The poetics of a city’s architecture involves exploring not just how a city is built or what the city looks like, but a deeper feeling that we often don’t have the words to articulate. So, what would it look like to pause, reflect, and consider what those words might be?

What are the memories and textures we encounter when we think of the cities we’ve lived in? How does nostalgia colour or vision of both the past and the future of a space or place? And how can writing help us explore or engage in conversation around what we dream around our city and fear for it?

Playwright and poet Nathan Joe will guide participants through a workshop process that will involve gentle discussions and guided exercises to explore notions of home and belonging. Whether you’re a first-time writer or someone more experienced, this workshop offers a chance to explore the city in a way that is often ignored.

This workshop is for ages 16+ and bookings are essential. This event will go ahead under Covid-19 Alert Level 2 restrictions. Numbers will be limited to allow for 1m physical distancing and everyone is asked to bring a mask (unless they have a medical exemption).

About the artist

Ōtautahi Christchurch-based award-winning playwright, performance poet, theatre-maker and theatre critic Nathan Joe will be in residence at The Arts Centre Te Matatiki Toi Ora from 2 August to 24 October as part of the Arts Four Creative Residency project, with funding support from Creative New Zealand and the Stout Trust (proudly managed by Perpetual Guardian).

Nathan was the 2020 NZ Poetry Slam Champion and the 2020 Christchurch Slam Champion, and has performed and spoken at events such as the Auckland Writers Festival, WORD Christchurch, Tedx Auckland and the Auckland Pride Gala. He is spending his residency writing a long-form poetic essay Gentrification & Other Wet Dreams, an ongoing exploration of identity alongside wider questions of citizenship. It will question what it means to return to a home that was never yours.