Culture 101

Dream Chambers is the moniker of the multifaceted artist Jess Chambers, a composer, performer, and cofounder of the Pōneke electronic music collective - Techno Echo.

Talia Marshall (Ngāti Kuia, Rangitāne o Wairau, Ngāti Rārua, Ngāti Takihiku) is a gifted writer but a reluctant one. While most debut authors refer to their new books as their babies she prefers to refer to Whaea Blue as an orphan. 

It’s an intersection of technology, art, science and music in a new digital immersive installation at The Grid Artspace in Wellington. Rivers of Wind takes eight years of weather data from Wellington Airport, transforming it into a visual artwork accompanied by an ambient soundtrack.

It’s the torturous question of “what if?” - that sliding doors moment which can haunt people. It’s the premise of a new New Zealand musical When We Were Us at BATS Theatre this month. 

Legendary and beloved author, Dame Lynley Dodd, is hoping a new award will give a fellow writer a boost of confidence - similar to a gift she received in the 1970s which changed her life. 

Stage and screen actor Bronwyn Turei has been appearing on stage at Circa Theatre this month playing not one, but five different character’s in a reimagining of Sense and Sensibility.

Author and poet Warwick Stubbs wrote his new book, Two Left Feet  in public libraries, park benches and in his vehicle and in local writing workshops

NZ’s latest comedy offering, Madam, is putting the spotlight on sex work. Based on the soon-to-be published memoir by Antonia Murphy, who ran an ethical brothel in Whangarei for three years. 

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa and this week, we’re in Northland visiting KeriKeri. 

Nick Hall is the co-owner of Caluzzi Cabaret Auckland’s original Drag Queen cabaret show and one of New Zealand's most recognisable Queens, Drag Superstar Anita Wiglit joins Culture 101 to discuss Eat It.  July marks the first ever edition of Karangahape’s Restaurant month; Eat It - celebrating the pairing of the two greatest sins, lust and gluttony.

This School Holidays Spike Milligan's classic tale Badjelly the Witch takes the stage. Creative Director of The Glow Show, Sarah Burren handmade all the stage costumes and developed an original blend of music, puppetry, science and darkness to 30 venues across Aotearoa in July and October.

PickPath has been working with Te Papa, Taranaki Winter Festival and Barbarian Productions in the past few years and are now taking the platform to the market. Joel Baxendale spoke to Culture 101’s Perlina Lau.

TV presenter Kanoa Lloyd is preparing to immerse herself in the world of yoga training.

Dunedin teacher, academic, director, producer, actor and author, Lisa Warrington reflects on her longstanding advocacy for Aotearoa New Zealand drama and what it means to receive a Kings Birthday honour. 

Dame Fiona Kidman is borrowing the words of other writers to Raise the roof for Randell Cottage: Live Letters. While not associated with the British version, it has been inspired by the concept which has been running for more than a decade. 

Each week, Culture 101 puts the spotlight on a different part of Aotearoa and this week, we’re on the island of Waiheke. 

Researchers at the University of Sydney are suggesting eyed needles were used to adorn clothing for social and cultural purposes, marking the shift from clothing being used as a necessity for protection to expressing identity. 

Some say attention spans are not what they were. We scroll images and film and shuffle songs. Even cricket games can be over in 40 overs.  So, could flash fiction be the written storytelling form of our time? Or is it yet another passing fad.

Sisters, suitors and swooning - the Dashwood family is getting a raucous spin in this latest iteration of Sense and Sensibility at Circa Theatre. 

A chemist and now a comedian (naturally), Dr Joel Rindelaub has been swapping the classroom for comedy clubs with his show Science Is No Joke. He first performed his one-hour set at the NZ International Comedy Festival in May before taking the show to his home state in Minnesota in the US. 

Harry Ricketts joins RNZ’s Culture 101 to discuss First Things, a memoir of this much loved writer and teacher’s childhood and early adulthood. His first 29 years.

It’s not possible to consider modern textiles in Aotearoa New Zealand without encountering the advocacy, research, curation and art of weaver Margery Blackman. The same could also be said of the life of many of the cultural institutions of Ōtepoti Dunedin over the past 60 years.  

Arts news for Sunday June 30

Pete Sephton was a friend of Barry Brickell's and is a trustee of Driving Creek. He's a screen print artist, very involved in the annual Coromandel Arts Tour in October and township support group Artists in the Making.

A landmark anthology Everything That Moves, Moves Through Another brings together the experiences of 27 mixed heritage creatives across Aotearoa.