A Lemon for Safiya - Book Launch - Jemima Shafei-Ongu
Jun
10
10:30 AM10:30

A Lemon for Safiya - Book Launch - Jemima Shafei-Ongu

Event description

About the Book

A Lemon for Safiya is a gentle and respectful story about a family’s compassionate response to a disoriented older woman whose ‘eyes held a sadness as deep as the ocean’. Written in English with sections of translated Arabic, Jemima Shafei-Ongu (Aslan and Benny, illustrated by Jade Goodwin) beautifully handles natural bilingual communication across three generations. Nisaluk Chantanakom’s exquisite illustrations deepen the story by giving insight into a lost past and a distant homeland. Each page invites reflection, just as ‘every line on her face seemed to hold a story’. Suitable for preschool and primary-aged children, the book provides discussion points on cultural diversity, language preservation, respect for elders, multisensory memories, and the different ways families communicate and function. Empathy and humanity are depicted on every page as the old woman finds her way back home with the help of young Safiya and her family. At the end of the story, the woman gives Safiya a lemon, but the true gift is Safiya’s growing understanding that relationships and memories shape who we are. A Lemon for Safiya is an excellent resource for parents and educators who want to explore themes of family heritage, aging, generational changes and compassion. 


Author Bio

Jemima is a Sydney-based author, psychologist and teacher with a passion for picture books and a commitment to inclusion in children’s literature. She crafts heartfelt stories that depict diversity as a natural part of life.

Inspired by her family and community’s rich heritage, Jemima explores themes of well-being, belonging and connection, in her writing.

When she’s not writing, Jemima enjoys watercolour painting, learning the darbuka and playing lip sync battles with her adult daughters. She resides on Dharug Country with her partner, their mini schnauzer and whichever of their three daughters are in the country at the time.

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Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 2)
Jun
10
12:00 PM12:00

Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 2)

Every Tuesday During School Term

Seed of Hope Collective is a community arts and wellbeing program for women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The program welcomes women from many countries and walks of life, creating a vibrant space where multiple languages, cultures, and lived experiences are celebrated.

It promotes connection, community and creativity, as well as personal growth. Seed of Hope has several ongoing projects:

When and Where

Every Tuesday during School Term

Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Locations may change week to week.

Register

Are you new to Seed of Hope? Just drop in and we can assist or speak to one of our team.

Tel: 9727 3928

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Homework Club - June wk 2
Jun
11
3:30 PM15:30

Homework Club - June wk 2

Every Wednesday During School Term

Supporting Students, Supporting Families

Do you want additional support for your child’s schoolwork in English or Arabic?

Our free Homework Club at the Community House in Fairfield is here to help. We provide after-school support for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, in English, Arabic, and other languages by arrangement.

It’s a calm, welcoming space where children can focus, ask questions, and build confidence.

Cost: Free.

Small Donations are welcome if you can give.

When and Where

Every Wednesday during School Term

Time: 3.30pm - 5:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Register

Tel: 9727 3928

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Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 3)
Jun
17
12:00 PM12:00

Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 3)

Every Tuesday During School Term

Seed of Hope Collective is a community arts and wellbeing program for women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The program welcomes women from many countries and walks of life, creating a vibrant space where multiple languages, cultures, and lived experiences are celebrated.

It promotes connection, community and creativity, as well as personal growth. Seed of Hope has several ongoing projects:

When and Where

Every Tuesday during School Term

Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Locations may change week to week.

Register

Are you new to Seed of Hope? Just drop in and we can assist or speak to one of our team.

Tel: 9727 3928

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Homework Club - June wk 3
Jun
18
3:30 PM15:30

Homework Club - June wk 3

Every Wednesday During School Term

Supporting Students, Supporting Families

Do you want additional support for your child’s schoolwork in English or Arabic?

Our free Homework Club at the Community House in Fairfield is here to help. We provide after-school support for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, in English, Arabic, and other languages by arrangement.

It’s a calm, welcoming space where children can focus, ask questions, and build confidence.

Cost: Free.

Small Donations are welcome if you can give.

When and Where

Every Wednesday during School Term

Time: 3.30pm - 5:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Register

Tel: 9727 3928

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Homework Club - June wk 4
Jun
25
3:30 PM15:30

Homework Club - June wk 4

Every Wednesday During School Term

Supporting Students, Supporting Families

Do you want additional support for your child’s schoolwork in English or Arabic?

Our free Homework Club at the Community House in Fairfield is here to help. We provide after-school support for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, in English, Arabic, and other languages by arrangement.

It’s a calm, welcoming space where children can focus, ask questions, and build confidence.

Cost: Free.

Small Donations are welcome if you can give.

When and Where

Every Wednesday during School Term

Time: 3.30pm - 5:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Register

Tel: 9727 3928

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Homework Club - June wk 1
Jun
4
3:30 PM15:30

Homework Club - June wk 1

Every Wednesday During School Term

Supporting Students, Supporting Families

Do you want additional support for your child’s schoolwork in English or Arabic?

Our free Homework Club at the Community House in Fairfield is here to help. We provide after-school support for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, in English, Arabic, and other languages by arrangement.

It’s a calm, welcoming space where children can focus, ask questions, and build confidence.

Cost: Free.

Small Donations are welcome if you can give.

When and Where

Every Wednesday during School Term

Time: 3.30pm - 5:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Register

Tel: 9727 3928

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Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 1)
Jun
3
12:00 PM12:00

Seed of Hope Program (June Wk 1)

Every Tuesday During School Term

Seed of Hope Collective is a community arts and wellbeing program for women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The program welcomes women from many countries and walks of life, creating a vibrant space where multiple languages, cultures, and lived experiences are celebrated.

It promotes connection, community and creativity, as well as personal growth. Seed of Hope has several ongoing projects:

When and Where

Every Tuesday during School Term

Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Locations may change week to week.

Register

Are you new to Seed of Hope? Just drop in and we can assist or speak to one of our team.

Tel: 9727 3928

View Event →
Homework Club - May wk4
May
28
3:30 PM15:30

Homework Club - May wk4

Every Wednesday During School Term

Supporting Students, Supporting Families

Do you want additional support for your child’s schoolwork in English or Arabic?

Our free Homework Club at the Community House in Fairfield is here to help. We provide after-school support for students from Kindergarten to Year 12, in English, Arabic, and other languages by arrangement.

It’s a calm, welcoming space where children can focus, ask questions, and build confidence.

Cost: Free.

Small Donations are welcome if you can give.

When and Where

Every Wednesday during School Term

Time: 3.30pm - 5:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Register

Tel: 9727 3928

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Seed of Hope Program (May)
May
27
12:00 PM12:00

Seed of Hope Program (May)

Every Tuesday During School Term

Seed of Hope Collective is a community arts and wellbeing program for women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The program welcomes women from many countries and walks of life, creating a vibrant space where multiple languages, cultures, and lived experiences are celebrated.

It promotes connection, community and creativity, as well as personal growth. Seed of Hope has several ongoing projects:

When and Where

Every Tuesday during School Term

Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Locations may change week to week.

Register

Are you new to Seed of Hope? Just drop in and we can assist or speak to one of our team.

Tel: 9727 3928

View Event →
Seed of Hope Program
May
20
12:00 PM12:00

Seed of Hope Program

Every Tuesday During School Term

Seed of Hope Collective is a community arts and wellbeing program for women from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The program welcomes women from many countries and walks of life, creating a vibrant space where multiple languages, cultures, and lived experiences are celebrated.

It promotes connection, community and creativity, as well as personal growth. Seed of Hope has several ongoing projects:

When and Where

Every Tuesday during School Term

Time: 12:00pm - 2:00pm

Community House

2/40 Harris Street, Fairfield

Locations may change week to week.

Register

Are you new to Seed of Hope? Just drop in and we can assist or speak to one of our team.

Tel: 9727 3928

View Event →
BOOK LAUNCH: Hasta el sol... by Rosario Lazaro Igoa
May
10
2:00 PM14:00

BOOK LAUNCH: Hasta el sol... by Rosario Lazaro Igoa

Hasta el sol y todas las ciudades en el medio es un conjunto de crónicas sobre el habitar ciudades extrañas y es también una forma de nostalgia por el Cabo de Santa María, más conocido como La Paloma. Como en toda la obra de Rosario Lázaro Igoa, los límites entre los paisajes internos y los externos se desdibujan con facilidad. Es un libro al mismo tiempo intimista y cosmopolita, que da cuenta de una existencia itinerante y de una mirada aguda y sensible que atraviesa continentes, estaciones y relaciones humanas. Los paisajes cambian de la playa al desierto, de la nieve al cemento, así como cambia la narradora con la maternidad, con el exilio, con el tiempo. La literatura es una presencia constante y una herramienta para entender los nuevos mundos.

"En el principio, la escritura y el mar fueron uno solo. La realidad, claro, era caos y confusión. También libros, rocas, aguavivas y expresiones que se repetían. Fue ella, aspirante a regente del universo, quien con el pasar de los años consideró esas dos dimensiones ajenas, incapaces de intersectarse ni siquiera en un punto. La vida del mar y la vida de los libros, que se las ingeniaron para ser una masa amorfa, indistinta." 


To the Sun and All the Cities in Between is a collection of chronicles about inhabiting strange cities and is also a form of nostalgia for Cape Santa María, better known as La Paloma. As in all of Rosario Lázaro Igoa's work, the boundaries between internal and external landscapes are easily blurred. It is a book that is both intimate and cosmopolitan, depicting an itinerant existence and a sharp and sensitive gaze that traverses continents, seasons, and human relationships. The landscapes change from beach to desert, from snow to concrete, just as the narrator changes with motherhood, with exile, with time. Literature is a constant presence and a tool for understanding new worlds.

"In the beginning, writing and the sea were one. Reality, of course, was chaos and confusion. So were books, rocks, jellyfish, and repeated expressions. It was she, aspiring to be ruler of the universe, who over the years considered these two alien dimensions, incapable of intersecting even at a point. The life of the sea and the life of books, which managed to become an amorphous, indistinct mass.


AUTHOR BIOS

Rosario Lázaro Igoa (Salto, 1981) es traductora literaria, además de investigadora y cronista de prensa. Se licenció en Comunicación y tiene un doctorado en Estudios de la Traducción por la Universidad Federal de Santa Catarina, Brasil. Coeditó y tradujo del portugués la antología Crónicas de melancolía eufórica, de Mário de Andrade (2016); del inglés, tradujo Dinosaurios en otros planetas, de Danielle McLaughlin (2020), entre otros. Publicó la novela Mayito (2006) y varios cuentos en antologías colectivas de Brasil, Bolivia, Francia, Paraguay y UruguayEn Criatura, publicó las colecciones de cuentos Peces mudos (2016) y Cráteres artificiales (2021, segundo Premio Nacional de Literatura). Su nuevo libro es Hasta el sol y todas las ciudades en el medio.

Rosario Lázaro Igoa is a novelist, essayist, and literary translator. She holds a degree in Communication and a PhD in Translation Studies from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. She co-edited and translated from Portuguese the anthology Chronicles of Euphoric Melancholy by Mário de Andrade (2016); from English, she translated Dinosaurs on Other Planets by Danielle McLaughlin (2020), among others. She published the novel Mayito (2006) and several short stories in collective anthologies in Brazil, Bolivia, France, Paraguay, and Uruguay. For Criatura, she published the short story collections Mute Fish (2016) and Artificial Craters (2021, second National Literature Prize winner). Her new book is Hasta el sol y todas las ciudades en el medio.

Esther Lozano es periodista multimedia y documentalista con una amplia trayectoria que abarca tanto Australia como España. Actualmente trabaja como periodista de radio en SBS Spanish, donde ha sido una de las principales presentadoras del programa en español durante más de diez años. En este puesto, continúa produciendo diversos contenidos, incluyendo podcasts de radio, artículos web y vídeos. También es codirectora de dos documentales independientes: Between The Lines, la iniciación de Adam Hill, sobre el artista indígena Black Douglas, y A Ticket to Your Life, sobre la migración de españoles a Australia. Además de su trabajo periodístico, también se dedica a la fotografía. Imparte cursos de fotografía online y desarrolla su práctica artística personal, participando regularmente en exposiciones colectivas.

Esther Lozano is a multimedia journalist and documentary filmmaker with a broad career spanning both Australia and Spain.She currently works as a radio journalist at SBS Spanish, where she has been one of the main presenters of the Spanish-language program for over ten years. In this role, she continues to produce a variety of content, including radio podcasts, web articles, and videos. She is also the co-director of two independent documentaries: Between The Lines, the initiation of Adam Hill, on Indigenous artist Black Douglas, and A Ticket to Your Life, about the migration of Spanish people to AustraliaAlongside her journalism work, she is also a dedicated photographer. She teaches online photography courses and develops her personal art practice, regularly taking part in group exhibitions.

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Oct
1
5:30 PM17:30

Sound System Music Residency 2019

Here she is. The Sound System Residency winner for 2019: Ida Warhol

A singer and songwriter and harp player who fuses beautiful original melodies with her Polish language.

Ida a.k.a Olivia Warhol is a singer and producer who creates celestial visions wrapped in intricate harmonies, melodious harp plucking and a bucolic warmth. The Sydney born artist spent several years in her ancestral home of Poland, relearning her culture and language, developing a fascination with polish folk melodies. Her music offers a blend of her contemporary Australian experience and eastern European sensibilities.

"My parents are both Polish and I’ve had the privilege of living here in Sydney and in my mother’s home town by the Baltic coast. I am so grateful I am able to speak the language and celebrate this in my music."- Ida Warhol

Ida uses her classical training and Eastern European roots to create a blend of art and folk music, wrapped in a melancholy pop form. She is currently writing her own material and producing her music, Ida will be releasing an EP in 2020.

Follow Ida Warhol at @idawarhol


Massive thanks to our supporting panel members: OKENYO Antonia Gauci Sydney Opera House Sepora Marcus Whale Milan Ring VULI El Far3i-الفرعي Arik Blum ALPHAMAMA

Not to mention, thank you to all those who took part of the application process and stay tuned to hear what's coming from the talented winner, Ida Warhol.

Sound System Music Residency

The Sound System Music Residency is a music program offered by Lost In Books together with Create NSW. The program partners with local artists and musicians from South West and Western Sydney to develop new musical work that celebrates languages other than English.

Visit lostinbooks.com.au to learn more.

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Tongue Tied and Fluent Launch
Nov
13
9:00 PM21:00

Tongue Tied and Fluent Launch

Is Australia ready for the multilingual mindset?

To celebrate the launch of a new five-part documentary series for ABC RN's Earshot program on multilingualism in Australia, LOST IN BOOKS will be hosted the launch party for Tongue Tied and Fluent to thank everyone who’s been so generously involved in the making of the program. We played excerpts from our series, which has been a huge undertaking over the past two years.

Special thanks to Shelia Pham, Masako Fukui, Zarlasht Sawari and the audience for sharing their experiences, ideas and afternoon.

Click here to listen to the EARSHOT Podcast

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Jul
15
12:30 PM12:30

Way Out West Festival 2019

LOST IN BOOKS are going to have our pop-up shop again at this year's WOW Festival!

Held at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, the festival is a great way to spend the first week of the school holidays.

It has a packed program of theatre, interactive installations, dance, music, literature, food, yoga, workshops and FREE family events guaranteed to inspire joy, creativity and curiosity.

Our Forked Tongues multilingual storytellers will be weaving magical stories each day from July 10-13 at 12pm and 2pm, so make sure to come join in if you're around! And visit us in the shop upstairs in the main hall.

Watch out for the FORKED TONGUES STORYTELLERS coming to a storytime near you this week!

Our wonderful multilingual storytellers are appearing at all the branches of the Liverpool City Library and at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre as part of the 2019 WOW Festival for Young People.

See the Library and WOW Festival websites for all the details.

To learn more about the wonderful FORKED TONGUES Storytellers, check out:

Here we are! For the rest of this week (10-14 July) the Lost in Books shop will be at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre for the Way Out West Festival.

Our Fairfield shop will be closed during that time.

You can find all our great books and fabulous Forked Tongues Storytellers performing multilingual stories at 11am and 2pm each day from Wed to Sat. Come and visit!

The WOW Festival starts today! Perfect for the school holidays, families can dive into the packed program of theatre, interactive installations, dance, music, literature, food, yoga, workshops and FREE family events guaranteed to inspire joy, creativity and curiosity.

The festival is running at the Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre. LOST IN BOOKS have a pop-up store in the Upper Turbine Gallery, and we will be running a Forked Tongues session each day outdoors from 12pm. Come join in!

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May
6
11:30 AM11:30

HACK Sounds 107

Hack Sounds is an initiative from 107 Projects, offering an entry point into the world of electronic music making.

It’s a four inspiration-filled sessions held at Lost In Books kicking off on 26 April 2019. Open to all adults aged 18+ interested in making music with inspiring professionals in English and Arabic, participants will get the chance to create and record a bilingual song with Hack Sounds 107's artists Lama Zakharia- لمى زخريا and Peregrin Chiara

Hack Sounds program is designed with the beginner in mind, offering tools and teaching approaches geared at giving participants the fundamentals to begin their adventure into electronic music-making and production.

Thanks to all our partners and collaborators for making this happen.

SSI Arts & Culture CORE Community Services STARTTS Hack Sounds Lama Zakharia- لمى زخريا Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre Campbelltown Arts Centre Byds - Bankstown Arts Centre Multicultural Youth Affairs Network - MYAN NSW Create NSW APRA AMCOS Multicultural NSW 107 Bashar Hanna PYT Fairfield

Bilingual artists Lama Zakharia- لمى زخريا and Peregrin Chiara with HACK SOUNDs participants and volunteers.

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Aug
7
11:30 AM11:30

FLAME Festival 2018

Fairfield Live Art, Music and Entertainment (FLAME) Festival is a new free Council event that will showcase the sounds and creations of talented musicians and artists from Western Sydney. Flame will be held across several participating Fairfield venues, including restaurants, a bowling alley, a bookshop and other locations, bringing colour and energy from up to 90 performances to Fairfield City Centre for one amazing evening.

In addition to free entertainment, people can come along and enjoy authentic and delicious Middle Eastern, Latin American and other international cuisine from Fairfield’s many eateries.

Flame Festival has been made possible through funding from Create NSW on behalf of the NSW State Government, in partnership with the Live Music Office.

Girl Power at Lost In Books

LOST IN BOOKS hosted powerful performances from an all-women lineup of fantastic musicians from Western Sydney featuring Olina & Ange, MARA DUKE, Tru' and Sepora.

Olina & Ange. These two talents have wowed the room with their awesome music as part of #FLAME18!

MARADUKE rocking the stage at LOST IN BOOKS now.

Tru covering Joni Mitchell

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Apr
21
11:30 AM11:30

LOST IN BOOKS: Story time at The Biennale of Sydney with Sheila Pham and Zarlasht Sarwari

We are so excited and proud to be part of the The Biennale of Sydney’s Family Day on Cockatoo Island. LOST IN BOOKS hosted a great program of fun and art, and bilingual story times at The Superposition Studio featuring a stellar line up of bilingual storytellers:

Sheila Pham (English/Vietnamese) - Read books The Green Sheep by Mem Fox, Where is My Home? By Nur-El-Hudaa Jaffar and Lim Leei lees and sang some Bob Dylan songs.

Zarlasht Sarwari (English/Dari) read books I am Australian Too by Mem Fox, and books by John Klassen.

Lillian Rodrigues-Pang (English/Spanish) lead with a traditional Cuban story, folktales and shared her own original stories.

Bilingual story times are a great way to introduce kids to new languages, and to decentralise their own.

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Feb
24
10:00 AM10:00

In Other Words Festival 2018

LOST IN BOOKS held our first annual IN OTHER WORDS Festival on the 23rd and 24th of February 2018. We celebrated UNESCO’s International Day Of Mother Language through FREE community events around storytelling, music, panel discussions, film, workshops, kids activities, a multicultural feast and more.

Talks and panel discussions explored themes on mother language, identity and place, connection to & separation from home, family and community.

Big thanks to Create NSW and Australia Council for the Arts for their support for the IN OTHER WORDS residencies and this Festival!

Event Program

Friday 24 February 2018

5pm Bilingual Storytelling Session for kids and families (in LOST IN BOOKS)

6pm Opening Ceremony feat. a Welcome To Country, Lion Dance and the Choir of Love (OUTSIDE STAGE)

7pm Screening of award-winning short film "Miro" and a Q+A with the Director (in LOST IN BOOKS)

7.30pm MULTILINGUAL POETRY SLAM presented by WORD TRAVELS feat. Hasitha Adhikariarachchi and Zaya Barroso (OUTSIDE STAGE)

8pm INTO THE WILD DISCO - a dance party for kids featuring music from around the world (HALL STAGE)

All night - MURALISTO live painting of a public artwork with artist Christina Huynh

All night - Delicious Egyptian and Cambodian street food

This is the radiant Aunty Wendy Morgan who shared a Welcome To Country with us. Wendy has been an activist and Aboriginal rights advocate for more that 30 years, and is a member of the Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council. She is the founder of Guntawang Aboriginal Women's group in Fairfield for women to come together.

The Festival featured a special musical collaboration with Yutaro on guitar, Adnan on oud, Jess on bass, Mehdi on santour and Harri on beats/electronics/synth.

Listen to the Lost In Books Multicultural Jam here:

Chun Yin Rainbow Chan did a special song number with her mum Irene Cheung to celebrate International Mother Language Day.

"Sydney-based artist, Chun Yin Rainbow Chan, works across music, performance and installation. Born in Hong Kong and raised in Australia, Rainbow is interested in mistranslations, diaspora and the effects of globalisation on modern Chinese society. Rainbow will perform selected folk songs in the Cantonese dialect, Weitouhua, which is spoken by Indigenous inhabitants of Hong Kong. Closely tied to the community’s agrarian lifestyle, Weitou folk music is an important relic of Hong Kong local culture. Rainbow will be joined by her mother Irene, who is a member of the Weitou community, in a short presentation about cultural preservation, language and song."

Listen to the mother and daughter duet here:

"Writing in the spaces between languages"

will be kicking of our panels, 12.30pm Sat at our IN OTHER WORDS FESTIVAL. It will be a discussion exploring the writing process of multilingual Australian writers. Stories, ideas and memories from other languages are rich and vital sources for writing, but there are many specific challenges in trying to represent this complexity in multicultural stories in Australia. If your story involves characters speaking in your mother tongue, how do you capture that in written English? When do you keep words in other languages in their original forms and when do you translate? What if you speak a language where the written version of it is largely inaccessible to you but you want to incorporate it in your writing?

Join Sheila Pham in conversation with Sirine Demachkie, Zarlasht Sarwari, Eda Gunaydin and Frances An on at Saturday the 24th of Feb at our IN OTHER WORDS FESTIVAL 12.30pm!

Hasitha Adhikariarachchi was the winner of 2017 Multilingual Poetry Slam and will be reprising her winning poem at our Multilingual Poetry Slam on Friday night for IN OTHER WORDS Festival, Feb 23 at 7.30pm!

Hasitha is a writer and was raised in Sri Lanka, now calls Sydney home. She’s the winner of ‘NSW Multilingual Poetry Slam 2017’. Hasitha has been previously published in Write to Reconcile II anthology and she is currently working on her debut fantasy story-book. Hasitha recently took a step-forward by initiating a publishing house (www.queenofsea.com) to invest in publishing the work of unpublished Sri Lankan female writers.

Festival kicks off at 5pm, Slam at 7.30pm!

This is the beautiful Zaya Barroso. Zaya will be doing a special musical performance to wrap up our Multilingual Poetry Slam Friday Feb 23, ie. tomorrow!

Her commanding and tender voice and words will speak to the heart. Don't miss this special performance!

There are still a few spots left to compete in the multilingual poetry slam from 7.30pm! You can sign up on the night to perform a 3 minute poem. Do it!

8pm African Moon, LOST IN BOOKS stage

Experience the traditional storytelling, dancing and singing of Sierra Leone, passed down through the generations by village elders who would draw young people around them at night under the moonlight as they told stories from their own ancestors.

Yarrie Bangura is a formal refugee from Sierra Leone, she been in Australia for over 13 years. She is writer, performer, musician and public speaker. In 2015-16, she was a performer and writer in The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe which toured Australia and the UK culminating in performances at the Southbank Centre and the Sydney Opera House. She is currently an international development student and entrepreneur Aunty’s Ginger Tonic. She also is an ambassador for Stand Up, The Big Anxiety Festival and is a Special Youth Representative for Australia for UNHCR.

Sarmad Amir performing at IN OTHER WORDS

An incredible group of people on yesterday's "Acceptance bs Tolerance" panel. An important and generous discussion, for all to hear. Lucky you'll be able to soon.

Thankyou so much to Andrea Lim, Rhyan Clapham, Monique Dam, Randa Kattan and Carrie Hou.

This is Canberra's Mother Tongue Multilingual Poetry Group, who will be performing "Homespun" at our IN OTHER WORDS festival this Sat 24th Feb. Absolute guests of honour Keep an eye out for times!

"Homespun is a collaborative poem that explores ideas about displacement, belonging, connection and home in six languages. It is written in 6 languages of Bahasa Malay, Serbian, Persian, Azerbaijani, Spanish and English side by side. This piece debuted at the Noted Festival in 2017 and has been performed at events in Canberra and Sydney to great response. The writers and performers are: Asefeh Zeinalabedini, Anita Patel, Vesna Cvjeticanin, Karina Bontes Forward."

"Acceptance vs Tolerance" Panel 3.30pm Sat 24th Feb at IN OTHER WORDS Festival.

"This panel explores Australia's complex relationship with diversity. We hear that we are the "most multicultural nation on earth", but how does that translate in practice? And without more meat to the bones, don't we risk collapsing into a food court of great food, but without a shared table?"

This is Randa Kattan. She is the CEO of Arab Council Australia. She will be appearing on a panel facilitated by Carrie Hou with Monique Dam, Andrea Lim, Dobby (Rhyan Clapham).

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