Latest News
FLAWS, the debut album by boletes, is out now. This great name-your-price digital album is downloadable via bandcamp with 50% of the download profits going to bring back Edinburgh’s ‘Forest cafe’.
Limited edition physical copies of the album are available for pre-order with the release date still to be announced.
Download your copy here : http://boletes.bandcamp.com/
There will also be a performance at Henderson’s St John’s on Lothian Road on the 2nd of April for Edinburgh University Art Society at 11pm.
The Inky Fingers Open Mic 28 February from 8-11pm
It’s free !!!!!!
This month, we’re incredibly excited to be featuring two top US poets, KEN ARKIND and JON SANDS, as part of their UK tour. Ken Arkind is a National Poetry Slam Champion, Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Champion and full time touring artist who has performed across the US, been publishedin numerous anthologies, and featured in HBO, CBS, NBC and Borders.com’s Open Door Poetry series. Jon Sands is a full-time teaching & performing artist. His first full collection of poems, The New Clean, was released in 2011 from Write Bloody Publishing. Jon is currently the Director of Poetry Education at the Positive Health Project.
The Inky Fingers Open Mic takes place on the fourth Tuesday of the month, from 8-11pm. It’s free to come and free for anyone to perform, regardless of style, experience, or identity. We want to hear from everybody, and we want to support everybody in performing for a friendly audience. We want your poems, your rants, your ballads, your short stories, your diaries, your experimental texts, your heart, your mind, your body. We want the essay on your summer holidays you wrote when you were four, your adolescent haiku, and extracts from your eventually-to-be-completed epic fantasy quadrilogy. We want to hear your best new work as well. And we want people to care about the way words are performed.
As well as the open mic, each night features top performers from the UK and further afield: we bring you the best in poetry, storytelling, fiction, and everything else that involves putting beautiful words in a beautiful order!
Spaces to perform are limited, so please email inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to reserve a space.
Knitting Workshop
Sunday 5th February - 2-6pm
Autonomous Centre of Edinburgh
A chance to learn to knit and work on a group piece of work! It’s also a chance to meet together while we are waiting for a new building!
The needles and wool will be supplied but please feel free to bring your own.
ACE, 17 West Montgomery Place, Edinburgh EH7 5HA
ForestFAQ
Where is the Forest Now?
1. What happened to the Forest?
We had to leave our home of the last eight years at 3 Bristo Place at the end of August. This was not our choice, but our landlords ended our lease and would not consider extending it. They informed us that selling the building would be easier if there was not a sitting tenant. The building is still for sale four months after we left.
However, Forest is not finished or done and dusted. Remember, apart from the actual space, there are many dynamic and vibrant aspects of the Forest we’ve developed over the last 11 years. Since March we’ve known that our unwanted departure from Bristo Place was the likely outcome, barring a change of heart. As August drew nearer, we spent more and more time drafting a departure plan that has always had the Forest’s future in mind. Not for a moment did we consider a Forest-less future. Much of what was in the building – important items that helped the Forest to function like the photocopier, the PAs, the screen printing equipment and all the kitchen things – were moved into storage. For some reason, we also kept pencil sharpeners and old mop heads but no one is really sure why.
Apart from a space where to hold its activities, the Forest still exists in every other aspect – both paperwork and community-wise. The Forest is a registered charity, we still have all of the fundraising figures waiting for our new premises and, much thanks to the virtual online world, we still have an amazing network of friends and supporters, which brings us to the next point.
2. Who is “we”? Who is working for the Forest now?
The Forest still is, now more than ever, powered by dedicated volunteers committed to keep it alive and bring it back to the community. The backbone of the situation management is the Forest Action Team, composed of long-term, experienced volunteers who can’t live with the absence of the Pound Tea Mug in Edinburgh’s life. The Forest Action Team used to meet on a monthly basis before August and, since then, we have met on a regular basis as well as discussing things electronically. The main items are the developments on the building search, fundraising and event organisation/co-ordination.
For events we still rely on our brilliant volunteer community that made the Forest such a happy and unique place. We would never be able to run anything without the vollies’ time, dedication and incredible energy! Through Facebook, Twitter, the Bulletin Board and word of mouth, FAT tries to gather as many views and voices as possible on the future of the Forest. We incorporate them in the discussions and choices made at such a delicate and exciting moment on the Forest history.
3. Do you have a new location already?
No. This is proving quite difficult, maybe because the Forest is such a special and unique space. Even in physical terms, we’re difficult to fit anywhere ready-made! We’re currently looking at premises in central Edinburgh where we can run a café plus host events and activities. Sadly, we are unlikely to find somewhere exactly like Bristo Place, where we received a subsidised rent that allowed us to do everything we did in a wonderful and much loved space.
However, we have held negotiations with various landlords, including Edinburgh Council, about renting properties. Sadly, the owners have decided to go with somebody who is offering more money or the properties would require too much in the way of renovations to make them work for us. That hasn’t deterred us and we keep looking and talking to ANYBODY who can help us. If you see an empty property that you think would suit the Forest, please let us know.
The goal, at the moment, is to have a new space open in Spring 2012. We are currently (January 2012) in negotiations about one property and are investigating other possibilities. Rest assured though, once we have news we will let you know – and throw a party.
4. What about 3 Bristo Place?
We loved Bristo Place and didn’t want to leave. However, staying there wasn’t within our control. For those who don’t know the background, Edinburgh University Settlement (EUS) owned 3 Bristo Place and rented it to the Forest. EUS, an Edinburgh-based charity that operated as a local community action centre with a number of social outreach programmes, was declared bankrupt in October 2010 and forced into administration. The Forest launched a campaign to raise funds to buy the building. Sadly, we didn’t raise enough money to allow us to compete with property developers and others who are interested in the building. Since we’ve mentioned money, this seems the natural next section…
5. What happened with the fundraising?
We had hoped to raise at least £100,000, so we could secure a mortgage to buy Bristo Place. We set up a JustGiving account, which you can still contribute to. To date, our efforts have raised over £38,000, whether through donations, fund-raising events or people putting money in the bucket. Despite what you may have read in some parts, that money is all accounted for and in the charity’s bank account. We will only use it once we have the premises to spend it on. In effect, the money you have donated over the last year will help ensure the Forest continues. When we open that means you will have helped save the Forest, for which we love you .
We also created a campaign on WeFund, the UK’s largest crowd-funding platform for creative projects. This was set up so people could pledge money to help us reach the £100k mark to secure a commercial mortgage. WeFund had never hosted such an ambitious project. The site works by allowing people to pledge money, which is only taken from their account if the campaign reached its target. In the end we received £25,000 worth of pledges, which sadly wasn’t enough. Having said all that, it showed how much people care about the Forest and how important they think it is. We owe everybody who pledged any amount a HUGE thank you for their support and encouragement.
6. What have you done since September?
Apart from creating the world’s first glitter smuggling operation, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at properties, discussing renting them – both amongst the Forest Action Team and with landlords – and running events. In September we hosted an art auction, an alternative Freshers’ Fair and a Psychegaelic Cèilidh. October saw the return of the Forest’s 48-hour Film Hunt while November included Samhain Zombie Cèilidh and an online Q&A day. In December we hosted the Frosty Forest Feast and CALLOOCALLAY! The Great Edinburgh Scavenger Hunt. We’ve also published a 2012 Forest Calendar*, featuring volunteers and familiar faces in striking poses throughout Bristo Place. We’ve also attended and held meetings. Lots of meetings. We’ve spoken to Building Control, Fire Officers, Planning Officers, the Public Safety Team, architects, the Police and many others. We’ve also led full and sometimes fulfilling lives away from the Forest, but not very often.
7. Why haven’t you opened up a café already?
We could have opened up in a premises that could hold just a café but we decided not to. Why? Put simply, a café is not the be-all and end-all of the Forest. First and foremost we are an arts, community and events charity, admittedly one that often masquerades as a vegetarian café. If we were to open as just a café, we would have to run it as a business, which means not having space for people to get involved in creative activity, no live performances, no gallery, no free shop and no sitting around enjoying the atmosphere without any pressure to buy a coffee every thirty minutes. That’s not us and we didn’t think it was what people wanted either. There are already plenty of places like that in the centre of Edinburgh. We want the Forest up and running, but we also want to host creative activities.
8. How can I help?
What can you do? If you have a skill or ability, we’ll find some way to harness it. If you have an idea for a fund-raising activity, get in touch but most importantly JFDI! Seriously, the Forest is about empowering people, giving them the opportunity to do something. We’ll help in terms of publicity, advice, volunteers and anything else you need. But if you have an idea, especially one that will help our fundraising efforts, go ahead and do it.
Apart from fundraising, if you have an idea of a free event that you think the Forest could host then get in contact. If you know of a suitable empty building, apart from the Roxy and the Clerk Street Odeon, that is suitable for the Forest, let us know. If you just want to generally help, contact our Volunteer Co-ordinator either via Facebook or by email. If you want to donate money, saunter along to the JustGiving site. If you just want to say hi or ask a question, you can do that on our Facebook page.
9. What have you planned for 2012?
Fun. Music. Laughter. Art. Tasty and affordable food. Raiding the Free Shop. Events. And glitter. Lots and lots of glitter.
10. Where?
Anywhere we can but mainly in central Edinburgh.
11. Is the Forest going to keep the veggie burrito on the menu?
Hell yeah! What could we replace it with after all?
If you have any other questions on Forest and/or the meaning of life, please contact us via Facebook, email, Twitter or bb.
THE GOLDEN HOUR: TORONTO
SATURDAY JANUARY 14TH ATPLACEBO SPACE. 9pm.
THIS EVENT IS PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.
Edinburgh’s Lit&Music Cabaret Comes to Toronto
Poets read. Musicians play. The audience is incited to revolution—or a stiff drink
DAMIAN ROGERS: Electrifying. Damian’s poetry is rock’n’roll. Sample: “I say let’s keep wasting our lives and burn/our trash as we go.”
RYAN VAN WINKLE: Award-winning, Edinburgh-dwelling bearded poet. He’ll make you swoon. Sample: “We were fucking/our way up the tower and God saw us coming.”
MATTHEW J. TRAFFORD: Crafter of surreal short stories featuring Jesus clones & mermaids. Sample: “I was born library, where my parents read from opening until closing every day, where they met, where I assume they first coupled.”
TRAPLINESA: banjo. Some poems. Do we need to say more?Sample: “I got so fat they called a crane. Everyone was nice about it, but I was too fat to care.”
NEIL QUIN: The guitarist from Zeus will blow you away with his shiny solo act.
PHANTOM SHORES: Ottawa-based folk rockers with lush harmonies and blazing lyrics. Violin, sex & rock’n’roll.
CHLOE CHARLES: This hypnotizing songstress will leave you spellbound – just try to resist.
PLUS SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST.
THIS EVENT IS PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN.
AT PLACEBO SPACE. 1409 Bloor Street West, Apt A
THE READEASY WRITERS’ GROUP Friday 13th December, 6-9pm Word of Mouth Café, 3A Albert St, Edinburgh
Hello writers! Whether you are a poet, novelist, scriptwriter, or haven’t yet made 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.
Every month a group of writers meets in a cosy 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 a notepad and your wonderful mind!
Places are limited, so please send your email a few days in advance to make sure you get a space.
GLOBAL CONDITIONING: A Creative Writing Open Mic
for World Community Arts Day
FRIDAY 10th February, 7.30pm
SPACE THEATRE, 11 Harewood Rd, Craigmillar
Free entry
Craigmillar Writers Group and Inky Fingers are teaming up to bring you a brand new writing and performance event for the international celebrations of World Community Arts Day. Featuring tall tales, banter poetry, wild stories and writing of every description, this extra special performance night will be featuring writers from all walks of life, with space for you too to perform your work.
Craigmillar Writers Group is an old but new group in the Community, sponsored by the Adult Learning Link and Craigmillar Archives Trust, with the aim of supporting local people and groups in Creative Writing, reminiscences and poetry.
Inky Fingers (http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com) is an Edinburgh-based writing and performance group staging open and exciting events for people who love words, from open mics and slams to workshops and minifests.
Together, both groups believe in throwing the stage wide open to anyone’s words: we care about supporting writers of all levels of experience, and making events where everyone can have fun.
To find out more about the event, or to sign up for an open mic slot (spaces open to absolutely anyone, but limited in number), please email inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com
Tickets are free but limited. Sign up at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2711493149/ to be sure to make it!
Coming soon … you will be
The Forest is going to spice up your mince pie this Winterval, with its most raunchy offering to date.
The 2012 calendar features your favourite friendly Forest faces, showing more than just their faces. Seldom has pen pushing looked so sexy. Rarely has a light trim seemed so appealing, or a fire extinguisher been so vital. And never has such a large organ been straddled, or a banana skin looked so inadequate.
The 2012 calendar is so hot, it cannot be legally used before January 1st. It will cause your artificial tree to drop its needles. And it will definitely blow all your Christmas lights.
If you only splash out on one thing this Christmas, make sure you buy a copy of the 2012 Forest calendar first. Proceeds will go to help bringing back Edinburgh’s favourite vegetarian and vegan cafe. Spend your wad on the calendar, and together we can beat the meat.
More outlet info to follow.
Crikey
CALLOOCALLAY! The Great Edinburgh Scavenger Hunt
December 10th 11am-6pm
Want to play?
It’s a city wide all day scavenger hunt type thing…
Can you find a seashell in the city? Kiss Sir Walter Scott and prove it? Find a hero for a policeman? Shoot the Urban Fox?
Scaveng, scrounge, beg, borrow, blag for honour, glory and a grand cash prize of £100…
Email calloocallaydec2011@gmail.com to register.
£10 per team if you register by Thursday 8th December or £15 on the day.
(A Forest Reverie)
For more information and the full rules, see our scavenger hunt website
The Nightmare Before the Office Christmas Party
December 13th, 7 - 11
The Third Door, Lothia St
£3.50/£4.50
Inky Fingers, Edinburgh’s grassroots events series for writers and performers, is putting on a spectacular literary office party. Come in your awful bowties and desperate tinsel to enjoy festive and unfestive performances from top local writers, photocopier destruction, an extraordinary literary secret santa, a competition for the worst christmas cracker joke, and much else besides. Grotesque, glorious, and packed to the gunnels with amazing words: be there!
Inky Fingers is an Edinburgh-based events series for writers and performers, running workshops, open mics, and special literary events. Find out more at http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com/, on Facebook, or on Twitter @InkyFingersEdin.
THE READEASY WRITERS’ GROUP
Tuesday 6th December, 6-9pm
Word of Mouth Café, 3A Albert St, Edinburgh
Hello writers! Whether you are a poet, novelist, scriptwriter, or haven’t yet made 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.
Every month a group of writers meets in a cosy 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 a notepad and your wonderful mind!
Places are limited, so please send your email a few days in advance to make sure you get a space.
Vegan Banquet! December 10th, 7pm til late
It’s that time of the year again. Grab your knitting, follow the smell of apples and cinnamon and get ready to rock your woolly socks off in the coziest vegan banquet of the year.
The Forest warmly invites you to The Forest Frosty Feast!
We will prepare a very special yummy vegan three course winter menu, all prepared with season ingredients and 100% volunteer love.
Each dish will be tuned to cosy live music… and some dancy glittery surprises!
Tickets: £7 - £10
BYOB - no corkage
Beautiful vollies and 100% Forest atmosphere guaranteed!
Book your ticket now at info@theforest.org.uk or buy it at
The Chocolate Tree - 123 Bruntsfield Place or Word of Mouth Cafe - 3A Albert St (Leith)
December 10th – Old St Paul’s Church, 63 Jeffrey Street
Doors open at 7pm
Forest Q&A Day
15th November
Online and Everywhere
It’s cold. It’s dark. The Forest is missed, what with its concentrated body heat and passion for extra jalapenos. We haven’t been idle these past months. There has been plotting, planning, wheedling, campaigning & writing on paper.
Do you want to ask us what’s going on? Where we are? What the future looks like? There will be volunteers online ALL DAY 15 November to answer your questions. We’ll be running it simultaneously on the BB, our Facebook group and on our Twitter account. About Forest stuff mostly, but we’ll probably talk to you about anything. Come say hi…
xx
Inky Fingers Open Mic
Tuesday 22nd November, 8-11pm
The Third Door, 46 - 47 Lothian St, EH1 1HB
The Inky Fingers Open Mic takes place on the fourth Tuesday of the month, from 8-11pm. It’s free to come and free for anyone to perform, regardless of style, experience, or identity. We want to hear from everybody, and we want to support everybody in performing for a friendly audience. We want your poems, your rants, your ballads, your short stories, your diaries, your experimental texts, your heart, your mind, your body. We want the essay on your summer holidays you wrote when you were four, your adolescent haiku, and extracts from your eventually-to-be-completed epic fantasy quadrilogy. We want to hear your best new work as well. And we want people to care about the way words are performed.
As well as the open mic, each night features top performers from the UK and further afield: we bring you the best in poetry, storytelling, fiction, and everything else that involves putting beautiful words in a beautiful order!
Spaces to perform are limited, so please email inkyfingersedinburgh@gmail.com to reserve a space.
Inky Fingers is an Edinburgh-based events series for writers and performers, running workshops, open mics, and special literary events. Find out more at http://inkyfingersedinburgh.wordpress.com, on Facebook, or on Twitter @InkyFingersEdin.
THE READEASY WRITERS’ GROUP
Tuesday 15th November, 6-9pm
Word of Mouth Café, 3A Albert St, Edinburgh
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 a cosy 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 a notepad and 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.”