9 Dec 2018

The wind is up and we're on - poems by Jo Randerson

From Standing Room Only, 2:40 pm on 9 December 2018

Jo Randerson is an artist whose career it seems knows no bounds - she is best known currently as a director, performer and producer with Barbarian Productions the theatre company she established with husband Thomas La Hood, but she's also a curator and celebrated writer, the recipient of many fellowships and awards.

Her just released book The Wind is Up and We're On is her eighth and is available to purchase online from Unity Books and in their Wellington store. 

In the author's foreword Jo comments on the book having been written in the small windows of time that motherhood affords - during a time in last 10 years she says she watched the country avoid discussing inequity, real identity and biculturalism. No wonder the book has an anger and a meditation on wisdom that sees the personal as very much political. The foreword though also notes that Jo brought the book into the world at the same time our Prime Minister was bringing a baby into a world, and whale came to visit Wellington Harbour leading to the cancellation of fireworks - "The wind is up and we're on" is her call for this being a time to make change.

Mark Amery caught up with Jo and she began with a reading.