The UWA Africa Research & Engagement Centre (AfREC) in partnership with the Organisation of African Communities in WA (OAC), the UWA African Students Union (ASU) and Black Inc. Books invites you to an interactive public panel discussion to celebrate Africa Day 2019 and to launch in WA the fantastic new book from Black Inc. Growing up African in Australia.

Vivid Art After Hours brings you free music, talks and art experiences over three Wednesday nights at the Art Gallery of NSW. We have invited some of Australia’s brightest creative sparks to share their journeys on finding belonging and meaning in a fractured and distracting world. On the agenda: inner life and concepts of spirituality, cultural identity, and social diversity. 
 
Author and radio and TV personality Meshel Laurie confesses to being a bad Buddhist, but every day she puts her energy into improving. She works in television, creates podcasts, writes books and parents twins, so she knows a thing or two about the mad juggle of modern life. In this talk with Benjamin Law, she offers a snapshot of her life and the speed bumps and detours on the path to enlightenment. Meshel may not be a beacon of Buddhist Zen...yet. However, as the saying goes, the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Or a shuffle to the instant coffee machine at five am.

How true to you is your online self? We live in an age of digital distraction. We feel bereft without our phones and curate our lives on social media. The blinks, beeps and notifications are incessant. It’s time to consider the price we pay for this ever-connected life.
 
Throughout history, artists and thinkers have cultivated a deep sense of self and found solace in solitude and reflection. Pulitzer Prize winner, art critic and author of the Quarterly Essay 72: Net Loss Sebastian Smee leads an esteemed panel to explore the value of an ‘inner life’ in the internet age. Considering everything from Facebook to Chekhov, Sebastian asks, if we relinquish the inner life, what do we lose of ourselves? 

Sebastian is joined by psychologist Jocelyn Brewer who is an expert in the fast-evolving realm of cyberpsychology. She has a special interest helping people to stay human in the digital age. Jocelyn investigates what online information overload is doing to our attention and memory, suggesting it contributes to record levels of loneliness and chronic sleep debt. She outlines her case for ‘digital nutrition’ as an alternative to ‘digital detoxing’ and advocates for more conscious online consumption and ethically designed apps and games.  
 
Musician and author Holly Throsby also joins the panel and shares some of the poetic insights that make her music so memorable and her novels so compelling. Holly knows well the need to nurture an inner life. Find out how she cultivates her creativity and what it takes to be a singer, songwriter, author and a soulful being in a demanding world. If we’re lucky, she’ll also grace us with a song or two. 

Soar to unthinkable heights, as renowned biographer, Ann Blainey takes you inside the rise and fall of Australia’s King of the Air, Charles Kingsford Smith. History remembers his courage and charm, but Ann reveals the struggles that lay within ‘Our Smithy.’

Hear beloved Australian songwriter, Don Walker, in-conversation with ABC's Myf Warhurst at this exclusive Melbourne launch of his book Songs.

For over forty years, from Cold Chisel to Catfish, Tex, Don & Charlie to his solo work, Walker’s song-writing has captured Australian experiences. Interspersed with autobiographical sketches and anecdotes, Songs is a must-have for fans of Walker’s brilliant, razor-sharp storytelling.

ABC Radio National's Paul Barclay is in-conversation with artist Peter Drew discussing his memoir Poster Boy.