskat hip hop music feature at In Voice + Music. Performers include Clara Jane Sione, Dietrich Solokai, Marina Alefosio and Zane Scarborough from South Auckland Poets Collective.

Poets Clara Jane Sione and Marina Alefosio are also beautiful singers, and double as Clarity and Rizzo, the female rap duo “Post 47”. The girls have individual charismatic rap styles and bring a lyrical depth to their words.

As “Post 47” they got together in mid-2009, “making noise as humble sleep-out poets,” says Clara Jane, and “can be spotted from time to time standing on the Manukau off-ramp hustling coins for a no.2 with extra mayo from BK (the number two combo from Burger King).”

South Auckland Poets Collective brings to voice the urban Pacific and Maori experience, using the power of poetry and spoken word to inspire, create and educate. It’s street poetry in the Def Jam style, telling stories of their own lives.

Armed with their voices and notebooks, they defy the negative stereotypes of Maori and Pacific youth in Manukau and substitute a new story – of a group of young people, gifted and brown, brought together by their love of poetry.

From a 2007 meeting of friends sharing some pizza boxes at a Youthline building, the group formed with the support of the Youthline Trust. The Collective has grown into a diverse group of poets, singers, musicians, writers and performers. Last year they released a book and DVD of their work with the support of Creative New Zealand.

In Voice + Music is presented monthly at The Pah Homestead, TSB Bank Wallace Arts Centre by Printable Reality, the organisation committed to promoting poetry and the spoken word.

For more information contact printable@printablereality.com

Zane - A father. A husband. A poet. A youth-worker of sorts. A member of the South Auckland Poets Collective. A loud mouth. A believer in God. Zane's poetry is clever, witty, heart-felt and always captivating, he writes about life experiences, his wife, his son and high school.

Clara – A lover of the arts, based in Otara, she refers to her poetry as mental notes learning how to speak. She writes of imagination, her life in South Auckland and her family.

Dietrich - A youth worker, who lives in Manukau. Poetry always written with the intent to thought provoke listeners. Dietrich has written pieces about faith, finding love and the want to ‘sky dive’ through life.

Marina - A musician and mother of two from Manurewa, her poetry touches on common misconceptions of relationships and love. ”If it's love that we are seeking, it should be love that we are seeking’.

Event listed by Gus Simonovic

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