Archives for April 2019

Crip the Lit: Here we are, read us

April 1, 2019 Leave a Comment

Sue Wootton

In 2016, frustrated by the lack of deaf and disabled writers represented in New Zealand writing, Trish Harris and Robyn Hunt founded ‘Crip the Lit‘. Sassy and bold, Crip the Lit is unashamedly remedial in purpose. “We want,” say Harris and Hunt, “to tell our stories our way”. I first encountered Crip the Lit through their presence at Wellington’s annual Lit Crawl festival. In the 2018 festival, for example, the Crip the Lit panel debated the moot that “there is no such thing as a disabled writer. We are all just writers.”

Crip the Lit’s newest venture is the publication of a ‘pocket book’ (available in multiple formats to suit many kinds of pockets): Here We Are, Read Us: Women, Disability and Writing.

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The poetry of getting back to living

April 1, 2019 Leave a Comment

Gail Ingram

I’m from Christchurch. On my website, I introduce myself by saying ‘writing saves my life’. Before 15 March 2019, I was going to try and persuade you how this was so. I wanted to argue that I had evidence of this, that in the experience of writing Contents Under Pressure, my soon-to-be published poetry manuscript, I supported my damaged children in the wake of the Christchurch earthquakes, and, in doing so, kept them living.

I wanted to communicate some of what it felt, as a mother, to support teenagers who were suffering severe mental stress, and how necessary and large the task was to work our family back to health. I wanted to be there; attend the hours and days and weeks in doctors’ appointments, school appointments; listen and learn and implement coping strategies, model them; and most of all, through it all, give love and survive.

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Composing ourselves

April 1, 2019 1 Comment

Sue Wootton

New Zealanders are reeling after the atrocious events in Christchurch on 15 March 2019. We grieve for those who died, for those who have lost loved ones, for the injured. We think of the many people facing long recoveries from life-changing physical and emotional wounds.

If there is one thing about this terrible time from which I, and others, have drawn hope, it’s been the overwhelming response of connection, compassion and support. There has been a powerful communal instinct towards repair and healing. One manifestion of this is the urge to make. It’s in the service of this urge that so many of us have gathered flowers and arranged them in bouquets, sung together, walked together in silent vigil. Others have cooked meals, baked bread, provided transport or translated words. I happened to visit a wool store yesterday, and was invited to join in on a project that has sprung up to knit socks and face cloths for women from the local Muslim community. “We want,” said the shop owner, “to show that we care about our fellow citizens from top to toe.”

All over the country there are many more examples of people who have picked up tools and instruments to do their bit to create harmony and cohesion: brush stroke by brush stroke, stitch by stitch, note by note, word by word.

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Corpus secures sponsor

April 1, 2019 3 Comments

Dr Colin Oscar Peez

Corpus is pleased to announce that we have secured a sponsor. The Danish company VævPoop has committed to sponsor our site for 2019. At a time when there are a plethora of questionable new remedies and health fads on the market, we were wary at first of the claims made in relation to their product.

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