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Horny on Main is a place to unpack and explore the complicated and messy territories of sex, love and intimacy. It’s not just for the horndogs, it’s for anyone who has wondered something quietly to themselves but hasn’t been able to put that thought to words. It’s putting it all out there in the open, matter of fact, clear as day, horny on main. 

Together, Melody Thomas and Elena Beets help answer all your sticky questions. This one came in our DMs:

How does someone think ass eating is hot?

How do you put a price on art? 

Recently, Re: partnered with our friends at Basement Theatre for Art and Money: the second live event in our Disruptors podcast series. As the creative sector claws its way out of the pit of 2020, our live panel discussed what art is worth, both for our emotional survival and paying the bills. 

Disruptors is a podcast series where creatives in Aotearoa talk about how they disrupt with their art, produced by Basement Theatre.

Performance artist Moe Laga and comedian James Nokise are two Pasifika artists who share similar cultural backgrounds but make work that is on absolutely opposite scales of the performance art world. In the seventh episode of Disruptors - produced by our friends at The Basement theatre - Moe and James discuss treading the fine line between art and activism. 

“When we started off as FAFSWAG there was really no lane for us as a group of queers from South Auckland to take us seriously, and take our art seriously. There were a lot of gatekeepers who weren’t going to put us on so we had to go out there and do it ourselves,” says Moe Laga, whose practice includes movement, activation and motherhood towards her arts collective and vogueing house Coven. “I feel like I keep continuing that and and that’s what I’m trying to teach the next generation of queer, indigo, rainbow children.”

“I think a lot of young Pacific Island artists, because they grew up in New Zealand, they don’t understand that no matter their gender, their ethnicity, their existence is political, because we were colonised,” says comedian, writer and podcast-host, James Nokise. “To grow up and make art of any kind, there can not be a separation of art and activism because their existence itself is activism, so whatever art they make is activism. Period.”

“To be an artist is to suffer.” The old adage coined by famed philosopher Aldous Huxley kicked off the fifth episode of Disruptors, which is the first to be recorded in front of a live audience at Basement Theatre. 

 

Musician and activist Mazbou Q, artist Mya Morrison-Middleton, and award-winning poet and journalist Mohamed Hassan came together to talk about grief, and how they not only cope with it but make art from it. 

 

With suffering so entrenched in the process and product of art, creative and Basement programming manager, Nisha Madhan questioned whether artists ever “play up their suffering” because audiences are “hungry for it”.

 

“I really did feel those things,” says Mazbou Q referring to his emotional art that centres around racism. “But like how much of that was influenced by this consumer framework? There is a supply and demand here, people want to hear this stuff, so you want to say it.”

 

Disruptors is a podcast series where creatives in Aotearoa talk about how they disrupt with their art, produced by Basement Theatre.

Dr. Keri Milne-Ihimaera (Ngāi Tahu) isn't afraid to say it how it is - or how it should be when it comes to Māori in the education sector. She's devoted her life to proving the true academic brilliance of Māori in a Pākehā education sector.

It all came to a head when Keri ended up taking on the Government of the time spearheading the community-led response to the statutory intervention of Moerewa School in 2012. 

As the then-principal of Moerewa School, what ultimately transpired would be a titanic showdown with the then-Minister of Education that would force westernised systems of teaching and learning to recognise Māori success in the education sector.

This is Keri's story. This is The Taumata Kōrero.

Associate Professor Khylee Quince (Te Roroa, Ngāti Porou) is a straight talker who doesn't deviate from the facts when it comes to the New Zealand justice system. She has never been one to call a spade an inverted digging implement, so much so, she has dedicated her professional career to upholding fair, equal and just representation for Māori who have had a brush with the law. We all know someone who currently is, or has been involved with our jails - but how much do we really know as Māori about what goes on behind bars? What about the many unheard stories about the forgotten Māori faces locked up?

This is Khylee's story.

This is The Taumata Kōrero.

Te Kuru o Te Marama Dewes (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Rangitihi) knows a thing or two about what he likes to call pro-activism. It's in his whakapapa, it's in his DNA. His late grandfather was one of the many integral figures who delivered the 30,000+ strong Te Reo Māori Petition to Parliament in 1972. But what about this generation? How proactive are the current generation of Māori when it comes to decolonisation? Or should the new-age, educated, well-rounded Māori be more focused on the concept of re-indigenisation?

This is Te Kuru o Te Marama's story.

This is The Taumata Kōrero, a podcast of conversations that will inform, reform, question, challenge, debate, investigate, analyse, deconstruct and then reconstruct how we see ourselves as Māori.

Join University of Auckland Māori language lecturer and award-winning former Māori journalist, Raniera Harrison (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Porou) as he critically analyses some of the most pertinent topics in the Māori world today.

In Māori language circles, Te Ataakura Pewhairangi (Ngāti Porou) is quickly becoming a household name. She’s but one of the growing population of new-age, well-equipped, young, vibrant Māori taking the world on after graduating from the kura kaupapa Māori system. At 17 she was presenting kids TV shows in te reo and she is now a lecturer at Massey University. It begs the question though, what does the future hold for total immersion Māori education? How sustainable is the model? This is Te Ataakura’s story. This is The Taumata Kōrero.

 

Welcome to The Taumata Kōrero – the quintessential space to disseminate a little bit of esoteric knowledge – with a twist. Exclusively dedicated to conversation that will inform, reform, question, challenge, debate, investigate, analyse, deconstruct and then reconstruct how we see ourselves as Māori – this is the wānanga at it’s finest.

 

Join University of Auckland Māori language lecturer and former award-winning Māori journalist, Raniera Harrison (Te Aupōuri, Ngāti Porou) as he critically analyses some of the most pertinent topics in the Māori world today.

 

Long Live The Wānanga.

In this special fourth episode of Disruptors, recorded in the depths of lockdown, four theatre practitioners reflect on what happens when the disruption in their work comes from the external force of a global pandemic. 

Calling in from their respective safeholds are industry leader and man of many creative hats Ahi Karunaharan, dance theatre artist Amber Liberté and fire cracker producers Alice Kirker and Elyssia Wilson-Heti. Listen into their discussion of lost artworks, slowing down and busting the myth of needing to be busy. “What is the conversation that the world wants to have now as we come out?,” asks Ahi. 

Disruptors is a podcast series where creatives in Aotearoa talk about how they disrupt with their art, produced by Basement Theatre.

Episode three of Disruptors pairs up the incoming and outgoing producers-in-residence at Basement Theatre – Elyssia Wilson-Heti and Alice Kirker. If, like us, you’re still a little confused about what producers actually do, tune in.

Elyssia and Alice share a passion for creating work that celebrates body positive, something they say inherently puts them in a disruptive space. It’s a position they are more than comfortable with as they consciously make work outside traditional bounds. 

“This idea of needing a seat at the table I’ve always found problematic,” says Elyssia. “If you’re still the only one person who isn’t usually on that table, quite frankly fuck your table. I’ll make my own table.” 

Disruptors is a podcast series where creatives in Aotearoa talk about how they disrupt with their art, produced by Basement Theatre.