What better time could there be to explore what shapes our identities? Fay Young goes in search of the emotional museum
Edinburgh Makars mak mischief in Poetry Garden
Taking a break from Brexit Fay Young finds subversive mischief in the poetry of Edinburgh Makars, as performed in Edinburgh’s Poetry Garden (aka St Andrew Square)
For love of life on land, sea and sky
Confronting hard facts, authors at the inaugural Tobermory Book Festival raise spirits even as they sound alarm bells. Fay Young finds both comfort and warning in the prose and poetry of Scottish writers gathering on Mull.
Russian passport to poetry, propaganda and pride
What does a passport reveal about the holder – or they country they come from? Fay Young finds an unexpected connection between her new Irish passport and the revolutionary Russian poet Vladimir Mayaokovsky
Young Fathers: touching the heart of Scottish creative diversity
Young Fathers symbolise the generous new diversity of Scotland. Celebrating the spirit of creative collaboration found in Paisley at Scottish Album of the Year Award ceremony and the launch of V&A design music in Dundee
Scotland’s first vertical farm grows hope for the future
Where will the money come from? Who invests in Scotland’s chance to be a world-leader in ‘vertical farming’. Key questions add to the urgency and excitement in the huge potential growing inside a small shed on the edge of Dundee.
Confronting gender-based violence: Hopscotch by Nadine Aisha Jassat
This week’s Sceptical Scot poetry post is Hopscotch, by Nadine Aisha Jassat, a powerful, gut-churning challenge to gender-based violence.
A Wall is a Screen: pop up festival aims to reclaim the night
The event is a triumph of creative activism and quiet determination to overcome the ‘Do you need permission for that?’ mindset that can prevent grassroots events. Welcome to pop-up film fest and night time guided walk A Wall Is A Screen: Leith
With age comes…poetry
No formula for winning the Autumn Voices poetry prize. Just write from the heart, read it aloud to check the sense and sound – and make sure you are over 70.
Changing dirt into something beautiful
On yet another day when headlines of old and new media hammer home the madness and mayhem of 2018 politics, here’s a chance to let different words swirl and swell with Rachel McCrum’s Glassblower Dances, Poem of the Moment