Liz Breslin attends NeMLA 55th Annual Convention in Boston

"It’s alllllll about community"

Ōtepoti-based writer Liz Breslin went to Boston recently with a fun game in mind for the academic conference they were attending with spoken word poets from around the world – to fold the people and places that had supported Liz getting there into a spoken-word poetry paper about slam as a colonising force, ‘SLAM! Ten out of ten for your trauma porn!’

“I’m obsessed with the idea of archiving at the moment,’ Liz says. “There is so much power in naming and so I wanted to take the names that had supported me along the way and incorporate them into the talk. Eliana Gray, for example, who organised a big fundraiser at ADJØ, at which Rushi Vyas, Claire Lacey and Jasmine Taylor also performed. Woof! bar, who are the heart of a community. Ōtepoti Writers Lab, the Fringe, the University Book Shop, and so many generous people who gave money and time, and of course I had to mention the City of Literature, who have supported me for so long. Because my paper is about community in spoken word rather than competition in slam, of course I want to make sure to keep giving back to that community in any way I can. I literally couldn’t have done this without them.”

Liz Breslin is a full-time PhD candidate at the University of Otago and was awarded the University of Otago City of Literature PhD Scholarship by the University. Liz has been involved with the UNESCO City of Literature network through residencies and as a co-creator of the Dunedin UNESCO City of Literature Possibilities Project.