Earlier this year, the Auckland Arts Festival team invited us to respond to their programe with a series of talks – and here are the results.

The Auckland Arts Festival 2019 programme asks a bunch of messy, knotty questions – about the stories we tell, the impact they have, and whether there are voices too dangerous to be heard – and this series is about creating space for a few of these conversations.

It’s incredibly exciting to be working with the Festival on this series, and to be presenting so many voices we admire: smart voices, angry voices, playful voices, and all of them captivating. We hope to see you there.

THE WAR ROOM

Can we solve some of the world’s problems over breakfast? (Probably not) (but we can make a start)

This International Women’s Day, we’re gathering some of the most exciting, inspiring, and provocative voices in our city to set the agenda – and we’d like you to be part of the conversation.

Hosted by Johanna Cosgrove, you’re invited to an intimate breakfast where you’ll be seated with one of 20 guests to discuss a question they’re grappling with: in their fields, their lives, and their city.

Our powerhouse speakers include Miriama Kamo, Tracey McIntosh, Amber Curreen, Jackie Clark, Aych McArdle, Chelsie Preston Crayford, Cypris Afakasi, Sarah Longbottom, Grace Stratton, Ilana James, Leah Pao, Alison Mau, Alice Canton, Karamia Muller, Juliet Gerrard, Kolokesa U. Māhina-Tuai, JessB, Sacha Judd, and Ranjna Patel.

Friday 8 March • 8-9am
Spiegeltent, Aotea Square

Please note: each table has a maximum capacity of nine guests and your speaker will be a surprise in the style of Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast

BAD REFUGEE

Refugees are expected to fit a certain archetype – so what happens when they don’t?

In Christchurch earlier this year, a school asked their students to “dress as refugees in old ragged clothes” as part of a fundraiser for World Vision. Good intentions? Maybe. Helpful? Not so much. The narratives we hear about refugees tend to follow a certain formula – one that pulls at heartstrings (and on purse strings), but what are the unintended (and dangerous) consequences of this? What happens when we equate the word ‘refugee’ with ‘trauma’ or ‘poverty’?

Join our panel – featuring Golriz Ghahraman, Leonard Bell and Guled Mire, chaired by John Campbell – in a candid conversation about the myths that have shaped their experience and the stories we aren’t hearing.

Wednesday 13 March • 6-7pm
Spiegeltent, Aotea Square

NO OFFENCE

Is there a case for censorship in the arts?

Great art tests boundaries: it asks difficult and uncomfortable questions about who we are and what we find acceptable – in our private lives, in the community around us, and in the world at large. But is there a line that shouldn’t be crossed? Our chair Alice Snedden joins Jessica ‘Coco’ Hansell, Chris Parker, Lana Lopesi and Victor Rodger in an unflinching debate about whether there is anything that should be off-limits to artists – and, by implication, their audiences.

Wednesday 20 March • 6-7pm
Spiegeltent, Aotea Square

OUR SPEAKERS

See the rest of the programme here