An Evening of Poetry (Open Mic)

Poetry, performance & open mic. All welcome.

On June 28th 1969 police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village, New York. This was one of the significant events of that activated the gay liberation movement, the promotion of LGBT rights within the United States of America, and the world’s first LGBT pride march in 1970.

This had a flow-on effect in Aotearoa New Zealand with the Homosexual Law Reform Act 1986 that finally decriminalised consensual sex between men, and later the Human Rights Act 1993 that outlawed discrimination including sexual orientation and implied for gender identity & expression. Prior to this, including in 1968, petitions calling for the decriminalisation of homosexual acts were rejected by Parliament.

Qtopia and Faultline Poetry Collective honour the impact that the Stonewall riots had on the world and wish to commemorate the 50th anniversary with an evening of poetry and performance, with an open mic for members of the community to share their stories, poems and hopes for the future on the stage.

The mic will be open to anyone to share their writing (poetry, prose, rap, etc...). Bring a friend and a whole lotta love!

Doors & sign up from 6pm.
We’ll kick off at 6.30pm.

With performances by:
- Khye Hitchcock
- Jennifer K Shields
- Audrey Baldwin
- Faultline Poetry Collective & more!

Plus a special announcement... (Ōtautahi's own queer book club! With support from Scorpio Books!)

Find us in the TSB space on Hapori / Community, level 1 of Tūranga central library (just up the first flight of stairs - look out for signs or ask a librarian to point you in the right direction!)

Entry is by a sliding scale donation for Qtopia - between $2 and $10 - pay what you can comfortably.

This is an all ages event and is alcohol and drug-free.
Thank you to our friends Christchurch City Libraries for their support.