Upcoming Event

Parramatta Literary Salon #5 – Bilal Hafda

April 22, 2026 6:30 pm — Tickets Tickets $10
Arts & Cultural Exchange, 8 Victoria Rd Parramatta

With April comes a new edition of the Parramatta Literary Salon, where each month, ACE spotlights the body of work of a new writer.

This special edition of Parramatta Literary Salon will be curated by Bilal Hafda, a spoken-word artist, poet and teacher. Bilal will be performing with poets Aamina Musthafa, Jihad Yassine and Ela Pinar.

Bilal Hafda is a spoken-word artist, a poet, and a creative who is passionate about facilitating and nurturing the voices of upcoming artists.

Event Details

When: 6:30PM-8:30PM Wednesday 22 April, 2026
Where: Arts & Cultural Exchange, Parramatta
Tickets: $10 per person on Eventbrite.

Booking essential. Secure your tickets via the link below.

Free for First Nations or people experiencing financial hardship. For further information email: [email protected] 

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About Bilal Hafda

Bilal Hafda is the director of Guest House Publishing, and the artistic director of the Bankstown Poetry Slam. He’s a spoken-word artist who has featured at the Sydney Writers Festival, TEDxSydney, and most of the poetry slams in NSW. He has published work in a number of literary journals, and An Army of Light is his debut poetry collection. Bilal trained as a high school English teacher, and currently runs creative writing workshops in-person and online all across Australia. He also hosts the Bankstown Poetry Slam (which recently received a Premier’s Literary Award – 2023), and is passionate about facilitating and nurturing the voices of the artists who participate in the slams, and the community that attends them.

About Ela Pinar

Ela Pinar is a writer and spoken word poet from Sydney. She is the author of It’s a Sign (2025), her first full length poetry collection, available at Guest House Publishing. She has featured at the Bankstown Poetry Slam (2024), and is the National Youth Poetry Slam Champion (2023).

About Jihad Yassine

Jihad Yassine is a poet and winner of the 2025 Bankstown Poetry Grand Slam. He was a finalist for the Australian Poetry Slam 2024, and a finalist of the National Youth Poetry Slam. He has featured at numerous poetry slams across Australia.
He writes about the clash of identity in being an Arab man living in an English world, so as to give people who struggle with language and heritage something to relate to. He loves to hike and explore nature, and does so to keep himself in  wonder of Allah. Home between the Cedar Trees is his debut collection.

About Aamina Musthafa

Aamina Musthafa is a Western Sydney based multimedia artist who has been dwelling between poetry and photography since 2016. Her writing explores the domestic lives of young South Asian women, navigating the tug of war between cultural inheritance and western upbringing. Her photography operates as an extension of living, quiet, observational, and rooted in everyday moments, blurring the line between documentation and reflection.

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