For My Family and Yours
118 Studio, Karamu Road, Hastings
12/10/2024 - 12/10/2024
Production Details
Created and performed by Ravi the Poet
Dedicated to the loved ones who help us become the people we are.
For My Family, And Yours is an exploration into the family relationships that shape us. Told through the lens of music, poetry and his family, Ravi the Poet interweaves a narrative of how we can’t help but be influenced by the loved ones around us.
Filled to the brim with love and gratitude, mixed in with a couple doses of difficult truths, come along to reflect on your relationships and leave the evening appreciating the loved ones shaping your journey.
Bring tissues.
Ravi the Poet has been devouring the works of countless poets, songwriters and rappers since his first heartbreak, to remind him that we’re never alone in our struggles. After teaching himself how to write songs and play music, he began performing his unique blend of spoken-word, acoustic songs and message-driven raps at open mics across Auckland before producing and performing his own.
Fringe in the ’Stings 2024
118 Studio, Karamu Road, Hastings
12 October 2024
9.30pm
https://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2024/for-my-family-and-yours/hastings
Theatre , Performance Poetry , Solo ,
50 mins
A purity and magic that’s soothing, melodious and honest
Review by Rosheen FitzGerald 21st Oct 2024
The 118 makes an intimate space for an intimate show – the last of the evening, perhaps the last here in this incarnation. For those of us who used and grew in this space, emotions are already heightened.
We were warned to bring tissues, primed to open our hearts as well as our minds. Ravi the Poet is seated, armed with his guitar, his warm smile and kind eyes inviting us to make an emotional investment before he has sung a note.
We’re given slips of paper and there’s a box of pens on the bar. It’s a reminder. “Hey_____, I just wanted to call and say…,” it says. We are encouraged to write down what comes up as the show begins its slow unfolding, peeling away layers like an artichoke to expose its rich and tender fleshed heart.
Essentially a biographical journey through word and song, we are given glimpses into Ravi’s family – their history, their talents, their sacrifices and struggles. Intermittently he calls out to receive feedback and slowly we open up about the people we love. There is weeping – the tissues were needed – but the feeling is one of release rather than despair. People are holding the people they came with, speaking their truth to a room full of strangers.
The gift Ravi gives in his work is that of holding space, creating an atmosphere of safety by being so authentically vulnerable that we can’t help but take a leap of faith and join him. There’s a purity to it, a naive innocence that could be cheesy were it not so real. It’s a kind of magic that goes beyond mere words or songs, though these too are excellently executed – soothing, melodious and honest. It’s the type of show that leaves you with a feeling of community that spreads, like ripples in a pool, to change the world with art, one person at a time.
Copyright © in the review belongs to the reviewer
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