Excited for this! 😍

Our first Open Mic of 2026 is NEXT WEEK! Our first feature poet is our Grand Slam Champion, Aditya Narayan! Aditya is a spoken word poet born in India and performing in the UK for over a year. He is the current Roundhouse Slam Champion and the reigning Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion.

This is going to be the best blether on belonging, language and poetry @edbookfest.bsky.social. So excited to be chairing Karen on her beautiful collection - Minx @karendownsbarton.bsky.social. See you next week #EdBookFest #poetry

This is the week Scotland was forced to confront its role in slavery, and say: ‘Yes, that was us’ | Hannah Lavery

Powerful read from @hannahlavery.bsky.social over on @theguardian.com ‘History is not settled. Our story is not finished’ www.theguardian.com/commentisfre... .

Come join us for an evening of poetry and fundraising for families in Gaza @lighthousebks.bsky.social

Come see us for #DisruptingTheNarrative at the @edbookfest.bsky.social A poetry performance interrogating Edinburgh’s historic & heritage collections. Photography by Kat Gollock’s & music set to our poems by S.Niroshini Hannah Lavery Niall Moorjani Jeda Pearl Alycia Pirmohamed

What did you do during the genocide in Gaza? | Arwa Mahdawi

Rereading this poweful little beauty @sidhepress.bsky.social @shastahali.bsky.social @oormilaprahlad.bsky.social @janeburn.bsky.social as we really need light right now. #Poetry #domesticviolence

Their silencing must be our speaking. Words to encourage in our homes, institutions, and neighborhoods. Source: NYT

In March's @edinreporter.bsky.social 📰 Read it here t.co/kmNfGqthZm

We're looking for people living in Edinburgh who have experienced poverty and/or racism and want to see real change in the city. A paid opportunity to help decide which community projects will really make a difference and get funded for ten years. regenerativefuturesfund.org.uk/join-us/resi...

Reflecting on @corra.scot brill #CYPFEIFConference2025 I had the best audience to travel to the future with. Huge thanks to all the delegates for being open, hopeful & visionary. As always 🙌🏽 @lighthousebks.bsky.social whose shopfront messages of hope I use for all my #CollectiveImagination sessions

Hey there it's Andy here, just arriving in bsky. Working with the brilliant @leahblack.bsky.social and Aala on the Regenerative Futures Fund regenerativefuturesfund.org.uk a 10 year community fund for Edinburgh that puts decision-making power into the hands of those most often excluded.

One of my conference takeaways today, from a beautiful imagination exercise led by my colleague @shastahali.bsky.social

So nice to be chairing the CYPFEIF&ALEC/CYPFAL conference with @corrafoundation.bsky.social . Such a brilliant bunch of people in the room, and loved our Collective Imagination Session session with the lovely @shastahali.bsky.social this morning.

After months of collective punishment and the death of over 40,000 in Gaza, any suggestion Palestinians should be removed from their home is unacceptable and dangerous. There must be no ethnic cleansing. Only a proper two state solution will bring lasting peace.

A big update:

I'm in Pitlochry. It's gorgeous, as are these writers. @hannahlavery.bsky.social @catacts.bsky.social @shastahali.bsky.social

How to start the year! Celebrating achievements of Edinburgh based Bengali women’s group Mohila Ogrojatra in Scottish Parliament. Women, confidence, showing leadership, public speaking, there was even poetry 💜 Supported by @shastahali.bsky.social and her colleagues at @corrafoundation.bsky.social

A wee reflection on our Regenerative Futures Fund collective imaginagion work in 2024 💜 leah-black.medium.com/developing-a... @shastahali.bsky.social + not sure who else is on here, hopefully I find you all! 🌿✍️

Bangladeshi, Black African and Pakistani families are up to 5x more likely to be living in severe poverty for a long time compared to white families in the UK 📢 We've carried out new research to understand what these families experience and why they have this elevated risk 1/6

Maybe now the silent majority will get behind a ceasefire and start calling it a genocide.

Word of the day is a favourite, from old Scots. To ‘tartle’ is to hesitate while introducing someone because you have completely forgotten their name.

so inspired by Jasleen Kaur makes me think of how representation at the gallery or lit event isn't the work done. the politics that underline our art aren't thought experiments. real life action must happen, a changed world must follow. if not, these places aren't housing our art, they're caging it

❤️‍🔥 Jasleen Kaur, on winning the Turner Prize: “I’ve been wondering why artists are required to dream up liberation in the gallery but when that dream meets life we are shut down” youtu.be/6RoLMAf37qY

Last night Turner Prize 2024 winner Jasleen Kaur used her acceptance speech to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, to demand an end to institutional complicity in Israels genocide & to call for an immediate arms embargo.

Today’s #HenryDuncanGrants community story is from Scottish Arab Women’s Association, who are all about befriending & empowerment: www.corra.scot/scott...#HenryDuncanGrants Thank you to Huda Alarishi, Chairperson of Scottish Arab Women Association, for writing this piece for us.

This is an absolutely fabulous book. Highly recommended.

We are delighted that Hannah Lavery has been nominated for Best Narrator at this year's AudioUK’s 2024 Audio Production Awards for Finding Seaglass 🏆 This emotional story of love, loss, grief, and hope is also available to listen to again on BBC Sounds

On Friday @ Push The Boat Out poetry festival in Edinburgh, poets @jedapearl.bsky.social @alycia.bsky.social Hannah Lavery, Niall Moorjani + my friend @shastahali.bsky.social absolutely owned the stage, their presence, confidence, vulnerability and unity was powerful, moving, my heart was thumping 💕

Disrupting the Narrative performance last night moved through what it means to live in Edinburgh as Black & brown people whose heritages intersect with it's colonial history. Such an honour to share & hold space with Hannah Lavery, @alycia.bsky.social @shastahali.bsky.social Niall Moorjani 1/

So looking forward to this tomorrow evening #PushTheBoatOut poetry festival. Truly disrupting the narrative around Edinburgh’s heritage & historic collections with these wonderful humans. Set to haunting photography by Kat & stunning music by Niroshini for each of our poems . See you there 🫶🏽

In case you missed it yesterday, CRER's new analysis of racial inequalities in socio-economic deprivation is available now at the link below.

First up we have Ubuntu Women Shelter, based in Glasgow: www.corra.scot/ubuntu-women... They provide support for destitute women and people of other marginalised genders who have no recourse to public funds, and have insecure immigration status in Scotland.

This time next week! Friday 22 Nov at Push the Boat Out Resting as Artists 11:15 am Dance Base, Studio 3 Free, ticketed Disrupting the Narrative 8:30 pm Scottish Storytelling Centre £15 /£12 /or £5 with festival pass BSL interpreted Free live-stream, captions jedapearl.com/push-the-boa...

Can’t wait!! 💙