INKY FINGERS WORDLAB
“Making Poetry Out Of Horrible Things”, with Richard Tyrone Jones
Sunday 24th July, 2-4pm

Action Room, Forest Café, Bristo Place, Edinburgh
FREE

Building on our hugely popular monthly open mic (fourth Tuesday) and writers’ groups (second Thursday), Inky Fingers is launching a new series of special free workshops, where the best of local and national writing and performing talent will be sharing their skills. Each month, one of our open mic feature performers will be running a workshop to stimulate your brains and help you expand the horizons of your writing and performance.

Richard Tyrone Jones is not only the Director of ‘Utter!’ Spoken Word, but a wide-ranging and versatile host, guide, poet, writer, writing workshop leader and spoken word event organiser. His work ranges from the amusingly daft, through the witheringly self-deprecating to the multilayered, poignant and formally innovative, always cut through by a strong vein of ironic humour, bold leaps of the imagination, a strident voice and a deft technique. He has this to say about the workshop:

“You know all those poems where middle-aged middle-class people talk about the wonderful sunsets they saw in their holiday in Tuscany, and ‘ooh, a snake looked at me’? Ruddy boring aren’t they. Well, now we’re going to make poems out the horrible things in our life, which should be much more interesting. What would alcoholism look like if it was a pet? We’ll foresee our own inevitable deaths and turn them into great hulking unstoppable metaphorical juggernauts. That should be a bit more interesting. And if you don’t get any decent writing out of it, well, it should work as some weird kind of therapy.”

Places are limited: e-mail inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to sign up.

Find Inky Fingers online at http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com, on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=101994993200164, and on Twitter @InkyFingersEdin.

Click Clack Club
21st July, 9pm
presenting music and other performing arts of an experimental nature

featuring:
Unearth (spontaneous song machine)
Graeme Stephen (electric magic / solo guitar)
Trio Velcro (new power trio of sax / tuba / percussion)

Golden Hour
July 20, 8pm
FREE

Featuring this month:

Words:
Degna stone - The new Newcastle poet rocks up and rocks on!
Amy Burns — A little American Class.
Luke Williams — original, brilliant, inconceivable says Ali Smith.

Music:

Portnawak & The Woo — gypsy folk hop, psychedelic tribal bounce music and organic punk……with the added element of Woo!
BenOfficial — electro art performance for which you are all woefully unprepared!

THE READEASY WRITERS’ GROUP Thursday 14th July 6-9pm FOREST CAFÉ ACTION ROOM

WHAT IT IS

Hello aspiring writers! — whether you are a budding poet, novelist, scriptwriter, or haven’t yetmade up your mind, the Inky Fingers Writers’ Group is for YOU. We meet to read and talk about each other’s work in a fun, safe, and constructive environment. It is a unique (and free) opportunity to get feedback, to experience new writing, and to hear your work read aloud: and best of all, it is anonymous, so you can feel completely at ease.

HOW WE WORK

Every month a group of writers meets in the front room of the Forest Café to discuss their work. Each member submits a piece of writing for the group, these are anonymised and printed out, everyone is given one piece to read, and then we take turns reading the piece aloud and giving feedback.

To attend for a session, just drop us an email at inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com, with a piece of your writing attached. Any genre, and extracts are certainly allowed, but the limit is about 500 words, so that we’ve time to read them all. Also, please use either .pdf, .odt or .doc (not .docx!) file formats.

Come along on the night, and we will read each piece aloud and chat about it. (Let us know if you’re not going to be able to attend, so that we can make your space available to someone else.) Bring wine! Bring cake! Bring a notepad! Bring your wonderful mind!

Places are limited, so please send your email a few days in advance to make sure you get a space. (Please note also, that only those who have submitted a piece themselves can come – if you want to just come and listen to amazing new writing, then please come to our Open Mic.)

The discussion is really informal, so don’t feel you have to be an authority on literary criticism, or, well, on anything.

WHAT FOLK HAVE SAID

“I have always wanted to attend a group like this to share and get feedback on my work. However, I was always too nervous to share my work with so many other writers at one time. The Inky Fingers method is very good because it allows you to share your work anonymously, while still receiving feedback. I found it to be an excellent experience with lots of good discussion amongst a very nice bunch of people.”

TIME AND PLACE

The second Thursday of every month, 6 – 9pm, in the Action Room of the Forest Café, Bristo Place.

CALLOUT FOR MINIFEST VOLUNTEERS!

Inky Fingers needs you. We’re organising a hugely ambitious minifestival of spoken word at the Forest Café from the 8th to the 13th of August, and we need a team of enthusiastic volunteers to help make it the huge success we know it can be. Jobs will involve helping to

• Manage events
• Look after performers
• Distribute promo
• Keep the festival running smoothly

You would need to be available for at least three 5-6 hour shifts between the 8th and the 13th, and for planning / induction meetings on either Sunday 24th or Sunday 31st. Additional help in the run up to the festival would also be welcome.

In return for your work - You’ll be entitled to a big free meal from Forest each day you work the minifest; - We can also ply you with alcohol/coffee/drink of your choice; - You’ll get a guaranteed slot at one of the three Minifest open mics, if you want it; - You’ll also get to be part of making an extraordinary and pioneering festival happen. You’ll be right in there at the beginning of a new festival, which is fantastic CV fodder; - We’ll happily give you a professional reference in the future; - And we’ll give you a t-shirt! (Really.)

Please apply to inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com by midday Sunday 17th July — just tell us a bit about yourself, your experience, why you want to be part of the Minifest, and your schedule / other commitments during the Minifest period.