Free poetry night comes to Hastings

Jeremy Roberts is one of three Hawke's Bay poets joined by three New Zealand poets for the three free events. Photo / Supplied

As part of the National Poetry Day shenanigans, local and national poets will be wandering the streets of Hastings like the bards of old.

Organised by Hawke's Bay Readers and Writers Trust, A Progression of Poets is coming to three Hastings locations on August 17.

People can pick which venue suits them - Hastings Distillers, Common Room or Spaceship – and wait for pairs of poets to come to their venue.

There will be three Hawke's Bay poets – Jeremy Roberts, Rosheen Fitzgerald and Nafauna Kersel - joined by three other poets.

Jeremy has been widely published in the NZ Listener, Landfall, Takahe, JAAM, Poetry NZ and Phantom Billstickers, and will be teaming up with poet, doctor, winner of a Montana Book Award and Fulbright Glenn Colquhoun.

Jeremy says attendees can expect to hear "accessible, provocative, thought-provoking poems".

Jeremy began writing poetry in 1980 and then reading poems in public in 1981.

"I liked how poems looked on the page, but also saw Kiwis like Gary McCormick, Sam Hunt, Laurice Edmond read live.

"Poetry also existed in rock 'n' roll - Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison, Patti Smith," he says about his inspiration.

"From the beginning, my poems seemed to get a response from people."

Rosheen was the 2019 Hawke's Bay Poetry Slam Champion and will be joined by Tayi Tibble, a writer for Re: News and Metro, recipient of the Adam Foundation Prize and the Jessie Mackay Best First Book of Poetry Award for Poūkahangatus.

Nafauna was the 2020 Hawke's Bay Poetry Slam Champion and will be joined by Ruby Solly, a writer, amongst other things, who has been published in Landfall, Starling and Sport and is the author of Tōku Pāpā.

The event is free, but spaces are limited so tickets are available on Eventfinda.