More Fringe Festival: The Institute of Refuge in Art

Black Coffee in Newtown is hosting the Institute of Refuge in Art exhibition. Each piece has been created using discarded artworks. All recreated artwork will be up for sale over the week with 50% of the proceeds going towards Vinnies Wellington social services. Have a chat with Carmel from Black Coffee if you’re interested in any […]

Review: The Elephant Thief

An exuberant onstage cartoon, Indian Ink Theatre Company’s The Elephant Thief begins in a jail cell and ends in… space, or the afterlife, or some other such vague spoiler. It’s an outsized feast of imaginative staging and potential pachyderm puns, anchored by a winning performance by company newcomer Vanessa Kumar. The show’s setting is a […]

A journey around the Billiards Room (and tables)

Last week, Wellingtonista’s ace literary team was lucky enough to get invited along to the pre-launch Writers’ Week Welcome, held within the Museum Art Hotel‘s very swanky Billiards Room. Following on from last year’s sale of the Courtenay-district landmark (let’s not go busting out the dreaded “iconic” just yet) to Sydney-based EVT (Event, Hospitality and […]

WOW in Wellington for 2015

There is something quite special when The World of Wearable Arts season lands in Wellington. Shop windows transform and restaurants do delightful meal & cocktail specials and the City Council puts on free events around town. Then for almost 3 hours every night those of us lucky enough to see the show are whisked away into […]

Read Books, Save Lives – The Annual DCM Bookfair

Instead kicking off on all the amazing books you’ll find at Bookfair this weekend. I thought you might like to know how cold it’s been in Wellington, last night it was 2.7°C in Kelburn overnight, with a light dusting of snow.  Snow is fun except when you don’t have a place to call home, to store your belongings, […]

The Performance Arcade 2015

The Performance Arcade is one of those delightful yearly Wellington events that happen come rain or shine, wind or gale. The Arcade’s popped up on the waterfront every summer since 2011 and the 2015 series kicks off tonight 18th of February at 5pm. It’s running for 13 hours every day – because even artists have […]

Without literature, life is hell!

This Saturday a large number of spots in Wellington are taking part in a pub crawl but without the pubs. And with literature instead. A LitCrawl if you will! Actually that’s a slight lie. There are not only three pubs involved (Hashigo Zake, Meow and Little Beer Quarter) but there’s a Writers’ Beer as well. Nine […]

Zig-zag Texts

Bridget Williams Books publishes a series called BWB Texts, “short books on big subjects by great New Zealand writers”, and two new ones will be launched next Thursday at Unity Books. Martin Edmond’s Barefoot Years recounts childhood memories of life near Ohakune, while Thorndon: Wellington and Home, My Katherine Mansfield Project by Kirsty Gunn (Rain, The Big Music) will be of […]

Snakes and Shadows: History as Poetry in Chris Tse’s Year of Snakes

Cross Tory Street heading toward Aro; banish the Carrilon’s long shadow behind the white-and-teal Bible Society on your left, Nurse Maude’s mosaic gaze upon your right shoulder. Point your nose toward Tara-Ngaki Street – “shining mountain-peak” – and feel Haining Street incline beneath your feet as Tory’s constant woosh recedes into urban din. The senses […]

World Press Photo Exhibition

A picture not only speaks a thousand words but has the ability to leave you speechless. Currently at the NZ Portrait Gallery in Shed 11 on the waterfront you can see a collection of photos that do exactly that. The photos that make up the World Press Photo Exhibition are selected from over 10,000 images […]