Welcome to Queer Folks’ Tales, our hugely popular bi-monthly storytelling series where queer storytellers from a diverse range of backgrounds, ages and cultures around Edinburgh and Scotland share stories of LGBTQ+ lives, past, present and future. Sometimes hilarious, often moving, occasionally shocking, the mix of true and fictional stories across the year is as varied as the range of storytellers we invite.
Household names feature alongside new and diverse queer storytellers from the different communities of Scotland. Many of the stories told in the Queer Folks' Tales evenings will be true stories of LGBTQ+ experience in Scotland today. Hosted by Edinburgh’s Turan Ali, joined in December by award-winning poet-comedian RJ Hunter, talented writer-performer Emma Lynne Harley and acclaimed singer-songwriter Josie Duncan.
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Turan Ali has been producing, directing and writing BBC Radio dramas and comedies for over 20 years. He has also been telling stories of queer lives and experiences on stage since 2012, and more recently as a stand up. His shows have toured internationally and he has two sell out monthly storytelling shows in Vienna. He is the host and producer of Queer Folks’ Tales.
Emma Lynne Harley is a queer, working-class, multidisciplinary theatre maker, director, writer and performer who makes vibrant cross-genre work. They are a Lyceum L20 alum, and co-director of award-winning Siren Theatre Company with shows including TXT ME: Cyber Showcase and Online Protest, Walking on Eggshells. They perform regularly as a cabaret artist around Scotland.
RJ Hunter (they/she) is an Edinburgh-based spoken-word artist and comedian who is the Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion 2023. Known for fast-paced performances and work that balances the political with the joyfully stupid, Hunter's first collection 'Flustercuck' was released in June 2023.
Josie Duncan is a talented and captivating singer-songwriter who won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award (2017), Her songs have been showcased at Celtic Colours (Canada), National Celtic Festival Australia, Tönder (Denmark) and festivals closer to home Hebridean Celtic Festival Opening Concert & Sidmouth Festival, plus Scottish folk music community Bogha-frois: Queer Voices in Folk.
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Want to be the first to hear about what's happening in Edinburgh? Just hit 'Like' on our Facebook page, join the What's On Scotland Facebook Group and 'Follow' on our Twitter account and you're all set!Join us for a new quarterly series of full-moon celebrations, with live storytelling, music and a rotating programme of incredible performers.
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READ MOREJoin storyteller Ailie Finlay from My Kind of Book on a fun-packed, sensory adventure for May time as we head off through the green grass and squelchy bogs of Scotland!
READ MOREJoin us at the Scottish Storytelling Centre for a celebration of independent film in Scotland through the lens of celebrated filmmaker Douglas Eadie!
READ MOREA photographic documentation of the 500+ Palestinian villages across Mandatory Palestine that were depopulated during the Nakba in 1948 and subsequently destroyed by the Zionist settler state.
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READ MOREHiam Abbass returns home with her filmmaker daughter, in this intimate documentary about four generations of women and their shared legacy of separation.
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READ MOREThree Promises is a heart-breaking film that conveys the anguish of children and their parents who are forced to choose between safety and emotional upheaval.
READ MOREA cinematic exploration on borders, the physical, emotional, material & immaterial; those that dictate movement and return, or lack thereof, for Palestinians universally.
READ MOREAn aesthetic and provocative screening of four experimental shorts uncovering the occupation’s haunting manipulation of sound as a form of torture, the politics of sound and sonic self-determination
READ MOREThis conversation at the Scottish Storytelling Centre will bring together distinguished voices to share testimonies from Gaza on the ongoing genocide.
READ MOREJoin us at the Scottish Storytelling Centre on 17th May for a hands-on workshop with Rowa and learn the basics of Palestinian embroidery, tatreez!
READ MOREFrom Ground Zero is a collection of 22 short films made in Gaza during the ongoing genocide and showing as part of the Falastin Film Festival at the Scottish Storytelling Centre.
READ MOREAn oblique, albeit powerful experimental documentary which examines the politics and economics of South Lebanon against the backdrop of the Israeli occupation.
READ MORETwo beautiful and powerful medium-length films on the coloniality of archives, reclamation of Palestinian music and dance, and the ethnographic underpinnings of colonization.
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READ MOREOcean Terminal Market is a fantastic monthly weekend market with a great range of arts, crafts, food and drinks!
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READ MOREJoin Fiona Johnston, audio describer, as she describes various artwork and objects from the Royal Collection at the Palace of Holyroodhouse.
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