~ come along and be the first to experience new works in development by Leilani Tamu & Poata Alvie McKree

About Leilani Tamu

Born in Tamaki Makaurau under the shelter of Maungakiekie, Leilani Tamu is a descendant of Te Moana nui a Kiwa (Samoa & Tonga). Her first book The Art of Excavation (Anahera Press, 2014) was birthed into the world following a decade of poetic mediation tempered by the personal and political. Leilani’s current project ~ Ola ~ brings together poetry and live performance to explore the mysterious life of her great grandmother, Ora Stewart (Ola), who was erased from Leilani’s family history following the adoption of both of her children in the 1920s.

About Poata Alvie McKree

Poata Alvie McKree (Ngāpuhi, Ngāti Kahu ki Whangaroa, Yurumein, Barbados) is an artist and arts therapist committed to telling stories that foster our connection to whenua, atua, tupuna, and ngā tangata katoa o te ao. Alvie writes for live performance, facilitates therapeutic art and movement workshops, and offers ritual and ceremonial gatherings for women. Through her art she reimagines the lived experiences of her ancestors as a means to heal rifts in cultural identity caused by colonisation, migration, and the trans-Atlantic slave trade.For the past decade, Alvie taught at Elam School of Fine Arts while honing her writing and developing her first theatre piece, Black Māori Girl with Black Creatives Aotearoa. Alvie was a playwright for Te Pou Theatre’s Kōanga Festival 2022, where she developed her first full-length stage play, The Handlers. She was selected as a writer for Flying Fetu Writers Lab 2022 and was a playwright for the polylogue ONO presented at the Tahi Festival 2023 and Kōanga Festival 2023. Alvie is currently working on a performance/poetry collection, Black Māori Woman.