An Appropriate Reaction
(First published at Running Dog.) Growing up Black in Australia meant living with subtle, but frequent, acts of discrimination. My white friend’s mother was always glad to have me over. […]
Writing
Over a 10 week period, 25 young emerging writers from Western Sydney participated in an intensive program of workshops and mentoring, led by Winnie Dunn and Shirley Le from Sweatshop Literacy Movement. These participants reviewed plays, exhibits and festivals, and were provided with editorial feedback along the way. Their works have now appeared in publications like Running Dog, The Big Issue, Books + Publishing, The Saturday Paper, Audrey Journal, and Kill Your Darlings. In 2021 the cohort will continue to undertake their commissions and will undergo further training with editor Camha Pham.
Book Review: Memorial
The essence of Bryan Washington’s debut novel, Memorial, is the invisible barriers that dictate what we can be, who we can be with and where we will end up. Benson, a […]
Art Review: Flowers and Fighter Jets
(Originally published in the exhibition booklet.) There’s anger in the eyes of the women Amani Haydar paints. There is strength and sadness as well, which by all accounts, is a reflection […]
Memory and faith in the work of Michael Mohammed Ahmad and Khalid Warsame
On a Tuesday night at Gleebooks, between Sydney’s hurried inner-city and its hipstered inner-west, three Australian Muslim writers gathered to talk about their ideas of race and belonging. Writers Somali-Australian, Khalid Warsame and Lebanese-Australian, Michael […]
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TV Review: Addicted Australia
★★★★☆ First published in The Big Issue, 30 October 2020 Addicted Australia, a four-part docuseries from Blackfella Films (Filthy Rich and Homeless), provides viewers access to the lives of 10 everyday Australians struggling with addictions […]
Book Review: A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing
(First posted at Books+Publishing.) Somewhere between wetting her pants during a standing ovation and sleeping with her conductor, violinist Jena Chung finds herself lonely. Set against a backdrop of Sydney suburbs […]
Book Review: Into the Suburbs
(First posted at Books+Publishing.) Christopher Raja’s Into the Suburbs is the author’s first foray into memoir, and documents his migration from Calcutta to Australia in the 80s. Drawn by the glamorous Australia of […]
Book Review: The Lost Citizens
On the 31st October 2019, Daniel Nour and I from Sweatshop Writer’s Collective, attended WestWords October Poets’ Corner event. Reading and talking to the theme of ‘Memory as Place’, was Omar Sakr, a Turkish-Lebanese Australian writer from Western Sydney and author of The Lost Arabs. Until recently, Daniel and […]
Art Review: Terra inFirma
(First pubished by Running Dog.) This year marks 250 years since James Cook invaded Australia and stole Indigenous land with two words: Terra Nullius. In 1770, Australia was declared nobody’s land—although […]
BLEED Festival: Closing
(First pubished as part of the BLEED Echo program, part of the BLEED festival.) BLEED reminds us of the windows we have yet to create, fling open, or completely and irreversibly break down […]