Experience in personal essays and opinion on lifestyle, culture, single-parenting, parenting, race, migrants, dating. Qualifications in business, accounting, computing, tech.
The Guilty Feminist
When I saw The Guilty Feminist podcast was going to do a live show at the Arts Centre I thought ‘that’s interesting, I’ll go’ since most of the time, I feel like a guilty feminist.
Love – an Act of Bravery: Katie Noonan x Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
What is love if not an act of bravery? Loving someone despite the hardships. Loving someone even if their actions cause you pain. As a poet, deciphering love is one of my passions, so I was curious then to attend this show to see – or more so hear – interpretations of love. I have a certain obsession with music.
My ex-boyfriend is not my daughter's dad but we are a family
He is not the biological father of my child, but my ex-boyfriend, my daughter and I are a family. You're probably thinking — How? Why? Weird! Or, surely you two are going to get back together?
Josh Thomas – Let’s Tidy Up
When I first came across Josh Thomas in his TV show Please Like Me back in 2013, I was recently divorced, a single mum, and the embarrassment of the Greek community with my recent publication of Love and Fck Poems.
Seven-word death note sums up Australia’s shame
OPINION
“Won’t get justice, will die with her.”
This was the chilling note found last week after the body of Lesley Stillman, 67, was discovered in Carramar, 30km from Perth’s CBD. She and her ex-husband Mark Stillman, 64, were found dead in a suspected murder-suicide.
It seems Australian men have taken their misogyny to new heights, extending their abuse to giving us the finger beyond the grave.
Even before a murder takes place, the narrative of hating women starts somewhere. It breeds in a ...
Amanda Palmer
I have never seen Amanda Palmer perform live. I really only came to know of her in more recent years, after I exploded out of my marriage, culture and religion - a very sheltered, naïve and impressionable single mum. A few new arty friends were proclaiming I needed to check her out like my life depended on it.
Communicating across cultures: 'Am I too intense or are you just not understanding me?'
While it may be the norm to ask Anglo-Australian guests to BYO their own meats to a BBQ, this request might offend Greek-Cypriots. Koraly Dimitriadis examines the cross-cultural examples that divide us and asks whether better communication skills can bind us.
Maria Callas: A Concert in Hologram.
As a poet, I have never attended an event with my art critic hat on and had the uncontrollable need to express myself poetically by what was unfolding before me, but last night, hearing Maria Callas at the Arts Centre, as I wrote in my notebook in the dark, the poetic lines were just falling out of me, and as I write this review the next morning, I can still see her image and hear her voice. It’s as if my mind believes that I really did witness Maria, like she arrived to me in a dream, her gh...
‘Why are you so upset about a sex book when your kids can watch porn?’
Last week, the new book Welcome To Sex – targeted at children as young as 11 and their parents – was ripped from department store Big W’s shelves after a torrent of complaints and abuse directed at staff.
Looking for Alibrandi: The Forgotten Archived Stories
‘Mum, I can’t believe it!’ my teenage daughter exclaims in delight from behind the novel Looking for Alibrandi, a staple for Euro-ethnic girls in the 1990s. ‘The Nonna character is exactly like Yiayia!’ Written by Italian-Australian writer Melina Marchetta, Looking for Alibrandi centres on 17-year-old Josie. The daughter of a second-generation Italian-Australian single mother, Josie struggles with the cultural expectations imposed on her by her grandmother, Nonna Katia.
We haven’t seen a book...
Loaded
The theatre show, Loaded, based on the iconic book of the 90s by Christos Tsiolkas of the same name, which was then turned into the epic film Head On, directed by Anna Kokkinos and starring Alex Dimitriades, is currently playing at The Malthouse. Directed by acclaimed director Stephen Nicolazzo (Looking for Alibrandi), and adapted for the stage by Christos Tsiolkas and Don Giovannoni, this solo show is played by Danny Ball.
Review of captivating Paul Capsis in show “Dry My Tears”
The first time I saw Paul Capsis perform was when I was a young adult in the film Head On by Ana Kokkinos, which is based on the book Loaded by Christos Tsiolkas. Playing the transgender character Toula, I was immediately drawn to him. Then again, many years later in 2012, I saw him in his solo show Angela’s Kitchen at The Malthouse.
Mary Coustas - This is Personal
Mary Coustas gets personal in new one-woman show
The woman behind Australia’s beloved ‘Effie’ from Acropolis Now and Wogs out of Work got personal last night at the Arts Centre Melbourne in front of what seemed to be a full house in her new exciting and highly entertaining one-woman show This is Personal. I grew up watching Effie on TV and I have also seen Coustas’s show Effie The Virgin Bride, which toured a few years ago.
After my divorce, it took years to go back to dating men from my culture
After leaving my husband, there were seven years during which I stayed away from all men who shared my Mediterranean roots.
Hang on a sec, I thought SBS was meant to boost diverse voices
Multicultural Australia is about to experience a huge cultural loss: SBS Voices, an online platform that showcases personal essays from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) writers, is ceasing operations.