I know winter feels as though it will never depart, but it will. There are buds just starting to colour on my plum trees, the blackbirds are fighting for territory, and every time I turn around there seems to be another flourish of jonquils. But even more certainly a harbinger of spring-to-come, it is now time to pimp The 2019 Canterbury Poets’ Collective Poetry in Performance readings!
Once again, it’s been perfectly designed to give your midweek a cultural boost, every Wednesday night from September 25th to November 13th, 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm. Each evening begins with an Open Microphone session, where anyone who fancies it can put their name down and read a poem. 
(We’re famous for the standard of our open mic readers, and for the supportiveness of our audience.) It’s a great way of wetting your feet, as well as hearing some pretty stunning poems making their first public outing. And if you need further inducement, each night the audience gets to vote for their favourite open mic readers, who return as the guest readers for the final evening. Bonus!
After the interval there are three guest readers – usually one reader from out of town, and two local poets. Very often one of the locals will be an emerging poet, possibly someone who first showed up at the open mic. The whole thing usually wraps up around 8.30, but there’s generally a bit of meeting-and-mingling afterwards. All for $6 a session.
It takes place in the Imagetech Lecture Theatre at Ara (formerly Christchurch Polytechnic) on Madras Street. Super easy to find: go in through the main doors from the carpark, sashay five steps along the right corridor, and it’s the first door.
The readers for this year are (drumroll please):
25th September: Alison Glenny, Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, Annabel Wilson
2nd October: Harry Ricketts, Joanna Preston, Tam Vosper
9th October: Fiona Farrell, John Allison, Jane Simpson
16th October: Therese Lloyd, Roger Hickin, Robynanne Milford
23rd October: Emma Neale, Rodney Foster, Gail Ingram
30th October: Michael Harlow, James Norcliffe, Melanie Dixon
6th November: Diane Brown, Students from The Poetry Class
13th November: Liz Breslin, and the best of the Open Mic poets.
(note: this list updated 16.09.19.)
Yep, that’s right. Not only am I reading, but I’ve also managed to wangle a spot for The Poetry Class to read! (Bwaa haa ha, my plans for world domination are bearing fruit!)
Ahem. If you’d like a copy of the very sexy poster for yourself, clicking on this link should take you to a downloadable pdf version.
Roll on Spring!
A Dark Feathered Art 