About BPS
Bankstown Poetry Slam (BPS) is a not-for-profit charity co-founded by Sara Mansour in February 2013, born out of Western Sydney and grounded in a belief in the power of storytelling to connect, challenge and transform.
What began as Western Sydney’s first regular poetry slam has since grown into a nationally recognised cultural force. Today, BPS is the largest ongoing poetry slam in Australia, welcoming thousands of audience members each year and sharing its stage with some of the world’s most celebrated spoken-word artists, including Rupi Kaur, Rudy Francisco, Safia Elhillo, Nate Marshall, Anthony Anaxagorou, Omar Musa and Luka Lesson.
Our monthly slams take place on the last Tuesday of every month at Bankstown Arts Centre, with the generous support of Outloud—bringing poets and audiences together in a shared space of expression, listening and connection.
Beyond our live events, BPS works across schools and community organisations to nurture voices early in their artistic careers and widen access to storytelling. Through workshops, performances and collaborations, we are dedicated to creating spaces where poetry can build confidence, help people feel they belong, and where poetry amplifies stories that deserve to be heard.
VISION & MISSION
At its core BPS is a community arts and development organisation that champions the transformative power of poetry in all areas of life. We believe that spoken word is a vital tool for self-expression, social connection, and personal empowerment.
Our mission is to cultivate a vibrant and inclusive artistic community, with a dedicated focus on empowering the young people of Western Sydney. Through our dynamic workshops in schools, our monthly slam, and our annual National Young Poetry Slam championship, we provide the platforms, skills, and confidence for early career artists to be heard. Poetry isn't confined to the page: it's a living, breathing force for storytelling, healing, and building a more connected society. At our core, we create a radical space of freedom and verse where every story matters.
Our Values
Justice & Equity
We actively work to dismantle barriers of access, power, and representation. We prioritise the voices of those most affected by, and disaffected with, systemic oppression. Our stage, our workshops, and our leadership reflects, and must continue to reflect, the vibrant diversity of the worlds we come from.
Anti-Imperialism & Solidarity
We stand in firm opposition to all forms of imperialist, colonial, and state violence. Our platform is a space for critical dissent, for mourning, for protest, and for unwavering solidarity with global struggles for liberation. We recognise that our work exists on stolen land and is intrinsically linked to international fights for freedom.
Sovereignty
We explicitly and publicly acknowledge that this continent is and always will be Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander land. We support the Land Back movement and the full manifestation of Indigenous sovereignty. We are committed to following the leadership of First Nations people, centring their voices, paying the rent, and using our platform to amplify the call for truth-telling, treaty, and justice.
Community Accountability
We are responsible to each other. We foster a culture of consent, respect, and transformative justice. We hold ourselves and our community accountable to these values, understanding that our strength comes from our ability to challenge harm, learn, grow, and heal together.
Radical Accessibility
We believe poetry and the space to create it must be available to all.
In the past 10 years we’ve achieved many things
2022
Sydney Opera House Fundraiser for Lebanon
in collaboration with Australia for UNHCR
2022
Founders of Australia’s first National Youth Poetry Slam 2022
2022
Real Talk High School Poetry Program (2016-2022)
2019 & 2022
Brave New Word Poetry Festival
2020
Real Talk
A series of spoken word workshops culminating to a Spoken-Word Theatre show and publication
2020
Biennale of Sydney Partner
2015 - 2023
Grand Slam
Attracting up to 900 attendees each year
2017
Parliament House of Australia performance
2017
ZEST Award
for Outstanding Project promoting Social Cohesion and Community Harmony
(Real Talk)
2017
Community Service Award
2016
Western Sydney Leadership Dialogue’s Community Engagement Award
2016
Slam of Origin
2016
Pemulway Prize
2016
The Final Verse: First Trans - Tasman Youth Slam
2014 - 2017
Sydney Writers Festival
Four published poetry books + 1 chap book
Our Team
All of Bankstown Poetry Slam's events, workshops and media are currently managed by our dedicated committee on a volunteer basis.
For general enquiries, email info@bankstownpoetryslam.com
Please note that as we operate on a voluntary basis, there may be a delay in responding to your enquiry.
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Sara Mansour
FOUNDER
Sara is a lawyer, poet, co-founder and director of Bankstown Poetry Slam (BPS). Sara holds a Bachelor of Laws from Western Sydney University and is a practising lawyer. She serves as a board director of Salam Institute, NOW Australia, and Monkey Baa Theatre Company.
Her work has been recognised through numerous honours, including Young Citizen of the Year (Canterbury-Bankstown) and Outstanding Youth Leader at the ZEST Awards. Sara has delivered a TEDx Parramatta talk, mentored with the Sydney Writers’ Festival Youth Curators program, contributed to YouTube Creators for Change, and was selected as a writer for the ABC iView series Halal Gurls.
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Bilal Hafda
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
Bilal Hafda is the director of Guest House Publishing, and the artistic director of the Bankstown Poetry Slam. He's a spoken-word artist who has featured at most of the poetry slams in NSW. He has published work in a number of literary journals, and ‘An Army of Light’ is his debut poetry collection.
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.
Our previous partners
