Claire says:

“I had a great time working on this collection, and I am very grateful indeed to all the brilliant poets, filmmakers and artists I got to work with over the course of the project.  It wasn’t always easy, and things didn’t always go to plan, but it was always, always weird, daring and great fun.  Being part of the massive McEwan Hall showcase will remain one of the stand-out moments of my poetic ‘career’ — it was a truly unique and awe-inspiring event.  All our events were special, all our film shoots were mad and brilliant, all our poetry readings were inspiring.  Thanks a million to anyone who was in any way involved.

Thanks in particular to Stan Reeves of the Tollcross Community Centre; and to Mike Spells and Garry Gale of Edinburgh City Libraries — gents, may your glasses at the Bow Bar be ever full.

Thanks for everything, this collection-ers! Keep up your fabulous creative work, whatever it may be.”

dis-place thiscollection in the Glue Factory a microfragment of the magic.

Remember Enid Blyton’s classic “The Magic Faraway tree” with Moon-Face,  Jo, Bessie, and Fanny and those loving descriptions of treacle toffee pies and treats? There was always a new world at the top of the tree and one always had to take a leap of faith and it almost always worth the trek.

Well since April 30th, the installation of thiscollection’s poems and films as a labyrinthine library has been the site of discussion, curiousity and wonderment.

This is the last week to see thiscollection’s dis-placement in the Glue Factory in Glasgow. As usual the installation was a result of the contributors of thiscollection who wanted to explore the space, we only realised what we had as each contributor decided how to present their work in the space.

Playful, thought-provoking and an expression of the processes that have gone on through developing thiscollection to date. The installation is a labyrinth put together with the help from thiscollection contributors Rocio Jungenfeld, David McAfee, Helen Askew, Laura Mossop & Blochestra member Ming Tse, Dominique De Groen, Glasgow Open School’s Liam and Nathan and Stefanie Tan.

The opening night was well attended  Zorras‘ rendition of Brian McCabe’s “It” was witty and engaging. Blochestra‘s adaptation of Kate Charles’ “Cables” was dark and soulful. Videos will be uploaded soon.

AP and Swedo stirred up a storm, invading and breaking all health & safety codes they could find, performing adaptations of the remaining poems and responding to the immense space as only the two adventurous word pirates could.

The special preview with Glasgow Open School attempted to discuss how the installation provoked ideas of democracy, learning and collective. Notes from the discussion are exhibited in the space, special thanks to Stevphen Shukaitis, Glasgow Open School who invited participants from Free Hetherington, Transmission, Ultra Red, Arika, So We Stand and its members to reflect on the work to begin considering what truly free education could and should look like.

The space has since welcomed over 30 new works by F/32 Fine art photography students and every nook and cranny holds an idea that can captivate the restless soul – so pick a quiet day or a bustling Friday to come see the magic, and how your poem or film is making an impression.

Thanks also to Open Source theatre‘s talented cast of Property & Theft who have braved the challenge to take their show to Glasgow May 6-8th. The interventions created some really golden moments from philosophical playfulness investigating our subjective measures of time, value and scarcity. The company of actors exchanged a ripped J.G Ballard book for 2 nanoseconds of bad dancing, reaffirmed with a hand made certificate, cosy cups of tea and conversations all to the soundtrack of reflective confessions about daily life in late capitalism.

We are consciously not putting any images up of the installation, and strongly encourage you to come and experience the work for yourself and make your own memories.

It is the last week of the showcase, the space is open til May 14th 12-6pm and is a 10 min walk from St Georges’ Cross SPT, 22 Farnell St Glasgow. Entry is Free.

Upcoming events:

May 13th Friday: Farewell Welfare

2-4pm

Hillhead Library Writers’ Group meets in the Glue Factory, sharing their protocols to run a self organised group and Cathy McCormack, activist and author of Wee Yellow Butterfly, shares her writing experience.

5-7pm

Free Screening of Cathy’s film: “At the Sharp end of the Knife” followed by a conversation with local communities and activists, folk keen on social justice and alternatives.

May 14th Saturday

5-630pm

Ginetta Correlli filmmaker of Sam Meekings’ “The Hanging Stanes” premieres “The Earl Sessions” a film about people struggling with perfection.

Followed by a closing party hosted by the good people of the Glue Factory.

All very welcome.

Ming Tse interprets Cathy McCormack's message

Friday the 13th and no spooks or serial killers, but a horror of a different kind and you are the heroes.

In face of a community eroded, a division between them and us, systematic stigmitisation and destabilisation of ties that bind, is an apolitcal united front possible?

This Friday the 13th we invite anyone who seeks an alternative to join us to face these demons to dig deep into the dusty forgotten toolkit to recover the power of our hands and feet to see what we can begin to do together.

5-7pm

Conversation with Cathy McCormack: What can be done? Free Film Screening

Activist Campaigner Cathy McCormack was forced to try and keep her three children alive on welfare away back in 1982 when Britain was changed from an industrial to a money market economy; she managed to inspire both rich and poor who supported her to go on a journey all over the world in search of the truth. Now Cathy has come home, and would love to share and engage in real conversations with people who are really interested in asking the same questions and exploring possible solutions. She shares her powerful film “At the Sharp End of the Knife” (52mins) about her visit to the townships of South Africa to meet fellow activists building the ‘New’ South Africa. She may be dodging the bullets, but finds energy and inspiration in the people she meets as she makes intriguing parallels with their lives, and her own back in Glasgow’s infamous Easterhouse housing project.

2-4pm

The screening is preceeded by a unique writer group that meets at 2pm, they share their co-operative practice that has developed over the past 18 months through self governance. Though they originally began in Hillhead Library, the negotiation of use in Public spaces may mean the group will have to migrate soon. Come discover your voice, be inspired perhaps to start your own group to share experiences. Cathy, author of Wee Yellow butterfly, shares her activist writing experience with the group as well.

Entry is Free, All Welcome. The venue can get drafty so please wrap warm and hope to see you there.

View Larger Map

Special thanks to www.sowestand.com for their support in Glasgow

Opening Night April 30th poster by Ming Tse

Come and join us as we make our first ever journey west and open an exciting fortnight-long event at Glasgow’s infamous Glue Factory artspace! 

dis-place THIS COLLECTION: OPENING NIGHT

Venue: The Glue Factory, 22 Farnell Street, Glasgow, G4 9SE  See map less than 10 min walk from St George’s Cross SPT.

Preview:

6pm (Open to Public)
Self-organisation in Education: with Stevphen Shukaitis and Glasgow Open School
Author of Imaginal Machines: Autonomy & Self-Organization in the Revolutions of Everyday Life, Stevphen Shukaitis and Glasgow Open School welcomes all to workshop to discuss the installation of thiscollection and present the first in the series of two events aiming to bring together people interested in holding experiments in education this Summer and anyone struggling with ideas and practices of learning, democracy, collectivity, curatorship, culture and knowledge production.

We aim to combine space for open discussion of ideas and pragmatic arrangements for collaboration. For more information visit
http://glasgowopenschool.com/blog/?p=1788
http://www.autonomedia.org/node/94

830pm -1130pm

HEADLINING:

+ BLOCHESTRA: innovative and experimental noise-makers — “a band to turn the conventional music experience on its head.” adapt poems into song, Kate Charles’ “Cables” is given a new spin.

Zorras Film Poetry Vocal velvetness photo by Evi Tsiligaridou

+ ZORRAS:poetry-music-video weirdness fusion. With megaphones adapt Brian McCabe’s thiscollection poem “It”.

A.P & Swedo: Herbalist & Farmhand anarchic word workers this image by Swedo (Sean Cartwright) says it all.

+ A.P & Swedo Anarchic duo jam in a polymusical moon symphony of wordage favourites and new work inspired by this collection poems.

ALSO ON SHOW:

+ Graffiti from up and coming graphic designer Ming Tse who made the awesome opening night poster.

+ a huge and stunning mural by illustrators Helen Askew and Laura Mossop

+ this collection’s 100 poems and film responses collected so far.

this collection in Glasgow is preparing to ease into a more democratic DIY phase and has developed an open installation with Glasgow Open School to prove that culture or creative endeavours need YOUR input, not over rely on funding bodies or enthusiastic volunteers but everyone. Just as democracy needs to be practiced or it is lost – if there is no input from you or dialogue, NOTHING will or can happen.

If you have already submitted a poem or a film or an adaptation the Open Schedule on the Glasgow Open School blog is YOUR platform.

REFRESHMENTS:

Summery wheat beer, honey and heather ale, strawberry cider and some lager.

TRANSPORTATION:

Trains do group discounts half price for a group of 4 and the 3rd travels free in a group of 3 (a return ticket costs £11.40). Last train home is 1130pm.
The last underground is 1115pm, and the venue is less than 10 mins from St Georges Cross.

ANY QUESTIONS? FILM@THISCOLLECTION.ORG

Click “attending” on our Facebook event!

WHAT IS THIS COLLECTION…?

this collection began life as a modest bouquet of 100 short poems on the subject of Edinburgh. Authors included all manner of Edinburgh residents from high school kids to University professors, and over the course of the past two years, their work has acted as a foundation upon which artists and creatives from all walks of life have built collaborative responses to the poems. Thus far, the project has primarily attracted short films, but more recently the artistic responses have included works as diverse as street art installations, handmade zines and improvised music scores to live screenings.

this collection has hosted a plethora of community art events in Edinburgh, too – including a memorable poets’ and filmmakers’ speed-dating night, a huge multi-media showcase in the cavernous McEwan Hall, and an experimental ‘friendly’ poetry slam.

The project will adopt The Glue Factory – an abandoned industrial space turned arts venue – as its temporary home from 30th April to 14th May as part of a GSA postgraduate show. Glasgow residents and visitors are invited to peruse a wide and vibrant showcase of creative work inspired by the original this collection 100 poems.

We hope to see you there!

I’ll admit – I was worried about how this event might go down. My aims for the slam were manifold. Firstly, I wanted to drag a few more “page” poets (i.e., poets who are normally more at home publishing in journals and books, and reading at traditional stand up readings) kicking and screaming into the performance scene – mainly to show them that hey, it’s really not that different or scary and look, there’s good poetry to be found here. Secondly, I wanted to get the message across to the performance crowd (although they do tend to be more receptive to stuff outside their own field of literary experience) that page poets can be fun, and that they can – sometimes, at least – perform. Mostly, I wanted to try and narrow the divide that – in spite of the best efforts of fabulous folk like Jenny Lindsay, who has been organising very open and approachable performance events for years – still stubbornly exists between page and stage in the Scottish poetry community.

As I say, this was by no means the first friendly slam that’s ever taken place. Indeed, I’m proud of the fact that Scotland seems to be at the forefront of new and innovative thinking when it comes to slamming and other performance poetry events. Over the past few years there have been one or two “sotto voce” or “quiet” slams about the place – the now-sadly-defunct VoxBox held a “quiet” slam specifically for page poets, and the Scottish Poetry Library also did a sotto slam in 2009, which yours truly here somehow managed to win. Working in this tradition, I wanted to further mess around with the traditional slam format, and by doing so, I hoped to chip away at some of the myths and misconceptions surrounding the phenomenon.

The main difference was in the scoring of the poems. I’m defiantly against the “traditional” slam scoring method, which involves the audience getting involved in rating each poet. In the US, where slams are always well-attended and often patronised by folk who are not either a) poets or b) friends of poets, I can see how this system could work… but in Scotland, where almost everyone in the crowd is a friend/enemy/editor/publisher/workshop buddy/love interest of at least one of the performers, it makes for skewed results. The poet with the most mates wins, to put it simply. The other traditional slam scoring option is the use of a judging panel. But this was a this collection event, and this collection is very much anti-hierarchy, anti-quality-control, anti-curation. To gather a panel of “esteemed judges” for the poets to impress was really not our style.

Instead, we decided to let the poets score each other. Each poet received a personalised score-card, which bore the names of all the poets performing, except for their own – so they could not award points for their own performance. Scores were out of 30 (10 for content, 10 for delivery, and 10 for that individual’s particular “overall opinion”), and recorded at the end of every poet’s performance. At the end of each round, all the scorecards were collected up and the scores anonymously tallied. Poets with high scores progressed through the ranks; poets with lower scores fell by the wayside – but everything was on a democratic, peer-review basis, and thanks to the wide variety of poets performing, we were confident that there would be little-to-no bias.

The scoring system did throw up some issues. Most obviously, it was a logistical nightmare. It wasn’t until I received the first batch of scores at the end of the first round that I realised: I was going to have to add up sixteen sets of scores out of 30 for sixteen poets within fifteen minutes. In round one alone, poets were competing for up to 580 points… that’s a hell of a lot of adding up. Fortunately, I had the help of two glamorous calculator-wielding assistants (my poor, long-suffering flatmates), and we managed, but if I were organising another event of this type, a more simplistic scoring method would have to be devised!

Secondly, several of the poets told me afterwards that they’d found the quick-fire nature of the scoring rather tricky. With only about 30 seconds or so between poets, they had to make snap decisions about the numbers they entered for each. Some said they appreciated this – it prevented them from getting bogged down in thinking and re-thinking their decision, and it meant that their responses were instinctive. Others said they found the whole thing rather stressful, and would have liked a bit more time to reflect on what they’d heard in order to give a score that they felt was reasoned and fair. Next time, I just need to spraff a bit more between performers, I think!

Finally, a couple of people said afterwards that they felt the poets-only scoring left the audience a feeling a little bit surplus-to-requirements. I was really pleased with the enthusiasm the audience were willing to give for each performance in spite of it being quite a long night, but I did note that things cooled off a little in the middle. I’m now thinking that perhaps a compromise of some scoring being done via audience reaction and some done by just the poets may be an interesting avenue to explore.

Otherwise, I was really pleased with the outcome of the scoring experiment, and really interested to see how poets reacted to other performances. Some folk were clearly being very harsh across the board, with some poets scoring certain performances with a big fat zero and never venturing into figures much higher than 6. Others seemed more than happy to dish out perfect 10s across the board to poets they really liked, and – my favourite part of the adding-up process – many of the scorecards came back with doodles, marginalia or explanatory notes decorating their margins. Overall, scoring was extremely close. Numerous folk have noted in their feedback about the evening that poets like Andrew Philip and Dave Coates deserved to move up to the second round, and I agree on both counts. However, it was literally the odd mark here and there that separated 10th place from 11th and 11th from 12th, etc. It was almost too close to call in some cases, and at one point my glamorous assistants and I actually did a re-count to ensure that the right person was getting the correct score. Poets who came lower than they would have liked – or perhaps lower than some of those in attendance felt they deserved – will hopefully be ever-so-slightly placated by the fact that it really was very close indeed.

The main discussion taking place in the aftermath of the slam – and may I take this opportunity to say how happy I am that so much healthy discussion has been generated by the event – concerns the old chestnut of performance vs page. Who had more of an advantage on the night? Who in attendance counts as ‘page’, and who counts as ‘stage’? Did one camp score the other unfairly – was there a bias for or against either side? And so on and so forth. Personally, while I am watching these discussions with interest, and chipping in every so often (of course), I’m kind of sad to hear these questions being raised. As I said above, my aim for the evening was to temporarily erase – or at least blur – the dividing line that exists between page and performance poets; to see the two sides of the poetry world come together and yes, compete… but also to listen to and acknowledge each other. And it felt like this happened on the night itself. In many cases it was difficult to ascertain who belonged to which camp – over at Tonguefire, commenters are scrabbling to define poets like Alec Beattie (whose set was decidedly performance-esque, but read from a book and something of a departure from his usual work), Colin McGuire (a poet who performs with great gusto but who normally shies away from performance-heavy gigs and whose stuff works brilliantly on the page too) and Emily Dodd (a poetry slam virgin… but one who embraces audience participation). I think it’s only later that the feeling of never-the-twain-shall-meet has begun to slink back in, which perhaps is inevitable. For me, the night itself did exactly what I wanted it to: it picked up the traditional make-your-own-slam kit and gave it a bit of a shake, and it got page-folk and stage-folk up to the same mic, and forced them to rate (or, indeed, slate) one another… all of which involved everyone listening carefully to everyone else. The array of talent on show was refreshingly varied and – if you ask me – of excellent quality, and everyone seemed to have a damn good night. It might take a few more of these things before folk really start thinking differently about how poetry is performed and received in Scotland, but for now, I’m really quite pleased.

Responses to the this collection slam:

“A great learning experience for us novices and some wonderful poems and performers.” – Alec Beattie

“It was a great success, with consistent quality and entertainment, from a controlled crowd of temporary human beings and poets…I think there may be more this collection SLAM nights to come. I hope so. Let there be mic!” – McGuire (more here

“I loved that Claire did something new with slams, and particularly that the ‘friendly’ tag encouraged folks to take part who usually wouldn’t touch slam with a barge pole. A couple o the scores raised my eyebrows – but that’s always the case with competitions isn’t it?” – Jenny Lindsay

“stand-out poems of the evening were Colin McGuire’s “Wrap the children in white”, Mairi Campbell-Jack’s “The Book of Antonyms” and Stephen Welsh‘s newspaper poem in the last round. Colin’s poem set me in mind of some of Neruda’s work, with its combination of surreal imagination, incantatory impetus and political edge. Mairi’s poem seemed to me to mark a significant and exciting step forward in her writing, and I was really impressed with how well she read. Stephen had cut up a Sunday Herald report of the weekend’s protests in London and blanked out certain portions, creating a beautiful, strange, quirky, lyrical, powerful poem — perhaps not so much found poetry as released.

Hearing those poems alone would have made it a worthwhile evening, but there were others. I particularly enjoyed “Scotland as an Xbox Game” by Andrew C Ferguson — just the sort of witty, imaginative examination of the hame nation that appeals to me. Dave Coates also read good work but unfortunately joined me in the junkyard after the first round; that’s just the risk you run at these things. And I liked the sci-fi poem that Russell Jones read in the second round.” – Andrew Philip (more here)

“I know what you were trying to do [at the slam] and there is movement in that direction we can see in the quiet slams that have been held. It’s fair enough and I really liked the poet judge thing.” – Tickle McNicoll

“The night was an enjoyable one, though, holding a friendly atmosphere and quick pace that kept things interesting. If you didn’t like a poet you only had to put up with them for 2.5 minutes, much like my love life.” – Russell Jones (more here

Post by Claire

Stan Reeves

Dear poets and filmmakers of thiscollection,

Over the past months your poems and films have inspired an array of workshops and activities based on your words and images have brought new faces and voices to the fore at Tollcross Community Center .

All this would not have been possible without the openness and humane guidance and mentorship of Stan Reeves and the team at Tollcross Community center and Adult Learning Programme.

Stan is retiring April 8th and if you have not had a chance to meet this force of nature I would really recommend you take this chance to bask in the celebration of a dedicated life of care in the community and a voice for the voiceless.

Stan is a photographer, philosopher, sea farer, prophet and a giant of a man.

thiscollection hopes these models will inspire you to continue to engage spaces in your communities to share and develop literary and cultural interests with the many eager folk who are willing to hear from you. If you do please send us your stories to share on our blog.

Please come to a Party to celebrate Stan’s long involvement and achievements with the Adult Learning Project, the Scots Music Group, The Youth Gaitherin, The Welcoming Project, The Tollcross Community Centre and many others over the years.

OUTBOARD FOR CHILEDONIA 8.8. Stan worked with the ‘Chile in Need’ group in Tollcross and raised £3500 to buy a boat to replace the boats wrecked in the Tsunami in Chile last year. He is now working with Carlos Arredondo to raise money to buy a big outboard motor for the Boat. He needs to raise the same again to buy an engine. Stan therefore does not want any gifts but would greatly
appreciate donations towards buying a new outboard motor for the Chile Boat.

If you would like to make a donation cash and cheques can be handed in to Anne Finlay at the Community Centre office or to Susan Kesson at The Welcoming Office, or sent to Brian McGill as shown below. Please make cheques payable to ‘The ALP Association’. You will also be able to make a donation at the Party.

Please join us at Tollcross Community Centre, 117 Fountainbridge, Edinburgh for an evening of music, song, dancing, food and drink on Friday 8th April from 7.00pm onwards.

RSVP to

Brian McGill
ALP Association Treasurer
Tollcross Community Centre
117 Fountainbridge
EDINBURGH
EH3 9QG
Email: alp.association-at-hotmail.co.uk
Telephone: Brian McGill 0131 445 2769
or: Anne Finlay: 0131 221 5800

this collection is throwing its first ever poetry slam — but forget what you’ve seen and heard before. This is not your usual slam: there will be no brownie points for shouting, no judges, and the poet with the most mates won’t win automatically. This is a friendly slam — all styles, personalities and poetics are welcome. See below…

ROUND ONE: all poets perform under a 2.5 minute time limit. You can do ANYTHING YOU LIKE with those 2.5 minutes — shout, rap, whisper, read off paper, read from memory, read one poem, read fifteen haiku, whatever.

ROUND TWO: the five poets with the lowest scores (see below) will be eliminated, and the remaining poets will perform again — same time limit, same rules.

FINAL: the three poets with the overall highest combined scores from both rounds (and possibly a wildcard) will slug it out in the final (3 minutes this time) for the title of this collection slam champion — and for our lovely prizes (see below).

SCORING: no scary judging panel, no howling audience whooping extra loud for their friends. Each poet will be scored by the other poets performing. Every poet gets a scorecard, and marks their fellow performers out of 30 (marks out of 10 for content, delivery and each scorer’s personal response). Scoring will be ANONYMOUS as scorecards will be collected and tallied by an adjudicator after each round. All poets — including finalists and eliminated poets — will give scores on all three rounds. Please note, poets can’t score themselves!

PRIZES:
1ST — £25, and a mystery prize pack (contents TBC!), plus the title of this collection slam champion!
2ND — £10, and a mystery prize pack
3RD — £5, and a mystery prize pack

PERFORMING ON THE NIGHT!
Stephen Welsh // Scottish Slam Champion 2011 Young Dawkins // Bram E Gieben // Fiona Lindsay // McGuire // Tickle McNicholl // Russell Jones // Mairi Campbell-Jack // Andrew C Fergusson // Andrew Philip // Alec Beattie // Dave Forbes // Sophia Walker // Chris Lindores // Cat Dean // Dave Coates

THIS COLLECTION ALL-WELCOME POETRY SLAM! Come and slam with us for a chance to win some cash!

Invite your friends to our Facebook event! Hope to see you there!

(Photo by Kyre Wood)
]]> http://thiscollection.wordpress.com/2011/03/24/this-collection-friendly-poetry-slam/feed/ 2 Claire and Stefa http://thiscollection.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/property-theft-25th-march-230pm-630pm/ http://thiscollection.wordpress.com/2011/03/16/property-theft-25th-march-230pm-630pm/#comments Wed, 16 Mar 2011 15:50:14 +0000 Claire and Stefa http://thiscollection.wordpress.com/?p=619 ]]>

Visit the Impromptu Unofficial Debt Counsellor

Property and Theft’s opening night in Tollcross was a vibrant success. It brought deep questions about capitalism to the fore through play and creativity. From live impromptu performances of second hand books came scenes form Chekov,”The Cherry Orchard” and a dramatised fragment of “On the Shore of the Wide World” by Simon Stephens celebrated by the curious and sporting participants.

Thiscollection poems inspired Open Source Theatre’s work which seeks to investigate life in decaying capitalism. Visit the impromptu unofficial debt counsellor or take a chance to engage with Rita the gypsy confessional where your consumerist soul will receive due consequence. If the lovingly crafted venue does not charm you into acquiescence then the security guard will address you accordingly. Macy’s market store offers a treasure trove of found remnants of simple pleasures and oddities, yet each object draws out more than just a transaction, if you wish to know more, engage and see.

The session rounds up with an auction of Skills, and the lively barter and trade offer up an alternative definition of surplus in an age of Austerity.

The question remains at the end of this magical spontaneous experience, is have we reaffirmed capitalism or challenged it through the dance.

INTERACTIVE THEATRE BLOG UPDATES

Open Source Theatre Company is developing a project with This Collection poems and Tollcross Community Centre’s Adult Learning Project called “Property and Theft”: it is an interactive theatre project about daily life in a decaying capitalist society. Their blog has more updates of how the process developed.

Last chance to catch this unique intervention
Friday March 25th 2011
Maitinee 2:30pm
Evening 6:30pm

Performances last for an hour and are followed by 30 mins of open discussion about issues raised.

For more info see this blog entry on the Guardian.

Property & Theft: Interactive Theatre March 11 & 25th

Gorgie Farm, Edinburgh

Never work with animals? 

thiscollection poet Juliet Wilson (aka craftygreenpoet) is looking for a film-maker prepared to ignore the old age ‘never work with animals’. Juliet’s poem Animal Haven is set at Edinburgh’s Gorgie City Farm, and stars many of the farm’s animals. The farm is a wonderful place where families can learn about farm animals, small animals such as rabbits and guinea pigs and wildlife gardening.  
 
Juliet’s poem is open to imaginative interpretation by aspiring film makers, as long as it is filmed in Gorgie Farm and features at least some of the animals mentioned in the poem.
 
If you are interested in filming this poem, please contact Juliet on Juliet.M.WilsonATgmailDOTcom with some suggested filming dates. Please give at least two weeks notice of dates, so that arrangements can be made with the farm!
 
Gorgie City Farm website is here.
Juliet blogs here.

MAKE YOUR OWN POETRY ZINE WORKSHOP
TOLLCROSS COMMUNITY CENTRE
TUESDAY 15TH MARCH
5pm — 7pm
A MERE £3 PER PERSON!

Calling all poets!

Come and learn about the awesome art of zine-making: find out a bit about zine culture, read some classic fanzines, and use our resources to create your very own zine — a compendium of your own work that you can give to friends, sell at readings or turn into a series.

You’ll need to bring:

* yourself
* at least one of your poems (printed/typed/handwritten/whatever)
* enthusiasm
* OPTIONAL: stuff to decorate your zine — anything 2D that will stick to a bit of paper. Photos, drawings, newspaper clippings, locks of hair, random scribblings, stickers, ticket stubs –anything that inspires you. We will supply a whole array of this stuff too, but the more you bring, the more original and personal your zine will be!

Come along and meet fellow poets and zine enthusiasts, use our resources and create something cool! All we ask is that you bring along three shiny pounds — this will cover the cost of making copies of your zine for you to take away!

…

Claire Askew is the Editor in Chief of Read This, a literary zine founded in 2007, based in Edinburgh and printed with assistance from the Forest Free Press. Read This has to date produced twenty issues showcasing the best in poetry, prose and drama from brand new writers worldwide. The zine is due to re-launch soon after a year-long hiatus. Claire is currently reading a PhD in Creative Writing and Contemporary Scottish Poetry at the University of Edinburgh and lectures in Literature and Communication at Edinburgh’s Telford College. Her poetry has been published by The Guardian, Poetry Scotland and The Edinburgh Review, among others, and she also runs the writing blog onenightstanzas.com.