This week we bring you something a little different with the help of special guest, artist and creative grief guide Gabriela Georges, founder of The Grief Cocoon.

We chatted to Gabriela about creating brave and creative spaces to process grief, and the many ways as people of colour we mourn within our communities and beyond. We shared our different grief practices, and Gabriela helped us put words to difficult feelings through conversation and poetry.

We hope this brings some comfort and resource to our communities, but also recognise this is a deeply challenging time. We've put together some resources of support, centring the experiences of People of Colour, First Nations and LGBTQIA+ groups. Love and solidarity to everyone grieving today and everyday.

• Qlife 1800 184 527 // QLife provides Australia-wide anonymous, LGBTI peer support and referral for people wanting to talk about a range of issues including sexuality, identity, gender, bodies, feelings or relationships
• BeyondBlue 1300 22 4636 // 24/7 mental health support via phone. Limited hours webchat available 1pm-12am
• LGBTIQA+ Support After Suicide bereavement groups by Switchboard // A free program for LGBTIQA+ people who have been bereaved through suicide
• Our Directory // Connecting Mob, Māori & BIPOC with mental health and wellbeing support 

This episode was hosted by Tanya Ali and Shareeka Helaluddin, with special guest Gabriela Georges. It was produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Cover image: some wild flowers in alpine grass captured on Ngarigo country. 

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Content Note: In this episode you will encounter mention of adverse mental health, depression, suicidality, homophobia and Islamophobia. Whilst not discussed in detail, we acknowledge that these instances could be distressing for audiences, and ask that you take care if you choose to engage. We've put together some resources of support in our notes here. 

Mohammad Awad is a Queer, Arab, Muslim artist and mental health worker whose work traverses poetry, playwriting, advocacy and Queer-Muslim centred mental health support. To coincide with the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, he joined Darren and Sara for a Queer Muslim Ramadan special to honor the messiness and complexity this time can hold for queer Muslim communities - regardless of your understanding of faith and identity. They chatted about reframing faith and ritual, reclaiming pre-colonial queer ancestry, poetry as a life force and the legacy of queer Muslim communities creating spaces by and for each other. 

If some themes in this episode were challenging or distressing, here are some places that can offer free, anonymous and immediate support. 

• Qlife 1800 184 527 
• BeyondBlue 1300 22 4636
• Lifeline 13 11 14
• Safe Haven 02 9113 2981
• Islamophobia Register - Information for reporting and knowing your rights if you have experienced Islamophobia in so-called Australia

This episode was hosted by Darren Lesaguis and Sara Khan, with special guest Mohammad Awad. It was produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Cover image: a photo of Mohammad Awad courtesy of the artist. 

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Majeda Beatty is an actor, singer, cultural practitioner and organiser. Darren and Sara spoke to Majeda following the debut her event For The Girls Deadly Edition - a night centring the creative talents of First Nations artists spanning music, drag, photography and art. They spoke about the importance of Blak joy, Blak resilience, and Blak futures; and creating spaces that go beyond an acknowledgement to celebrate First Nations expression and vulnerability.

To find out more about Majeda's work and her upcoming projects, you can follow her Instagram. 

This episode was hosted by Darren Lesaguis and Sara Khan, with special guest Majeda Beatty. It was produced and edited by Shareeka Helaluddin. Cover image: a portrait of Majeda Beatty courtesy of the artist. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sandy O'Sullivan is a Wiradjuri transgender and non-binary academic, teaching Indigenous Studies at Macquarie University. They speak with Darren Lesaguis about their journey into academia, the term 'queer' in all its complexities, challenging gender binaries and so much more.

You can catch Sandy on the Beyond the Binary panel as part of the Sydney Opera House's All About Women 2022. More info and tickets here.

Follow them on Twitter @sandyosullivan.

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Bali Padda is a man of many hats – he's an actor, TV producer, development executive and director. He joins Sara Khan for a chat about his latest directorial work Guards at the Taj, what drew him to storytelling and his journey through the industry.

Guards at the Taj is showing at Riverside Parramatta until March 5. Head here for more info and tickets.

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Saimi Jeong speaks to Kirk Page, proud Mulandjali man, actor, writer and movement director of the Griffin Theatre Company play Dogged. For more on Dogged and to grab tickets, head here.

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Each year on May 15, Palestinians around the world commemorate Al Nakba, or 'the catastrophe' – the day in 1948 that the state of Israel came into being, marking the start of forced expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homeland. The genocide against Palestinians continues today. Just this week, violence against Palestinians has spiked, specifically in the neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah. Poet and human rights advocate Sara Saleh has recently co-compiled a resource titled 'Supporting Sheikh Jarrah from the Australian Colony'; we speak to her about how we can support Palestinians on the frontline from here, how the conversation around this ongoing violence is changing, and how she sees writing as a form of resistance.

Sara reads her poem Border Control: Meditations, which just won the 2020 Overland Judith Wright Poetry Prize. You'll be able to read it in Overland soon. You can subscribe here. 

If you feel you have some gaps in your understanding of the continuing Israeli violence against Palestinians, we highly recommend having a listen to Episode 10 of REVOLUTION NOW PODCAST, 'Palestine in a Podcast' – a generous and comprehensive run through the history of Palestine, the current situation in Sheikh Jarrah, and everything in between.

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Over the past month, Muslim communities all around the world have been fasting for Ramadan. For this episode, Sana Shaikh spoke to five young Eora/Sydney-based Muslims – Subhi Bora, Zaiden Diyab, Junaid Ahmed, Yasmin Jay and Miski Omar – about what Ramadan and Eid mean to them.

At the end of the episode, we mention H—ME W—RK x Liminal Magazine: Witnessing and Caring for India 2021 – an excellent resource if you're looking for a place to start learning about India's current covid crisis, and ways you can help.

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We're not the biggest fans of the unadulterated, and usually unjustified confidence of a cis straight white dude. But recently we've been thinking: how do we harness bits and pieces of that ego without taking it too far? Plus, Race Matters contributor and emerging theatre-maker Eric Jiang chats to Tasnim Hossain, director of Yellow Face at Kings Cross Theatre about what's gone into the production behind the scenes.

The article we mention is 'Stop Telling Women They Have Imposter Syndrome' by Ruchika Tulshyan and Jodi-Ann Burey, published last month in the Harvard Business Review.

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How do you establish your voice in a space historically held for only one kind of person? Screenwriter Natesha Somasundaram joins us to shed some light on an industry that is (finally) being demanded to change. We also debrief re: last week's Opening Night of seven methods of killing kylie jenner – our thoughts on the incredible play, atmosphere and Sara's interaction with a literal dream Race Matters guest.

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