Director’s Message: The little festival that could
I love this image of Whiti Hereaka, Dr Ngahuia Murphy and Ataria Sharman on stage at Meow in an event called Atua Wāhine. This is what a Festival is all about: connection, sharing, listening and supporting.
I am very relieved to be writing this. We did it! Verb Readers & Writers Festival happened and we are now looking back and feeling incredibly lucky.
It wasn’t the Festival we planned but what a magical time in our history it turned out to be. Thanks to our incredible audiences it was a near sell out and the atmosphere throughout was one of delighted disbelief giving way to heartwarming connection. I think many of us couldn’t quite believe the festival was real until it was nearly over. We had spent so many months planning, unplanning, re-planning and then planning for the plan to fall over again.
But the stunning photos by Rebecca McMillan say it all: if you visit our Facebook album you’ll see how we gathered, and listened and talked and shared. And wore masks and distanced!
I want to take this opportunity to thank the phenomenal people who worked incredibly hard to make Verb a success in a pandemic: Mel Hamilton our most brilliant producer; Tash James our production manager who figured out just exactly what we needed to do to keep you all safe; Grace Sinclair who masterminded our logistics; Maeve O’Connell who kept us all informed and excited with her beautiful social media content; Kathy Callesen, Kate McDonald, Jessie Bray Sharpin, Isabel Offer our smiling, efficient and wonderful Front of House team; and Ash Mardon and Gina Moss, just the best stage managers, ever. And to Rahine O’Riley and Sam Shallcross at Meow, thank you for having and hosting us so well! And to Zoe Williams and Zoe Roland, and Seb and Mark, at the National Library of New Zealand - the most welcoming and sleek venue partner we are so grateful to you! And to Andrew Laking, our co-Founder who holds so much.
See, it is a fair army that keeps this small but mighty machine afloat. We are so happy that we could come together and make space for us to honour the books and the writers and the stories that make Aotearoa so rich with voice, and words and ideas.
And it isn’t a Readers & Writers Festival without a magnificent table of books… and Vic Books has been our trusty partner in Lit Mischief since the very start. Thank you to Jess and Melissa for sticking with us in a turbulent year! And for keeping the celebrations going with the handy and vibrant Verb Readers & Writers Festival books page!
Verb is now looking ahead and we have some exciting changes afoot. On Monday 22 November we will be sharing a new opportunity - Programmer for Verb Readers & Writers Festival 2022! I (Claire Mabey) have programmed and directed Verb since 2014 and am excited to be taking time over the next few years to step sideways into new things. I will remain with Verb but will be working in the engine room enjoying seeing what another passionate lit lover will do for our writers and audiences!
Aroha nui,
Claire
Key supporters:
Creative New Zealand, Wellington City Council, Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage, National Library of New Zealand, MBiE, The Dominion Post, Vic Books, Naumi Hotels Wellington, BlueStar, Bowen Galleries, New Zealand Community Trust, HUIA Publishers, ReadNZ, UNESCO, Nikau Foundation, Culture Ireland, Rotary Club of North Wellington. All of our incredible LitCrawl and Newtown Sunday Stroll venues, our astonishing writers!, our Aotearoa publishers, and you!