'compost:compose' Performance and Public Program, 'Through Our Eyes' Photography Exhibition, Rent Tech and Tenant Data Security Risks, Planned Demolition of Older Persons’ Public Housing Towers

Acknowledgement of Country// Headlines//Public housing residents seek court injunction to stop Homes Victoria evictionsGaza and West Bank updateProtests against Herzog visit Tenant’s personal details exposed online by real estate rental platforms 'compost:compose' Live Performance and Program//Rasha Tayeh, Palestinian artist, curator, herbalist, and founder of Beit e’Shai Teahouse, joined Inez to discuss the creation of 'compost : compose', an arts project inviting artists to reflect on the purpose of art in times of ongoing genocide, social decay and climate crisis. Through a live performance weaving music, poetry, and movement, the work responds to and asks, how we might compost old structures, tend to grief, and decompose inherited ways of being, to make space for the new composing new imaginaries — rooted in care, repair, and collective liberation.Live performance on Wednesday the 18th of February, 7PM @ Next Wave, 270 Sydney Rd, Brunswick. Sliding scale tickets available from $10.Free public program on Saturday the 21st February, 3PM @ Next Wave. RSVP is essential.Follow the artists here // 'Through Our Eyes' Photography Exhibition//wani toaishara (co-curator) and Hussein Abdirahman Mohamud (artist) joined Inez to discuss the upcoming 'Through Our Eyes' photography exhibition, inviting audiences into a living archive of African-Australian experiences and curated by returning guest Dr Ibukun Oloruntoba. The exhibition responds to the pressing need for self-representation and visibility for the African diaspora living in Australia, examining how experiences of love, belonging, and resilience emerge in everyday life. Each artist’s work investigates love as a connective force, whether through the quiet intimacies of brotherhood, the collective sanctuary of community or the resilience nurtured in and beyond public housing estates.Join them for a very special opening night next Friday the 13th of February, 6PM @ Blakdot Gallery, 33 Saxon Street Brunswick - running until Sunday 8th of March.Follow the artists here.// Rent Tech and Tenant Data Security Risks//Digital justice advocate, writer and researcher Samantha Floreani is a digital justice advocate and writer, joined us to discuss the rise and risks of rental technology and how the integration of these platforms into rental tenancies creates a demonstrable threat to privacy and security. Samantha is currently undertaking PhD research into the ways that digital technologies in so-called Australia’s private rental sector impacts renters and housing justice. You can read the report ‘Implications of tenant data collection in housing: protecting Australian renters’, which Samantha contributed to, here, and this week’s Guardian exclusive on rent tech privacy breaches here.// Planned Demolition of Older Persons’ Public Housing Towers//Fiona York, Executive Officer of Housing for the Aged Action Group, spoke with us about the Allan Labor Government's announcement last week of plans to demolish 7 older persons' public housing towers in the next stage of its high-rise redevelopment program. This move will erase over half of Melbourne's dedicated high-rise public housing for people over the age of 55 years, sparking concern and condemnation by grassroots groups and the community sector about the impact that relocation and estate redevelopment will have on elderly public tenants. While the 13 older persons' towers are included in the overall high-rise redevelopment program, tenants and advocates were led to believe that these buildings would not be up for demolition until significantly later in the program. Read Housing for the Aged Action Group's statement on last week's announcement here, and catch Fiona and the HAAG crew on 3CR's Raise the Roof program every Wednesday from 5:30-6PM.//