Story Week asks you to do BRAVE things

Public speaking usually comes up as one of the scariest things humans can do.

 Story Week takes this much further. You are invited to join a room full of other people (actual IRL humans) and tell them about a moment in your life when everything changed using the themes of nature or equality.

Word Travels Creative Director, Miles Merrill, delivers a poem on the power of telling your own story

The literary arts organisation, Word Travels, is claiming 15-23 Oct as an annual time to tell stories with each other. This may be as simple as sitting around a dinner table taking turns with text (see Poet-Taster) or elaborate as participating in a poetry slam at Sydney Opera House (see Slam Finals).

Zaynab Farah - Featuring at Sydney Slam

We’ve had two years of: “stay away from people”, “be socially distant”, “isolate yourself” - all symptoms of depression and agoraphobia. Story Week’s theme of Sharing Circles emphasises that everyone has a story, a poem, a song… something to share. The hierarchy of audience looking up at untouchable artists in the spotlight is scrapped. Instead, we’re all invited to safe spaces where mental health, vulnerability, authenticity… humanity is valued.

 Word Travels uses creative writing and performance to ask key questions facing our country – climate change, inequality… real estate prices. Australia’s strongest stories come from our BIPOC communities. Refugee and First Nation voices are central to Story Week.

 Should The Voice to Parliament be creative and poetic as well as political? First Person Voice, curated by hip hop artist and writer Fred Leone, uses the lens of writing and performance to tackle questions of sovereignty, self-determination and First Nations people controlling their own narratives.

 Who calls Australia home? Are we chasing a home within ourselves, a physical house or a home that has no borders? Chasing Home invites artists from immigrant and refugee backgrounds to participate in talks, share poems, screen films and exhibit artwork.

 What languages flow through the heart of Gadigal Country/Sydney? People from around the globe land here. Why? What draws people to this place? Writers and poets share their words in their mother tongues telling Origin Stories.

 Australia needs more Blak spaces, celebrating Blak people. Word Travels Creative Director, Miles Merrill, from the African diaspora, curates a powerful mix of poetry, music, ideas and dance in Black Jam.

Word Travels Creative Director - Miles Merrill
Photo credit Chris Peken

Story Week leads a new wave of literary fests that explore the deeper parts of our nation’s cultural identity. Many of Story Week’s headline artists are black women: Kween G, Sista Native, Kootsie Don, Mel Ree, Hani Abdile.

 Our National Poetry Slam Champion represented Australia at the World Slam Championships in Belgium last month. Huda “The Goddess” Fadlelmawla is a writer and Sudanese refugee from Brisbane. Catch her slamming, talking, dancing and teaching.

Huda the Goddess

 Story Week reflects the true colours of Australia’s population; representing people who never see themselves on Neighbours; inviting you to share your stories.

 See the full Story Week Program including the Australian Poetry Slam – National Final at Sydney Opera House.