A motif is a recurring idea. We had one of those. That an organisation could bring opportunity and support to poets in Aotearoa.
We are a registered charity based in Wellington, running events in five regions around Aotearoa. Our community is led and nourished by volunteers, and the poets who share their work at our events. We are passionate about poetry and the communities that gather around it.
Our name in te reo Māori, Ruri Tūtohu, was translated and gifted to us by Jeremy Tātere Macleod (Ngāti Kahungunu) and Scotty Morrison (Ngāti Whakaue). Ruri Tūtohu marks poetry as important, and brings it to people.
Our work in education, leading workshops and guiding young New Zealanders from viral videos to pen and paper, sits alongside touring, collaboration and commission opportunities for poets.
Check out our kaupapa, sign up to our newsletter, get involved at one of our events, drop us a line, or head along to one of our regular events.
Motif Poetry was founded in November 2018, in Hawkes Bay, by Ben Fagan and Sara Hirsch.
They had recently moved from London, where Sara had been a full time spoken word poet, and Ben had been working for Apples and Snakes, a one-of-a-kind spoken word charity operating across England.
They were keen to take what they had learned, using the model of Apples and Snakes, and apply it to a NZ context.
The name and concept was bashed out in an East London cafe, then it was in a shed on a Hawke's Bay orchard (formally a fruit and vege store, with produce and prices still written in chalk on the walls) that Motif Poetry was brought to life.
Their first core partners (and funders) were the Hawke’s Bay Arts Festival and the National Youth Drama School, which gave Ben, Sara and the fledgling charity the opportunity to start getting into schools, teaching poetry to hundreds of young people, then launching the first Hawkes Bay Poetry Slam.
Not long after that they moved to Wellington where they launched the Windswept Poetry Slam. Ben had found his start at Poetry in Motion Wellington, and slowly this community and Motif grew together as well.
These days Motif is helmed by National producer Amy Atkins, with Sara still working in the eduction space, and Ben & the board backing them up. Motif operates nationally in Aotearoa, and continues to give opportunities to poets here, there and everywhere.
A motif is a recurring idea. We had one of those. That an organisation could bring opportunity and support to poets in Aotearoa.
If you want to speak to the Motif team, ask a question, hire a poet, or start your own poetry journey – then you can fill out the form below and we’ll be in touch!
We love meeting people face to face, so why not come say hi at our next event near you?
