Exquisite I

Exquisite I is a collaborative project for culturally and linguistically diverse young people to engage with and reflect on how they construct their identity. The participants will illustrate and narrate their experiences through story and the written word, capturing a diverse range of languages and literacies.

The participants will collaborate and embark on a creative journey that explores notions of identity and how young people from diverse backgrounds construct themselves within home, family, school, work and wider culture. The project will reflect the complexities of how young people’s identities are formed, and will create a snapshot of a diverse, contemporary South Australia.

There will also be the production of both hard copy and digital learning resources: a professionally produced anthology (in hard copy and ebook), and a podcast, incorporating recordings of the stories. The anthology of their work will be released early 2016.

Exquisite I is informed by the successful “Writing Places” project SA Writers Centre delivered with Adelaide High School in 2014, through which we produced the anthology #radelaide. SA Writers Centre has a strong record in supporting multicultural writers, currently running projects for young ATSI writers, young writers with disability and are supporting Tongues, a local literary journal for multilingual writing.

The program began in September and the students have been introduced to a combination of prose, poetry and performance. Please contact us if you are a student and would like to attend.

Workshop facilitators:

Manal Younus is a South Australian based freelance storyteller. As a Muslim with Eritrean origins living in Australia, the young writer and spoken word artist uses her poetry to both discover and strengthen her identity as well as to spark thought and discussions amongst those around her. Since making the Australian Poetry Slam National Finals in 2013, Manal no longer competes in slams but has gone on to perform around the country including at The Sydney Opera House, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Melbourne’s Voices in the Attic and the National Young Writer’s Festival. In 2015, Manal released her first book of poetry called ‘Reap’.

As an active member of grassroots community organising, performance is only a fraction of the work Manal is interested in doing. Manal facilitates writing and performance workshops with young people to help develop their own voices. With the support of the SA Writers Centre, Manal has launched Soul Lounge, a unique monthly poetry and open mic night!

This program is run with the support of Department for Education and Child Development.

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