News & Events

Blacktown Arts Centre will host three events as part of the 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival on Saturday 24^th May. Now in its eleventh year, the 2008 Festival promises to be as wide ranging, profound and enjoyable as ever, with its wealth of riches covering fiction, non-fiction, poetry, journalism, scriptwriting, film, new media and much more. This year's theme is The world, in words.

The events scheduled at Blacktown Arts Centre will feature two prominent migrant communities in the Blacktown area - The African and Philippine communities. Please see the details below:

Readings from new works developed as part of the African Theatre Project

2pm Saturday 24 May

Assefa Bekele is Ethiopian writer who has been part of a theatre writing

laboratory at Blacktown Arts Centre exploring African Australian writing

for theatre. The session will screen excerpts of a rehearsed reading of

Bekele's play Please Explain developed as part of the Centre's African

Theatre Project. The play explores the theme that when you are a refugee

your fate is chosen for you, not by you. Bekele will discuss the challenges

he has faced in adapting his writing for performance and the importance

of creating theatre that provides a voice for new Australian communities.

Bekele is very involved in the local community in his work with the NSW

Police Force as the Ethnic Community Liaison Officer based at Blacktown

Police Station.

Writing For Performance & Screenings of The Folding Wife

3:30pm Saturday 24 May

Pascal Daantos Berry, is writer of the critically acclaimed theatre production

The Folding Wife, performed at Blacktown Arts Centre in 2007. This session

will explore writing for contemporary performance in a multi-artform context

and will be illustrated with video recordings from a 2007 performance of the

play. This session will be moderated by Dr Jose Capilli, Associate Professor

and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, College of Arts and Letters,

University of the Philippines.

Also as part of this event, Blacktown Arts Centre will launch an anthology of

contemporary Philippine Australian writing entitled Salu-Salo, a joint publication

produced by Casula Powerhouse and Blacktown Arts Centre:

SALU-SALO BLACKTOWN LAUNCH

An anthology of contemporary Philippine Australian Writing

4.30pm Saturday 24 May

To be launched by the Consul General of the Philippine Maria Theresa P Lazaro.

As part of its commitment to give voice to local communities, Blacktown Arts Centre partners with Casula Powerhouse to publish the first-ever anthology of Filipino-Australian writing. The anthology reveals the positive contributions of various Philippine communities and addresses the current and past generations' processes of integration into multicultural Australia. Copies of the anthology will be available for sale on the day.

For the full 2008 Sydney Writers' Festival Program, log onto www.swf.org.au