Two weekends ago, on a warm and sunny Saturday morning, be:longing held its farewell Poetry and Story Share event. We were hosted a final time at Smith’s Alternative in Canberra city – the same venue where we held our launch event back in 2016 – and were joined by some of the wonderful people we have been lucky enough to meet and get to know because of be:longing – some new and some who have been with us since that very first event.
The event was bittersweet. Saying goodbye to be:longing while also having another opportunity to hear the work of our contributors was always going to be equal parts sad and exciting! We had a fantastic lineup of creatives, as always, sharing their incredible pieces, and this time we also had the blessing of many of our incredible contributors located outside of Canberra, and outside of Australia too, to share some of their pieces live for the first time.
Sharing their pieces live were Vesna Cvjetićanin, John Robert Lombard, Božana Pašić, Slobodanka (Bobby) Graham, and Chris Nguyễn – with poems, short stories, memoirs and art.
As for the pieces we recited on behalf of others, Jasmine shared pieces by Yahia Lababidi, Safia Lamrani, Daria Marmaluk-Hajioannou, Jade Irvine, Ryan Keating and Nevena Kesić Orlić, while Dunja shared the work of Marissa Rodriguez Schimizzi, Prudence Hubert-Lajournade, Nadia Ingrid Hooton, Sanjaya Fernando, Lien Hoang and Bojana Kos. We encourage you to read more of their work on be:longing by clicking through on their names.
All in all, it was a beautiful morning. In addition to sharing the work of our treasured contributors, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to meet and connect with new readers of our magazine on the day, and while it was a morning of mixed emotions, we are so grateful to everyone who came and joined us on the day, and all our contributors who let us share their work. Moments like these, where we get to come together and meet some of the people who make be:longing what it is and always has been, are so joyous for us and we will cherish them forever.
© be:longing, 2023
Photos © Dunja Kaczmarek and Vesna Cvjetićanin, 2023
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