New festival to focus on Indigenous and culturally diverse writers

The NSW Writers’ Centre and Bankstown Arts Centre have announced a new writers’ festival that focuses on Indigenous and culturally diverse Australian writers and writing.

The inaugural Boundless festival will be held at the Bankstown Arts Centre on Saturday, 28 October 2017 and will feature free performances, readings, panel discussions, workshops for adults and children, and opportunities for audience members to mingle with writers.

Bankstown Arts Centre director Vandana Ram said the organisation was ‘very excited’ to be co-presenting the Boundless festival. ‘The festival will showcase an incredible diversity of stories and writing, demonstrating how artistic practice is being redefined through inclusive and participatory programs, particularly in this region,’ said Ram.

Michael Mohammed Ahmad, director of festival partner Sweatshop, said it was time for the country to ‘embrace and reflect the greatest asset writing has to offer: diversity’. ‘If we are not talking about diversity, we are not talking about literature. That’s why it is incredibly exciting to finally see so many groups and individuals come together to create the first official festival for diverse writers,’ said Mohammed Ahmad.

Other festival partners include WestWords, Urban Theatre Projects, Bankstown Youth Development Service, CuriousWorks and the Bankstown Poetry Slam. The festival is supported by the Australia Council for the Arts, Create NSW, the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund and Pantera Press.

The full program will be announced in September. For more information, click here.

Category: Festivals Local news