Wordly Wise: Coming up this week…
Spoken Word for Tuesday 1 to Sunday 6 April
It’s no April Fool, that there’s some top spoken word action in Edinburgh this week. Not least behind the hidden doors of the Hidden Door festival. Here’s J. A. Sutherland’s round-up.
Tuesday 1
◉ Inky Fingers Open Mic Forest Cafe. 8pm. Free.
Featuring quiet word magic all the way from South Africa with Toni Stuart. Toni is a poetry writer, performer and developer. She is curator of Poetica at the Open Book Festival in Cape Town, where she is based, and a member of And Word Was Woman ensemble. Open Mic slots are five minutes long; e-mail inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to sign up and be sure of a slot.
Forest Café 141 Lauriston Place, EH3 9JN. Event website: inkyfingers.org.uk.
◉ Songwriter’s Cellar Owl Nighter Launch Henry’s Cellar Bar, 7pm. Free.
Launch of the Owl Nigter ‘zine loosely based around Lach’s Antihoot.
16 Morrison Street, EH3 8BJ. Event website: www.facebook.com
Wednesday 2
◉10Red The Persevere, 8pm. £3.
Ten writers, 10 minutes each. With Linda Menzies, Claire Askew, Kirsty Law, Bram E. Gieben, Jim Monaghan, Rachel Amey, Stephen Welsh, Agnes Török , Christie Williamson and Tayllor L.Johnson. Hosted by Kevin Cadwallender. Entry price includes free raffle.
The Persevere, Easter Road, Edinburgh, EH6 8HT. Event website: www.facebook.com
Thursday 3
◉ First Thursday; First Thirty Club, The Sheep Heid, 7.30pm. Free.
Poetry, storytelling and music in Scotland’s oldest pub. Host: Steve Harvey. Guest poet: J. L. Williams. Free entry with a collection for the guest poet. The first thirty to arrive receive a raffle ticket – if your number is drawn, you get to read a poem.
Upstairs at the Sheep Heid, 43-45 The Causeway, Duddingston Village, Edinburgh EH15 3QA. Event website: http://ftftclub.weebly.com/
Friday 4
◉ Out Doors Open Door Festival, East Market Street, from noon. Free.
A multimedia installation and performance programme created by GS Smith, based on his short story of the same name, responding to Hidden Door’s theme of regeneration and exploring the capacity to – or futility of – change. Noon: Installation opens; 4pm – Reading by GS Smith of Out Doors; 5pm: Talk by Martin Belk Art Crime et Châtiment.
Open Door Festival, East Market Street. Event website: www.goodnightpress.com/
◉ CAESURA #22 Hidden Door Festival, 8pm. £15 general entry to Hidden Door.
Firebrand American writer, publisher and spoken word performer Martin Belk, experimental Cambridge-based writer Drew Milne, Edinburgh-based spoken word and music duo Northern Upland Sheep Strategy and sound poet and lexical spelunker Holly Pester from London.
Project Vault, Hidden Door festival, East Market Street, https://www.facebook.com/events/569155953153894/
◉ Vive the [R]évolution Institut Francais, 7pm. £5/£3.
A triptych of poetry nights à propos translation of and between French and Scottish poetry, hosted by three contemporary Scottish poets. In part two, nick-e melville will talk about his translation of bureaucratic language and his use of personal material.
Institut Francais d’Ecosse, 13 Randolph Crescent, EH3 7TT. Event website: www.ifecosse.org.uk.
Saturday 5
◉ Notes From A Quarter-Life Crisis Forest Cafe, 7.30pm. Free (pay what you feel).
Kevin P. Gilday tours his one man narrative, spoken word show exploring the inevitable breakdown that occurs in the tumultuous psyche of the twenty something, for the last time. With special guests: Kevin Cadwallender, Rachel McCrum and Miko Berry.
Forest Café 141 Lauriston Place, Edinburgh EH3 9J. Event website: www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk
Sunday 6
◉ Performance Poetry Workshop: Looking in depth at the longform poetry show McDonald Road Library, 1-5pm. Fee negotiable.
The event which sparked the poetic stramash over the nature of spoken word performance. Jem Rolls holds a four hour session on honing your performance technique for the longform poetry show.
McDonald Road Library, 2 McDonald Road, EH7 4LU. Facebook page: www.facebook.com
◉ Musselburgh Hot Pot: April Fool Shower Staggs Arms, 7.30pm. Free.
All comers and goers can take the stage (or could if there was a stage) and delight and bowdlerize all present with song, story, tune, poem, flossing or archaeological dig.. Hosted by Stephen Barnaby.
Stagg’s Arms,81 North High Street, Musselburgh, EH21 6JE. Event facebook page: www.facebook.com
J. A. Sutherland also has his own blog at: http://throughtheturretwindow.blogspot.co.uk/
If you would like a spoken word event listed on All Edinburgh Theatre, please use the contact page to get in touch: https://www.alledinburghtheatre.com/about-2/contact/
ENDS