World Poetry Day, 21 March 2024

By Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature | Posted:

To mark World Poetry Day, 21 March 2024, we are proud to be collaborating with City of Literature South D Poet Lorikeet, Jenny Powell, and SuperGrans Dunedin to offer the SuperGrans staff, volunteers and their community a series of poetry workshops over six weeks.

Teacher and award-winning poet Jenny Powell has previously delivered popular City of Literature poetry workshops to new entrant classes in South Dunedin, whose poems were published afterwards by the City of Literature as Teddy Poems, illustrated throughout with photographs of Teddy. The books were gifted to all participating students to read at home with their whānau.

SuperGrans staff and volunteers offer free holistic support to individuals and whānau to learn new skills to thrive in today’s world. The series of free workshops is a way of saying thank you for their great mahi in the community.

Jenny says,

‘Poetry helps us identify what is important. It even enables us to become what we secretly yearn to be. Maybe that’s a superhero or a dancer, a pilot or polar bear.‘

I can’t wait to work with a group of South Dunedin ‘SuperGrans’, exploring this idea through poems. It doesn’t matter if people have never written poetry. Over a course of poetry writing sessions, I know that the group will develop these skills and, in the wonderful timelessness of poetry, become what they wish to be.

‘Giving a poetic voice to seemingly impossible ideas is accompanied by joy and wonder. I see the encouragement and sharing of these qualities, through the energy of poems, as a crucial part of my role as City of Literature South D Poet Lorikeet.’