About SSI Homelands Regional Arts Tour 2024 

An intimate and powerful showcase of visual arts, live performances, and music by established and early career artists, highlighting their lived experiences - for Refugee Week.

SSI Arts and Culture Program hosts an annual tour dedicated to elevating the voices and experiences of artists through art, music, poetry, and more. We aim to raise awareness and understanding of their live stories. 

This year’s program will run during Refugee Week from 17 June - 1 July 2024, with stops in Brisbane, Coffs Harbour and Sydney. 

The tour features ‘The Path Within’, a visual arts exhibition showcasing multimedia, photography, painting, digital art, and workshops in collaboration with CuriousWorks artists Ali Rizvani (Iran), Khishkok Abdo (Kurdistan), Emmanuel Asante(Ghana), and Shiva Dadvar (Iran).

The program concludes with a live collaborative performance during events in Brisbane and Coffs Harbour,  where Australian Poetry Slam Champion Huda The Goddess and multi-instrumentalist Cieavash Arean join forces to explore childhood memories, journeys of exile and haven, and the pain that underlines it all. With bold words and exquisite melodies, they weave together the intergenerational parallels and contrasts of their efforts as activists using art to bring personal and political realities to the fore. 

Events at Brisbane and Coffs Harbour will feature "The Artists' Perspective", a live panel where Ali, Emmanuel, Kishkok, and Shiva discuss their creative process, fostering critical thinking, discussion, and connection through their artistic expressions.

The Homelands program includes the workshop “Storytelling through Art” in Brisbane where participants will explore the self through storytelling and symbolism with Emmanuel Asante. 

Emmanuel Asante (Ghana): Currently residing in Fairfield in Western Sydney, Emmanuel arrived in Australia in April 2015 and graduated from Eagle Vale High School in 2018. He is highly influenced by his home culture, Mexican surrealist painter Frida Kahlo and his artist-mentor Abdul Abdullaha

Link to tickets and more information: https://events.humanitix.com/ssi-homelands-2024