garçon by wani toaishara

Award-winning visual artist, spoken word poet and storyteller wāni toaishara brings his compelling one-person show garçon to Northcote Town Hall Arts Centre. Recognised across mediums for his work celebrating Black life and representation, dislocation and Indigeneity, this new production offers an intimate and personal window into the streets he grew up in.

garçon is a dynamic coming-of-age story, taking audiences on a ride through wāni’s childhood in Auckland, New Zealand. From the classroom to the basketball court to the milk bars and garage hangouts of Ranui and Massey, the performance paints vivid portraits of a community of young boys navigating the complexities of boyhood in a neighbourhood intent on making them men.

Influenced by true events, the performance weaves through moments of precarity, violence, and sexual assault, balanced with humour, friendship, and resilience. wāni's deft, lyrical storytelling creates a tapestry of male sociality that is both playful and profound, inviting audiences into the intricacies of a world that is as familiar as it is foreign.

garçon is an ode to Black and brown boyhood, told by one of our most adept cross-disciplinary artists.