SAM HUNT - THE MATINEE MAN
ST PETERS HALL, PAEKAKARIKI
SUNDAY 10 NOVEMBER (DOORS 2.45PM)
Sam Hunt was born in 1946 at Castor Bay, Auckland. As a child, he was surrounded by poetry and performance: his mother, father and grandfather regularly read poems out loud or recited from memory; and his father was a somewhat eccentric barrister who came from a family of actors, troupers and musicians.
From a young age Sam Hunt wrote poetry, and has since become one of New Zealand's best-known and best-loved poets, touring the length and breadth of the country for over 40 years, performing his poems in pubs, theatres, schools and countless other venues. Fuelled always by his lifelong commitment to 'lifting the words off the page and giving them a good listen to,' he has introduced poetry to generations of New Zealanders.
In 1985 he was awarded a QSM for his contribution to New Zealand literature, and in 2010 he was made a Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM) for services to poetry. He lives with his son on the Kaipara Harbour in Northland.
ON REVISITING PAEKAKARIKI, SAM HAS THIS TO SAY:
“I came across Paekakariki early on in a travelling life through my friends Meg & Alistair Te Ariki Campbell. They lived high on the Pukerua Bay cliffs. Many a time, we would “adjourn” to the pub at Paekakariki for an afternoon. There was always good company to be had - the odd, inevitable wanker, too, of course! (You find them – even in Paradise!)
Among the definite NON-wankers were Khura Stewart & her partner, the late great Denis Glover – poet of the immortal ‘Sings Harry’ poems, ‘The Magpies’, ‘Aratwhata Bill’, & so many more.
In that totally non-literary environment, poems were told – praised, scorned –poems lived in that place. They seemed to come alive there.
I remember, years later, after Jim Baxter’s died, 1972, his widow, Jacquie Sterm & family moved “up the coast, to Paekakariki”. They became an essential part of that beery, bachy community. In her years there, Jacquie composed many of her most memorable poems. People. People in a particular place . . .
Whenever anyone mentions Paekakariki to me, I start remembering people, poems, wonderful characters. Ones you’d never forget. I wonder if those sorts of people are still about the place. I suspect so; surely hope so...”
Whether haunting solitary parts - which he definitely prefers - or touring, Sam Hunt continues to live by his own maxim:
Tell the story,
tell it true -
charm it crazy.
AN AFTERNOON WITH SAM HUNT - THE MATINEE MAN
SUNDAY 10TH NOVEMBER 2013
ST PETERS HALL, PAEKAKARIKI - DOORS 2.45PM
OPENING ACT - LOCAL MUSICIAN F C MILLS
ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM DARCYS FRUIT SHOP, PAEKAKARIKI, AND ONLINE VIA EVENTFINDER
http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/2013/sam-hunt-the-matinee-man/paekakariki
