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  The artist who turns roadkill into fine art

  First published in Australian Financial Review (Life & Leisure), December 2020

  Wearing scuffed boots and leather motorcycle pants, poet and artist Judith Nangala Crispin is pointing to a print on a wall in her home. “It’s called Lily returns to Altair, the brightest of Aquila’s stars, wearing the body of a crow,” she says. The name alone is worthy of a moment’s silence. Crispin’s arthritic labrador wheezes, while outside chooks scratch the soil near a veggie patch. ...

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  Tash Sultana: on solid ground

  First published in NME, April 2020

  When the video stream begins, the footage is sideways. Oh no. The camera is flipped the right way a moment later and prayer hands emoji to that! It means hundreds or, more likely, hundreds of thousands of people around the world can stop tilting their heads sideways to drink in the sight of Tash Sultana in a beanie, a baggy tee and jeans ripped at the ...

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  Desert mob scenes

  First published in Art Guide Australia, January 2020

  First held in 1990 at Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs, Desert Mob is the oldest of Australia’s thriving annual program of Aboriginal art fairs. With its 30th anniversary coming up in September 2020, Kate Hennessy looks back on Desert Mob 2019. The first thing to know about Desert Mob is that the artists wholly select the works exhibited. The second thing is those artists come from what Araluen curator ...

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  Sampa the Great: ‘I went back to Zambia and people said, you’re different’

  First published in The Guardian Australia, September 2019

  Sampa the Great was terrified before she stepped on stage to play her first ever show in Africa earlier this year. The show was in the Zambian capital of Lusaka – and the artist, MC and poet’s cousins were in the front row. “I’m based in Australia and all the monumental moments in my career have happened there,” says Sampa (born Sampa Tembo). “But I’m from ...

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  ‘Just don’t stare’: a night of nudity and dancing at the gallery

  First published in Guardian Australia, January 2017

  “Here?” I ask. “We undress here?” The man beside me already has his pants off. His name is Matt and he got a head start while the Sydney Dance Company’s artistic director, Rafael Bonachela, gave a welcome speech at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. As Bonachela talked Matt had removed his sneakers and stuffed his peeled-off socks inside. About 150 of us begin ...

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  ‘I might get my boobs out’: aboard Air Mofo’s bonkers flight to Launceston

  First published in The Guardian Australia, January 2019

  “How was your flight?” will have a new reply in future from the 150 passengers on board Air Mofo’s maiden trip on Friday. “Fine,” they’ll say. “But did I ever tell you about that bonkers flight I took to Tasmania?” When I pass them at Melbourne airport, I assume the young women in matching yellow tees are a boisterous sporting team. Then I see the ...

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  How #MeToo has changed the way women travel

  First published in Australian Financial Review, October 2018

  This story was first published on adventure.com “Boyfriend? Husband? I liiiike you,” hisses the young Moroccan man, shaking a menu at me. I veer around him and continue to the ATM on the other side of the square. Dirhams withdrawn, I return to my hotel the long way. A second guy, older, sitting in the shade of a doorway, makes kissing noises to get my attention. ...

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  Is Tasman Keith Australia’s Next Great MC?

  First published on LNWY, October 2018

  AS a kid, Gumbaynggirr man Tasman Keith thought everyone’s dad rapped. “That’s what mine did so I thought it was normal,” he says of his dad, Aboriginal hip-hop pioneer Wire MC. When Tasman moved to Sydney, he realised his dad was kind of a big deal. “People would say ‘You’re Wire’s son?’ and be amazed. I was like ‘Fuck, I didn’t know he knew this ...

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  Music You Missed: Oct, Nov, Dec – 2017

  First published in The Guardian, January 2018

  Last year my 13-year-old nephews went from kids who liked music to full-blown teenage obsessives. Eminem came first and then a landslide of Logic, Travis Scott, Migos, Post Malone, Lil Pump, 21 Savage, Gucci Mane and Playboi Carti. Their taste shrunk in breadth, but deepened in intensity. “The twins are into really mopey hip-hop,” I told a friend. “E-mop?” he said. I was sad they ...

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  Four days at Øyafestivalen, Norway

  In August I went to Scandinavia for the first time. I was a guest of Music Norway as part of its international delegate program, showcasing Øyafestivalen. Øya was started in 1999 by four Oslo residents who ran venues or were involved in Norwegian music. One founder, Claes Olsen, says it started small, with Norwegian acts, on an island (Øya is Norwegian for island). It grew into the ...