Welcome to the new Inky Fingers website and our fabulous third year of operations!
Inky Fingers has had quite a story so far. When we set up a simple open mic at the old Forest Café at 3 Bristo Place, we never expected that in two years we’d be running an event nearly every week, organising entire minifestivals, and collaborating on projects with groups from Craigmillar Writers Group to the Scottish Poetry Library. It’s only been possible because of the hard work of a dedicated collective of volunteers, and the fantastic support of our venues, audiences, and the many other spoken word events in Edinburgh and beyond (see the link sections at the foot of the website for some of them).
In our third year of operations, we’re committing to keeping the same core events that we built our programme around, and keeping them free: a monthly open mic and a monthly peer-led workshop. But alongside that, you can expect many more events from us and collaborations with more organisations, as well as more opportunities to work with us. Here’s some of what we’re introducing in Year Three:
- We’re hiring our first staff member, a Project Manager to co-ordinate our collaborations with community writers’ groups (supported by Creative Scotland and the Robertson Trust).
- You can now book us to create a unique event for your organisation, or to run one of our professionally-facilitated writing and performance workshops.
- We’re adding to our programme of free workshops a SPEAKeasy: alternating with our popular READeasy writers’ group, this is a chance to get feedback on your performance skills in a safe and supportive environment.
- We’re moving our regular free events back to our supportive home at The Forest, which can now be found at 141 Lauriston Place.
- We’ll be blogging regularly on our new website, which we’ve built to be easier to navigate and to keep a better record of all the work we do.
How can you get involved? Well, first of all, check our events diary and come along to an event – we’ll be doing something most weeks! Secondly, if you’re interested in joining the team of volunteers, then do get in touch: we thrive on new ideas from committed, energetic people. We could also do with some feedback on our new website, so let us know your thoughts. Lastly, spread the word! We do this work because we love connecting with audiences and bringing new people to spoken word, so follow us here, on Twitter and on Facebook and tell your friends too.
Thanks for joining us on this amazing trip so far. On we go!
Inky Fingers : Words and Performance 