Rapture : An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand

These poems roam the streets looking for a fight, question who we are and who we are growing into, examine the weaponisation and reclaiming of language. These poems take lovers to bed, scream into the depths of sadness and reclaim bodies. These poems decolonise and re-indigenise, swim in the moana, reshape the word ‘home’. These poems belly laugh deep, sprawl out under a blanket of stars and point into the wonder, wax nostalgic for the friends we have and the friends we have lost. These poems are family – a brilliant representation of the diversity of voice, talent, experience and desires of real writers, real poets, real people of Aotearoa. – from the Introduction

From the South Auckland Poets Collective to regional writers festivals, at poetry slams and open mic nights, in theatre works like Show Ponies and Wild Dogs Under My Skirt, performance poetry has taken off in Aotearoa.

In this anthology, ninety performance poets, rappers, spoken-word artists, slam poets, theatre makers, genre blenders and storytellers come together to celebrate the diverse voices and communities within Aotearoa – including Ben Brown and Mohamed Hassan, Grace Iwashita-Taylor and Tusiata Avia, Nathan Joe and Dominic Hoey, Freya Daly Sadgrove, David Eggleton and Selina Tusitala Marsh.

Rapture is a parallel narrative about contemporary poetry in Aotearoa – one that doesn’t just sit on the page, but leaps from it.