Yoram Symons / The Whale

PoetiCas featuring Allis Hamilton

PoetiCas brings poetry to Castlemaine, on the fourth Saturday afternoon of every month, with an open section. It’s all ages with two featured readers in a cozy and relaxed environment.

Zuleyha Gurdag / Woman

Winner of September’s slam, Zuleyha Gurdag, performs ‘Woman’ at Slamalamadingdong on September 26, 2018 at The Melba Spiegeltent.

Zuleyha is a Melbourne born and raised poet who takes pride in her Turkish heritage and Australian nationality. Her passion and goal is to raise awareness of intersectionality and empower Muslim youth, particularly women, from the stereotypes and stigmas that surround them. For the long term run, she hopes to become a gynaecologist to advocate female independence and power in disadvantaged communities to change the gender roles accustomed to the people in her community and inspire women to reclaim their rights and increase their knowledge. In her spare time, she enjoys writing poetry, spending time with her cat and educating herself on interfaith dialogue and her Turkish history.

Tariro Mavondo / Black Boy

Tariro Mavondo performs ‘Black Boy’ at the closing night of the Melbourne Spoken Word & Poetry Festival at Howler Melbourne on June 3, 2018.

Tariro is a Melbourne/Naarm based artist who uses multiple disciplines to connect through creativity. Tariro writes and performs poetry as well as facilitates workshops around Australia. She sees art as a conversation, a dialogue and her practice focuses on creativity as a facilitator of change. She also works as an actor on the Australian stage (MTC, STC, Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir, Red Stitch) and screen (Neighbours, Winners and Losers), has been an actor in the internationally acclaimed, awarding winning web series Shakespeare Republic and has done voice overs for La Trobe, AFLW and Thomas The Tank Engine (UK).