🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 22-28 Nov 2023
Push The Boat Out at Summerhall, Fringe funding fury, Printmakers launches affordable creative spaces scheme, Beaverhall Studios on the move + a Beatles marathon
Welcome to the 21st edition of the Culture Minute, a weekly round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities. It’s for paying subscribers only, with a free preview, so thank you for supporting this and thanks to everyone who contributed!
✍️ Poetry
⛵️ Push The Boat Out festival starts on Friday and runs all weekend at Summerhall. More than 80 poets from Scotland and around the world will participate. It’s a truly eclectic festival that could change your mind about what poetry even is. The full programme is here. Here’s an overview:
🧠 On Friday there’s a workshop called Co-creating with AI. Together with Stuart King and Lynda Clark, attendees will learn the art of crafting prompts and discuss/question the broader applications of AI in poetry. It’s free and tickets are here.
🎙 Scottish Makar Kathleen Jamie and host Alistair Heather will present a live recording of The Lantern Scottish Poetry podcast with their guest, the poet and mentor, Niall Campbell, on Friday.
🥟 Part cooking-class, part-poetry reading, Dumpling Poetry with Sean Wai Keung promises ‘a delicious afternoon of tasty morsels for the ears and the taste buds’. - Saturday afternoon.
🎤 Saturday’s events include Meena Kandasamy, Jeremy Corbyn with Len McCluskey, Peter Mackay, the Spit it Out collective, rapper Dizaeli, Cocktail Hour with Joelle Taylor and a Hamish Hawk solo show.
🗣 Sunday is jam-packed with what sound like brilliant events: Billy Letford, a BYOB (bring your own bicycle) poetry-on-wheels workshop around the Meadows and Song Exploder with some of Scotland’s foremost rap and hip hop artists: Conscious Route, Queen of Harps and Dave Hook.
🎙 Also on Sunday, Hannah Lavery and Caitlin Skinner host a one-off, live special of Quines Cast, the hugely successful Stellar Quines podcast.
⮑ There’s way more beyond the events I’ve picked out here so do check out the full programme here. Finally, the closing party on Sunday 6pm-10pm includes a DJ set from Arusa Qureshi and a Rock the Boat open mic session, hosted by Catherine Wilson Garry and Julia Sorensen. - To take part or just attend, sign up here.
🔊 The latest EHFM Culture Show features an interview with PTBO director Emma Collins, starting from 35 mins into this episode.
🏆 Tonight (Wednesday) the Polari Prize National Showcase – book awards for LGBTQ+ writing – takes over the Scottish Poetry Library on Crichton's Close from 7pm. (Thanks to a loyal reader for sharing this!)
👀 A new visual poetry collage has been pasted on the walls around MacMillan Square in Pennywell. It’s the work of Samantha Dick and the Art 4 Grown Ups group. - Photos via North Edinburgh Arts.
🎶 Music
🎻 Tonight (Wednesday) The Queen’s Hall hosts the third of the Amplifi gig series featuring artists picked by guest curators Arusa Qureshi and Halina Rifai of We Are Here Scotland. Taking to the stage are cellist Simone Seales, singer Aref Ghorbani and composer Elaine Cheng. - Tickets are a tenner and it the stage times are here.
🎸 On Saturday the Assembly Roxy hosts The Beatles Marathon, which will see ten local bands cover more than 100 Beatles songs. All money raised through ticket sales and donations will go to the My Name’5 Doddie Foundation. The charity supports those suffering from Motor Neuron Disease and invests in research to find treatments, ultimately working towards a cure for the disease. Thanks to readers Sarah and Dan for sharing the info. - Full details are here.
🍿 Film
🎥 More details about the new Sean Connery Talent Lab are now live. Applications are open for the 12-month development programme for writers, directors, producers, cinematographers, editors or production designers keen to develop their craft in Scotland.
🎦 Campaigners bidding to reopen the George Cinema in Portobello for community use have shared more of their hopes and plans for the building.
☃️ Cameo has just announced its ‘festive feast’ of events planned for December.
🎞 Some updates from the bid to reopen The Filmhouse cinema: Last week’s public meeting is available to watch on YouTube here.
⮑ James Rice, the cinema’s former programme manager, shared a video from the roof of the Filmhouse building to talk about the campaign so far:
🎭 Stage
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