After two sold out events and an incredible response from all of you, we are wrapping up the year with something extra special. We have a whole new look (thanks to @1_of_1_studio ) and a brand new venue (previous @soap_dancehall ), and we cannot wait to see you all!
The Night Mayors series has quickly become one of Tāmaki Makaurau’s most exciting cultural forums, bringing together the people who make Auckland a place more of us want to stay.
If you are new to what we do, we host panel discussions where we hear from cultural icons about how they actually live, their biggest gripes, their boldest ideas for Tāmaki Makaurau and what their platform would be if they ran for Mayor.
Join us on Wednesday 10 December for our final panel of the year featuring Morgana O’Reilly, Samuel Te Kani, Lucy Macrae and Geneva Alexander Marsters, with Charlotte Ryan once again moderating the kōrero.
Come and celebrate the underground and underrated voices shaping the city’s future!
This event will also be supporting Kick Back, an organisation responding to youth homelessness across Tāmaki Makaurau. Five dollars from every ticket helps fund their Christmas Day celebrations for the more than 160 rangatahi and tamariki they support.
EVENT DETAILS
Wednesday 10 December 2025
Doors 6pm. Event starts 6.30pm
12 Beresford Square (previously Soap Dance Hall)
Post event: DJ Sound of the Overground
Tickets 15 dollars including a 5 dollar donation to Kick Back
Tickets: night-mayors-akl.eventbrite.co.nz (link in our bio)
Brought to you by Charlotte Billing and Liz Allen from Place Creative, Maddy Budd from November Studio, Christy Tennent from OPEN and publicist and broadcaster Charlotte Ryan.
@morganaoreilly@samueltekani@whammybarauckland@geneva_am@charlotteaoryan@maddybudd@christy.tennent@lizallen___@totescharlred@placecreative__@opencoffeekrd@openlate____@novemberstudio.nz@kick_back_make_change
Feeling anxious about doing your civic duty but not sure where to start?
Join us for The Night Mayors Sunday Submission Party, a relaxed drop-in session to help you understand how to have your say on Auckland’s housing future.
Housing experts from The Urban Advisory (TUA) and Ockham Residential will be on hand to break it all down, answer your questions and give you the tools to tell Council what you really think.
Sunday 16 November, 3–5pm
Open Coffee, 553 Karangahape Road
Featuring Greer O’Donnell, Co-Founder and Director of The Urban Advisory (TUA) & Mark Todd, Co-founder and Development Manager of Ockham Residential.
Everyone’s welcome. Come grab a coffee or a drink, learn something new and make your voice heard.
Presented by The Night Mayors
@placecreative__@openlatekrd@novemberstudio.nz@charlotteaoryan@theurbanadvisory@ockhamresidential
We are so excited to send The Current into the world- a writing project about the weird-good side of Tāmaki Makaurau that Place Creative gets to experience every day, told in a digestible, considered essays.
Sign up at the link in our bio, and get ready to ride the wave with us!
The first Night Mayors event was so special. A full house, great buzz, so many great conversations, it reminded all of us why we love this city!
Our incredible panel, Grayson Goffe, Jean Teng, Manuha’apai ‘Manu Vaea’ Vaeatangitau and Shaquille Wasasala (aka HALFQUEEN) shared what they love about Tāmaki, their secret spots, why they’re still here, and how we can build a city more people want to stay in.
It showed us all how powerful it is to come together and simply talk about the place we live, because let’s be honest, we all have opinions.
We’re so excited to do it all again! Join us for The Night Mayors: Volume Two on Tuesday 29 October at Open, 553 Karangahape Road. Panel members to be announced soon! Keep an eye out... 👀
Presented by Place Creative, November Studio and Open, moderated by Charlotte Ryan.
@placecreative_@opencoffeekrd@novemberstudio.nz@charlotteaoryan
We had a great time at our first Night Mayors! It was hilarious, profound, and energising to hear about what Aucklanders imagine for this city. If you came along, thank you for bringing your energy (and sharing the best secrets of the city…)
To follow along with a few things our first Night Mayors are doing for Tāmaki:
📲 Follow Jean’s @maybe.jean weekly newsletter about city life @cringe.akl
📺 Watch/listen to Manu on Orators Anonymous via @rev.tv_ and @whekefortress 🐙
🪩 Dance at the next @half.queen show with Shaq
✅ Support Grayson for Waitematā Local Board when you VOTE in the local elections before 11 October! @whakamana@votegg25
Thank you to our incredible panelists, helpers, our wonderful MC @charlotteaoryan , and @opencoffeekrd for hosting/being the best collaborator 💗
Stay tuned for the NEXT Night Mayors- coming October 29! 🧢
📸 by @driver_photography_
Hāmiora Bailey (Ngāti Porou Ki Harataunga, Ngāti Huarere) @sam.bailey_
Hāmiora is an artist and the executive director of Auckland Pride. Originally from Whangapoua, he was awed by Auckland when he first moved here at 14. We asked him why he has chosen to stay in Tāmaki.
“When I was a teenager I went to China and I saw a city that didn’t have a ‘western’ culture, it unlocked something in me where I was like, we can have Māori cities. So that’s been my thing, trying to imagine a Māori city, or what Māori culture en masse- how healing and restorative it could be. And the bonus is there’s other takatāpui and queer Māori artists, and a community that inspires me, so I get to have fun.
But I think the long term goal is that I develop a skillset here because there's so much to learn. There’s a whakataukī about the wood pigeon flying from its forest, migrating to eat miro berries: from the sweetness of the miro berries that are outside of its own forest, its own ngahere, it can return and plant those seeds. When I go home, it’s “How’s the miro?” That’s what they know I’m doing. It’s to learn and grow and take those skills home and apply them to my own iwi.”
Ko te manu e kai ana i te miro nōnā te ngahere
Ko te manu e kai ana i te mātauranga nōnā te ao
The bird that consumes the miro berry owns the forest
The bird that consumes knowledge owns the world
Blaise Clotworthy (they/them) @blaisebyblaise
Partnerships Manager at Auckland Pride and cabaret performer Blaise brings an artist’s perspective to their work with the LGBTQIA+ community. As a bright, well-known face to many on Karangahape road, we wanted to know why they’re sticking around Tāmaki.
“What’s this city without its glorious people? We have a pride festival to deliver!”
Cam Yates
Cam is a local icon making HOT GAY CANDLES! @sybs.nz is a small, handmade business that aims to be accessible and a little bit of luxury for everyday life. In a time where Auckland is not easily liveable for so many, Cam has been reflecting on why he is still here after 13 years:
“It’s the people, my communities are here! I’m committed to continuing to exist within them, and I think commitment is what we need more of. Especially at the moment!
I understand the impulse to leave, feeling bored and disenfranchised and disengaged. You want to discover new things and people. I can guarantee there are things and people still to discover here!
My communities have changed so much over the past thirteen years, as I meet new people, reconnect with people from the past and discover new communities. I joined the NZ Falcons, an LGBTQIA+ rugby club, this year, something I didn’t know existed five years ago (let alone think I could do) and I’m so grateful to be part of that community.
You have to go looking for people and communities and be willing to do the hard work for it - fight for a city you want to be a part of. How else do communities begin, shift, bloom and flourish without their people?”
Jack Bourke
@jackgbourke is a new and dear friend of Place Creative, Head of Strategic Engagement at RCP, opera singer and the emerging Aotea Arts Quarter’s biggest visionary and cheerleader. After living overseas for 18 years he returned to Tāmaki Makaurau 4 years ago and saw a radical cultural shift, one that is keeping him here.
“I am here because I feel like I have work to do, to make this city an amazing place for my niece.”
Nayesha Mulholland (Ngāti Uepohatu, Ngāti Porou) @_naywatch
By day Nay is the Operations Manager at the Sustainable Business Network, with her own fashion design practice and a background in research, and by night she manages the @openlatekrd bar, and ran Matariki on our block.
“Tāmaki is lit! It’s only in the winter people talk about wanting to leave, but by the summer they all want to come back. If you can’t handle her at her worst, you don’t deserve her at her best!”
Tane Williams - co-owner of The Frog @thefrog.tamaki
Tane is formerly one of the owners of Bestie Cafe, now one of the minds behind The Frog, a new bar starting up in the old Roses Dining space. His work as an illustrator was featured on the old K Road hoardings scrim- which was stolen multiple times throughout the street upgrades work! Why is Tane still in Auckland?
“All my favourite people and all my stuff is here!”
Grayson Goffe (Te Āti Awa, Taranaki)
Grayson is the director of @whakamana , a Kaupapa Māori-based organisation that nurtures identity to nourish community. As a systems activist, Grayson weaves people, principles and practice together to make communities connected and resilient. We are so lucky to know and to collaborate with him on Karangahape Road, so over one of our usual coffees at @opencoffeekrd we asked Grayson, why are you in Auckland? Why Karangahape?
“There are so many beautiful, informing partnerships and embedding of Te Ara principles that innovate our creative landscapes. The people and practices strengthen my purpose in contributing to this innovation, and new ways of nurturing identities in urban hubs.
Auckland is also the frontline of innovation and collaboration. It’s a city that wants you to do better, and might struggle with investing in that process, but still will celebrate you. Auckland is a catchment for potential. A platform for interconnectivity- if we filter out the snobbery we’re quite a beautiful urbanity”
