Sara Mansour
| |
|---|---|
| Born | 16 May 1993 |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Citizenship | Australian |
| Education | Bachelor of Laws |
| Alma mater | Western Sydney University |
Sara Mansour is an Australian lawyer,[1] writer, poet, and founder/artistic director of the Bankstown Poetry Slam.[2][3][4] The Bankstown Poetry Slam is the largest regular Poetry Slam in Australia[5] which offers an artistic outlet for the often-marginalised youth of Western Sydney to share their voice in a safe and inclusive environment.[6][2][7]
Mansour graduated in 2016 with a Bachelor of Laws from Western Sydney University.[3][2]
Mansour co-founded Bankstown Poetry Slam in 2013 with fellow poet Ahmad Al Rady.[7] Bankstown Poetry Slam holds monthly workshops and Poetry Slam performance evenings which often have more than 300 guests in attendance.[3][7] Notable poets such as the late Candy Royalle, Rupi Kaur, and Omar Musa have performed at Bankstown Poetry Slam.[8][9][10] In 2018, Mansour's team was required to hire security guards for their monthly event after Australian politician Mark Latham incited online racial abuse and death threats towards the Slam-goers.[6]
In 2018, Mansour was one of the nine founding board members of NOW Australia, a not-for-profit national organisation that sought to provide assistance to victims of sexual harassment, intimidation, or abuse in the workplace.[2] NOW Australia was initially led by veteran Australian journalist Tracey Spicer AM and was dissolved in 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.[11]
In 2019, Mansour co-wrote an episode of Halal Gurls, a six-episode Australian comedy-dramaonABC TV.[12] Halal Gurls is about a group of Muslim women, their careers, and their personal lives in Western Sydney.[13] The show was nominated for an AACTA Award in 2020.[14]
