November Bankstown Poetry Slam ft. Ela Pınar & Bilal Hafda

Welcome to Australia's largest regular poetry slam! 

This month we have another incredible feature artists, Ela Pınar and Bilal Hafda, and some poetry goodness in store for you at the next BANKSTOWN POETRY SLAM!

Ela Pınar is a second-generation artist from so called Australia. Ela’s had the honour of being National Youth Poetry Slam Champion (2023), a finalist at National Youth Poetry Slam (2022), a part of the Women of the Ode, Brave New Word Festival (2022), a part of the Sister Slam lineup, Muslim Agenda, Finalist at Bankstown Poetry Slam’s Grand Slam (2020), and People’s Choice award at NSW Youth Poetry Slam competition, Brave New Word (2019). Inspired and influenced by her Turkish culture and language, and connection to her faith, this reflects through her artistic practices.

Bilal Hafda is the founder and creative director of Guest House Publishing. He is also the artistic director of the Bankstown Poetry Slam. He's a spoken-word artist who has featured at the Sydney Writers Festival, TEDx Sydney, and most of the poetry slams in NSW. He has published work in a number of literary journals, and his debut poetry collection is An Army of Light. 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 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.

📍 LOCATION: Bankstown Arts Centre

ALSO OUR REGULAR SLAMS ARE NOW FREE!! But you gotta get a ticket to show at the door, so make sure you register!

Anyone can also sign up to perform on the night, this is your last chance to win a spot in our 2025 Grand Slam! 

Please join us at our new time of 6:30 pm!

Your free ticket gets you access to the slam, fresh watermelon, world class poetry and some bad dad jokes, courtesy of our MC Bilal.

For rules on participating in the slam, please see below.

🍉 If you are intending to sign up to perform at the slam, please book a ticket and arrive at 6:15 pm to sign up at the door. There's no guarantee that you will get a spot to perform on the night, if we have more sign-ups that there is time to get through, but we will do our best to make sure we have as many people as possible.

🍉 Regular slam rules apply: No age restrictions/ STRICT 3 minute time limit (try to limit poem introductions)/ no props or music/ if you want to sing in your poem (first of all how dare you be so talented) it should be part of your poem not the whole piece/ poetry must be your original work.

🍉 The top 4 scoring artists will be granted a spot at the Grand Slam.

🍉 Please note that signing up does not guarantee a performance spot. We have a lottery system in place whereby we randomly draw names so that it is fair for everyone, given the high sign up numbers!

Poetry aficionados, appreciators of HipHop and literature that beats with a thunderous heart — you absolutely do not want to miss this!

Please note that BPS is a not-for-profit charitable organisation so any extra donations go a long way in helping us support our artists! Thank you for your generosity ❤️‍🔥

If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask away or email info@bankstownpoetryslam.com

Bankstown Poetry Slam has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, it's arts funding and advisory body