A Premier defied. NOT-Adelaide Writers’ Week a smashing success
Born from the ashes of the canceled Adelaide Festival, the writer’s week ‘Constellation’ was published in a pamphlet last weekend, making a mockery of Prime Minister Malinauskas and the Zionist lobby’s efforts to kill it. Kim Wingerei was there.
On Sunday evening, the magnificent City Hall auditorium was packed to the rafters as more than a thousand people attended an onstage interview of uninvited writer and scholar Randa Abdel-Fattah, conducted by former Writers’ Week director Louise Adler. Organizers said they could host at least a thousand more people.
Louis Adler did not mince his words: “The Adelaide Writers’ Week (AWW) fiasco could have served as a ‘life lesson’ to politicians and lobbyists about the risks involved in interfering with the independence of arts organisations.”
But as we saw in Newcastle and the Sydney Writers Festival, some appear to be slow learners.
Previously, the session, headlined by environmental activism doyen Bob Brown and Economist and author Yanis Varoufakis, was sold out, like many other events this week.
On Monday yours truly moderated a session on threatened Press Freedom in front of 800 people with former journalists with decades of experience in conflict zones, now authors Peter Greste and Michael Delahaye.
Peter Malinauskas was invited but the only response we received from his office was an email saying our email was important…
Constellations will rise as Adelaide writers get another chance
Kim Wingerei is a businessman turned author and commentator. He is passionate about freedom of expression, human rights, democracy and the politics of change. Originally from Norway, Kim has lived in Australia for 30 years. Author of ‘Why Democracy is Broken – A Blueprint for Change’.
