Event and Ticketing Details
Dates & Times
Tuesday 06 July
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Location
wheelercentre.com
This panel conversation originally scheduled to take place on Tuesday 15 June was postponed in response to current health advice and restrictions on public events. It is now a live-stream event only.
Find out more about our response to Covid-19 here.
For aeons, humans have sought out systems of meaning to make sense of the patterns of our lives. In recent years, there’s been a resurgence and reclaiming of mysticism and alternative practices such as astrology, tarot and manifestation, particularly among women, non-binary people, queer communities and communities of colour.
These practices can provide spiritual and practical direction and pathways to success, and help us understand our place in the world – but they’re also derided and dismissed by many.
At this Broadly Speaking event, we’ll hear from journalist and ‘sceptical believer’ Amal Awad, creative producer and tarot oracle Erica McCalman, poet and musician Lay the Mystic, and podcaster, entrepreneur and self-described ‘spooky binch’ Lillian Ahenkan (aka Flex Mami). Together, they’ll unpack the joy and purpose of mystic pursuits, consider the intersections of spirituality and self-awareness, and explore the roots of mainstream disbelief. Hosted by Shantel Wetherall.
Presented in partnership with The Capitol and RMIT Culture.
The online bookseller for this event is Neighbourhood Books.
The Broadly Speaking series is proudly supported by Krystyna Campbell-Pretty AM and family and the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.
Featuring
Lillian Ahenkan
Ghanaian-Australian Lillian Ahenkan (aka Flex Mami) is a multidisciplinary millennial making waves in the Australian entertainment industry. She’s a DJ, MTV presenter, Build Series Sydney TV Presenter and has also lent her hosting skills to the likes of Vodafone, Pedestrian TV, VICE, MECCA, Samsung and Bumble.
In addition to this, she’s a Social Commentator, Media Influencer, and Podcaster on Bobo and Flex, Overshare with Mamamia, Whatever I Want and the Spotify exclusive (and commissioned) Flex’s Semi Factual History Lesson. Soon-to-be-author, The Success Experiment is Lillian’s first book.
Passionate about bringing conversations surrounding taboo topics, pop culture, sexual liberation, critical thinking, identity, intersectionality and mental health to mainstream environments, Lillian is the CEO and Founder of conversation card game ReFlex (www.flexfactory.store), which does just that.
Her aim is to ensure everyone has the necessary tools and agency required to glow up and be their best self. Whatever that looks like for them and in whatever way that’s possible in this economy.
She’s been featured in Vogue, i-D, Stylist, Elle, Grazia, Pedestrian TV, Daily Mail, Man Repeller in addition to being a finalist for Cosmopolitan’s Beauty Influencer of the Year 2018 and the winner of E Online’s People’s Choice Award for Influencer of The Year 2020.
Erica McCalman
Erica McCalman is a Ballardong (Noongar) woman with Irish Convict, Scottish and Cornish Heritage. She is a producer, curator and facilitator of contemporary and experimental live performance, working across the land now known as Australia and internationally. Erica was given her first book on Astrology at age nine and picked up her first Tarot deck ten years later. In addition to her creative consultancy Art Oracle, in 2020 she launched Tarot Oracle: taking her skills with the cards online with the mission of providing Empowering Tarot for Everybody.
Her practice in the esoteric and the contemporary art worlds frequently collide, most notably serving as Oracle for Deborah Kelly’s CREATION project and conceiving the Next Wave 2018 keynote work Ritual which earned her a Green Room Award for programming and curation.
Her current preoccupations include ancestral reclamation, standing in our own power with integrity and investigating where a balanced spiritual practice can support the urgent work we must do as a collective to ensure our future.
Amal Awad
Amal Awad is a journalist, screenwriter, author and performer. She has contributed to The Guardian, The Sydney Morning Herald, ELLE, Frankie, Meanjin, Going Down Swinging, Daily Life, Sheilas, SBS Life and Junkee, as well as produced and presented for ABC Radio National.
As a public speaker, Amal appears at schools, universities and writers’ festivals around Australia. She presents workshops on storytelling and creativity, has been a regular panellist on ABC TV’s The Drum and was a TEDx Macquarie speaker in 2019.
Amal is the author of Courting Samira and This is How You Get Better as well as the non-fiction books The Incidental Muslim, Beyond Veiled Clichés: The Real Lives of Arab Women, Fridays with my Folks: Stories on Ageing, Illness and Life, and In My Past Life I Was Cleopatra. She has also contributed to the anthologies Growing Up Muslim in Australia: Coming of Age and Some Girls Do…: My Life as a Teenager.
As a screenwriter, Amal has several film and television projects in development. She has also directed short films, a pursuit she continues alongside writing and performing. Her next novel, The Things We See in the Light, will be published in 2021.
Lay the Mystic
Lay the Mystic is a lyrical poet, musician and dedicated cubby-fort maker based in Narrm.
His current works are centred around intimacy, all things close being both a lens to understand societal or cultural issues, and a landscape to enact change.
Shantel Wetherall
Shantel Wetherall is a British/Australia Writer and Host. She's also a proud aunty, dog-mother, and loud-laughed black woman. Her practice creates space for nuanced conversations about women, culture and change across multiple media. She hosts and produces Hey Aunty! podcast and is a regular announcer on Melbourne’s 3RRR. Her words have been read by a million people internationally, in publications like The Guardian, Sydney Morning Herald and SBS Voices. As well in projects like the book, she Co-Edited for Google RARE in 2020. She’s passionate about low-fuss/high-feeling communication and a firm believer in the power of just opening doors and starting conversations.