In the lead up to SWANA Film Festival, we have the honour of holding this much-needed conversation, featuring artists, poets, academics and activists living at various intersections.

Join us at ACE Parramatta on Sunday night from 6.30pm, for dinner, performance poetry by Amuor Malou and a panel discussion facilitated by Dr Bilquis Ghani, featuring Adrian Mouhajer, Mariam Slewo, Mindy Michael and Viola Jokudu.

Dates and water as well as a place to pray will be available for those needing to.
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Tickets at tinyurl.com/SWANA-solidarity23

Thanks to ACE Parramatta for their generous support.

Featuring:

Adrian Mouhajer (they/them) is a non-binary lesbian Muslim Lebanese poet from Dharug Land who explores themes of queerness, love, desire, family and cultural connection within their work. They also perform their poetry in local spaces and events, including the Sydney Opera House and Bankstown Arts Company.

Amuor Malou (she/her) is a South Sudanese Australian proudly living on Darug land. With a passion for creativity and an appreciation for life, she loves to embrace everything the world has to offer. Her passion lies in capturing the beautiful and peculiar moments of life through words and art.

Dr Bilquis Ghani’s (she/her) research focuses on the mobilisation of the creative process through moments of social & cultural rupture & the way that cultural products can cause their own ruptures for the better. Her work takes a decolonial approach to making sense of art movements in conflict spaces, Kabul in particular. Bilquis is currently Head of Inclusion at Sydney Opera House and is the co-founder of art collective, Hunar. She is focused on action with an awareness of intent. She seeks to practise sincere kindness. Without sincerity, kindness is just being nice.

Mariam Slewo is an Assyrian-Australian artist and writer whose work primarily focuses on the transformative nature of language through folklore, resistance and silenced historical narratives. Her practice explores place evoked through words and memories. She has exhibited in Melbourne and Sydney and has been an artist in residence at Squiggle Space in Paddington, NSW.

ⲛⲟϥⲣⲓ [Mindy Michail] (she/her) is a mother, daughter, sister, aunty, niece, cousin, girlfriend, friend and common Remenkeemi woman who lives on Dharawal country. Her father's side is from Luxor, in the south of Ⲭⲏⲙⲓ - the land of the Black soil, commonly known as Egypt - and her mother's family are from Ireland, Germany and Britain. In her younger years Mindy loved getting into kick-boxing & Muay Thai.

Viola 'Vee' Jokudu (she/her) is a Ugandan/South Sudanese refugee turned athlete living on Darug Land. According to her culture, she should be married by now, so she spends most of her time dodging marriage questions and ticking off her never ending bucket list instead.