Speaker Series: Power, Resilience & Belonging with the Refugee Art Project

Join three inspiring artists and storytellers as they share powerful stories of resilience.

Visual artists and storytellers Safdar Ahmed, Zeinab Mir and Emmanuel Asante from the Refugee Art Project will talk about their works, focusing on personal agency, community and belonging. In this special 1.5-hour Speaker Series, audience members may also sketch, draw or doodle as the artists speak – an opportunity to explore one’s own perspective in real time, with time to connect and exchange stories afterwards.

During this evening:

• 6:00-7:00pm: Talks by Safdar Ahmed, Zeinab Mir and Emmanuel Asante. If interested, audience members may sketch while listening, as a way of personal expression.
• 7:00-7:30pm: An opportunity to stay back to share and connect over each other’s sketches, or simply soak in the conversation.

Paper and pencils provided.

Explore works by award-winning artist Safdar Ahmed (Still Alive, 2021) through the Inner West Libraries catalogue here.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

SAFDAR AHMED is an artist, writer and cultural worker who lives and practices on the lands of the Guringai and Dharug people in Sydney. His work spans across a range of fields including writing, human rights advocacy, community art, graphic narratives and zine making. He is the author of Reform and Modernity in Islam (2013) and the documentary graphic novel Still Alive (2021).

ZEINAB MIR is an Iranian artist and engineer who came to Australia in 2007. Zeinab’s art practice focuses on drawing, graphic storytelling and short films. Zeinab is the creator of the comic ‘A Safer Place’, which recounts her experience of aerial bombardment during the Iran-Iraq war. In 2024, that comic and testimony was included in an article about aerial bombardment for Journal of Digital War, in partnership with The Airspace Tribunal, which advocates the recognition of a new human right to protect ‘the freedom to live without physical or psychological threat from above’.

Photo credited to Amin Bagheri.

EMMANUEL ASANTE is a Ghanaian-Australian emerging leader, mental health advocate and visual artist with disability, who arrived in Australia in 2015 and now based in Western Sydney. He prioritises fostering inclusive environments through person-centred arts mentoring, facilitation and advocacy, specifically aimed at empowering d/Deaf and Disabled communities, youth, young men confronting stigma or marginalisation, and refugee communities. His art incorporates elements of Adinkra alongside traditional patterns, colour and folktales, which are brought into a contemporary aesthetic practice.

ABOUT THE VENUE:

STANMORE LIBRARY is accessible from street level by ramp, however it does not have an accessible toilet.

If you have any access or support requirements in order to participate fully, please let us know in the booking order form to ensure that we can arrange any reasonable adjustments. Please note: the venue is accessible for people using wheelchairs and other mobility aids.

We may take photos and video of the speakers and audience. See details here