CRUMB #22

16 JANAURY 2024

THE WORD

Tomorrow is here already

Here comes the sun, tomorrow is here already and our voices are sharpened by the light. Ask not what the new year may bring to us but ask what can we bring to the new year!

What an opportunity affords us as we look ahead to the months that lie before us. Opportunity to remake, remould, restore. Opportunity to speak and sing and act in accordance with the story that shapes our heart.

The microphone has been turned on. It continues to provide opportunity to sharpen, form and refine the gifts that have been given us. Many have been emboldened by its presence to take their gifts further afield.

Two special events this month under the umbrella of the Golden Bay Arts Festival. Wednesday 24 January, an Arts Festival edition of The Dangerous Microphone. Sunday 28 January, the Arts festival present the Matinee Poets. Details further on.

See you at the Microphone in January and February.

Peace
Mark Raffills
Golden Bay Live Poets Society

TOMORROW

A pebble cast into the pond
Ripple tells the story, tears and glory
Dross by fire is consumed

And in the shade of the old man pine
A moment there is captured
Still, like a photograph out of time

Weeds and wheat in earth together grow
Waiting for the edge of the harvest blade
To sweep that furrowed line

The dance of light and darkness
Yellow rays of sun and silver moon
Both cast shadows on a sea of gloom

There is no life in an empty tomb
How long will these things tarry
What can be swept by a worn-out broom

Nothing to find down a dead-end street
Boots of leather laced up with twine
Got to make the end of the line

And in the end all things shall be well
And after the fire the seed will bloom
The heart of man, made fine

Six solid stones to build a temple of flesh
One hewed from faith, one from hope
And another carved from love

Six stones build a house for tomorrow
One hewed from humility, one from justice
One from mercy carved

Mark Raffills

OPEN MICROPHONE

THE OPEN MICROPHONE THIS MONTH OF MAY

MOONSHINE ON THE MICROPHONE
THURSDAY2 May. NgAngA’s Gallery, Collingwood.
This is an open mic like no other – sometimes starts off slow and then evolves into something a little intimate, a little family, a little inspiring! An evening of poem and song. Come on down to Collingwood – the best open mic in town! Starts sometime after 7.00 pm. Koha.

ACID ON THE MICROPHONE
Thursday 16 May. The Mussel Inn.
Featuring ARALYN DOIRON – STORYTELLER.

Open mic session runs from 7.30 pm.. Bring your poems and songs. Register to perform on the night. Don’t let other people get your kicks for you!. Door charge $5. See details further on – listen to a pin drop!

THE DANGEROUS MICROPHONE
THIS WEDNESDAY 1 May and then 8, 15, 22 and 29 May. At the Dangerous Kitchen. Register from 5.00pm. Kick off 6.00 pm. The outside temperatures have dropped but inside the Dangerous Kitchen the nights are smooth, the sounds are sweet and the words are as silky as ever! and the wonderful audiences are treated as alway to some of the finest entertainment going down in town. And on Wednesday 22 May, our new, 45 MINUTES OF GLORY featuring Golden Bay Blue Grass will entertain you from 8.00pm. See details further on.

GB SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL

Arts Festival Edition – THE DANGEROUS MICROPHONE

A WILD NIGHT OUT – WEDNESDAY 24 JANUARY 2024

https://www.gbarts.org.nz/event-details/the-dangerous-microphone

With weekly attendances averaging 80 to 100 performers and audience participants, THE DANGEROUS MICROPHONE offers one of the best nights of entertainment the Bay has to offer. Original songwriters and singers, musicians, covers artists, poets and story tellers all combine in a massive display of local talent and courageous performance.

For this special Arts Festival Edition we are asking for door sales: $5 unwaged | $10 waged

The show will feature in the first half: Nick Fient, Beau Kirsten Ross, Kabra Kadabra, John Davis, Bing Brabant and Barrett Newton.

The second half will feature an array of open mic participants who can register at the Dangerous Microphone this Wednesday 17 January.

This will br a great opportunity to showcase Golden Bay’s creative heart to visitors and local alike.

THE DANGEROUS MICROPHONE
24 Jan 2024, 6:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Dangerous Kitchen,
46 Commercial Street, Tākaka

Arts Festival Edition – THE DANGEROUS MICROPHONE

GB SUMMER ARTS FESTIVAL

THE MATINEE POETS

https://www.gbarts.org.nz/event-details/the-matinee-poets

“Poetry is one of the ancient arts, and it begins as did all the fine arts, within the original wilderness of the earth” (American poet, poet Mary Oliver, 1935-2019)

Golden Bay Live Poets Society presents an afternoon interlude of poetry from some of The Bay’s resident poets. Sit back, relax and enjoy poems inspired by the issues of the day as well as the stunning beauty and solitude of Golden Bay.

Featuring:
Emma Callaghan – Emma representing Golden Bay/Nelson in the NZ National Poetry Slam Emma made it through to the second round and on the way won the ‘Spirit of the Slam’ Award in 2022 and placed second overall in 2023. You will find Emma’s range of styles and subject matter inspiring and challenging.

https://www.emmacallaghan.net/spoken-word-poetry

Jude Zwanikken – Jude has emerged as one of the Bay’s unsung wordsmiths. She has been a regular performer at Golden Bay Live Poets over the years and in 2017 took part in GB Arts Council Onetahua/Farewell Spit Artists Residency. Distilled from her experience amidst the vastness and solitude of her days on Farewell Spit, she published her first book of poems called The Lighthouse Collection. “Flashes of beauty and insight like the flashes of light from the lighthouse…now you see it, now you don’t…”

Mark Raffills – Words have been Mark Raffill’s stock-in-trade for over 30 years. A finalist in the NZ Poetry Slam 2011 and 2015, Mark Raffills has performed at venues throughout NZ, as well as a couple in Australia. Mark founded and ran Nelson Live Poets Society back in 1993 and helped the late Joe Bell set up Golden Bay Live Poets Society a couple of years later which he currently co-ordinates.

https://www.markraffills.com/

THE MATINEE POETS
28 Jan 2024, 3:00 pm – 4:30 pm
Mussel Inn, Onekaka,
Entry by koha

FEATURED GUEST ACID ON THE MICROPHONE

POEMS ON STEEL STRINGS – NEAL BONNER

Sometimes he takes a page from punk poet John Cooper Clark; other times he draws from his own deep well of prose poems and holds captive a hushed audience.

Neal Bonner, originally from the UK and now resident of Golden Bay, is a poet of some substance. His words tell stories against a back drop of some stunning original music. He weaves his words around the steel strings of his guitar and creates a strong and resonate tapestry of word song that dances to its own tune.

He will be the featured artist at the first Acid on the Microphone event of the season on 15 February at the Mussel Inn.

Neal’s performances are as engaging as they are beautiful and impossible to ignore. Starting life as a musician- and still a talented one at that – Neal has recently found his voice as a poet, putting his poems to his own guitar accompaniment.

Neal’s poetry and music speak from personal perspectives and what moves him. He says, “I’m enjoying bringing this ‘real Neal’ experience to intimate audiences.

Neal Bonner
Acid on the Microphone
15 February 2024
Mussel Inn. 7.30 pm.
$5 on the door.

SOME OTHER THINGS

LUNASA FESTIVAL 2024
Canaan Downs – Pikikirunga, Golden Bay, Aotearoa – New Zealand

Ticket information and all other details here: https://luminatefestival.co.nz/lunasa/

Weds 24th January. ADAM MCGRATH of The Eastern fame, performing at the Mussel Inn. Adam will perform songs from his latest album, Dear Companions plus all the famous tracks! $20 door.

NELSON LIVE POETS

TONIGHT – TUESDAY 16 JANUARY
YAZA CAFE
7.00pm. KOHA ENTRY
Readers sign up on the night. Refreshments and cabinet food available for purchase.

Make Use of CRUMB

subscribe to CRUMB

In CRUMB you will find all the events sponsored by Golden Bay Live Poets Society plus a few other gigs and community happenings.

If you would like to be kept up to date with open microphone events happening around the Bay, then subscribe to CRUMB here

And you can even submit a gig or event that you want us to know about.

GOT A GIG, EVENT, NEW BOOK or RECORDING COMING UP ??

Got events or gigs coming up that you’d like to let CRUMB readers know about, please email the details, jpeg pics and jpeg posters to: mark@drycrust.com or use the link below:

submit a gig or event

And if you have a new book of poems, stories coming out, or a new recording of songs, let us know and we can let our small but dedicated readership in on the action.