Spoken Word

17 Sep 2023

Spoken Word: Ep. 30: Charaf Tartoussi, Meena Shamaly; Aza: Stories of Grief in Diaspora

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Spoken Word: Ep. 30: Charaf Tartoussi, Meena Shamaly; Aza: Stories of Grief in Diaspora

This week James was joined live in the studio by Charaf Tartoussi and Meena Shamaly as they discussed their upcoming Fringe Festival Show, Aza: Stories of Grief in Diaspora.

Charaf, Meena and James discussed everything from poetry to religion, to diversity and inclusivity in the Arts, video game music, how different cultures share grief, cultural diaspora and so much more.

Aza (Arabic colloq: wake) is a powerful, nuanced portrait of migrant loss. Spoken word theater meets mourning ritual, it takes us on the grieving journeys of four artists as they grapple with what it means to lose a loved one back home.

Meet Charaf, Parminder, Thabani and Farah. They all live in Naarm, all write poetry and all have had to grieve a family member from a homeland someplace else. Together, they embark on an honest voyage through a grief as ancestral as it is foreign. From longing and guilt, to curiosity and pride, they will venture into the breadth of emotion in their migrant and diasporic mourning.

Aza is where they come together to be witnessed in the diversity in their grief. It is where they come together to heal, and to be healed.

In 50 minutes of vulnerable and sincere storytelling, they will move through the motions of their loss and attempt to answer the question: how does grief change when it is experienced in the immigrant diaspora, and how does it stay the same?

This project received Cash to Create and Cash for Equity through the Fringe Fund, as part of Radical Access.

F

CHARAF TEE
Charaf Tartoussi is a middle-eastern-muslim writer and performance poet. Their work can be found in publications including Cordite and the upcoming SBS emerging writers anthology. Founder of griffin-speak: a spoken word event that championed the voices of POC in and around Melbourne from 2016 to 2022 and creative producer of Slamalamadingdong since the beginning of 2020, creating space for creative storytelling and artistic expression at the core of their practice. As a performer, they have featured in various festivals and events around the country, and are currently working on producing their first collaborative stage show: Aza (wake): stories of grief in diaspora. Meena Shamaly is a composer, musician, poet, and radio presenter. As a composer, his work centres around creating music for stories, through the mediums of film, video games, and theatre. As a songwriter and poet, he tells stories of hope, justice, faith, and reasons to love and laugh. He also collaborates with other poets and songwriters in creating stories together, and helps produce and arrange their work to highlight all the best aspects of their art.

Meena is one of the creative producers of Slamalamadingdong, Melbourne’s premier poetry slam. He runs workshops in poetry and music, since he is as passionate about igniting and providing space for the creativity of others as he is about creating his own art.

Additionally, Meena is the host of the Game Show on ABC Classic FM, where he presents and speaks on the diverse and beautiful music of video games each week to a national Australian (and online global) audience.