Let’s Talk…The Arts with Fred Leone
This week on Let’s Talk…the Arts, your host Rachael Sarra digs into the recent conversations about “youth crime” in Queensland to reflect on the role of artists in imagining and building alternatives to police and prisons. Rachael catches up with a very familiar voice here at Triple A – the one and only Fred Leone – to talk about what’s going on with the Queensland Labor government’s new “youth crime” laws, and how art, music, and storytelling might offer alternatives to the violent cycle of policing and prisons.
Fred Leone is a cultural leader, a language custodian, and a ground-breaking and award-winning artist who works across genres and mediums to bring a distinctly original voice to his performances and recordings. One of the Butchulla Songmen, Fred is dedicated to ensuring that contemporary Butchulla stories are embedded into the collective memory of his people.
As an artist and activist, Fred Leone blends his love of hip-hop rhyming and his singularly unique vocal style with traditional instruments and incredible collaborations to transcend genre and form, creating utterly new and unique sounds. His work and life are driven by his commitment to working for justice and freedom for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this country, and we caught up with him this week to talk about the power and potential of music in supporting young people and building strong and safe communities.