Grace Teuila Evelyn Taylor | |
---|---|
Born | c. 1984 South Auckland |
Language | English |
Nationality | New Zealander |
Alma mater | Auckland University of Technology |
Grace Teuila Taylor is a New Zealand spoken word poet, writer, performer and director of Samoan and Palagi heritage. In 2008, Taylor was the recipient of the Auckland Writers Festival Poetry Idol Award. In 2012, she was given the World of Difference award from The Vodafone New Zealand Foundation. In 2014, she was awarded the Emerging Pacific Artist award at the Creative New Zealand Arts Pasifika Awards. [1]
Taylor is of English and Samoan heritage. [2] She was born in about 1984 in South Auckland and refers to herself as "Afakasi" which is a Samoan transliteration of halfcaste. [3] [4] She has an MA in Youth Development from Auckland University of Technology. [5]
In 2013, Taylor published her first collection of poetry, Afakasi Speaks. [6] She has been published in literary journals including Hawai'i Review. [2] Taylor wrote and performed the play My Own Darling, which has been performed in South Auckland and broadcast on Radio New Zealand. [7]
Taylor has worked producing, mentoring and facilitating workshops and spoken word poetry programmes since 2007. [8] She co-founded the South Auckland Poets Collective in 2008 and Niu Navigations in 2013 with Daren Kamali. In 2011 she co-founded the Rising Voices Youth Poetry Slam which is now an annual event in Auckland. [2]
Taylor currently teaches creative writing and poetry at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. [9]
Oscar Vai To'elau Kightley is a Samoan-born New Zealand actor, television presenter, writer, journalist, director, and comedian. He acted in and co-wrote the successful 2006 film Sione's Wedding.
Albert Tuaopepe Wendt is a Samoan poet and writer who lives in New Zealand. He is one of the most influential writers in Oceania. His notable works include Sons for the Return Home, published in 1973, and Leaves of the Banyan Tree, published in 1979. As an academic he has taught at universities in Samoa, Fiji, Hawaii and New Zealand, and from 1988 to 2008 was the professor of New Zealand literature at the University of Auckland.
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Teresia Teaiwa, was a distinguished award winning I-Kiribati and African-American scholar, poet, activist and mentor. Teaiwa was well-regarded for her ground-breaking work in Pacific Studies. Her research interests in this area embraced her artistic and political nature, and included contemporary issues in Fiji, feminism and women's activism in the Pacific, contemporary Pacific culture and arts, and pedagogy in Pacific Studies. An "anti-nuclear activist, defender of West Papuan independence, and a critic of militarism", Teaiwa solidified many connections across the Pacific Ocean and was a hugely influential voice on Pacific affairs Her poetry remains widely published.
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Sima Urale is a New Zealand filmmaker. Her films explore social and political issues and have been screened worldwide. She is one of the few Polynesian film directors in the world with more than 15 years in the industry. Her accolades include the Silver Lion for Best Short Film at the Venice Film Festival for O Tamaiti (1996).
Victor John Rodger is a New Zealand journalist, actor and award-winning playwright of Samoan and Pākehā heritage. Rodger's play Sons won acclaim at the Chapman Tripp Theatre Awards (1998) and received the Best New Writer and Most Outstanding New New Zealand Play awards. In 2001, he won the Bruce Mason Playwriting Award. Other plays include Ranterstantrum (2002) and My Name is Gary Cooper (2007), produced and staged by Auckland Theatre Company and starred a Samoan cast including Robbie Magasiva, Anapela Polataivao, Goretti Chadwick and Kiwi actress Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
Daren (DK) Kamali is a Fijian-born New Zealand poet, writer, musician, and teacher and museum curator.
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Selina Tusitala Marsh is a New Zealand poet, academic and illustrator, and was the New Zealand Poet Laureate for 2017–2019.
Courtney Sina Meredith is a poet, playwright, and short story author from New Zealand.
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Leilani Leafaitulagi Grace Tamu is a New Zealand poet and politician.
Lisa-Jane Taouma is a Samoan New Zealand writer, film and television director, and producer.
Rosanna Marie Raymond is a New Zealand artist, poet, and cultural commentator and Raymond was recognised for "Pasifika artists practicing contemporary and heritage art forms in Aotearoa," winning the Senior Pacific Artist Award Winner of 2018, at the Arts Pasifika Awards through Creative New Zealand.
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Pati Solomona Tyrell is an interdisciplinary artist from New Zealand who focuses on performance, videography and photography. Tyrell is a founding member of art collective FAFSWAG. In 2018 Tyrell became the youngest nominee for the Walters Prize, New Zealand's most prestigious contemporary art award, for the video work Fāgogo, subsequently purchased by Auckland Art Gallery. In 2020 Tyrell won the Arts Pasifika Awards' Emerging Pacific Artist Award.
Amanaki Lelei Prescott-Faletau is an actor, writer, dancer, choreographer, producer and director of Tongan descent, living in New Zealand. As a playwright, she became the first fakaleitī to have her work published in New Zealand with Inky Pinky Ponky. This play was awarded Best Teenage Script (2015) by New Zealand Playmarket. As an actor, she was awarded best performance at the 2015 Auckland Fringe Festival for Victor Rodger's Girl on the Corner. Her acting credits include The Breaker Upperers (2018), SIS (2020), The Panthers (2021), The Pact (2021) and Sui Generis (2022), in which she is also a writer for the TV series. Faletau competed as a dancer in the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in 2011 and has been a judge at the National Hip Hop Championships in New Zealand over several years.
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