Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Monday 15 June
6:15 PM - 7:00 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
'Poetry is like a bird,' the Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko famously said. 'It ignores all frontiers.'
People whose lives have been governed by borders often find solace in the freedom of artistic expression. Join us for an evening of poetry and spoken word, performed by members of Australia’s refugee communities.
Curated by Manal Younus, the celebrated Eritrean storyteller who now calls South Australia home, this special online event will showcase the talents and stories of brilliant poets from across the country. Hear from emerging and established artists, connecting from their homes to yours, as they share words of both freedom and exile.
Hosted by Younus, with Lujayn Hourani, Hani Abdile, Flora Chol and Awale Ahmed.
Presented in partnership with Refugee Council of Australia.
Watch this event on this page.
Featuring
Manal Younus
Manal Younus is an South Australian based freelance storyteller from Eritrea who believes that language and stories are the very fabric of our existence. Using her writing and performance, Manal explores different aspects of life from perseverance, identity, travel and truth. She has spoken and performed around the world on a vast number of issues including youth leadership, gender and female empowerment, faith, blackness, culture, language, migration, displacement, racism and interculturalism.
Lujayn Hourani
Lujayn Hourani is a Palestinian writer, editor, and arts worker based in Naarm. Their practice uses little stories to ask and answer big questions. Lujayn has been published in Overland, Meanjin, The Lifted Brow, Going Down Swinging, and Voiceworks among others.
Flora A Chol
Flora Chol Is Melbourne based South Sudanese writer, Poet and activist. Flora migrated to Australia with her mother, brothers and sister in 2003.
Flora describes herself as ‘an earthly black woman writing in a stream of literary consciousness’.
In May 2019 Flora published her debut a Poetic Anthology, Tomorrow’s Dream.
With writings from an unprovoked sense of creativity, the themes that are explored in her work delve into the complexities in society and the dynamics of growing up as a young South Sudanese woman in the Australian Diaspora. As a Pan Africanist, Flora explores many themes and discourses which advocate for a free, self-reliant, and self-defining Africa. She embodies these beliefs through arguments which predominately deconstruct present day neo-colonial regimes. Flora is is a devoted mother and spends most of her time navigating motherhood, studying & igniting her creativity.
View ProfileHani Abdile
Hani Abdile is a writer and spoken word poet who fled the civil war in Somalia at 16, forced to leave her family behind. She made her way to Australian waters by boat and was detained on Christmas Island. Hani is author of I Will Rise, an honorary member of PEN International, and a lead writer for Writing Through Fences. She currently lives in Sydney.
Awale Ahmed
Awale Ahmed is a multilingual writer and storyteller who shares stories through poetry. Born in Somalia, he grew up in the Middle East and recently migrated to Australia. He firmly believes that artists are the true guardians of our creativity, childhood spirit and imagination. An advocate for social justice and refugee rights, he believes in the power of sharing the human experience and spreading joy and happiness to others.