Harmony Day dawned grey this year – and rightly so. In the past 12 months, a rising tide of nationalism swept the Western world, and we have found that Australia is not immune.
"Let’s keep Newtown vibrant, open, weird and safe,” says Liz Yeo, a Newtown local since the 1980s who has dedicated her career to the non-profit sector, from homelessness to Indigenous education and public health.
Late Night Library – Seizure science fiction sketch jam
Customs House Library
May 6, 2015
Standing before an earnest crowd squeezed into a dim reading room in a forgotten corner of Customs House Library, Patrick Magee is seized by a moment of existential doubt. “How long have I been in this darkness? I wonder if I’ve even been born yet. I must have lived to know such terms. There is only that staring darkness, the unblinking void.”
The myth of Antigone begins and ends with death. What should we die for? What do we owe our dead? These are the essential moral questions of the play, dramatised by Sophocles through the conflict between an authoritarian ruler and a defiant young woman standing on principle in the face of overwhelming opposition. These are the questions that each generation feels compelled to answer.
In the ten years since the animal protection institute Voiceless was established, the issue of animal protection has become a pressing political and social concern. “Animal protection resonates with Australians, because it speaks to their sense of justice”, says Elise Burgess, Head of Communications at Voiceless.
Each of these stories tells us something important about the experiences of the LGBTI community in Australia. And yet, according to the Walkley Media...
Sydney artist Shelley Kay is a woman who knows about faces – the stories they tell us and the secrets they hide from us. “Each face is like a landscape,” she says. “Each face is unique – just like each human being.”
Over the course of the Sydney Festival, Hyde Park has been transformed into something of a circus. A walk home from work can see you navigating an absurd, inflatable Stonehenge, experiencing the appetising scents wafting from the jaunty yellow food van, or overhearing story-time at the lawn library at twilight.
For a few weeks in January, art becomes something that you see, hear and touch without having to spend vast amounts of money – or even to deviate from your daily commute. In that spirit, we have put together a list of the top five free festival events, so that you can enjoy the Sydney Festival on a shoestring budget.
Petersham Bowling Club is the sort of venue that prides itself on being “a bit worn and beaten-up around the edges” – airport carpet; bingo tables; an incongruous statue of a pharaoh on a tiny stage. But, there is an undeniable touch of whimsy in the venue, found in the canopy of lanterns and lights overhead.
