Poetry project “one heck of a ride”
by Creative Writing student, Sandi Sartorelli
Question: What do you get when you cross a paper exercise with a real project?
Answer: You get to discover new capabilities while having lots of fun. And you get to read 227 poems that would not otherwise have existed.
The Creative Enterprise module on the Bachelor of Applied Arts Programme at Whitireia NZ helps students grapple with the business and project management side of creative work. In 2010 we, year one Creative Writing students, were given a choice – learn about creative enterprise in a class situation or get involved in a real project.
Our tutor, Adrienne Jansen, offered us the chance to work on a competition that would promote cafés and poetry in Wellington. As students we’d be doing marketing, dealing with real people and legal tender. There would be actual risk! We’d have writing opportunities and read poetry, and perhaps there’d be coffee that wasn’t instant. We knew Whitireia had run poetry contests in the past, so there was no doubt that the idea was workable. Of course we went for it!
We were a diverse group of people and some of us had strong opinions, but we managed to agree on the defining concepts of the competition and come up with the title ‘Eat Your Words’ – together with the catchphrase ‘Eat the food, taste the poetry’.
Wellington poet Jenny Bornholdt was invited to be the judge, and Mat kept in contact with her throughout the competition. Cobar Restaurant and Bar in Eastbourne agreed to provide the main prize of a fabulous meal for two, and ferry tickets completed the winning package.
We had two chefs among us who advised us on optimum times to contact cafés, and the kind of approach that we should take. For several of us the task of cold calling over the telephone was the most difficult part of the project, so it was encouraging when a high percentage of cafés contacted responded positively. Within two weeks of when we first started ringing, we had 42 cafés who wanted to sponsor the competition.
We collected a voucher from each café, giving us 42 edible prizes! Jennifer designed eye-catching posters and wallet cards to advertise the competition and we delivered these to each café and sent posters to secondary schools. We wrote articles for the local newspapers, and many of them were published. It wasn’t long before we started hearing back from friends and family who had seen and heard about the competition - there was no doubt now that the project was a reality!
Whitireia and its resources were a valuable backing. The name gave us credibility when inviting cafés to be part of it and we made good use of having a page on the Whitireia website. The best resource was the help of a number of staff who filled gaps when there were jobs that needed to be done.
Just when the team began to think that we could take a break, entries began to arrive. The cafés inspired a whole range of poetry, but poets were not always good at following instructions. We had to ensure that each poem had a title but no identifying details, and that it could be linked to a separate page that had the poet’s name, contact details and the title.
During this time cafés were kept in the loop with weekly emails informing them of progress. By the close of the competition, 227 poems were received. All the poems were inspired by cafes but related to other things too, like fair trade and politics, relationships, secret agents, unacknowledged matriarchs, and city life. It was astonishing and exciting. Several were written by people who had not written a poem for a decade or more. Having no entry fee fitted well with making the competition attractive and inclusive of as many people as possible.
One of the winners said that for the only time in her life she was glad that she was not Jenny Bornholdt. I’m with her – it would not be an easy task picking an overall winner from all of these, but Jenny did it and had the results back to us within the week. Then we moved into the next stage. The winners and all the entrants had to be informed of the results. Newspaper articles were sent to local newspapers and seven cafés volunteered to host poetry readings. Café Kaizen hosted the first event at Pataka, and they put on a delectable three course meal. All of the winners had been invited to read their poetry, and the result was a feast of food and words.
Each poetry event had its own flavour, with $1 coffees and menu construction at Café Villa in Ngaio, and a wonderful High Tea for poetry lovers at Fig Tree Café and Deli in Upper Hutt. Several people delighted us by attending and participating in most or all of these events. The grand finale was a family friendly event at Seatoun Bar and Cafe, complete with poetry from the kids and one poem presented by a family of fairies and their dad. The winning poem was read to us by competition winner Mercedes Webb-Pullman. A past student of Whitireia Creative Writing Programme, Mercedes has recently completed an MA in Creative Writing with Victoria University.
Each of the cafés involved received copies of the poems written about them. Some cafés who hadn’t been involved also inspired poems, and we sent these cafés their poems as well. The competition has been well received and there have been many requests to repeat it next year.
It should be mentioned that somewhere along the way we wrote up our progress and handed it in as our assignment. We received an A+ which was very pleasing, but that wasn’t the main benefit of the project. For me it was being part of a well-run and successful project and a united team – experiencing every step along the way, and seeing the project through to conclusion. It was very satisfying to be part of, and it was exciting to see benefits flowing out of it to everyone involved. My grateful thanks to Adrienne Jansen for coming up with the project, for making it happen, and for involving us as students. It’s been one heck of a ride.