What does home mean to you?
Over the last year as a writer and photographer, Patrick has been exploring a lot of what it means to be and know home, particularly within his personal contexts as a queer person of faith, disabled young person, and survivor of domestic violence.
In this hangout, he invites you to string together the many brilliant and contradicting parts of yourself and manifest a place where they can all be welcomed. Bring along a creative medium of your choice, be it writing, collaging, music making or dancing, or just tune in for some cool chats about art and life.
Details
When: Sunday 24 May, 7.30 - 9pm
Platform: Zoom (link will be emailed to you the day before the event)
About Patrick Gunasekera
Patrick Gunasekera is a queercrip Sinhala interdisciplinary artist based in the Whadjuk region of the Noongar nation, disrupting white and settler epistemologies of art through writing, visual media, performance and community work. He has presented theatre, live art works and poetry at Paper Mountain, The Blue Room Theatre, PICA, Malthouse Theatre, Australian Ally Conference, and Centre for Stories. He publishes reviews and articles in Seesaw and Pelican magazines, and has recently published poetry in Voiceworks and Australian Poetry Journal. His writing also appears in the Centre For Stories' anthology Wave After Wave and the upcoming Black Inc. Books anthology Growing Up Disabled in Australia. He has also been a guest with Digital Writers Festival 2018 and Perth Festival 2020's Literature and Ideas weekend.
Over the last few years Patrick has also worked in systemic advocacy and lived experience public speaking in the areas of youth, mental health, LGBTIQA+ wellbeing, disability, and multicultural affairs. He has delivered presentations on intersectionality and domestic violence at Department of Health's Multicultural Health Diversity Cafe, New Economy Network Australia's 2019 annual conference, and the WA Mental Health Conference 2019. He is also a local community organiser in refugee rights activism and climate justice activism.
About KickstART Virtual
22 - 29 May 2020
For 10 years KickstART has been the flagship event for Youth Week WA, however things are a little different in 2020.
As a response to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent live event cancellations, Propel Youth Arts WA is presenting KickstART Virtual: a week-long online festival of free workshops, talks, and hangouts, specifically tailored to young creative people in WA, and developed by Creative Coordinator Kobi Arthur Morrison with the Youth Week WA Planning Committee.
KickstART takes place on Noongar Boodjar. We acknowledge the ownership and are grateful for the custodianship of the people who originate from the Whadjuk nation. We acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia. We pay our respect to Elders past and present. We are committed to reconciliation and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people.
KickstART Virtual is presented by Propel Youth Arts WA and is funded by the Government of Western Australia through the Department of Communities and the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries. KickstART is also sponsored by Lotterywest and the City of Perth.