The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre
Friday 7 and Saturday 8 May 2021
Free admission
5.30 – 6.45 pm
Artist talk and live music by Mehrdad MehrAeen
Click here to learn more about the artist talks
7.00 – 7.30 pm
Performance by Najmeh Shoara
Doors open 6.30 pm
Please arrive by 6.45 pm for the performance
Doors close at 6.55 pm for 7 pm start
This event is part of our Future-Proof program presented by Blacktown Arts and Settlement Services International (SSI)
Iranian artist Najmeh Shoara tells the story of the woman in her kitchen, who has been travelling for the last seven years and has still not arrived, and perhaps never will. The performance is based on true stories of the many women who have been forced to leave places and are now here in Australia, where they are starting over again.
This is an uplifting, one-woman play about the female experience brimming with determination to survive, live and flourish. She has enough anger to make her knuckles go white, and frustration for tears to fall from her eyes. It is a story of hope and setbacks, of wit and secrets, of gin and bikinis, and of trauma being overcome.
Najmeh Shoara is an actor, performer and director. Her experience in theatre and performance uses contemporary movement and dance as her repertoire. Her practice spans multi-media, mixed art, text-based, physical theatre and contemporary dance. Informed by her experiences of dislocation and displacement, disrupting certainty is a theme recurrent in her practice and her emotional responses fuel her sense of being in the world.
Through its self-funded Arts & Culture program, Settlement Services International (SSI) has connected hundreds of newcomer artists with opportunities to network, perform, exhibit or otherwise engage and participate in artistic activities. SSI aims to facilitate diverse artistic expression and cultural participation by nurturing artists and cultural practitioners from refugee and migrant backgrounds.
This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through its arts funding and advisory body, the Australian Council for the Arts. SSI have been working in partnership with Blacktown Arts during the creative development and showcase stages to present this program. The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre is an initiative of Blacktown City Council supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
The Future-Proof showcase is a month-long, multi-artform experience for audiences. It is a unique interpretation of the many facets of life as new Australian artists.