Powerful digital poetry work wants to change the story!

Every year, one in three women experience family violence in Australia, leading to thousands of police call outs, homelessness and the loss of at least one woman’s life every week. As this epidemic of violence increases annually, a group of twenty-two culturally diverse women from Melbourne have joined a groundbreaking primary prevention project called POETRY CORNERS to create a powerful and thought provoking digital poetry work about family violence in their communities.

Produced by Emma Macey-Storch from Some Kind of Squirrel Productions (SKOSP) and social activist Nayana Bhandari (Oorja Foundation), POETRY CORNERS facilitated 22 women from diverse cultural backgrounds to create poems in multiple languages that were then compiled into one piece called One in Three. The work was then performed passionately by some of the writers themselves as well as other members of the community for the multi screen installation piece now currently on exhibition at Gee Lee- Wik Doleen Gallery, Hume Global Learning Centre/Library, 75-95 Central Park Avenue, Craigieburn.

The next phase of the project involves the group releasing a linear digital version of the work online.

Launching on the groups facebook page on International Women’s Day on 8th March at 6pm Australian time, the group of women want people to get behind their social media campaign and share it amongst their family and friends. The women have set an ambitious target of reaching 1 million views across Australia and Internationally in the next few months in the hope their video “opens people’s eyes and hearts to the problem”. https://www.facebook.com/PoetryCorners/

You can watch One in Three here from 6pm 8th March 2017 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrIzeiLYmqY and help them change the story by sharing it across your social media with the hashtags #PoetryCorners #dv #STOPVAW

Emma Macey-Storch (Producer/Director of Poetry Corners) adds, “For many of the participants Poetry Corners has been a transformative experience. Where previously there was silence and shame around talking about family violence, during the workshops the women found the courage to step out of their comfort zone and speak up about the issue. The words spoken are nothing short of powerful”

Following the digital release, the group is also publishing a book with a compilation of twenty-three additional poems in four different languages; Urdu, Punjabi, Hindi and English.

Nayana Bhandari (Producer of Poetry Corners and Founder of community partner organization Oorja Foundation) adds, “I don’t think there is a compilation of poetry in Australia that is so raw and brutally honest about how women from diverse cultures really feel about family violence in their communities.”

Want to help Poetry Corners make a bigger impact or want to find out more please contact Emma & Nayana at poetry@somekindofsquirrel.com.

Poetry Corners, is funded by the Victorian Government’s Community Crime Prevention Program in association with SKOSP, Oorja, Northern Community Legal Centre, Prime Star, WD Corporate Design and Hume City Council.