THE WORD

drive your car

Tracy Chapman’s fast car is coming down the road, crashing the manned-borders of the 15-minute city at break-neck speed. Give me the car. Give me the car. Gasoline in the tank and a road that runs to its own horizon. Oh, sometimes we are driving and sometimes we are being driven. Sometimes our hands are on the steering wheel and other times they are lifted in worship to the sound of freedom singing down the wind. And the car rolls on. Stops in the long shadow of the microphone. We tumble out, stand behind the mic, rally our voice, pull up our courage and raise hell for all we are worth before the pursuing hounds of politics and the thought police rub the sleep from their eyes and try to pull the plug on our microphone at the end of the road.

It’s November. Time to get into the car and drive the road to the Dangerous Kitchen, the Mussel Inn and NgAngA’s Gallery for a few fast-car, hell-raising songs and poems, dancing free on the horizon of our dreams.

As well as our six open microphone events this month, you might like to also catch Martine Baanvinger’s Echoes show at the Play House or the launch of Carol Dawber’s latest history of Golden Bay, Tata to Totaranui in the Pohara Hall or the Artists Out West Christmas market at Zatori in Collingwood

A few more details in the pages following. Love to see you somewhere.Keep your motor running. This is the 50th issue of CRUMB!

Peace
Mark Raffills
Golden Bay Live Poets Society

OPEN MICROPHONE

Dangerous Microphone November

Rocking and rolling, new faces and old, this is the Dangerous Microphone in November where we  continue to be astounded at the talent and courage of  those poets and singers and musicians who live among us.

Come on down for your weekly night out. Pencil Wednesdays in your calendar as the evenings draw out and the light abounds.  Meet friends and neighbours and enjoy the on-going connections with travellers and visitors. Devour a night of great pizzas,  splendid entertainment and warm company. At the Dangerous Kitchen the food and beverage service is fantastic and the hostesses and hosts make you feel right at home.

30 MINUTES OF GLORY SESSIONS THIS MONTH

Coming up this Wednesday, 4 November we have CRAIG DENHAM and NATHAN TORVIK. Kindred musical explorers doing their thang via accordion and guitar. They are skillful and talented musicians  who have been treating us all to their musical gifts around the Bay for sometime now. Pretty crazy to have them play for us at the Dangerous.

MÒNICA NAUDIN BURGUETE , Wednesday 25 November. We have seen MÒNICA perform solo and with Kabra Kadabra and now here she is with her own 30 Minutes of Glory Set. Mónica’s musical journey reads like a beautiful, nomadic adventure.  If you dive into the 90s and 2000s indie music archives of Zaragoza, Spain, you’ll find her name front and center. She first made waves with the indie-pop group The Dalkys, before taking the reins as the fierce front woman and songwriter for the award-winning alt-rock band Psicodoras.

All open mic performances are limited to 7 minutes, so performers, time your selves at home!! Performance list open from 5.00pm. We pass the hat to support our 30 Minutes of Glory performers

DANGEROUS MICROPHONE
Wednesday  4 and 25 November ’26 Open Mic from 6.00pm to 7.00pm. 30 Minutes of  Glory sessions 7.00 – 7.45 pm. Open Mic from 8.00pm to 9.00pm
Wednesday  11 and 18 November ‘2Open Mic all night from 6.00pm to 9.00pm

OPEN MICROPHONE

MOONSHINE in NOVEMBER

with POT-LUCK FEASTING

This Thursday – 5 November ’26 –  beneath a big yellow moon we will kick our shoes off and take to the microphone with poem and song and bring the roof down at NgAnga’s Gallery in Collingwood.

Grab a fast car, get down from the valley, come around the corner to NgAngs’a Gallery where the craic is good and the food healthy and hot.  Bring some food to share, something to drink, a poem or two to speak and a song to sing. Or if singing is not your thing, just lend your support with a rousing round of applause to the array of performers.

The POT LUCK FEAST will start around 6.00pm with open mic kicking in from around 7.00 pm. Love to see you again

Moonshine on the Microphone
This Thursday 5 November, 2026
NgAnga’s Gallery, Collingwood
POT LUCK FEAST – 6.00pm
Open Mic – 7.00pm.
Koha

OPEN MICROPHONE

ACID in NOVEMBER

Thursday 12 November. Mark it on the calendar
so you don’t miss the day.

This is the time when poets get to speak of those things that matter,  singer/songwriters get to lift our souls with their songs and our guests get to treat us with their own special kind of magic.

The longest running open mic session in the Bay will open the evening. An inspiring array of poets and singers will launch into the unknown, riding on the back of some fabulous words and stirring melodies.

There will be dinner music from 7.15pm followed by open mic. Then guest poet, Carol Ercolano, will perform her poems of heart and wit and wisdom and Eliza Thomson will bring us all home with a set of moonlight-songs.

Open microphone participants  can put their names on the performance list on the night from 6.00pm. Musician alanjahjah will kick the evening off from around 7.15pm with dinner music to dine to.

ACID ON THE MICROPHONE is presented by Golden Bay Live Poets Society and gives you poems, stories and music too!

ACID ON THE MICROPHONE presents
Open Mic  from 7.30pm – 8.30 pm
Guests: Carol Ercolano and Eliza Thomson after 8.30 pm
Thursday 12 November, 2026 at The Mussel Inn
$5 on the door

ACID GUESTS

LIVE AT ACID ON THE MICROPHONE

A poem is found in heart and song. Carol Don Ercolano and Eliza Thomson feature at Acid on the Microphone

 “Of all the writing genres, poetry is the one which speaks most directly to the heart,” believes Nelson poet  Carol Don Ercolano. “It is the most powerful and the most enduring. It has the ability to change forever the way a reader sees the simple, everyday world.”

Carol is our featured guest at this month’s Acid on the Microphone.

Recently, Carol published her first poetry collection, titled “Simply that’. An optimist by nature, she gains much of her writing inspiration from the natural world and her interaction with it. Many of her poems are written while walking the dogs on Nelson’s Boulder Bank and on Golden Bay’s Pohara Beach, where she has a family bach.

Her work has been featured in local anthologies and magazines as well as in the national Poetry Pudding, an anthology for children edited by Jenny Argante and in several British anthologies. She herself has compiled and edited several anthologies and enjoys the analysis and appreciation of the written word almost as much as she enjoys writing and performing.

Carol has been Guest Poet for a Top of the South Writers Writing Retreat, a Poetry Judge for the Golden Bay Lit Awards,  guest Poet for Nelson and Motueka Live Poets, and has given many talks on poetry, which included  performing her own work. A pleasure and an honour to have her perform her work at Acid on the Microphone.

Local singer/songwriter ELIZA THOMSON will perform a set after Carol. She is originally from Taranaki but now settled in the Bay. Her musical expression is deeply inspired by her loving connection to nature, bringing her times of gathering around fire under the stars with friends to the stage. She brings an engaging presence to the microphone, as she weaves messages of peace through heartfelt piano, guitar and singing melodies. Eliza will be accompanied by rhythm anchor alanjahjah for this GB Live Poets set.

ACID on the MICROPHONE
Thursday 12  November
Open mic: from 7.30 pm
Carol Ercolano:  8.30 pm
Eliza Thomson : 9.00 pm

SOME EVENTS

Poetry Slam NZ Final

Cheer for EMMA CALLAGHAN as she walks out on the stage to represent Golden Bay and Nelson at the National Poetry Slam Final in Wellington, Saturday 14 November. It’s going to be heart-stopping good!

ECHOES

Martine Baanvinger explores the dynamic history of Nelson’s Fairfield House  and the land she stands on through the eyes of the grand lady herself.

Martine Baanvinger is a powerful performer and playwright with a deep passion for the natural world, people and history. Echoes is a tour-de-force that takes you on a journey where joy, beauty and hardship collide. The innovative use of sound, light and projection creates an immersive experience for the audiences.

Catch the Golden Bay season at The PlayHouse, Park Avenue, Takaka.
12 November to 15 November.
Tickets: https://events.humanitix.com/echoes-m6crse5t/tickets

ARTISTS OUT WEST
CHRISTMAS MARKET

SUNDAY, 29 NOVEMBER. A stunning array of artists from out west will have their talents and products on show and for sale at Zatori in Collingwood. From 12 noon until 6.00pm. Enjoy delicious delights, beverages, coffee and cocktails from Zatori’s kitchen  while shopping for  fabulous, original  Christmas gifts from some of Golden Bay’s finest artisans. Experience an afternoon out west with friends!

WORD SAVVY POETRY GROUP

Every Tuesday, Takaka Library.
10.30 am to 12.00pm.
Write poetry, read poetry, bring your favourite poem and discover new poets with other poetry lovers.

LIVE AT THE MUSSEL INN

Live at the Mussel Inn

Monday 2nd , 9th, 16th, 23rd, 30th November
SINGALONG around the piano with CRAIG DENHAM. 7pm. All welcome. koha appreciated

Tuesday 3rd November
ACOUSTIC TUNESDAY – afternoon concert 2pm  pay what you can

Thursday 5th and 19th November
QUIZ –  7.30pm  All welcome

Saturday 7th November VOTE!

Sunday 8th November
THE EARLY BOBS –  (pictured left) play Bob Dylan’s BLOOD ON THE TRACKS $25 door

Thursday 12th November
LIVE POETS – ACID ON THE MICROPHONE   Open mic from 7.30. and Feasturing Carol Ercolano and Eliza Thomason. All welcome $5 door

Sat 14th November
SHAUN KIRK – best one man band ever! $30 tickets  $35 door

Saturday 14th November
CIDERFEST – FOUNDERS PARK NELSON. We’ll be there.

Tuesday 17th November
TAMAGAWA & DELPHINE DORA  Experimental electroacoustic soundscapes from France $20 door

Saturday 28th November
JUST JANIE & BAND $15 door

Sun 29th November
GARETH THOMAS – GOODSHIRT tickets

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