Young Members | Poetic Soundscapes #2

Poetic Soundscapes is back! Come and hang out around a fire pit on our cozy East Terrace at sunset. Award-winning poets and fresh writers share stories around the theme of Our Place, inspired by our current exhibition Ever Present: First Peoples Art of Australia.

This time, Shania Pablo, Ngaio Simmons and Emma Ling Sidnam will take the stage. Tunes by DJ Droszkhi aka Torben Tilly.

Poetic Soundscapes is a relaxed and spirited Young Members event for the young and curious. Refreshments will be offered. Bring a blankie or a warm shawl in case it gets chilly.

Please note this event is R18.

About the Speakers

Shania Pablo (they/them) discovered spoken word in 2015 and has since been using poetry to help navigate their place in the world. They have been a finalist in WORD - The Frontline, Rising Voices, and The JAFA Poetry slam. They are a WORD - The Frontline coach, an editor for eel mag, and a member of The JAFA Poetry Slam board. They are also currently a PhD candidate, writing their thesis about lesbian contemporary art and new materialism. 

Emma Ling Sidnam (she/her) is a Wellington-based writer and lawyer. As a fourth-generation Asian New Zealander, she is passionate about representation and ensuring that all voices are heard. Emma is an award-winning slam poet and her work has been published in the Spinoff, Capital, Newsroom and the anthology A Clear Dawn: New Asian Voices from Aotearoa New Zealand. In 2022, she was awarded the prestigious Michael Gifkins Prize for her debut novel Backwaters, which will be officially released the night before Poetic Soundscapes.

Ngaio Simmons (she/her) is a Māori/Pākehā spoken word artist and educator born and raised on the island of Oʻahu on Kānaka Maoli land in the unceded nation of Hawaiʻi. Now permanently residing in her ancestral homeland, Aotearoa, she is still writing about diaspora, identifying conflict, and what it means to be Indigenous and queer in a world that repeatedly rejects both. Ngaio has been published in Contemporary Verse, Flux Hawaiʻi, Literary Hub and Ora Nui, among others. Her poem ‘Whānau’ was recently featured in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day series for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.