Tenacious Tales on Tall Ships
I'm looking forward to launching my 2019 sponsored storytelling quest this weekend. Telling Tenacious Tales on Ten Tall Ships In the run up to 2020 The Year of Scottish Coasts & Waters I am gathering seafaring stories to share for free with coastal communities. My challenge is to tell tales on ten tall ships in 2019 and my first vessel is a fine one and a great Fun Day out: HMS Unicorn in Dundee! I also be gathering stories of ...
Setting sail for 2019
Here’s to 2019 a stellar year of sailing stories and adventures at sea! ‘Thrawn’ in Scots or ‘Trass’ in Norwegian translates as stubborn and to create strength separate skeins of ropes are thrawn together. Earlier in 2018 I orchestrated an afternoon of ‘Thrawn’ story and song at Leith Dockers Club with two choirs: Trass Male voice choir from Norway and Newhaven Community Choir. Norwegian storyteller Hilde Eskild and I shared ...
Motherhood, Loss and the First World War
Since 2014 I have been working alongside diverse communities across Scotland to enable them share their own stories. As part of local campaign Growing Stories at The Scottish International Storytelling Festival - I recently ran a workshop for storytellers where we paused to reflect on the power of memorial and the legacy of loss. The project title was daunting: Motherhood, Loss and the First World War. How should we tell the stories of a million ...
Bags full of stories!
This Spring I have been working on an intergenerational project that combines my love of textiles as an artist and my love of storytelling. Commissioned by Newhaven Heritage Society, who together with Judith Crabb had successfully bid for a grant from the HLF, I have been working with P5 classes from Victoria Primary School in Newhaven in North Edinburgh and with the wonderful Haven Group who have kindly shared their stories with us. ...
New Year – New Story
A story is best told eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart. I was delighted in December to be accepted onto the directory of The Scottish Storytelling Forum. Inspired by spending time with storytellers on various projects since my return to Scotland 4 years ago I started my storytelling apprenticeship 3 years ago. It has been an honour and a pleasure to meet so many amazing storytellers, mentors and fellow apprentices from all walks of ...
Songbird workshops start!
Thanks to funding from The Edward Marshall Trust my community research project The Thrive Archive have just started a series of musical workshops in fishing village of Newhaven here in Edinburgh. We welcomed a lovely intergenerational group of budding songwriters with several newcomers and ages ranged from 11 to over 70. We managed to write a verse and a chorus in our first session thanks to Jed Milroy’s expert leadership, starting by ...
Creel o’ Stories and Gala days
The Newhaven fishwives were famous for their cry and this summer I’ll be bartering like a fishwife – how much do you think a song and a story is worth? Following a sunny gala day at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther in May I will be touring with my Creel o’ stories to the Museum of Edinburgh’s gorgeous courtyard on Tuesday’s and Thursdays throughout the Festival Fringe. My songs all have a fishy flavour and celebrate ...
Life’s a pitch!
A couple of weeks ago my project bid was selected as one of the final 6 in a very competitive field. I was given a half hour slot to present our bid to three of the Trust's board that came to visit The Thrive Archive project. The Thrive Archive works with diverse communities to help them tell their story in innovative ways. The story goes that there was once a willow tree in Fishermen’s park. It supplied the raw materials for creels, ...
Stargazey pie
Earlier last month I had the pleasure of visiting two care homes in Falkirk with Mrs Mash the wonderful storytelling cook to chat to residents about how to feed the bairns on next to nothing! As Reader in Residence at The Scottish Book Trust this was an extension of a previous project with P6's at Grangemouth Library to see how creative projects can become intergenerational. We told stories and sang lots of fishy songs and asked them to share ...
Are you sitting comfortably?
A story is like a cat – it finds you, jumps into your lap, curls up and starts to purr. I remember having stories read to me every night as a child and I read to my own son. The joy of reading aloud and listening to stories was the main reason for writing 10 stories from both the German and the British perspective for my latest WW1 project Lone Wolves. Based on historical accounts of sailors and submarines as well as weaving Greek myth, ...