Category Archives: Arts & Culture

What a way to make a living: poetry with Sara Hirsch and Ben Fagan

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Ben and Sara

Ben is a Wellington native, and Sara is big-city UK Slam Champ. They are making a living by making their way all over New Zealand in a spoken word poetry tour!

They joined B-Side Stories to talk about spreading spoken word, international bridge building, and changing the world with poetry. They also shared some original poems that will make you laugh, and make you think.

To learn more, visit:  www.sarahirsch.co.uk/ and www.benfagan.nz/

For more performance poetry in Wellington: http://www.poetryinmotion.org.nz/

Wellington Songwriter Playlist

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PicMonkey CollageThis week on B-Side Stories, host Martin Andrews played a selection of Wellington songwriters:

Ills Winter – Caught In The Headlights
Eb & Sparrow – Two Wolves
Karl Jensen – The Little Town
Groeni – Hinde
Roman Birch – Time Square City
The Balkanistas – Ajde Zano
Vorn – Drowning Kittens
The Polly Johnson Set – Let Me Count The Ways (I Love You)
Connan Mockasin – I’m The Man, That Will Find You

Ali Whitton of LOST BiRD

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129A7350This week on BSide Stories we were joined by Ali Whitton of LOST BiRD, the local Wellington Country Folk duo consisting of guitar player/songwriter Ali & Oliver Vetter on violin. Ali discusses his Celtic origins in England, the influence of the notorious Wellington weather on his songwriting and the difficulties of maintaining a working life while following your heart in the arts. We were also treated to three live performances of as yet unreleased LOST BiRD songs.

https://lostbird.bandcamp.com/

Nic Lane – vivid new voice

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Nic Lane 2 (2)

Nic Lane is on a mission to tackle the lack of empowerment within marginalised groups. And he is busy. So far he is part of the team who formed in collaboration with Active, a service for youth with an intellectual impairment ( and yes they won 6 awards in last years for ). This year his summer was spent on Live the Dream, a 9 week youth accelerator program) and he has walked out with a street art platform aimed to empower local street artists to advance their arts practice in legal ways. Vivid launched at 2016 New Zealand Fringe Festival and won the most colourful award.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/arts/77048994/street-artist-phlegm-spruces-up-wellington-wall-for-vivid-festival.html

http://maps.vivid.org.nz/

http://everybodycoolliveshere.com/#3

Emma Giesen – creative capital champion

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Emma Giesen

Emma Giesen, hasn’t seen much of the daylight saving hours as she spends most of her summer championing our cities creative culture. She is one of the backbones behind Wellington’s most coveted  festivals, the  and , which run back to back.

In this interview she talks about why she works so hard to keep Welly at the top of our creative game and the exciting addition of up cycling art zones, Junk Monsters, bike powered dance acts, Bicycle Valet parking, which is all just the tip of the ice burg of all the fun stuff about to happen at Cuba Dupa next weekend.

http://cubadupa.co.nz/

Eco friendly  http://cubadupa.co.nz/category/eco-friendly/

To use the Valet Bike Parking http://cubadupa.co.nz/?s=LEISURE

To Volunteer

Pam and Nikki from the Nature Through Arts Collective

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Ali was lucky enough to be joined by Nikki and Pam from the Nature Through Arts Collective who we first met in September last year when they were gearing up to launch their 100 Days Creative Challenge. It’s now finished and they’ll be exhibiting the outcomes of the project at Arts Space, 17 Tory Street between 17-23 March.

IMC launch - Moa 3

 

Listen to the interview below:

And for more information, check out:
https://naturethrougharts.wordpress.com

 

Celia Painter and Abbie Krieble, authors of “When Life Gives you Lemons”

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celia and abbie picture

Celia Painter and Abbie Krieble are teenagers who have written an illustrated book titled “When Life Gives you Lemons” that aims to help young people suffering from depression. Their idea was to offer a book with advice for young people, that was created by young people. To see their book visit: http://createbooks.co.nz/product/when-life-gives-you-lemons/

Celia and Abbie spoke with Ali on 2 Feb 2016 about creating the book and overcoming their own struggles with depression.