Ben Fagan

Ben Fagan (Pākehā) is from Te Matau-a-Māui & Te Whanganui-a-Tara. He founded Ruri Tūtohu Motif Poetry in 2018 alongside fellow poet and educator Sara Hirsch. Ben acted as Artistic Director of Motif until 2024, when the charity hired its first National Producer.

As well as supporting Motif however he can, these days he is the Artistic Director of Taiohi Whakaari ā-Motu the National Youth Drama School, and Community Manager at The Spinoff, Aotearoa's most innovative independent media organisation.

Ben has worked extensively with venues and festivals around the world as a producer, host, writer and performer. Ben is focused on and passionate about helping Aotearoa to tell its story. Through poetry, theatre, music, writing and journalism. He is a believer in storytelling and the power of the unaccompanied voice.

Ben Fagan is a spoken word poet from Te Matau-a-Māui & Te Whanganui-a-Tara, and has shared his work across the UK, USA and NZ. Ben has taken two poetry shows to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and while in London worked for Apples and Snakes, the UK's leading spoken word poetry organisation.

He has been published in The Spinoff, Newsroom, The Listener, Vines and Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP). His debut collection Some Traveller was published in the UK by Bx3. He was a guest curator of Verb Readers & Writers Festival 2019 and in 2020 released poetry video collection Pākehā 2020. He has since been exploring longer forms of writing.

As a performer he has recently featured at the reopening of Toitoi: Hawke’s Bay Arts and Events Centre, as part of the Aotearoa New Zealand Poet Laureate’s inauguration events, on film alongside the New Zealand Youth Choir and in the UK at the London Film and Comic Con.