Moana Verse Poetry
Step into the world of words with the Moana Verse Poetry Workshops, a free series of creative writing sessions facillitated by Black Sugarcane author and 2025 Emerging Pasifika Writer in Residence, Nafanua Purcell Kersel. Held online every Tuesday from 5:30-7pm, these workshops are designed to uplift Māori and Pasifika voices through guided poetry and performance exercises. Each session explores a new theme from identity and ancestry to protest and personification using fun, accessible techniques like list poems, dialogue, and blackout poetry. Whether you're a first-time writer or seasoned storyteller, you're invited to join one or more sessions, speak your truth, and connect with community. See schedule below.
Workshop 1: List Poems
Date: 5th August (Online)
Theme: Identity
If you can wirte a list, you can write a poem!
Workshop 2: Sensory Poems
Date: 12th August (Online)
Theme: Whenua, Home, Place
Describe where you're from through sounds, sights, smells, tastes and feelings.
Workshop 3: Dialogue Poems
Date: 26th August (Online)
Theme: People, Family, Ancestry
What would you say in a group chat with your ancestors?
Workshop 4: Personification Poems
Date: 2nd September (Online)
Theme: Non-human characters
If animals, buildings or elements of nature could speak, what would they say?
Workshop 5: Found Poems
Date: 9th September (In-person)
Theme: Protest, Resistance, Homage
Change or highlight the meaning of a text by crossing it out or chopping it up to make a poem.
Workshop 6: Group Sharing
Date: 16th September (In-person)
Theme: Performance
Share your poetry, get some feedback and learn performance techniques.