Ellen Melville Centre

17/08/2026

Thanks to the crew at Auckland Zinefest - Dr Alien has invented drawing games that will help you create your own new, unique character & send them out on a wild journey in a comic!

Attendees of all skill levels are invited; no fancy drawing skills required 👽

🗓️ Sat 22 Aug, 3pm - 6pm
📍Elizabeth Yates Room - EMC
🎟️ FREE - bookings essential

Dr Alien invites you to spend a wacky afternoon playing drawing games and creating a short comic zine with friends!

The year is 2026 and Dr Alien has invented drawing games that will help you create your own new and unique character, and send them out on a wild journey in a comic! Attendees of all skill levels are invited; no fancy drawing skills required 👽

This workshop will be hosted by the wonderful Heather Lou. Register via link in our bio!

🗓️ Sat 22 Aug, 3pm - 6pm
📍Ellen Melville Centre
🎟️ FREE - bookings essential

17/08/2026

🎬 We’re excited to share a selection of short films curated by IWIN (Charitable Trust for Iranian Women in NZ) screening next month.

Featuring films from Iran and around the world, the programme explores women’s rights, freedom & lived experience through fiction, animation, documentary & experimental film. All films are subtitled and open to everyone.

📅 21 September
📍 Womens Pioneer Hall, EMC

Come along, support international independent filmmaking & experience stories that deserve to be seen & shared. ❤️

17/08/2026

🌀 OH NO! PUBLIC POETRY SEPTEMBER SESSION - SCROLLETRY 🌀

What happens when you scroll less + scribble more? 👀✍️ Join Oh No Poetry Collective for our next ✍️ OH NO! PUBLIC POETRY NIGHT Session - SCROLLETRY. A playful evening of making, listening & sharing.

📅 Thursday 10 September
📍 Paddy Walker Room, Ellen Melville Centre
⏰ 7- 9pm
🎟️ FREE | All welcome
No pressure, no experience needed, just bring your curiosity, open ears & a little creative energy. We'll finish the evening with an open mic for anyone who'd like to share what they've made. Read it, perform it, whisper it dramatically... it's up to you. 🎤

✨ All materials provided, but you're welcome to bring favourite poems, art supplies, snacks... or, even better, a friend! Drop in, drop out. Come make some weird little poetry with Tāmaki Makaurau’s cutest poetry collective. 💌

While you're waiting for September, you can find Oh No! Poetry Collective hanging out at Mt Albert Library throughout August as part of Poetry Month! 📚✨

The library has interactive Poetry Stations running all month, with unique writing prompts, collaborative pinboard poetry & opportunities to add your own lines to the community poems.

👀 Plus: Tamariki Poetry Morning
📅 Saturday 22 August
⏰ 11am - 12:30pm
A family-friendly morning of rhyming songs, collaborative poems & creative crafts for young poets & their whānau.

Go make a poem. Stick it on a wall. Make a mess. Read it aloud. 💥

11/08/2026

Last month, our Womens Pioneer Hall came alive for the Celestial Matariki Market & what an afternoon it was! 💫

Part of Matariki Festival 2026, the market brought the theme Matariki ki te Rangi to life through creativity, culture, connection & community.

With local makers, Māori creatives, artists, performers & small businesses, there was plenty to discover, browse, listen to & enjoy - from beautiful handmade treasures & artwork to music, creative activities & plenty of kōrero.

And the turnout? WOW. 🤩

400+ people came through the doors, shoulder-to-shoulder with whānau, friends, locals & visitors - absolutely buzzing!!

Our vendors were thrilled too, with some selling out of their products completely! 🛍️✨ We’ve also loved hearing from market-goers who told us how much they enjoyed the warm, welcoming &creative atmosphere.

A huge NGĀ MIHI NUI to everyone who made it happen, wonderful vendors, creatives, performers & the Celestial Corner whānau & especially everyone who showed up, browsed, bought, listened, coloured, connected & helped create the atmosphere. 💛

Matariki ki te Rangi marks the final year of Tāmaki Makaurau’s three-year Matariki thematic journey through whenua, wai & rangi - a beautiful kaupapa centred on connection, reflection, celebration & aspiration. We’re still smiling about this one. 🌌💫

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa - thank you for making the Celestial Matariki Market such a special day at EMC.

📸 Photos by River Lancaster

10/08/2026

🌈✨ FLASHBACK to DRAG ON YOU ✨🌈

Take a little trip down memory lane with us… (every pun intended!)💄👑💋

Back in Auckland Pride Festival '25, the Helen Clark Lounge became a joyful, colourful space for DRAG ON YOU, a fabulous afternoon of makeovers, transformation, self-expression & plenty of slay!

With artists Skipper Offen + Lane Worrall working their magic, participants stepped into the chair & emerged as their most fabulous selves, exploring the artistry, skill & creativity behind drag, from contouring & colour to eyebrow blocking, character & confidence.

But the real magic was in the people 💖 Friends, whānau & spectators gathered around to cheer on the transformations, share stories, take photos & celebrate one another. There was laughter, connection, courage & a whole lot of glittery empowerment!

🌈 SO… WHAT’S NEXT?

We’re starting to think about the Auckland Pride Festival 2027 programme & we want to hear from YOU!

Have an idea for an event, performance, workshop, exhibition, conversation, creative activation or something we haven’t even thought of yet? 👀 Let’s start the kōrero. Bring us your wild ideas, your brilliant ideas, your “what if we…?” ideas & let’s see what we can design, develop & bring together.

We’re keen to start talking early & build a unique, engaging & memorable celebration of Pride at EMC - together.

📩 Want an EOI template or have questions?
Email us at [email protected]

Let’s make some Pride magic. ✨

09/08/2026

🦋🌸 FOLD. CREATE. CONNECT. 🌸🦋
Introducing the Ellen Melville Centre Origami Club! ✨

Ever wanted to learn how to turn a humble piece of paper into a butterfly, flower, animal… or something completely unexpected? 👀

Come & join us for the very first session of our brand-new Origami Club, a relaxed, creative space to slow down, have a chat, meet new people & get your hands folding!

🎉 FIRST SESSION
📅 Wednesday 19 August
🕛 12pm - 2pm
📍 Helen Clark Lounge
💸 FREE!

✨ No experience needed.
Whether you’re an origami beginner, a seasoned paper-folder, or simply curious to see what you can make, you’re welcome to join us.

Origami is more than just folding paper. The repetitive, focused movements can be a wonderfully calming, almost meditative activity, helping to reduce stress, support concentration & improve hand-eye coordination. 🧠👐💛

This ancient art has quite the story! Paper folding traditions can be traced back to China following the invention of paper around 105 AD, before paper & folding traditions travelled to Japan, where origami developed into an important creative & ceremonial practice. Today, it’s loved all around the world. 🌏

So, leave perfection at the door, bring your curiosity & come fold with us!

🌸 One sheet of paper. Endless possibilities.
🦋 Come make something amazing.
💛 Come meet your new folding friends.

Everyone welcome, just turn up & get folding!

06/08/2026

✨ OH NO! PUBLIC POETRY NIGHT AUGUST SESSION - CALL & RESPONSE ✨

👂✍️ This month we're having a little kōrero . . . . . through poetry.

We'll kick off the night by reading a selected poem together, then you'll create your own response. Write a poem, make a collage, try some blackout poetry, sketch, scribble, or follow wherever the prompt takes you. 💌

No pressure, no experience needed, just bring your curiosity, open ears & a little creative energy. We'll finish the evening with an open mic for anyone who'd like to share what they've made.

🎨 All materials provided (but you're welcome to bring favourite poems, art supplies, snacks... or even better, a friend!)

📅 Thursday 13 August 2026
🕖 7 - 9pm
📍 Paddy Walker Room, Ellen Melville Centre
🚪 Entrance via High St (same room as last month 🫡)

Free • Drop in • Everyone welcome💛 YAY Oh No Poetry Collective

05/08/2026

Our August Transglobal Music Session is just around the corner, and we're thrilled to welcome our special guest, Tui Mamaki!

A vocal explorer, performer, composer and arranger, Tui was born in France, raised in Aotearoa New Zealand and is often found in Bulgaria. Growing up in a musically adventurous troubadour family sparked a lifelong passion for the sounds and songs of different cultures.

Following her voice has taken her to the Basque Country, India and the Balkans to study traditional vocal techniques and repertoire. Her love of languages has shaped a rich, polyglot vocal style, inspiring both her original songwriting and her work as a leader of polyphonic ensembles.

Tui performs in many different settings, from intimate solo shows and a ca****la ensembles to live band collaborations and multidisciplinary performances incorporating movement, visuals and circus. She is also a passionate voice coach, sharing her love of singing through workshops and festivals around the world.

Join us for an afternoon of music, stories and song!

📅 Sunday, 16 August
🕑 2:00–4:00 pm
📍 Ellen Melville Centre
🎟️ Free and open to everyone

Transglobal Music Sessions 2026

02/08/2026

Cool Banana's Konstellation Dance Crew !! ✨🙌👏👏👏

02/08/2026

✨ This Friday at EMC: We're ready. Are you? 🌈📚

Our Same Same But Different Festival '26 event with the incredible Sam Low is now FULLY BOOKED! 🎉

We're thrilled to welcome MasterChef NZ winner, acclaimed food writer, barista champion & storyteller Sam Low for an unforgettable evening exploring 'What is Q***r Food?' - A heartfelt conversation about identity, memory, belonging & the stories we carry through food, alongside the brilliant Chye-Ling Huang.

As a Proud Centre, Ellen Melville Centre is honoured to support spaces where rainbow communities can gather, connect, share stories & celebrate the richness of q***r voices. Creating welcoming, inclusive experiences for everyone is at the heart of our kaupapa & we couldn't be prouder to be part of this year's festival.

✨ Missed out on Friday tickets? The celebration doesn't stop there!

The Same Same But Different Festival continues across the weekend with an outstanding line-up of FREE events at Basement Theatre & Grey Lynn Community Centre, featuring thought-provoking panels, readings, conversations, community, books, coffee, kai & some of Aotearoa's most exciting q***r writers & thinkers.

Highlights include:
📖 Making Space for Q***r Writing
🌿 He Whānau Kotahi Tātou: We Are All Family
🤖 Monsters, Robots & the Fascist State
🎤 Festival keynote with award-winning author Laura Jean McKay (The Animals in That Country, Hoods Landing)
🏆 The Peter Wells Short Fiction Contest Gala

Whether you're joining us at EMC on Friday or heading along to one of the weekend events, you're in for something truly special.

This year's festival brings together an exceptional lineup of writers, artists & creatives in a warm, welcoming celebration of q***r storytelling, imagination & community.

🌈 See you at the festival!
Check out more details via INSTA: .aotearoa

***rStories