The Colour Cycle

Intersectionality. What is it? Why is it important, and what does it mean to live an intersectional life? Featuring London-based freelancer, editor and novelist Sharmilla Beezmohun, Sydney filmmaker and lecturer Pearl Tan, and UK independent producer and curator Melanie Abrahams and poet and playwright Chérie Taylor Battiste.

This podcast was produced on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Always was. Always will be. Aboriginal Land.

In this episode, we're peering a little into our personal lives today with some quick vox pops from artists and creatives. Our question: What is something we learnt about later in life, that we wish somebody in our lives had told us about? It could have come from our mothers, fathers, extended family, or people we came across growing up.

UK performance artist Aleasha Chaunte considers becoming a parent and what she learned from her mother and family; and Sharmilla Beezmohun talks about how she wishes she knew that the older we get, the less we know.

Guests (in order of appearance): Aleasha Chaunte, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Dj Sarah Love, MC Trey, Maya Jupiter, Sharmilla Beezmohun, Pearl Tan

Interviewers: Lena Nahlous and Melanie Abrahams

Host: Lena Nahlous

Producer: Nadyat El Gawley

Music: Getaway

Credits: Co- written by MC Trey (Australia) and Savuto (Fiji) / TAPASTRY ©

Recorded at Treehouse Productions, Fiji

Video shot by Only Ideas Studio, Fiji.

This podcast is a collaboration with This Is Who We Are, a UK-Australian movement of intergenerational & intersectional women artists, producers and creatives of colour who are transforming sectors, thinking and spaces. Co-directors Melanie Abrahams (Director. Renaissance One), Paula Abood (Director of The Third Space), Lena Nahlous (Executive Director of Diversity Arts Australia and host of The Colour Cycle podcast), Nur Shkembi (Melbourne based curator, writer and scholar). Festival Curator Melanie Abrahams Project Manager: Sarah Dara. Producer Renaissance One.

This podcast was produced on the unceded lands of the Boon Wurrung people of the Kulin nation, and the Gadigal and Wangal people of the Eora Nation. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Always was. Always will be. Aboriginal Land.

In this episode we're speaking to three award-winning women of the Hip Hop world across three continents. These pioneers discuss working across regions, why community is integral to Hip Hop, and what resilience means to them.

In Australia is MC Trey, a pacesetter in the world of hip hop whose legacy spans 20 years of music about everyday life, love and her Pacific community. In London is one of the busiest award-nominated aficionados of hip hop, DJ Sarah Love who's also a broadcaster, TV presenter and journalist. In California is Maya Jupiter who was born in La Paz to a Mexican father and Turkish mother. She grew up in Australia where she fell in love with Hip Hop, later dropping three albums and hosting music shows on TV and radio.

Guests (in order of appearance): MC Trey, DJ Sarah Love, Maya Jupiter

Host and Interviewer: Lena Nahlous

Producer: Nadyat El Gawley

Music: Inshallah

Credits

Songwriter: Maya Jupiter

Vocals: Maya Jupiter, Mia Xitlali and Sandino González-Flores.

Qanoon and Oud: Halim Al-khatib

Drums: Evan Cristo,

Bass: Juan "El Unico" Perez,

Keyboard: Quincy McCrary

Guitar: Quetzal Flores.

Video Production: Abby VanMuijen of RogueMark Studios, Art by Eliza Reisfeld and Animation by Marisa Rafter

More information

Supporting the arts can increase our resilience

The Complex Intersection of Gender and Hip-Hop

Life and Hip Hop : women's role in the industry

DJ Sarah Love Juice Crew interview

This podcast is in collaboration with This Is Who We Are, a UK-Australian movement of intergenerational & intersectional women artists, producers and creatives of colour who are transforming sectors, thinking and spaces.

"It should not be a novelty that there's more than one Black person on stage playing Beethoven and I vowed that minute that I was going to put everything I had into doing something about this."

Meet Artistic Directors Chi Chi Nwanoku OBE (Chineke Foundation) and Prof Deborah Cheetham AO (Short Black Opera) and hear them talk about their decades-long careers, decolonising systems and breaking down doors in Australian and UK classical music.

In 2020, Sydney Arts Management Group (SAMAG) facilitated a panel asking what was the role and responsibility of the creative sector in the fight for racial justice. Hosted by Diversity Arts' Lena Nahlous, the talk featured leading activists, artists and community leaders, who explored whether we should we take the path of reform or instead "blow it all up" and completely rethink our industry structures? Listen on for an insightful conversation about how can arts and cultural organisations can work with Indigenous and culturally diverse peoples in meaningful ways that transcend mere symbolism.

Featuring: Merindah Donnelly (Executive Producer, BlakDance), Rosie Lourde (film director, producer, performer) and Tian Zhang (curator and facilitator, founding co-director of Pari)

LINKS MENTIONED:

Asian Australian Alliance report: https://asianaustralianalliance.net/covid-19-coronavirus-racism-incident-report/covid-19-racism-incident-report-preliminary-report/

Shifting the Balance report: https://diversityarts.org.au/tools-resources/launch-report-culturally-diverse-arts-leadership/

Creative Equity Toolkit: https://creativeequitytoolkit.org/

Poet and theatre producer Zainab Syed talks about her groundbreaking work with Muslim audiences and communities. Zainab guides us through the steps she took to transform theatre audiences for Performing Lines WA, through her staging of one of the greatest love stories of all time, Layla Mujnun.

Lena Nahlous talks to multidisciplinary artist, activist, Ted x speaker and creative director of FOLK magazine Moreblessing Maturure about fighting erasure, the importance of having spaces to experiment and create, and the need for critics of colour. This vibrant conversation was recorded at the event Future Women, in partnership with City of Parramatta and Parramatta Artist Studios.

Alison Tanudisastro also chats to singer-songwriter and performer Zaya Barroso at we are the mainstream's International Women's Day event.

The creation of physical spaces - theatres, film companies and galleries - is integral to showcasing the work of culturally diverse artists and true pluralism of Australia. This episode explores the need for these spaces, with a particular focus on a diverse creative hub in Adelaide called Nexus Arts. We also ask: what happens when a global pandemic shuts down these critical centres?

Featuring: Refugee Art Project's Zeinab (Sara) Mir, the Diverse Screens panel discussion at Adelaide Fringe Festival, poet and painter Elyas Alavi, and emerging artist Yusuf Ali Hayat.

Learn more about Nexus Arts: http://nexusarts.org.au/

Can we increase cultural diversity on and behind our screens through official diversity standards? How necessary and effective are standards and targets? Lena Nahlous explores these questions by speaking to the Head of Inclusion at the British Film Institute (BFI) Jennifer Smith and Australian filmmaker Pearl Tan, a participant in British Council's INTERSECT program.

We also check in on writer and co-founder of The Pvblication Lamisa Haque on how she's been adapting her practice to Covid times.

Learn more about the British Council: https://www.britishcouncil.org.au/

Diversity Arts Australia and British Council joined forces to run INTERSECT, a knowledge-exchange program between Australia and the UK which connected culturally diverse and First Nations arts and screen leaders from both countries. This episode we talk to INTERSECT participants about how they "put down cultural markers" in their respective sectors to affect long-term change, making diversity a vital part of core business rather than just a "side dish."

Featuring: INTERSECT participants Abdul Shayek (Theatre Director and Artistic Director of FIO), Nike Jonah (Executive Director of the Pan-African Creative Exchange) and Mikala Tai (former Director of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art). Alison Tanudisastro also speaks to Sydney-based artist Ayebatonye about how they've been adapting in Covid times at a we are the mainstream event.

Learn more about British Council Australia: https://www.britishcouncil.org.au/