The Literatti is an ever-evolving collection of very different poets who want to work on the craft of performance poetry together. We work with a wide range of different performance poets, musicians and artists. People we collaborate with and people who have been involved in The Literatti journey are listed to the left, including the original crew, and all subsequent Literartists. The Literatti is now comprised of a core group who do the organising and directing and a pool of poets who make up the potential cast. The Literatti core currently consists of Miriam Barr and Christian Jensen - the current creative director and her successor. Though this expands and contracts as people from The Literatti Pool become active. Miriam and Christian organise the shows, and the poets from The Literatti Pool are invited to take part as they become ready.
We workshop on a regular basis to keep creating new and exciting work together that pushes our boundaries. Our current project is based on and set to the Nine Inch Nail's album Ghosts I, which was released onto the creative commons. People from both the Pool and the wider public were invited to make expressions of interest in being involved.
See the Shows page for details, but we can announce that we will be collaborating with Shane Hollands, Michael Rudd and David Ingram so far, so we are set for an exciting journey.
We have a 'the more the merrier' policy. If you are interested in joining The Literatti Pool with an eye towards performing with us, email the creative director at theliteratti@gmail.com to arrange an audition.
Miriam Barr
Our creative director since 2007, Miriam has been part of The Literatti since the idea first escaped Shane Holland's mouth one night in late 2005. Her directorship has seen the development of our multiple-poet performances and forays into the world of visual arts and theatre. She is also editor/publisher of Side Stream (a bi-monthly poetry zine) and one of the co-ordinators of Poetry Live. Her work has been published in such places as Black Mail Press, JAAM, Magazine, Enamel, and The Wild Goose Poetry Review. She has released two books, Tangents (2006) and Observations from the Poetry Factory (2007). She is currently finishing her MA in psychology.
Christian Jensen
Christian was head-hunted by The Literatti after he took the Kerouac Effect poetry slam by storm in 2008. He had his debut with the group as part of Word of Mouth at TAPAC later that year and has been creating mad genius with us ever since. Christian is one of the power-houses behind the highly successful Metonymy Project, a collaborative project that sends a poet and a visual artist on a 6-week blind date, culminating in an exhibition. He is one the co-ordinators of Poetry Live and directed the Global Eyes/Feet/Voice project. His work has been published in such places as Snorkel, The Hay(na)ku Anthology, Otoliths and the De-Formed Paper. His book, Zin Uru (soapbox press) was released in 2008.
Sabrina Muck
Sabrina Muck joined The Literatti Pool at the start of 2009, as we began to prepare for our biggest project to date - GROWL, the international collaboration that saw American performance poet Nikki Patin travel to work with us in NZ. Sabrina is a tax lawyer by training, business woman by day, but poet at heart and performance-maestro by night. She is an avid slam poet and a regular face in the Auckland poetry community. Her poetry has been published in such places as Black Mail Press and Live Lines.
Daniel Larsen
Daniel Larsen first became involved in The Literatti as a sound technician and made us sound great from 2007-2008. At the start of 2009 Daniel, a performer in his own right, started workshopping with us. He then joined The Literatti Pool and has been performing with us since Rhythm & Verse in August, 2009. Daniel was involved in the international collaboration which saw the release of the free, People In Your Neighbourhood CD and is regularly invited to perform around Auckland. His poetry has been published in Live Lines, Tongue in Your Ear, Black Mail Press, Side Stream and De-Formed Paper.
Shane Hollands
Shane Hollands is the mastermind who brought The Literatti to life and was creative director for the collective’s initial year. Hollands is also half of beat-speak act The Beautiful Losers and front man for the band Freaky Meat. He has been a pre-eminent force in the spoken word/performance poetry scene in New Zealand for over a decade and is instrumental in the poetry-music crossover renaissance that has been taking place across the nation. He has performed his work from tip to tip of New Zealand. While he avoids ‘submitting’ at all costs, his work has made its way into Live Lines, Side Stream, Tongue In Your Ear, De-Formed Paper, and some five independently published collections.