God Mothers
We, the daughters of all who came before. We life givers. Mischief makers. We, the last shout in the dark. You have tried praying to your God. Now, call out to a God Mother instead.
Join Carrie Rudzinski, Grace Iwashita-Taylor, Jessie Fenton, and Olivia Hall, four of Aotearoa’s fiercest and most renowned poets, for God Mothers – an unforgettable night of poetry, sisterhood, and revelry.
In honour of National Poetry Day, come celebrate the many faces of motherhood and otherhood.
How We Survive Productions produces award-winning poetic theatre works, featuring empowering and feminist themes.
Carrie Rudzinski has performed her work over the past 20 years in seven countries and featured in Bustle, HuffPost, and Teen Vogue. She is the co-editor of Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand (AUP, 2023) and won Best New Aotearoa Play for her poetic theatre work Hysterical at the Wellington Theatre Awards. She completed her MA in Creative Writing at Victoria University.
Grace Iwashita-Taylor is an artist of upu | words, predominantly as a poet and theatremaker. She is the author of Afakasi Speaks, Full Broken Bloom, and SALT tasi. Her theatre credits include My Own Darling and UPU. She is currently developing a new body of work, Vai Manatua | Water Memories.
Jessie Fenton is a Poetry Idol winner, a New Zealand National Slam finalist, and a recipient of the Bernard Brown Literary Award. She has previously been published in Starling, Poetry Aotearoa Yearbook 2025: Breath, Rapture: An Anthology of Performance Poetry from Aotearoa New Zealand, and Otago University's Manifesto.
Olivia Hall is a New Zealand and UK national slam finalist who has been performing her work for over a decade. Liv is the co-creator of three poetic theatre shows, including Hysterical, which won Best New Aotearoa Play. She has a Masters degree in gender from the London School of Economics.
