Category: Community arts projects

Meet Jo (or Joe) the active citizen

Racing for life: picture by Nick Gardner

What is an active citizen?  If I was being very flippant I would say it is the kind of person who comes out on a Saturday morning to talk about the big news stories of the day.  No, not just talk.  Active citizenship in the ACTive Inquiry sense means moving, listening, looking, feeling and doing.  At one point I found myself crouching on the floor connecting with the lives – and deaths – of people thousands of miles away.  Continue reading “Meet Jo (or Joe) the active citizen”

Carry a poem all around town

Spot the poetry in St Andrew Square?

Sadly, we missed the event in Leith last week when performance poet Mark Thompson carried poetry to the Library, for an evening about life and learning with adult learners and tutors from CLAN Edinburgh. But there’s still two weeks to go in the Carry a Poem campaign with free events all round town – not least the snowdrop walks in the Botanics every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in February.  And look for the poetry planted in St Andrew Square. Continue reading “Carry a poem all around town”

The Welcoming returns

A heartwarming glimpse of multicultural Edinburgh

There is a sound people make when they are pleased to be with one another.  Stan Reeves called it “the difference between false gregariousness and authentic comradeship” and this tiny clip of film gives you an idea of what that sounds like.  As you can hear, there was plenty of authentic comradeship when The Welcoming celebrated the confirmation of new funding which  secures a new programme of events starting in January 2010.

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St Andrews with a Swietlica swing

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Grassroots at Redbraes during Edinburgh Festival 2008

On a stormy winter night it’s great to get a blast of summer. The picture shows the fantastic Grassroots Theatre Company when they visited Redbraes community garden in warmer weather. Now they are back for another tour of Scotland with what sounds like perfect timing for the St Andrews night party in Fort Community Wing on Monday 30th November – they are invited to give a workshop which should warm everyone up.

Continue reading “St Andrews with a Swietlica swing”

Welcoming news – the cinema club starts again

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Great news in from the west.  That’s the west of Edinburgh, where the Welcoming centre runs a terrific programme of events bringing together local communities with refugees and asylum seekers – sharing ideas and learning together through art, film, music, discussion and food.   The cinema club starts again next week with an exciting list of films (and new comfy chairs).  But that is not the only good news… Continue reading “Welcoming news – the cinema club starts again”

Many hands make the Burns Banner

Give me an ‘n’, give me a ‘y’, give me another ‘n’…  Ok, this is going to take too long. Add up all the letters produced by community groups all round Scotland and it spells two verses of the Burns poem A Man’s a Man for A’ That which will be unfurled as a banner during Edinburgh International Festival at 11 am on 6 August.  And at least two of the letters were created by the Leith group Swietlica.

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Ola Kasprzak at the Swietlica art workshop

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Singing out loud at the Mela

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Warming up: Zawadi with choir leader Rachel Milne at their first public performance in April

Great to hear the Zawadi Women’s Choir is going from strength to strength. Since their first appearance in April this year they have been collecting a growing list of requests (and some new members).  If you didn’t hear them in the Festival preview on Leith FM you can see and hear them in person at the Mela on Saturday 8 August in the Garden Stage from 5-5.30pm. Continue reading “Singing out loud at the Mela”

A passion for poetry

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here, there and gone: where?

Home is a controversial word for Iyad Hayatleh, a Palestinian poet who was born in a Syrian refugee camp. “The most controversial word of my life,” he told us. He has never been to Palestine but to mark Refugee Week, Iyad read poems about home in Arabic and English as we gathered round a dead tree in Edinburgh’s Poetry Garden.  Continue reading “A passion for poetry”