Various Artists with Sofia & Maya

Samesame but different is Tāmaki Makaurau’s annual LGBTQ+ writers festival.

Launched in 2016 by writer Peter Wells, the goal for the festival is to be ‘an exciting event that makes people think about sexuality, difference and community, stretches their understanding, gives them a few laughs and creates a slightly magic space for two days in February’.

Pip Adam, author of Ockham-nominated novel Audition (2023), and Nathan Joe,  award-winning theatre-maker and performance poet, are both board members of Samesame but different.

Beth caught up with Pip and Nathan about the festival this year

Swan Crash is an new exhibition by artist Tony Guo at Season Gallery Aotearoa. 

Guo is a painter born in Aotearoa New Zealand who grew up in Northeast China and moved to Tāmaki Makaurau in 2012. 

Although informed by particular experiences and histories connecting back to his parents’ and grandparents’ experiences in northeastern China in the 20th century and his queerness, Guo’s works invite shifting and multiple interpretations. 

Sofia spoke to Guo about his artistic practice, the ideas within his works, and his process.

Prompts is Artspace Aotearoa’s latest exhibition, showing the early work of leading Aotearoa practitioner Michael Parekōwhai and Turner Prize-winning UK artist Lubaina Himid.

Presenting a large body of work on paper from Himid alongside the early and significant sculptural work, The Indefinite Article, by Parekōwhai, Prompts is Artspace Aotearoa’s first exhibition of 2025, which seeks to explore the gallery’s question this year: Is language large enough? 

Sofia had a kōrero with Kaitohu Director of Artspace Aotearoa, Ruth Buchanan, about the show.

Books of Mana is a new book edited by Jacinta Ruru (Raukawa, Ngāti Ranginui), Angela Wanhalla (Kāi Tahu) and Jeanette Wikaira (Ngāti Pukenga, Ngāti Tamaterā, Ngāpuhi) which released earlier this week. 

It is the first of its kind in the world to celebrate non-fiction indigenous writing – exploring 200 years of Māori print legacies. In examining the ways 180 selected books have enriched lives and helped to foster understanding of the Māori experience, both at home in Aotearoa and internationally, the book is a clear vision of influence, excellence and diversity of Māori writing.

Sofia spoke with co-editor and Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Otago, Jacinta Ruru, about Books of Mana.