Push the Boat Out is a vibrant and dynamic festival of poetry, spoken word, music, theatre, and visual arts taking place in November 2024. Its Disrupting the Narrative theme will offer celebration, discovery and fresh creative perspectives on Edinburgh’s heritage, inclusively telling and adding to its story through a multi-faceted event series. Inspired by new poetry created by Hannah Lavery, Jeda Pearl, Shasta Ali and Niall Moorjani as part of a Museums and Galleries Edinburgh project intended to decolonise Edinburgh’s collections and key heritage sites, Disrupting the Narrative examines how colonial history has shaped the city, its institutions and people.

The programme will feature a new theatrical performance of this poetry, directed by Hannah Lavery and set to music, as the headline event of the festival’s opening night. Photographer Kat Gollock will create an exhibition focussing on Edinburgh’s built heritage and we’ll explore what it means to disrupt the narrative through a discussion involving some of the artists. Hannah Lavery, Edinburgh’s outgoing Makar and its new Makar (to be announced), will read from their work and consider what it means to write in and about the city. In partnership with SCORE Scotland and Tinderbox orchestra, we’ll support young people living in Westerhailes to create and perform poetry, creative writing and music that explores what it’s like to grow up as a young person of colour in Edinburgh today.

All recordings, poetry & photography will be held and promoted in an online exhibition on the Push the Boat Out website and archived in the National Library for Scotland.