Generation Women Sydney Failing Forward - Stories About Mistakes
This April, we’re embracing life’s blunders with “Failing Forward: Stories About Mistakes.” Join our incredible storytellers as they share hilarious mishaps that turned into valuable lessons. Let’s celebrate our shared humanity and the oops moments that remind us we’re all wonderfully human. Come ready to laugh and discover how owning our mistakes can lighten our load and bring us closer together!
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s: Amani Mahmoud is a poet who has performed at Bankstown Poetry Slam, the TEDx Youth Conference and Sydney Writers Festival. She has been attending the Sweatshop Women Collective since 2020 in an effort to build her skills within and outside of spoken word poetry. By day she is a lawyer, using any free time she has to write.
Team 30s: Adile Hoxha is a self-made entrepreneur, digital creator and TV personality who transformed her journey of teen motherhood into a life of purpose. Through storytelling, strategy and deep inner work, she helps guide women to trust their intuition, embrace possibility and create a life in alignment with their true desires.
Team 40s: Tracy Hall is an author, keynote speaker and senior marketing executive. Over the last 25 years, Tracy has had extensive exposure to global tech brands including eBay, Virgin, GoDaddy and Afterpay. She volunteers as a teen mentor for The Raise Foundation and is a Board Director for the Men’s Mental Health Charity - Mongrels Men. In 2019, Tracy became known as Hamish McLaren’s famous ‘last victim’ thanks to her role in The Australian’s podcast, Who the Hell is Hamish? Today, Tracy writes and speaks publicly about intimate fraud, scams, financial empowerment, victim mindsets, resilience, rebuilding and trust.
Team 50s: Yumi Lee is the CEO of Older Women’s Network Australia (OWN) and has worked in communications, fundraising, advocacy and lobbying in Australia and abroad. As a peace and women’s rights activist for many years, and driven by a strong sense of social justice, Yumi is passionate about raising awareness of the issues of concern for older women and is also a proud member of Generation Women Australia’s Advisory Board.
Team 60s: LuLu Joy has the X Factor! She’s an ex-Christian, ex-cop, ex-corrections researcher, ex-primary school teacher and ex-massage therapist to the stars. A member of Generation Women Australia and the Older Women’s Network Theatre Group, she treasures these age-empowering storytelling groups. On the theme, LuLu has discovered that it’s not what she’s learned from her mistakes, it’s what she didn’t learn.
Team 70s: Maureen French is a 73-year-old Shamrock Koori, with an Irish mother and a Darug elder father. After 50 years as a theatre RN, she retired at 71. A single mother at 19, Maureen met the love of her life at 34 and they were married for 40 years until his passing in the last year. She is also a proud nana to her 27-year-old grandson. Discovering her comedic voice later in life, Maureen began stand-up at 68 and has since performed at the Melbourne Comedy Festival twice, along with many other shows.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018 and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s and her 70s+.
This event is proudly presented by Generation Women Australia, founded by Donna Logue. The event will be hosted by Jen Ward. Generation Women was created by Georgia Clark.
THE BERESFORD
354 BOURKE ST, SURRY HILLS NSW 2016
DOORS AT 6.30 PM, SHOW AT 7 PM
Want access to discounted tickets? Become a Generation Women Member to get $10 off the price of your ticket. More info here.
Generation Women Melbourne Failing Forward - Stories About Mistakes
This April, we’re embracing life’s blunders with “Failing Forward: Stories About Mistakes.” Join our incredible storytellers as they share hilarious mishaps that turned into valuable lessons. Let’s celebrate our shared humanity and the oops moments that remind us we’re all wonderfully human. Come ready to laugh and discover how owning our mistakes can lighten our load and bring us closer together!
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s: Mia Sherman is a curious, clever, ambitious, sometimes troubled, queer disabled twentysomething who works really damn hard every day to navigate a path through the jungle that is OCD. They find and spread joy through art, the outdoors, the study of history, food and connection. They live and work in Naarm.
Team 30s: Kara Huynh is a proud 31-year-old dog mum of two, wife and coach. As she continues trying to figure out what this thing called ‘life’ is supposed to mean, she embraces curiosity and resilience. Since the age of five, her vivid imagination has inspired her to explore, experiment and grow, embracing both success and failure along the way.
Team 40s: Nadia Mahjouri is a writer, counsellor, group facilitator and mother from Hobart/nipaluna. Her debut novel, Half Truth, was published by Penguin Random House in February 2025. Nadia hosts the podcast The Whole Truth: Motherhood and the Writing Life, about how writers keep creating in the messy muddle of family life.
Team 50s: Heidi Catherine is an award-winning author of over thirty novels. With a current focus on domestic suspense stories, Heidi is fascinated by human interactions and relationships, using ‘research’ as her excuse for watching too much reality TV. She lives in Melbourne with her husband, two sons and a feisty rescue chihuahua.
Team 60s: Kristine Philipp began life in Melbourne 1960. At fifteen she became an office chick, surviving administrative work on and off for the next forty years. At age 55, Kristine transformed into a volunteer stand-up comedian and unemployable old punk author. Her memoir Girl Friday: An extraordinarily ordinary working life was published in 2024.
Team 70s+: Bea Toews was born and trained as a teacher in Canada before emigrating to Australia in 1971. She has taught internationally in Thailand, Malaysia and Russia. In 2011, she remarried and retired. She now lives between Thailand and Melbourne and has built a house, become a widow, learned Thai and embraced powerlifting — proving that it’s never too late for new adventures.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018 and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s and her 70s+.
Hosted by Rebecca Lister. Produced by Donna Logue, Hopepunk Productions. Created by Georgia Clark.
7-11 DAWSON ST, BRUNSWICK VIC 3056
DOORS AT 6.30 PM, SHOW AT 7 PM
Want access to discounted tickets? Become a Generation Women Member to get $10 off the price of your ticket. More info here.
Generation Women Melbourne ‘My SHEro: Stories of Female Role Models, Mentors and the Women Who Inspire Us’
Every powerful woman has someone who inspired her. This March, we’re highlighting those heroes — the mothers, mentors and icons who’ve lifted us up and showed us what’s possible. From life lessons to moments of sheer grit, these stories are tributes to the women who make us stronger. Join us in celebrating female role models who’ve changed lives.
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s Skye Cusack is a Dulgubarra-Yidinji and Indonesian writer who has somehow made a career out of ‘constructive complaining’ — otherwise known as activism. Skye founded the creative advocacy agency Project Loudly, is a reporter for the ABC and is working with the publisher Magabala Books to develop a fiction manuscript.
Team 30s Dr Morley Muse is an award-winning Chemical, Environmental, and Renewable-Energy Engineer, co-founder of iSTEM Co. and DEIR.AI, and Board Director at Women in STEMM Australia. A champion for equity and diversity in STEM, she drives innovation in energy transition and workforce inclusion, earning accolades for her transformative leadership and social impact.
Team 40s Jaclyn Crupi is a book editor, author, event moderator and bookseller. Her book, Garden Like a Nonno, was shortlisted for an Indie Book Award and longlisted for an ABIA. Her children’s book, The ABC Kids Guide to Loving the Planet, won the Environment Award for Children’s Literature.
Team 50s Sarah Hayden is a qualified social worker, equine-assisted psychotherapist, author and Mayor of Golden Plains Shire. She is also mum to five amazing kids, including actor, author and autism advocate Chloé Hayden. Her first book is Parenting Different: How to raise your neurodivergent kids to be their authentic, awesome selves.
Team 60s Jo Peck worked in advertising for 35 years, co-running Melbourne's first female-led agency, Working Girls Advertising, for 20 of those years. She is now retired and writing for pleasure. Suddenly Single at Sixty is her first book.
Team 70s Mig Dann is a Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, writer and researcher who completed her PhD in 2022. Her work is informed by memory and forgetting, absence and presence, feminism, queer culture and decades of lived experience. Her work has been exhibited both internationally and nationally in solo and group shows.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018 and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s and her 70s+.
Hosted by Rebecca Lister. Produced by Donna Logue, Hopepunk Productions. Created by Georgia Clark.
7-11 DAWSON ST, BRUNSWICK VIC 3056
DOORS AT 6.30 PM, SHOW AT 7 PM
Want access to discounted tickets? Become a Generation Women Member to get $10 off the price of your ticket. More info here.
Generation Women Sydney ‘My SHEro: Stories of Female Role Models, Mentors and the Women who Inspire Us’
Every powerful woman has someone who inspired her. This March, we’re highlighting those heroes — the mothers, mentors and icons who’ve lifted us up and showed us what’s possible. From life lessons to moments of sheer grit, these stories are tributes to the women who make us stronger. Join us in celebrating female role models who’ve changed lives.
Our performer line-up:
Team 20s Winnie Dunn is a Tongan-Australian writer from Mount Druitt. She is the general manager of Sweatshop Literacy Movement and the editor of several critically acclaimed anthologies including Sweatshop Women (2019) and Another Australia (2022). Winnie's debut novel is Dirt Poor Islanders (2024).
Team 30s Kaiya Aboagye is an Afro-Indigenous scholar, writer and mother to boys. She lectures in the School of Social Sciences at Western Sydney University. Her research explores Bla(c)k/Indigeneity and she is passionate about Black ancestral cosmologies. Her ancestral lineages connect her to Erub Island in Torres Straits, Manbarra and Kuku Yalanji of far north Queensland, and the Asante of Ghana.
Team 40s Angela Priestley is the co-founder of the independent daily news publication Women's Agenda. She’s a board member of the Women's And Girls' Emergency Centre, supporting 200 women and children in emergency accommodation every night, and sits on the board of the Alliance for Journalists’ Freedom, promoting media freedom. Angela is also a mother of three boys.
Team 50s Dr Rebecca Huntley is one of Australia’s foremost researchers on social trends. She is the author of numerous books including How to Talk About Climate Change in a Way that Makes a Difference. She writes regularly for The Monthly, Australian Traveller Magazine, The Guardian and The Sydney Morning Herald. She is a Fellow of Women’s Leadership Institute Australia and The Research Society. Her latest book is Sassafras: A memoir of love, loss and MDMA therapy.
Team 60s Dr Briony Scott is an educator and commentator. She has just concluded as Principal of Wenona, an independent K–12 girls’ school, after 14 years and is now on a long-awaited gap year. Dr Scott has a Masters and Doctorate in Education from the University of Sydney and specialises in sociology, education and motivational theory. She speaks regularly on educational and parenting issues at community forums and conferences.
Team 70s+ Libby Lloyd AO is a human rights activist, co-founder of the White Ribbon Foundation and an advisor on domestic and family violence policy to successive Australian governments. She has worked with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Indonesia and Iraq, the Commonwealth Public Service, a range of NGOs and various Government Advisory Councils. Libby has been involved with several boards, including the Australian Institute of International Affairs, and serves as Patron of the Indigo Foundation and several other organisations.
Generation Women is an award-winning cross-generational storytelling night founded in New York in 2017, Sydney in 2018 and Melbourne in 2020. Each month, six women of note read an original piece on a theme. Of those, one is in her 20s, her 30s, her 40s, her 50s, her 60s and her 70s+.
This event is proudly presented by Generation Women Australia, founded by Donna Logue. The event will be hosted by Charlie. Generation Women was created by Georgia Clark.
THE BERESFORD
354 BOURKE ST, SURRY HILLS NSW 2016
DOORS AT 6.30 PM, SHOW AT 7 PM
Want access to discounted tickets? Become a Generation Women Member to get $10 off the price of your ticket. More info here.