Pop Poetry launch event celebrates Jewish culture on Auckland’s Karangaphape Road
Pop Poetry launched on Auckland’s well known Karangahape Road this week and runs for two further days, finishing on Sunday.
Old Jewish Cemetery on Cnr of Symonds St and Karangahape Road
The story of Hape, whose karanga gave Karangahape Road showcases a line-up of writers who reflect on life and death on Auckland’s most infamous road.
The event went live on March 21st and runs until March 25th, 7.30pm-9.30pm.
Pop Poetry recalls the story of Hape’s karanga, one of the oldest stories associated with the area, used as a walking track in pre-European times.
The Poetry Hut sits next to New Zealand’s oldest Jewish Cemetery that sits on the corner of Symonds St and Karangaphape Road.
Themes explored by writers Kirsten Warren and Avigail Allan include the examination of contemporary Jewish experiences in Auckland.
Allan’s work addresses issues of Israeli and Jewish identity. Previously attending Kadimah School on Greys Avenue, her work for Pop Poetry reflect on years of lunch breaks in Auckland city Myer’s park.
Warren’s first novel, The Sound of Breaking Glass, is up for publication this year and is centered around the child of a survivor of Holocaust.
The event will also share feature poetry and prose. Auckland street poet David Merritt and writer Dominic Hoey will team up and collaborate in a joint performance. Other nights feature filmmaker Amarbir Singh, whose film 1Nite was shot on K’Road: historian Edward Bennett, whose Gay Road describes the arrival of gay nightclubs to the area;
There are plenty of other surprises in store with the program ending on Sunday with live writing from Radio No Fixed Abode DJs. The community radio station aims to address and dispel myths about homelessness.
Audiences can expect to hear historical texts, poems and memories that weave a textual patchwork over the remaining nights.
Pop Poetry Programmer, Rebecca Kunin says: “The writers reflect the overlapping histories and communities that generate the energy and character of K’ Road and our affection for it.”
