'Tommorrow is always too long' @ Rose Garden Queen's Park

19 July - 'Tomorrow is always too long'

A one night only film installation in the Rose Garden of Queen's Park.

Southside Shindig @ Queens Park Arena

Lovely poster and a chance to do a double bill of events with the nearby Bungo in the Back Lanes

21 June - Southside Shindig
A celebration of British and Asian Food and music 12-5:30pm at the Queens Park Area

Bungo in the Back Lanes 2014

21 June - Bungo in the Back Lanes (1pm -4pm)
The wonderous Bungo in the Back Lanes as the people of Strathbungo, set up stalls, make things, cook tasty burgers

Events in June/ July 2014

After the excellent Southside Fringe, the Southside Filmfest and Streetlands the summer of Southside fun continues over the next couple of months with the following.
(Anything we've missed please add to the comments.)

13-15 June - Govan Puppet Weekend
Puppets in Partnership is a small participatory arts festival in Govan, Glasgow being held on the 13-15 June 2014 with a variety of puppetry performances from both professionals and the local community. 

14 June - Ready Steady Grow
Pollokshields celebration of greenspace and community is back over Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th June. Download the event poster and leaflet or visit the website www.readysteadygrow.org.ok

15 June -  Ready Steady Grow
Pollokshields Church events including a guided walk around Pollokshields architectural history with Niall Murphy.

17 June - Southside Film Club @GladCafe
Southside Film Festival & Document International Human Rights Film Festival present three shorts that explore what life is like for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Scotland, Brazil and Spain. 

17/18 June - To Infinity @ Science Centre
A trip into the hidden universe with Dr Jonathan Whitemore

21 June - Bungo in the Back Lanes (1pm -4pm)
The wonderous Bungo in the Back Lanes as the people of Strathbungo, set up stalls, make things, cook tasty burgers

21 June - Southside Shindig
A celebration of British and Asian Food and music 12-5:30pm at the Queens Park Area

21/ 22 June - "Hit that Harmony"
Pie and a pint show from 1pm at the Shed by Tramdirect featuring a barber shop quartet plus other singers.

25-27 June - Tin Forest Southwest
Songs and stories collected from the community of Penilee as part of the build up for the Nathonal Theatre of Scotland's Tin Forest event.

27 June - 'Generation' @ The Tramway
Tramway, GoMA, Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum, People's Palace and Riverside Museum invite you to celebrate the Glasgow launch of GENERATION: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland

28 June - Battefield Community Street Party
Local community fun day including a bak-off judged by Bakery47, live music and stalls.

30 June - 04 July - Team Effort @ GladCafe
A thought-provoking evening of discursive, poetic and performance essays about human nature, fragility and the mind. Hosted by Rose Ruane. Featuring essays by Elizabeth Reeder, Harry Wilson, Rose Ruane and others to be announced.

19 July - 'Tomorrow is always too long'

A one night only film installation in the Rose Garden of Queen's Park.

22 July - Tin Forest

A new festival of performances by the National Theatre of Scotland taking place at the iconic building of the South Rotunda.

July - Science Tower reopens at the Science Centre.
Date to be confirmed.

1/2 August - Sound to Sea
A night time nautical extravaganza featuring Over 150 performers,  the best performance specialists in the country, outdoor art and pyrotechnic specialists Walk the Plank, aerial dance company All or Nothing and the Royal Navy

Creative Thursday - Kate Tough

Today's Creative Thursday interview is with poet Kate Tough who also co-runs the regular poetry nights at The Ivory.

Where in the Southside are you based? 

I live on the far edge of Clarkston, by the fields and woods of High Flenders Road. It’s beautiful, but I’m ready to be closer to Shawlands. If anyone has a quiet, leafy flat to rent out, or a nice Newlands ‘annexe’, let me know.

What do you do?

I write, publish, perform and collaborate with others in the genres of fiction and poetry. Also, I host space for writers to share work and inspire each other, and I tutor new writers.

In fiction, the main focus was a first novel, written 2007-10, revised 2011-12, and published by Cargo in May 2014. It’s character-driven, with a distinctive narrative voice that incorporates my poetic bent. Others tell me it’s laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking, too; if that’s true, I’m pleased.

In poetry I publish a range of work; from short, quiet nature meditations, to gobby analyses of love, to experimental pieces made with black-markered documents and found bits of paper.

In Shawlands, I co-run Poetry@TheIvory, the regular showcase night where Scottish headline poets and new, local poets share the same stage. We have a reputation for relaxed, egalitarian, stunning loveliness. Come along.

Summary of your background?

After uni and travel, I worked at Greencity Wholefoods, then the Scottish Parliament. I left to do the Glasgow Masters in Creative Writing. Since graduating in 2008, I’ve worked in the arts and education: lecturing in creative writing, running a drama drop-in, teaching animation in afterschool clubs and, recently, undertaking a PGDE.

Tell us about your favourite piece of your work?

Well, the fun of the moment is coming from the novel, Head for the Edge, Keep Walking. It was a long, solitary journey to write and redraft it, but it had supporters along the way (such as Creative Scotland) which helped my diligence. After years of not knowing why I kept going, it ended up with three publication offers. Choosing Cargo was the best decision – what a wonderful team. Collaborating with other specialists (on editing, cover design, promotion) and benefitting from their expertise is a privilege. It’s been a strange, humbling experience to have readers now, too – people who’ve spent £9 on the 80k words I determinedly crafted. Their support and appreciative feedback has meant more than I realised it could. They’re superstars.

What's next? Upcoming shows, exhibitions, projects.

Check www.katetough.com for full details of what’s coming up, including: a Scottish Literature Residency at Cove Park; airing the novel (Edinburgh Book Fest, 11 August & Cargo-Saraband Commonwealth Fest, July-August); reading poetry at the launch of four.fold (Tell It Slant bookshop, 27 June); plus a collaborative performance on the Auld Enemies tour (10 July. A major event in UK experimental poetry, supported by Creative Scotland.)

What is your favourite creative blog/ website or other source of inspiration? 

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again (and again) Sunny Govan radio station is the 8th wonder of the world. It’s a beacon of authenticity in a sound-sea of constrained, contrived, banal sh*te. 

What key piece of advice do you wish you'd known? 

There’s seldom a single right answer. There isn’t one, right way to do things. The way you want to do it is just fine – so get on with it.

Tell us your favourite place/ space in the Southside? 

If a non-tangible phenomenon can be a ‘space’… then my favourite space is the Southside’s commitment to community. That ‘common weel’ spirit is evidenced everywhere, from the Glad Cafe, to the Govanhill Baths project, to Locavore, Urban Roots, Merry-Go-Round and more.

Name another Southside creative whose work you admire? 

I’ve become a huge fan of local poet Alexander (Sandy) Hutchison – a mighty talent who’s also a top-notch kind of bloke. www.alexanderhutchison.com

If money was no option what would you change about the Southside? 

I’d bring the subway system out as far as Cathcart, so the Southside and West End were connected in one big love-loop, and I’d have it running till 3am.

Tell us one other interesting fact about you?

The debut novel was fiction when I wrote it (2007-2010) but elements within it have come true since it was written. Weird.

Creative Thursday - Lisa Ballantyne

After a little break we return to our Creative Thursday interviews. This week is shawlands noveliest Lisa Ballantyne.

Describe your creative practice or what it is you do?
I am a novelist. My debut novel, The Guilty One was published in 2012 and my second novel will come out in 2015. I am currently working on my third novel. I am a full time writer at the moment, and tend to write in the afternoon and early evening. It is something I have always wanted to do since I was very young, so despite giving up a demanding, exciting job to devote myself to writing, I am still loving it.

I am from a small town in West Lothian, and have lived in Glasgow for nearly ten years, coming here initially to work in the International Office of University of Glasgow. I am very well travelled, having lived and worked in China for 6 years, and travelled to many different countries in my previous career. I still really enjoy travelling and meeting people from different cultures to my own. I think it's hard to write well unless you've lived a fair bit.

Tell us about your favourite piece of your work?
My favourite piece of work is still forming in my mind!

What's next?
I was delighted to be awarded one of the prestigious Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowships to spend a residency in the fabulous Grez-sur-Loing, France (just an hour south of Paris). I will head to France in July this year and hope to finish the novel that I am working on at present. I am immensely grateful to the Scottish Book Trust and Creative Scotland for the opportunity. http://www.scottishbooktrust.com/writing/scottish-book-trust-training-awards/the-robert-louis-stevenson-fellowship-2014

What is your favourite creative blog/ website or other source of inspiration?
Timothy McSweeney's - Dave Eggers publishing company's daily humour website http://www.mcsweeneys.net/tendency

What key piece of advice do you wish you'd known?
Always have a back up!! True technological advice for writing and wise advice for the heart and for future plans!

Tell us your favourite place/ space in the Southside?
I have so many: Lovestruck Cafe, Queen's Park for running and Pollok Park when I'm stressed, Glad Cafe for evening, Young's Interesting Books for wasting time, Biscuit for their French Toast.

Name another Southside creative whose work you admire?
I am a great admirer of William McIllvaney. Although he has moved away, he used to be a Shawlands resident.

If money was no option what would you change about the Southside?
Shawlands Arcade - get rid of it!

Tell us one other interesting fact about you?
I speak Mandarin. I am very tall.