The word on our literary partnerships and events programme
Zoe Roland, Manager Public Experience, shares the joy of literature and what the Library is doing to partner with our literary communities and support the many strands of the literary sector.
We love literature
It should be no surprise that those of us who work in libraries love literature. We love words in all their wonderous, fanciful and perfunctory forms. We love books, we love hearing authors talk about themselves and their work, and, being the home of the Poet Laureate and Te Awhi Rito Reading Ambassador … we love poetry and reading. But above all, there is nothing we love more than seeing Aotearoa’s literary scene, and their beloved communities, thriving.
Two unidentified members of the New Zealand Players Theatre Trust, reading from a notebook, 1957, by Evening Post photographer. Ref: EP/1957/0322a-F. Alexander Turnbull Library.
The National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa is charged with ‘enriching the cultural and economic life of New Zealand and its interchanges with other nations’ (National Library of New Zealand Act 2003).
We have a growing commitment to partnering with our literary communities and to continue to support the many strands of the literary sector. Across the Library our work ranges from providing collections for authors to mine for fictional works and ensuring historical accuracy to publishing advice and ISBN to legal record support and our active public engagement mahi supporting literary festivals and publishing houses.
The three strategic pou (metaphoric posts or pillars) of the National Library are reading, knowledge and taonga. Our role is to ensure that the power of reading, its ability to build knowledge, empathy, and the value of our taonga (precious collections) is understood and explored.
When embraced by communities, schools, and individuals the successful outcome of our mission can be life-changing. Transforming hearts and minds through literature, knowledge and taonga is our goal.
Supporting Aotearoa’s literary communities
The Public Engagement Directorate and the wider library have an active and abiding commitment to supporting Aotearoa’s literary communities and engendering a love of literature, reading for pleasure, and innovative ways of watching, listening to and participating in literary events.
Fostering strong event-based partnerships with people and organisations across the sector such as Bridget Williams Books, Pantograph Punch, the Slam Poetry community, Wellington Zinefest, Kids Lit Quiz, Auckland Writers Festival, NZ Childrens Books Awards, Storylines Trust, Katherine Mansfield House and publishers is a key component of our mahi.
We support the sector by providing partnership opportunities, supporting funding applications, providing commercial venue spaces, supporting with National Library staff expertise and event support through our energetic and committed kaimahi (staff). These relationships provide an opportunity for us to build and deepen relationships with the New Zealand book ecosystem.
WORD Christchurch
The gold standard for our work is our literary festival partnerships. For the past three years, the National Library has supported WORD Christchurch literary events which speak to the National Library’s taonga (collections) and our strategic directions.
In 2023, the centenary of Katherine Mansfield’s death, the WORD Christchurch opening event ‘RISK! The WORD Gala’ presented a strongly aligned opportunity for us to support the literary sector, be nationally visible and profile the largest Katherine Mansfield collection in the world, which is held at the Alexander Turnbull Library
Screen from Risk! The Word Gala website.
WORD is a world-class festival — thoughtfully curated topics with diverse speakers, an edgy international cohort and a generally nourishing experience for lovers of ideas and writing. The 2023 festival Risk! The Word Gala — WORD Christchurch Festival 2023 was no exception.
The importance of the arts for rangatahi
At this year’s WORD festival, ex-London gang member Gabriel Kreuze (pictured above in the right-hand corner wearing his ‘grill’) spoke about his Booker-longlisted novel Who We Was. Discussing the disconnect between his community on the streets and his literary community he segued into the importance of books in homes and exposing kids to the arts to teach them about narrative.
Kreuze believes that by exposing children to the ‘narrative arts’ such as theatre and literature they learn that they can create their own narrative — one which isn’t pre-determined by their environment. Kreuze’s writing success makes him an anomaly in his own community, however, before his literary success he had escaped the trap of council estate poverty and imprisonment through books and engaging in tertiary education.
Aotearoa has its share of poverty, the lure of gangs, intergenerational trauma, and low educational outcomes as well as issues around gender identity and belonging. How do we reach these hard-to-access and often introspective communities? How do we help individuals change the narrative? The Slam community and our Poet Laureate as well as the kaimahi in the Public Engagement Directorate are committed to reaching these communities and empowering them to tell their stories and experience new and reflective narratives through literature.
Wellington Poetry Slam Regionals
The annual Slam Regional competition held at the National Library delivered by the amazing Poetry in Motion and Motif Poetry Ruri Tūtohu duo Ben Fagan (published poet and international Slammer) and Sara Hirsch (2013 UK Slam Champion, 3rd in the World Slams, 2014) is pure, fast-paced, audience participatory joy. If you don’t know what Slam sounds like, it’s a combination of poetry and rap lyrics (not the objectionable ones), delivered live with a fast-paced energetic rhythm. The lyrics are often delivered with brutal honesty, humour and pathos.
Scoring at the Wellington Poetry Slam Regionals. Photo by Chris McKeown.
The Slam community is well-versed in the power of hearing others speak about their experiences. Ben tells me that there is plenty of research that has proven that taking part in an arts community, as well as processing your lived experience through poetry, has a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing. And there’s no denying that Aotearoa needs to embrace strategies to positively impact the lives of our rangitahi (youth).
L to R: Zoe Roland, Wellington Slam Regionals trophy and Ben Fagan.
Poet Laureate
Chris Tse, our youngest, first Asian and openly queer Poet Laureate is an expert Slammer himself and had worked tirelessly to support rangatahi poets up and down the county for years prior to becoming the laureate and he features regularly in our public programmes. He is a worthy recipient of the role and has continued to support our programming, and like the Slam crew has a very clear and personal understanding of the transformative and liberating power of poetry and literature.
Chris Tse, Poet Laureate and students at the Poetry Day Extravaganza, Poetry Day 2023. Photo by Mark Beatty.
On Poetry Day (August 25) Chris and members of the Motif Poetry crew and ZineFest worked with over 200 students at the National Library to develop their understanding and love of poetry, community slam, zine making, and other ways rangitahi can tell their stories, feel heard and build, weave and recreate their own narratives. You can read more about the New Zealand Poet Laureate on their blog.
How to Make a Zine from Poetry Extravaganza Day. Photo by Mark Beatty.
Lesbian and Gay Archives of New Zealand
The LAGANZ Collection (Lesbian, Gay Archive of New Zealand) is another of the collections we draw from in our public programming. Housed at the Alexander Turnbull Library, since an arson attack in the 1980s on LAGANZ previous repository, the collection has been mined for rangatahi zine inspiration over several years for our trans and queer communities.
Front cover of The Archive is Alive "The Gender Woo Woo".
In collaboration with the LAGANZ board, Rainbow Youth and Inside Out, we have facilitated workshops and creative sessions combined with intergenerational storytelling to simultaneously enrich the community and the collection. By bringing in incredible presenters, who paved the way for the LGBTQI+ community, and ensuring rangitahi are in our audience, we are able to hold true to the whakatauki ‘He Whakapapa kōrero, he whenua kura’ – look back to the past to create a better future. Examples of this are the events E oho! Mana takatāpui and Out of the ashes: Celebrating queer histories.
Collecting the stories of our diverse communities
These practices of reading, crafting, and performing not only positively impact individuals but when these stories become part of a national institution they can shape who we are and who we aspire to be.
Fostering and collecting new voices and whakaaro (ideas or provocations) is a key strategic ambition of the National Library and one which is woven into the Public Engagement Directorate plan. We are looking to broaden our collections by bringing to light the voices of those less heard — refugee and migrant New Zealanders, Pasifika, Māori, rangatahi, and those from our rainbow communities.
The National Library have a mandate to support and collect these taonga (treasures) and is working with Motif Poetry to support the collecting and safekeeping of these voices for future generations. We are working with Ben and Sara to support them in caring for their collection and repository of Slam works or by donating the works to us in digital form for our Contemporary Voices and Archives established in 2021 at the Alexander Turnbull Library.
By seeing ourselves reflected in collections in national institutions we can see a narrative for ourselves which is positive and supported rather than marginalised and disparaged. By opening our collecting practice to a broader more diverse Aotearoa community the younger generation's voices, perspectives, concerns, and events of importance to them come to light — to stand proudly as part of our Nation’s history in our national documentary heritage collection.
Literacy and Learning
Alongside the work of Public Engagement, the Literacy and Learning Directorate works closely with schools, educators, partners and communities to drive reading for pleasure, support literary diversity and role-model a love of literature. Read about some of their amazing mahi here Pūtoi Rito Communities of Readers and Te Awhi Rito New Zealand Reading Ambassador.
Upcoming collaborative events
Look out for our other partner and collaborative events in the coming year. Fingers crossed that In 2024 we can spark more new and exciting synergies with our friends from The Pantograph Punch, WORD Christchurch, Motif Poetry, our glorious Poet Laureate Chris Tse and our favourite Wellington lit crew Verb Wellington.
We look forward to seeing you onsite or online at one of our National Library and partner events in the coming year.
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