South Auckland Poets Collective 10th Anniversary

This year marked the 10th Anniversary of The South Auckland Poets Collective (SAPC). The members of SAPC are the coaches, mentors and facilitators of our programmes. It is a difficult thing to discern where SAPC ends and Action Education begins, both bodies are inextricably linked and are symbiotic in nature. 

We give huge thanks to Auckland City Libraries who this year have archived our works and supported us to celebrate this in style. This included a heritage talk, a 3-night show directed by Grace Taylor and supported by Creative New Zealand and an exhibition as part of the Auckland Arts Festival at the Mangere Arts Centre.

Action Education and SAPC have woven a rich history together over the last decade and have had a huge impact on the communities and young people we have worked with, this became increasingly clear as the anniversary came together.

​10 years ago Youth Workers, poets and friends Ramon Narayan, Grace Taylor and Daren Kamali had an idea. Through poetry they had each experienced the ability to break down barriers and engage with young people, with spoken word they had stumbled onto a medium that would lead to one of the most powerful tools of youth engagement and self-expression in Aotearoa.

The South Auckland Poets Collective was born. 

Originally a youth project funded by Youthline and Creative Communities, SAPC uses spoken word poetry as a tool for positive social change with a focus on young people. Since 2008 the Collective has grown and developed, and has produced more than 32 incredible artists who have gone on to contribute to New Zealand through their art and community work in tremendous ways.

Over the years the kaupapa alignment of Action Education and SAPC has become clear, and as Ramon says, it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends. The current members of the Collective are coaches, mentors and educators for all of Action Education’s current programmes.
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SAPC is a creative home to nurture outstanding talents, who are then equipped to give back to the next generation of artists through Action Education.

The South Auckland Poets Collective paved the way for the possibility of Stand Up Poetry, WORD – The Front Line, and so many events and programmes that Action Education uses to provide  pportunities for young people to develop and express their inherent creativity.

“South Auckland Poets Collective has grown the art of poetry slam, pedagogy and emerging and youth performers and writers in leaps and bounds over the last decade in New Zealand, especially from its humble beginnings in South Auckland,” says co-founder Daren Kamali who now works as a Senior Curator for Auckland Libraries.

“I want to acknowledge the role of Youthline and Action Education over the last 10 years for establishing 32 young poets and also being instrumental in working and keeping SAPC together with outreach work into our communities, nationwide and across the Tasman.”

​The support of Auckland Libraries to record and celebrate 10 years of the South Auckland Poets Collective has been an incredible way to validate the impact this small group of committed artists and community organisers has had.

“Celebrating 10 years of South Auckland Poets Collective is celebrating contemporary oral storytelling known as spoken word poetry in Aotearoa,” says co-founder Grace Taylor.

“I am so proud of the ripple effects the Collective have had for both young people and the artform as a whole. The thing I am most proud of is empowerment of young people to tell their own stories.”