Voices join arts together

Voices join arts together
 
Traditional arts given a platform in revamped monthly evenings at the Scottish Storytelling Centre
 

Wed 19 Jan, 7pm (2hrs), £4, 14+
Café Voices
Enjoy oral storytelling, poetry by memory, music and song in the relaxed ambience of the Storytelling Café. Hosted by Gerry Durkin, part of the Connecting Voices project.
 
Wed 9 Feb, 7pm (2hrs), £4, 14+
Café Voices
All You Need Is Love! Enjoy oral storytelling, poetry by memory, music and song in the relaxed ambience of the Storytelling Court as Wendy Woolfson explores the many facets of love for an alternative look at Valentine's. Part of the Connecting Voices project.
 
Wed 9 Mar, 7pm (2hrs), £4, 14+
Café Voices
Life in Stories and Art. A relaxed evening for all, exploring how stories and song, poems and art influence our lives. Hosted by Mary Kenny, to coincide with her exhibition About:Face.

 
Four years on from its original inception, the Centre’s monthly storytelling event for adults gets a revamp from Storytelling Café to Café Voices. The monthly event promises to be a different approach to live performance, with storytellers and spoken word artists both young and old contributing tales, songs, music and poetry in a relaxed café setting with evening snacks, fine coffee and teas, as well as wine and beers.
 
Café Voices acknowledges the importance of traditional arts and provides a fresh platform for people who love words to get creative. The Café brings together spoken word performers, artistic experimentation and the opportunity to build communities and develop crossovers between artforms, resulting in a fantastic event that celebrates language. Café Voices provides the opportunity to satisfy your curiosity about live storytelling as an entertainment artform in a welcoming and inclusive setting. With no obligation to step into the limelight, the laid-back atmosphere, good food and genial company make for a great night out.
 
Donald Smith, Director of the Centre explains that the change from Storytelling Café to Café Voices is “a natural development rather than a revolution. There has been an insurgence of support for the traditional arts and the Centre is simply responding to the desire to ensure there is a platform of cross-communication and collaboration across the artforms to bring the traditional arts together in celebration. Storytelling, music, song and poetry by memory are already part of the Café, but it’s vital to acknowledge the variety of performance styles and take it forward as part of Connecting Voices”.
 
Connecting Voices is a joint project between the Scottish Storytelling Centre and the Scottish Poetry Library to foster creative links of all voices together, locally and nationally. Connecting Voices believes in throwing words wide open and wants everyone to be able to create with language and experiment with their technique as Robyn Marsack, Director of the Scottish Poetry library highlights:
“In Café Voices poetry will be right at home, with poets using their own form of storytelling, and storytellers easily slipping into poetry, taking inspiration from each other. I’m very happy about this widened circle for poets to get their work heard, and no doubt brush up performance skills after hearing storytellers”. 
 
Tickets: 0131 556 9579 or call into the Scottish Storytelling Centre, 43-45 High Street, Edinburgh, EH1 1SR