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OurStory Scotland

... recording the stories of the LGBT community in Scotland

Archiving Heritage Oral History Storytelling Drama Exhibitions Research
  Storytelling: Storytelling Index | Online Storytelling | Auto/biographical Accounts | Reflections | Episodes | Skeletons | Fictions | Performance

Our Stories

Launch of Queer Story Scotland at Pride Scotia 2005

Ever since 2005, when we were awarded a major grant from the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund, we have been celebrating the personal and local histories of the LGBT community in Scotland.

Our storytelling events provide archiving resources, creative platforms and narrative opportunities throughout Scotland.

Creative Scotland

Supported by the
National Lottery
through
Creative Scotland

Storytelling

News Flash!

*** Storytelling 2013 ***

in 2013 we continue to hold storytelling events

here are the details of our latest event
held on 6 Feb 2013 for LGBT History Month

Love Out of Bounds

'Love Out of Bounds' was the theme for our storytelling evening this time, in collaboration with Edinburgh University FemSoc and LGBT History Month Scotland. Pariticpants, who might be LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender), straight, curious, queer or undefined, were invited to speak about love 'outside the box'. This could be the story of a relationship with somebody who did not meet the expectations of friends, family or society because of their gender, sexuality, age, ethnicity, cultural background, disability, nationality, physical or mental health or religion. It might be the story of a relationship with more than one partner, or it might be the story of an unlikely friendship, biological or chosen family bond. There were funny and sad stories, open-ended stories, stories written down beforehand, and stories spontaneously shared.

Contact us for further details.

Exhibition at St Mungo Museum a selection of past events

Supporting Stars
Feb 2012 at St Mungo Museum

Loves Untold
Feb 2012 at St Mungo Museum

see details below
>> or click here to open flyer

Love Out of Bounds is our latest storytelling project. An intensive year of storytelling culminated in an exhibition and storytelling performance. The exhibition ran throughout February 2012 at St Mungo Museum, Glasgow, with a special Saturday afternoon (4th Feb) to celebrate Supporting Stars, and with live storytelling of Loves Untold on Valentine's Day (14th Feb).

Supporting Stars took place at 2pm on Saturday 4th February in the Function Room at St Mungo Museum in Glasgow. This event encouraged us to talk about the heroes and heroines of LGBT History, from those who have helped to change our world for the better, to those who have given us invaluable personal support. We shared stories of people, past and present, who have given support to the LGBT community and to those whose love has been deemed 'out of bounds'. Whose memory would you like to celebrate?

Loves Untold was a storytelling performance at 6pm on Valentine’s Day, 14 February, at St Mungo Museum in Glasgow. The performance included stories that have been collected during a series of storytelling workshops on Love Out of Bounds.

Love Out of Bounds is an innovative project that crosses the boundaries between communities and brings us together to share stories of loves untold. The project was supported by the National Lottery through Creative Scotland, and was developed by OurStory Scotland and Rachel Smillie with the Village Storytelling Centre.

Love Out of Bounds brings together a diverse range of participants, including people from minority ethnic groups, irrespective of gender and sexuality. Participants may be LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender), straight, curious, queer or undefined. Love Out of Bounds encourages people to tell their stories of love ignored or rejected by their family, community or culture. There are so many of us who have experiences of being told that the love we have is somehow wrong or misdirected. We are finding common ground between straight and LGBT people, and people from majority and minority ethnic communities.

Love Out of Bounds August 2010

We held workshops throughout 2010, and developed exhibitions of visual and verbal storytelling for LGBT History Month 2011 and 2012. The 2011 exhibition was curated by Jose de Unamumo and the storytelling performance was directed by Jo Clifford.

Jose and Jo

Storytelling at the Winter Gardens hosted by the People's PalaceLove Out of Bounds builds on our experience of working with professionals from museums and the arts to exchange stories across community boundaries.

The project continues to accept submissions.
Why not tell us your story of
Love Out of Bounds?
Contact us to find out how you can participate.

February is LGBT History Month

open LGBT History Month (LGBT Youth Scotland) in a new browser window

Celebrate our history - OurStory - by sharing stories with us.

Contact us to find out how you can participate.

*** Storytelling Online available now! ***

>> click here to see further details of how to tell us online about your life

Storytelling continues throughout the year

storytelling Feb 2006OurStory Scotland continues to organise, encourage and record storytelling throughout Scotland. Our storytelling can be spoken, written, visual or dramatic, or a combination of any of these - with lots of opportunities to try out new skills, or just to tell your own story in your own way.

Contact us if you would like to to find out more, or to tell us your story, or request a storytelling event in your own area.

Why Storytelling?

OurStory Scotland, as its name suggests, is concerned with stories - the stories of the LGBT community in Scotland. We record the stories of people's lives through oral history, but oral history is not the only kind of storytelling with which we are concerned. Oral histories can be complemented by written material in which we narrate our lives, and visual material for illustration and illumination. We are archiving oral, written and visual testimonies as they are central to our aims as expressed in our title and constitution. We are interested in oral history, written historical narratives and in artistic storytelling based on genuine experience. Contact us if you would like to contribute.

OurStory Scotland is facilitating storytelling online, assembling auto/biographical accounts, exploring reflections, presenting episodes, sketching skeletons and creating fictions, for publication in writing and performance.

>> Online Storytelling

>> Auto/biographical Accounts

>> Reflections

>> Episodes

>> Skeletons

>> Fictions

>> Performance

Storytelling Online

Same Love

Storytelling Online available now!

>> tell us online about your life

Through online excerpts, you can get a flavour of the tales we have to tell:
>> Tales to Tell

OurStory Scotland has been an active participant in Mass Observation Communities Online. This has enabled people to contribute material about their lives directly online.

>> see our contributions to Mass Observation Communities Online

Storytelling Events

OurStory Tent Aberdeen

OurStory Scotland has been holding storytelling events all over Scotland - in Aberdeen, Dumfries, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

We have been travelling across the country discovering stories, recording life experiences, connecting the past, exploring the present and looking to the future of the LGBT community.

The OurStory Ceilidh on 4 November 2006 provided a magical combination of music, dance and stories, in the best tradition of the ceilidh. It was a sell-out success, filling the grand Trades Hall in Glasgow, making a very special atmosphere with visual and textual stories displayed throughout the hall, and with 20 storytellers from all over Scotland telling their story live on the night.

Kilted Dancers at OurStory Ceilidh

Storytelling for LGBT History Month

We have celebrated LGBT History Month each February by organising storytelling workshops and events, such as...

Vanished Valentines
...the Valentines we never sent...
stories of loves undeclared
loves that might have been
loves that never were
or loves that vanished!

Card for Vanished Valentines

East Lothian Museums hosted Vanished Valentines in Musselburgh in 2010. What would you write in a Valentine card to a lost love? Participants designed and wrote a range of Valentines, funny or sad, witty or wistful, cynical or curious.

>> see a set of pictures of our previous event in Musselburgh 2009

More Stories to be Told

In events throughout the country we continue our storytelling with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community in Scotland.

Contact us if you would like to take part, wherever you are.