28 October 2019

Panel: Queer Asian-Australian Creatives

| Tuggeranong Arts Centre
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What does it mean to be both LGBTIQ+ and Asian in Australia? How can these identities intersect in arts practice?

Come and hear contemporary creatives explore and unpack these intersections in their work, on a panel hosted as part of TuggersPRIDE.

Author and editor Benjamin Law, musician Shoeb Ahmad, and writer Sanna Wei discuss these questions and more in a special panel event facilitated by Canberran community organiser Yen Eriksen.

This event is presented as part of Tuggeranong Arts Centre’s TuggersPride program and will be followed by a lecture performance by Shanghai-based performance artists Xiao Ke and Zi Han, introducing their project CHINAME.

Bookings: www.trybooking.com/BETMF

Benjamin Law is the author of The Family Law, Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East, Moral Panic 101 (2017) and editor of the anthology Growing Up Queer in Australia (2019). The Family Law is also an award-winning SBS TV series which Benjamin created and co-wrote. He co-hosts Stop Everything on ABC RN and has been on TV shows like Q&A, The Drum, The Project, Filthy Rich and Homeless and Waltzing the Dragon.

Shoeb Ahmad offers a rich and extensive background in Australian music, creating idiosyncratic music over the last decade. Using guitar, keyboard, voice and electronics, Shoeb works both as singer/composer and improviser when performing solo and in collaboration. Shoeb has released a diverse range of original music while also working on sound design for dance/theatre, installation pieces and contemporary chamber composition, inspired by 20th Century avant-classical works, Indian ragas and minimalist electronic music. Shoeb has performed throughout Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the SE Asian region as a solo artist and with groups such as Sensaround, Spartak, Tangents and the Australian Art Orchestra.

Sanna Wei is a writer and editor passionate about giving representation and nuance to the Australian gaysian experience. Her work has been published by Black Inc., The Stella Prize and Peril Magazine. Originally from Canberra, Sanna now lives in Melbourne where she edits nonfiction for Voiceworks Magazine and studies medicine at Monash University.

Yen Eriksen is an advocate, writer and storyteller. They are experienced in LGBTIQ advocacy and community development and are a loud and proud champion for intersectional feminism. They are a longtime community educator and workshop facilitator, and offer consulting and training in areas of gender, diversity, digital content production and social media.

Yen has worked across community media, the women’s sector, fundraising and higher education. Yen was also the 2015 Young Person’s Human Rights award medallist awarded by the Australian Human Rights Commission. They were a founding member of the ANU LGBTIQ Alumni Network and YesFest! Braddon Marriage Equality Festival. They are currently co-host of – soon to be launched – podcast Margin Notes, a podcast that uses both memoir and conversation to unpack intersectionality in modern Australia.

 

The Essentials
Date: 3rd November 2019
Time: Panel starts at 3 pm followed by the CHINAME Lecutre performance at 5 pm.
Cost: FREE
Bookings: www.trybooking.com/BETMF

 

About TuggersPride

In November, TAC will celebrate PRIDE in our community with a specially curated series of events, performances, and discussions by LGBTIQ artists to coincide with Canberra SpringOUT Pride Festival and Tuggeranong’s community festival SouthFest. From music to comedy, cabaret, literature, poetry, ideas and more, this program will bring together some of the best and brightest LGBTIQ artists in Australia alongside Canberra’s own Queer* stars.

About TuggersPride Talks series

TuggersPride Talks presents a range of literary inspired events including the Queer Asian-Australian Creatives discussion panel on Sunday 3rd November, TinaTALK: In conversation with Nic Holas on Wednesday 13th November and Writing Queer History Literary Lounge with Nigel Featherstone on Tuesday 19th November.

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