LGBTQ+, Storytelling

Queer Folks' Tales

with Turan Ali, Janette Ayachi, Tom Harlow & Val McDermid

(Thu 13 Apr: 7:30pm)

Welcome to Queer Folks’ Tales, our 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, who is joined in April by Janette Ayachi, Tom Harlow and Val McDermid.

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.

Val McDermid is a world famous crime writer who has sold over 17 million books to date across the globe and has been translated into more than 40 languages. She is perhaps best known for her Wire in the Blood series, featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan, which was adapted for TV starring Robson Green and Hermione Norris. Other TV series include Traces (BBC1) and ITV’s adaptation of Karen Pirie, based on Val’s cold case detective of the same name. She lives in Edinburgh and Fife.

Janette Ayachi is a Scottish-Algerian poet with an MSc in Creative Writing. Her poetry, prose and essays have been published internationally and translated into several languages. She's a regular on BBC Scotland arts programmes and has published work in a broad range of anthologies. Her debut poetry book Hand Over Mouth Music (Pavilion) won the Saltire Poetry Book of the Year Literary Award 2019. Her next works are QuickFire, poetry book Slow Burning and Lonerlust, a travel memoir.

Tom Harlow is an international, award-winning showboy, singer and host based in Glasgow. He is the reigning Miss Burlesque Scotland and has performed across the globe delighting and bemusing audiences everywhere he goes. He's graced stages in New York, Iceland, Bangkok, Paris and London and having spent most of his life on stage he definitely has a some sparkly and interesting showbiz stories to tell.