A TWO-day festival at Logan Entertainment Centre next week will feature performances, panels and workshops celebrating the achievements and talents of women and girls from our region.
WOW (Women of the World) Logan launches Friday, July 15 with students from Logan high schools taking part in an inspirational program of interactive workshops and speed mentoring.
All-day workshops, conversations and local stories celebrating the lives of women will then be shared during the public sessions on Saturday, July 16.
Logan Reserve resident Grace Edward is a playwright, director and creative producer who sees herself as caught between different cultures.
She’ll be reflecting on her life as she prepares to take part in festival. Ms Edward, a Abegi and Teremo woman from Yei in South Sudan who grew up in Kenya, will sit on a “Being a Woman” panel on the Saturday.
This session is one of a series of bold, entertaining and conversation-provoking events on the program.
Ms Edward also worked on the production crew for WOW Australia as it travelled earlier this year to Longreach, Charleville and Cairns.
“As I’ve prepared for my guest speaker role, I have been looking more closely at my journey to becoming a woman, especially through my cultural lens,” she said.
She will be drawing on her lived experience to talk about what joy looks like for African women.
Grace grew up in a mix of cultures and spent time in a refugee camp before being granted a humanitarian visa to come to Australia in 2003.
She arrived in Logan at the age of 8, with her parents and six older siblings, and has witnessed the struggles experienced by women.
She has channelled into her creative work these experiences and the self-confessed survivor’s guilt she feels over the family left behind in Sudan and Kenya.
She has written, directed and produced numerous theatre productions and has run workshops focused on the complexities of adapting to a new home.
Bookings at loganarts.com.au/event/wow-logan-2022/
