About
Manal Younus is a storyteller, facilitator, MC, producer, workshop developer and community organiser who who believes that cultivating stories and human connection are essential to our existence. Originally from Eritrea now based across Kaurna Country in South Australia and Naarm in Victoria, she uses her writing, performance and facilitations skills to create experiences that encourage audiences to join her in asking questions of themselves and the world around them, to seek knowledge and to share stories. Manal develops and facilitates workshops in writing, performance, public speaking, youth empowerment and intercultural communication and leadership for schools, community groups and corporate environments. She draws on over a decade of experience in community engaged practice to consult on cultural sensitivity and safety practices in workplaces. She has been featured on ABC's QandA, presented at the Adelaide TEDx Conference in 2016, the National Multicultural Women's Conference of 2016, the Adelaide Festival of Ideas and Open State Festival, the Halogen Foundation's Young Leaders Convention, The Council for International Schools Conference 2017 and James Cook University's Young Language Ambassadors Conference of 2018 and much more. Performing Arts Since making the Australian Poetry Slam National Finals in 2013, Manal no longer competes in slams but has gone on to perform and deliver workshops around the country and the world including at the Jaipur Literary Festival and Georgetown Literary festival. In 2015, she released her first book of poetry called ‘Reap’ and launched it with a national tour with official launches in Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth and feature performances across Queensland and New South Wales. Manal has been the Associate Director at ActNow Theatre and served as Deputy Chair of the Writers SA board. She is the founder Open Mic night Soul Lounge, a culturally inclusive space that fostered development of local communities and Artists in Adelaide. Since passing the project on to a new leadership, she has continued to lend her expertise on creating culturally inclusive spaces and events to to various organisations. With Act Now Theatre, Manal has written and co-produced educational theatre pieces for schools. This includes the award winning play, Responding to Racism which has toured South Australia for 7 consecutive years and Jumu'ah (Friday Prayer) both of which are set to tour across schools nationally in the coming year. More recently she wrote two monologues that featured in The Decameron 2.0 and is now working on her first feature length play incorporating spoken word, hip hop and physical theatre. Community Building and Consultation Manal has been engaged by local councils, schools and companies to conduct workshops and consultations with their communities, students and staff to develop cultural safety plans, training programs and policy advice. Her ability to create safe environments for sharing and lateral learning is an asset to any place that is looking to amplify and empower the the voices and needs of their communities whether they be students, staff or those who live in the local area. Some examples are below. Manal worked with Morella Community Centre in South Australia to co-design a Cultural Safety Framework with their local community. This involved conducting more than 10 consultations engaging more that 90 members of the Salisbury City Council's local community of varying faiths and ethnicities. Manal designed the process for engagement and with Morella staff, the project was executed with the community's involvement in every step until publication. The framework can be found here. In 2023 Manal began working closely with a High School that has introduced a new anti-racism policy. The school engaged Manal before piloting the policy to undertake consultations with students to gain a better understanding of what the students need to shift the culture of the school to one where racism and violence are the norm to a culture where valuing diversity and compassion are the norm. Manal undertook extensive consultation with staff and students, made a number of recommendations and designed training for teachers and supports the anti-racism committee on an ad-hoc basis. |
I was raised on Aboriginal land where sovereignty was never ceded.
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