Soul Lounge Out West

Be inspired by this collective of west-based Spoken Word Artists, Authors and Poets sharing their journey and works that focus on challenge, change and direction. Followed by an open mic hour where you can share your poetry or spoken word pieces.

Featuring Slamalamadingdong 2021 winner Parminder Kaur, Whiteology author Najib Warsame and internationally acclaimed, award winning poet Emilie Zoey Baker.

Hosted by Matcho Makata from Soul Lounge Melbourne.

An Auslan Interpreter will be translating the session.

About our Poets:

Parminder Kaur Bhandal is an Artist and Poet, whose practice focuses on re-centering peripheral bodies and disrupting traditional narratives around people and place. Across much of her work, she utilizes forms of photography, video, and installation to create performances with the landscape. She works at the library and in her free time helps run Slamadamadingdong poetry events. 

Najib Warsame is a Somali community practitioner committed to dismantling the systems and institutions that enable and uphold racism while living in Naarm. He is deeply passionate about community strengthening and capacity building and strives to work collaboratively towards systemic change. In his art practice, Najib endeavours to empower communities to share their unique stories, claim their narratives and use the power of storytelling as a creative method of expression to create change. Najib uses humour as a tool for connection and storytelling; it is how he attempts to understand the world(s) he lives in. He is currently studying for a Masters in International Community Development. Najib is a lover of spice chai and cackles.

Emilie Zoey Baker is an award-winning poet and spoken-word performer who has toured internationally. She was the winner of the 2010 Berlin International Literature Festival’s poetry slam and she performs regularly at arts and literature festivals round the world. Emilie was a 2014 Fellow at the State Library of Victoria, and has previously been poet-in-residence for Museums Victoria and coordinator for the National Australian Poetry Slam.  In 2016 she was poet in residence at the Milosz festival in Poland. She teaches poetry and slam in schools and was core faculty for the spoken word program at Canada's Banff Centre.  She is also the co-producer and host of the Melbourne monthly spoken word event Better Off Said with Marieke Hardy. 

Matcho Makata is the founder of Soul Lounge Melbourne (monthly poetry event for POC) and now Soul Lounge Australia, Hosting Sabayan Creative & Cultural Collective that connects uprooted filipinos in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, New York and the Philippines, Matcho has worked regionally, locally and nationally as a community builder and enforcer for POC Artist.