Diversity Arts Australia, in partnership with Blacktown Arts launches its national project The Pacesetters featuring trailblazing artists Aamer Rahman, Kim “Busty Beatz” Bowers, Rani Pramesti and Latai Taumoepeau. We invite you to be part of the conversation. These works celebrate and pay homage to First Nations and culturally diverse Pacesetters through new films, music, performance and an online platform.
pacesetter [peys-set-er] Noun
1. a person that is the first to do new or different things; a leader in a particular field or activity, providing an example for others to follow.
2. someone that sets the pace.
The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre 73 Flushcombe Rd, Blacktown
Saturday, 25 October 2019, 5.30pm for a 6pm start
This event is wheelchair accessible.Please email info@diversityarts.org.au if you have any access needs.
Aamer Rahman is an Australian comedian and writer concerned with politics, race relations, and the War on Terror. He has performed sold-out shows at some of the world’s largest festivals, including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival and the Edinburgh Fringe. Best known for his viral stand-up clips ‘Reverse Racism’ and ‘Is it OK to Punch Nazis?’ he is returning to the stage after a long hiatus from standup. Aamer Rahman’s work is a ‘spin off’ of his New York film series “Can We Kick It?” but based in Melbourne, it features interviews with subjects: Gary Foley, Beverley Wang, and Nazeem Hussein.
KIM ‘BUSTY BEATZ’ BOWERS
A killer Musical Director, Composer, Sound Designer, Remixer, DJ and performer, Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers has been making fearless art to activate, pollinate and liberate for over 25 years. Of Xhosa heritage and living on Yuggera country, she creates sonic experiences intersecting disciplines, politics and soundlines with a focus on giving voice to stories of the unseen and unheard., Kim signed her first record deal at sixteen, performing, recording and touring with bands for over a decade. This era has been immortalised via her contribution to Sophie Howath’s Big Day Out book Peace, Love and Brown Rice and her place in the Women Who Rock photographic exhibition of the Melbourne Arts Centre. Her music is featured in cult Australian films Fresh Air, Eleven, Love and Other Catastrophes and The Well and she has composed for film including Amar directed by Fatima Mawas (SBS/Film VIC) and Love Bitesdirected by Jermaine D’Vauz (ABC/Screen Australia). Composition and Sound Design for theatre credits include Samson – Belvoir Street Theatre NSW, Straight White Men– State Theatre Company of South Australia, The Longest Minute– Debase and Queensland Theatre, Prize Fighter– La Boite Theatre Company QLD. Musical Direction credits include East London West Sydney directed by Breakin’ Convention’s Jonzi D, Polytoxic Dance Theatre Company’s The Rat Trap and she is the resident MD for the internationally renowned, award winning Briefs. This beat-making Mama is the MD, Composer, Sound Artist and Queen Bee of the international smash hit Hot Brown Honey winning 2016 UK Total Theatre Award for Innovation, Experimentation & Playing with Form, Two Green Room Awards and the 2017 Helpmann for Best Cabaret Performer and nomination for Best New Australian Work. Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers creates across forms working with London’s Wellcome Collection and The Sick of The Fringe for the 2017 sound installation We Are The Latest Models of Our Ancestry. She created sound design for Inala Wangarra’s Jarjums Life Museum, and was invited to be a part of Barby Asante’s work Declaration of Independence for the 2018 Venice Biennale’s Diaspora Pavilion. Kim is currently creating compositions with Birri Gubba/Kungalu poet/singer Ancestress and creating the Soundtrack to The Hot Brown Honey Revolution. Kim ‘Busty Beatz’ Bowers is a sound visionary, defying genres and bringing her fierce empowerment to activate museums, galleries, theatres and public spaces, all while leading audiences onto dance floors across the globe.
RANI PRAMESTI
Rani Pramesti is a proud Chinese-Javanese-Indonesian woman living, working and learning on Kulin Country (Narrm, Melbourne). Like many in the performing arts, she wears many hats: as an independent performance maker, an intercultural producer and an advocate for the arts. Since graduating from the Victorian College of Arts in 2013, Rani has dedicated herself to collaborations with underrepresented groups in the performing arts, working intersectionally with culturally diverse practitioners, First Nations communities and people with lived experiences of disability. Throughout 2015-2016, as an Associate Producer at Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC), Rani played a pivotal role in curating and delivering capacity building programs with diverse emerging producers, artists and facilitators. Throughout 2017-2018, Rani worked as a Youth Development Officer (Arts and Events) at the City of Maribyrnong’s Phoenix Youth Hub and was quickly promoted to Team Leader of Resources, Facility and Performing Arts. In 2019, Rani has been developing CreativesofColour.com: curated conversations with creatives of colour, commissioned by Diversity Arts Australia and delivering projects with Australia Council for the Arts’ Capacity Building program.
Latai Taumoepeau is a Punake, body-centered performance artist; her story is of her homelands, the Island Kingdom of Tonga and her birthplace; the Eora Nation – Sydney, and everything far and in-between. She mimicked, trained and un-learned dance, in multiple institutions of knowledge, starting with her village, a suburban church hall, nightclubs and a university. Latai activates Indigenous philosophies and methodologies; cross-pollinating ancient practices of ceremony with her contemporary processes & performance work to re-interpret, re-generate and extend her movement practice and its function in and from Oceania. She engages in the socio-political landscape of Australia with sensibilities in race, class & the female body politic; committed to bringing the voice of marginalised communities to the frangipani-less foreground.
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