Join Stepping Stones at The Carnival of Venice!

(It’s in Granton Community Garden!)

Join Stepping Stones North Edinburgh next week for a lovely workshop as we venture to Venice.

@cynthiaws Starcatchers @starcatchersuk #Storytelling#SensoryPlay

Lead by Cynthia Cheung and Marion Geoffray, the workshop/outdoor activities involve multisensory creative play for the aged 2-5 to explore different festival traditions and stories.

In the workshop, we explore the children’s reaction and interest in the objects, the smell and the sound related to the festival. Meantime, the facilitators explore new ideas and skill involve the children’s behaviour and experiment with the artistic practice to develop the work-in-progress performance.

The workshop will also help Niroshini Thambar, the music designer, to explore insight and ideas to create a new interpretation soundtrack for the performance.

Stories by the Sea

SEA STORIES at Wardie Bay next week!

When: Thursday 26th August – 11am – 12:30pm

Where: An Eco-therapy Group Event at Wardie Bay/Granton Pier

If you would like to join please email Jenna: jennacorker@pchp.org.uk

Join us a Wardie Bay… Connecting with nature is good for us.

Eco-therapy practitioner Stephen McCabe Nature Therapy Online is passionate about the ways that Scotland’s traditional myths and stories can connect us with our beautiful landscapes.

Join us at Wardie Bay as Stephen shares a traditional story from the area related to the sea.

We will then, as a group, take a relaxing walk and share our own stories with each other related to the sea.

Personal memories are welcome, as well as our favourite stories with water themes!

Group activities and walking will last from 11-12, followed by lunch by the water. The lunches and snacks are on us!

If you would like any extra support to access this event please let Jenna know. Email Jenna at jennacorker@pchp.org.uk

#TakingStepsToBetterHealth

#wellbeing

#NorthEdinburgh

Today at Leith Links: Family fun at Edinburgh Climate Festival

The Edinburgh Climate Festival 2021, a free, family friendly & community-led marketplace event taking place for the first time in Leith Links East today from 12 noon to 7pm.

It aims at celebrating and inspiring climate action. Featuring performances, stalls, kids’ and adults’ activities and more, this is not to be missed! 🌎 💚 ♻️ 🌳

Highlights of the ‘marketplace’ festival include:

• Family/Kids area 👪

• Market and stalls 🎪

• Background music, Live DJ 🎵♪

• Upcycling workshops ♻️

• Henna painting ✋

• Seed planting workshops 🌾🌱

• Storytelling and arts and craft 🎨

• Free clothes repairs 🧵 ♻️ 👚

• Free bike repairs 🚲 🔧

• Electric bike trials 🚴

• Free shop with clothes, books, shoes & more! 👚👠👗📚

• Free Yoga classes 🧘🏽‍♀️

Please join share the facebook event for more updates: 

https://www.facebook.com/events/125587702982065 

#EdinburghClimateFestival

Edinburgh writers are Nesta storytelling prize finalists

Nesta, the innovation foundation, is supporting creators to revolutionise the age-old art of storytelling to fit a modern world, from InstaNovels to watching Romeo and Juliet’s relationship blossom over WhatsApp – and two of the shortlisted writers are from Edinburgh.  

  • Nesta has shortlisted and supported 9 writers with £1.5k of development funding, mentor sessions with experienced digital writers and a creative technologist, and 3 months of R&D time
  • In the autumn, one of these 9 writers will be awarded £15,000 based on innovation in form, interface and interactivity, as well as in overall quality of content
  • The works can be tested and experienced on the BBC Taster website from 7 August until 14 September, with Nesta asking young people to give feedback to help select the final winner

The Alternarratives Prize encouraged storytellers to imagine how short stories told in creative ways could help re-engage young people with the act of reading, focusing on those aged 13-16.

In one of their recent reports the National Literacy Trust found that reading enjoyment levels in children and young people had continued to decline and are at their lowest since 2013, only 53% said they enjoyed reading in 2019 vs 58.63% in 2016.

Daily reading levels are also at their lowest, with just 25.8% of children in 2019 saying they read daily in their free time. Nesta is seeking ways to encourage young people to read more via accessible and familiar mediums, technology and language. 

The finalists include:

  • Viccy Adams, Edinburgh – Explore an abandoned theme park in Berlin while you listen to this audio short story of teenage self-discovery. Spree is designed to be experienced on a computer: get your laptop out, turn up the volume and enjoy getting lost.
  • Gavin Inglis, Edinburgh – The Reader Remix invites active participation in an audiobook by adding layers of music beneath the narration, which the reader can manipulate. The R&D period of this project will produce new spoken and musical content, and experiment with existing tools for their delivery.
  • John Dinneen, London – Introducing the Insta Short, for a new generation of storytellers. This first-of-a-kind, contemporary Instagram short story tells the fictional account of Nel, an aspiring artist who finds support for her artwork online. Nel’s account is inseparable from social media and so naturally told through it. At the end of it all, Nel’s story will leave you ever more conflicted about the possibilities and the dangers of life lived online.
  • Emma Hill, Manchester – “I have ten minutes to tell you everything.” After Words is a story to a young person, from the adult who cares for them, designed to last a lifetime of them being apart from each other. Read the story once straight through, and then read it again slowly, many times, exploring all the links on the page. Each read through tells a different piece of the story, exploring connection, distance and the stories we leave behind. 
  • Rachael Hodge and Felicity Brown, Oxford – WillPlay: Romeo & Juliet will take the form of a WhatsApp-style group chat, allowing young people to engage with Shakespeare’s story and interact with his characters via a familiar, accessible medium. The reader/player will be cast as a character in three key scenes, invited to take part in the conversation, in order to move through the narrative, sending it in new and exciting directions.
  • Thomas McMullan, London – The Unsettled Ground. A file lands on your desktop: the last documents of the journalist Angus Bead. A small town has been wiped off the map, and you must unravel what happened by searching through Bead’s articles, diaries, notes, strange stories and troubling testimony. Draw your own connections. Read like a detective.
  • Jasmine Richards, Oxford – Earworm is an immersive short story experience on your phone that tells the tale of Ayesha and a creature called Earworm. The Earworm reveals people’s true intentions through sound and music. Using small sections of text, chat stories, and immersive soundscapes with embedded audio cues the reader will learn the truth of Earworm and the secrets of those around Ayesha. The reader will also get to produce their own piece of music.
  • Ben Samuels at Limbik Theatre, London – The Garden combines the written word with ambisonic, spatial audio, bringing a new layer of immersion to the act of reading. The dark, magic realism of The Garden of Earthly Delights is designed to be accompanied by an ambisonic audio soundtrack, played through headphones linked to a phone or tablet. The soundscape supports the narrative, locating, placing, and immersing them within the world of the story.
  • Shane Strachan, Aberdeen – Do we control technology or does it control us? Jenna took part in IMBED-X’s tech experiment in January 2020 and has since vanished. Adam needs Instagram, Google and you to help find her in this thrilling online mystery. Told across multiple Instagram stories and accounts, this narrative encourages readers to use online tools such as Google Translate and Google Books to help find Jenna by harnessing the power of language, literature and digital connection. Along the way, the story also encourages young readers to reflect on how embedded technology is in their lives and to question whether or not they have an over-reliance on it. 

Fran Sanderson, Nesta’s Director of Arts and Culture Programmes and Investments said: “With Alternarratives, our aim is to encourage writers to experiment in their practice. In this pilot year, we had the more specific target of changing the way young people think about and engage with reading.

“The way we consume narrative content has changed rapidly, and this has accelerated in the pandemic. The shift towards an experience economy, perhaps in addition to a more general sense of a lack of control, has led audiences to expect more agency and interaction, and we believe this can be an opportunity for literary storytelling. 

“We wanted to explore how we can support writers to be more innovative and think outside the linear format. We have been amazed by the creative ideas these writers had, and humbled by their tenacity and ingenuity in the R&D phase – it’s been a real privilege to see these projects turn into a reality, and we’re incredibly excited to share them with the public, especially the young people we’re hoping to reach.”

Free Multicultural Festival coming to North Edinburgh

Edinburgh Multicultural Festival

4 – 6th October 2019

Music, dance, storytelling, films and audio visual celebration of Edinburgh’s multicultural communities (the newest event on Edinburgh’s festival calendar)

African Connections CIC (an Edinburgh-based community interest company promoting diversity through performing arts) is delighted to announce the very first Edinburgh Multicultural Festival, on 4-6 October 2019.

Website www.edinburghmulticulturalfestival.co.uk   (www.edmcf.co.uk)   

The festival programme features a bright array of Edinburgh’s diverse talent with spoken word, poetry, music, dance and visual arts created by African, Asian and Eastern European artists living in the capital.

The festival will also present two international acts: albino Malawian singer and canjo player Lazarus, and Sowhereto Africa, a South African dance and music show promoting street talent from the township of Soweto (previously performed at Edinburgh’s Dance Base and the Studio).

A poetry and storytelling programme (on Friday afternoon) will be curated by Nadine Aisha Jassat, with storytellers Fong Liu and Daiva Ivanauskaitė, while the weekend will feature musicians including Samba Sene & Diwan (Sengalese Mbalax/Afrobeat/ska fusion), rappers Billy Got Waves & Joell, Moroccan grooves from Omar Afif & Gnawa Trance Fusion and Bollywood//Indian classical music from Swaryatra; the dance programme on Saturday includes Scotland’s leading Indian dance group Dance Ihayami, a range of African dances from Sankofa Beats, plus Olga KayIraya Noble, Pirita Tuisku, and many more.

There will also be a specially curated short films programme and a specially created installation by Polish audio visual artist Robert Motyka, inspired by diverse cultures and identities.

The events will take place across two venues in north Edinburgh – creative writing, poetry and storytelling at Drumbrae Library and Community Hub (4th October only), with the main programme taking place at Edinburgh College, Granton Campus (5 & 6 October), in the open café space (unticketed) and the PASS Theatre.

There will be opportunities for audiences to mix with performers and community organisations, to share their experiences and find out more about how to be involved in cross-community activities.

All events are free to attend, and all age groups are welcome.

Edinburgh Multicultural Festival director, Morgan Njobo, said: “With this programme we would like to celebrate Edinburgh’s diverse multicultural talent and its contribution to the cultural life of the city.

“As a South African artist living in Edinburgh, I feel privileged to be able to present an eclectic programme that aims to engage local communities and increase access to arts and entertainment in the north of Edinburgh.

“We are collaborating with artists whose work is influenced by African, Asian and Eastern European cultures and we wish for all Edinburgh residents engage with our diverse performing arts and visual arts scene and enjoy the benefits of diversity brought by the artists involved.”

It is hoped that Edinburgh Multicultural Festival 2019 will be the first of many, growing over the years, contributing to promoting tolerance and inclusivity across Edinburgh and beyond.

Edinburgh Multicultural Festival is delivered in partnership with Edinburgh College, PASS Theatre and Drumbrae Library and Community Hub and supported by City of Edinburgh Council. 

LISTINGS

Fri 4 Oct 2 – 5pm        Drumbrae Library and Community Hub, 81 Drum Brae Dr, Edinburgh EH4 7FE

                                     Storytelling, poetry and creative writing

Sat 5 Oct Noon-5pm   Edinburgh College Granton Campus350 W Granton Rd, Edinburgh EH5 1QE

(Doors 11am)                DANCE inc Dance Ihayami, Sowhereto, Sankofa Beats

Sun 6 Oct Noon-5pm  Edinburgh College Granton Campus350 W Granton Rd, Edinburgh EH5 1QE

(Doors 11am)                MUSIC inc Lazarus, Samba Sene & Diwan, Omar Afif & Gnawa Trance Fusion

All events are free, and tickets can be reserved in advance via Eventbrite

Roots by Routes family fun this Friday

Join us for the launch of six new ‘community storyboards’ being installed along the North Edinburgh Cycle Path.

LIVE Storytelling
Hear local people share their stories

ALL ACTIVITIES FREE !!!
• Guided historical walks about the old railway at Crewe
• Live Storytelling
• Play Rangers
• BMX Stunt Demonstration
• Face Painting
• Dr Bike session – Bring your bike along for some TLC
• Sandwiches and Salads
• Smoothie Bike

For more information contact lpipskyj@gmail.com or just come along on the day!

New PEEP group starts at Health Project next week

There are still places for the Women Supporting Women peep mums/carers and babies (6 weeks – 2.5 years) group starting next week Tuesday 21st May, 1:30 – 2:30.  Continue reading New PEEP group starts at Health Project next week