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Blood In The Kava Bowl - Oceania Centre for Arts and Culture |
The Blood In The Kava Bowl series is a monthly spoken word event in honour of the late Professor Epeli Hau'ofa, the founding Director of the Oceania Centre. Inspired by Epeli's poem "Blood In The Kava Bowl", the evenings attempt to capture some of the organic nature of talanoa and the sharing of stories, knowledge and performance around the kava bowl.
On the first Friday of every month, from 7-9pm, we put the mats down in the Oceania Centre, mix the kava and as the kava circulates, people are welcome to contribute to the evening in any way they feel comfortable. For many this means sitting, listening and enjoying what others do, however, for others it is an opportunity to share a story, poem, song, music, dance, or some words in a comfortable, non-competitive, non-judgemental space.
Contributions are welcomed in any language, any style, any format and cross art-form collaborations are encouraged. People are asked to keep their pieces to under five minutes to allow others to have the opportunity to also contribute something, however, there is usually he opportunity for people to share more than one piece if they want.
A regular monthly spoken word event provides spoken word artists with a space and opportunity to develop their art and explore new ways of delivering messages to a live audience. Artists are encouraged to draw upon their Pacific cultural identities and the numerous oratory traditions from across the Pacific in the development of a uniquely Pacific contemporary spoken word art-form. To assist artists in the development of their material for the Blood In The Kava Bowl series, weekly workshops are held at the Oceania Centre to enable writers and performers to come together to share with, and learn from, each other and to refine their writing and performance.
