Stand up, sing back

Raise your voice in song with artist-in-residence Rah Naqvi, and come together with others to gossip, whisper and build solidarity through shared experiences of work. Are you a frustrated freelancer? A precarious project worker? A stressed supervisor? A disgruntled dayshift worker? Come along to creatively vent and express your workplace frustrations, and create new working songs for Huntly.

Since May, Rah has been connecting with musicians and enthusiastic vocalists to explore the power of song to tell stories, share experience, unite and connect us through time and geography. This has led Rah to explore North East Bothy Ballads and working song traditions from around the world. Grounded in histories of rural labour and protest movements, folk music traditions like these are a powerful way of bringing people together to voice grievances, lament loss and spread news.

Join us to build upon these legacies and create a new folk song for Huntly. Through a series of five vocal and songwriting workshops, we will raise our voices in beautifully out of tune song, chants and vocal exercises. We will explore simple and fun exercises to write collective songs based on our experiences of work. Each session will build on the next as participants learn with and from each other, with the support of Rah and invited guest artists. Together we will make our voices heard and build solidarity in the process.

Accessibility

• This workshop is free, but booking is required.

• Children and young people are welcome to join in. Children under the age of 16 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.

• We will provide tea and snacks - do let us know on booking if you have any allergies or dietary requirements.

• An accessibility guide for Square Deal community hub can be found here with photos and information about the space.

• Each workshop will be relaxed, with up to 15 people attending.