Thursday 14th November, 6pm

Pipi Press is an initiative to publish critical and hopeful content which encompasses the poetic and political. The not-for-profit publishing house takes its name from the whakataukī, he pipi te tuatahi, he kaunuku te tuarua, translated as first the small entering wedge, second the large splitting wedge, referring to the felling of a tree. We envision our books as small beginnings towards wider change. 

Join Gabi & Cait from Pipi Press as they launch their first book, In Common, in Te Whanganui-a-Tara at Enjoy, and give a talk on the production of the book. In Common is a multi-format publication, printed on a Risograph GR3770 and section sewn in Tāmaki Makaurau in an edition of 300. Come along to hear about the joys and tribulations of publishing in Aotearoa and have a look at the product of our labour(& love)-intensive production process.  

Commons are often understood as land and resources shared by all members of a community, historically these were areas where people could forage and hunt food, graze livestock and gather together. However, this way of conceptualising the commons risks detaching the term from what is immaterial and not so easily measured. Perhaps the value of the commons is in what lies beyond this limit: an entanglement of living systems, human and nonhuman, where honouring interconnection prevails over principles of ownership, exchange and profit.

In Common gathers together thirteen pieces in the form of poetry, essays, photographs and interviews by Ben Rosamond, Dan Kelly, Toyah Webb, Vanessa Arapko, Jade Kake, Dieneke Jansen, Amber French, Oliver Cull, Katie Kerr, Freya Elmer, Nate Rew, Eleanor Cooper and essa may ranapiri. These contributions enquire into colonisation and land dispossession, management of resources, conservation and kaitiakitanga, urban planning and gentrification, housing, gender and containment.

Copies of In Common will be available to purchase from $30-$50, cash only.

On Saturday 16th November, Pipi Press will be holding a reading group based around two texts from In Common at Central Park in Brooklyn from 1-3pm. 

Find out more about Pipi at pipipress.co.nz