Rising Voices is a literary speed dating night with some of the most exciting new story tellers in Auckland. Each of the three nights features a different line-up of performers to take you on a virtual tour of their hearts and minds – and the world. 

Thursday’s show opens in Samoa – or does it? Grace Taylor gives an insightful glimpse into the world of a white afakasi woman – a woman with one Samoan parent, one Palagi parent and an identity that hangs in the balance. Taylor evokes the struggle of belonging with lines like: “The white afakasi woman knows her place. The white afakasi woman tries too damn hard. The white afakasi woman is the only Pacific representative on your committee.”

Next, writer and actress Romy Hooper bursts onto stage in a red party dress and with a whole lot of attitude. She opens with a sultry song and embarks upon a meditation of sexuality and loneliness that includes wicked lines like: “It’s naughty to taste consonants like mmmmmmm,” and “you’re a specific type of Ashram, I was told, by a dude.” She ends her piece with a kiss.

Shaq Leot takes us to America with a cover of Now by indie rap duo Eyedea & Abilities, blasting out the long strings of words like a machine gunner running a marathon. His next piece takes us back to New Zealand, to Red Hill, once a key site during the Māori wars and now the backdrop to Shaq’s insomnia.

He ends by asking the audience to suggest ideas for a freestyle. Recommendations include John Key, “the ebb and flow of misery”, love, and feminism. Over a backing track he opens with: “raps were made for activism – but I’m not going to talk about feminism,” before landing on the topic of John Key: “I don’t like his policies – I don’t like his whole biology”. It’s amazing to watch rhymes spill from his lips like chips from a winning pokie machine.

Shaq wasn’t keen to dwell on feminism, but Ashleigh Fata’s on hand to cover the topic. She performs three pieces, but it’s her third – the one that’s dedicated to the X chromosome in all of us – that’s the most powerful. She draws upon the strength of Kate Sheppard and Dame Whina Cooper to imagine a generation where young women desire their kinds of womanly traits. She weaves Kate’s lines through her own: “All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome.” 

Lastly Mohamed Hassan, who also happens to be a 95bFM Drive DJ, takes the stage, his shoulders draped in a prayer shawl. He opens with a tribute to the victims of yesterday’s Chappell Hill shooting before launching into a tall tale about a fortune teller and her cynical client. A born raconteur, Mohamed draws us into their life-changing exchange.  

Rising Voices is a rough diamond of a show. Three of the five performers lose their places, the AV doesn’t all go to plan, and there have clearly been a few alterations to the line-up since the programme went to print. But the passion onstage is undeniable, and the air crackles with the heat of ideas. The stars of Rising Voices aren’t just here to entertain. They’re here to make a change.

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