Workshop: Ecopoetic Voicing with Robert Sullivan (NZ)

Waka from Aotearoa are kinship vehicles where large tribal groupings relate to one another through ancestral waka or ocean-going vessels. In my own poetics, I use the waka as a poem or vehicle to convey ideas through the materials and culture of the waka—its timber and carvings, the various methods of traditional navigation as wayfinding signs of nature through creatures of the ocean and sky, as well as the nature of the ocean (currents, wave directions, swell) and sky (stars, wind direction and intensity, sun and moon). How do we navigate such a tenuous poetics with our voices?

~ Robert Sullivan

Join acclaimed poet and author of more than 12 books of poetry, as well as a graphic novel and an award-winning book of Māori legends for children Robert Sullivan (Ngāpuhi, Kāi Tahu, NZ) for an immersive exploration of ecopoetic voicing where the lyric self meets the more-than-human world.

Focused on ecopoetic voicing, this workshop will explore the nature of the lyric voice, and its collectivity with other beings. Join us as we place ourselves in our own voyaging waka and connect our whole selves from within a sea of islands to discover how voice, environment, and mythic memory intersect in the vast ocean of lyric possibility.

Presented in partnership with the New Zealand Book Awards Trust and New Zealand’s Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day.