Hello there!
We’re super glad to be starting a newsletter for Speakin Weird. It all feels very Popbitch to be doing so, but we’ve noticed increasingly that they seem to be coming back into fashion. In fairness, there are those who prefer an alternative means of communication to social media platforms, and one that can better handle larger chunks of info in one go, as well as not leaving us at the mercy of an increasingly capricious algorithm. Equally this one also operates as a blog, so if you’ve missed a previous edition you can find it at the dedicated web address. With that in mind - there’s a fair bit to get through with this first edition, so we hope you’ve made yourself comfortable.
Cheerio, Orla.
Firstly - we need to pay another quick tribute to Orla Shortall, our founder, who has had to move back to Ireland. She founded Speakin Weird all the way back in May 2017, where it was first hosted in the basement venue at the Castlegate branch of Brewdog before moving over to Spin on Littlejohn St for much of its life. She also did an absolutely incredible job of keeping it going solo on a shoestring budget for a lot of that time, including through Covid where the event moved online for a period, and navigating a couple of venue losses - Spin in late 2024, and the Blue Lamp at the end of 2025. Her leaving Aberdeen is very much our loss and Ireland’s (re)gain, but us three - Hannah, Aron and Esmond - are determined to keep going with what is now the second longest running spoken word / performance night in the city (bested only by our lovely counterparts at Books and Beans) as it has come to mean a lot to a lot of people. The three of us have also all been involved for the last couple of years in different ways so we hope that’ll make us well enough qualified to keep things going as they are. We’re always open to feedback as well as future headliner suggestions, so if you want to pass these on you can either contact us through our various socials or email us on [email protected].
Orla performing at her last Speakin Weird, 23/02/2026. We miss you already. Photo by Hannah
Cheerio Blue Lamp, Hello Gaelic Lane Cafe
Next up - we want to thank our shiny new venue, Gaelic Lane Cafe, for kindly opening their door to us following the devastating closure of the Blue Lamp at the end of last year. They have agreed to host us on the second Monday of the month despite Monday usually being when they are closed during the week, so we’re really grateful that they’ve been able to help us keep going in what is proving to be a pretty volatile climate for smaller grassroots venues to operate in. Among other things it’s crucial to us to have a venue which is fully accessible, and they were able to meet that criteria too.
First event of 2026
Our first event was held on the 23rd of February this year, and was notable both for being Orla’s last event as well as our first with Gaelic Lane Cafe. Our headliner for last month was the wonderful Gen Carver, and as well as her fabulous set we also had the busiest open mic we’ve seen in a while, with both halves being completely full. Among the performers were six first timers which is always lovely to see. We’re so glad to see the year off to a strong and promising start, and we hope to see that continue next month.
Next event of 2026
The Wanderlust Women, l-r Donna Campbell, Linda Jackson, Lesley Benzie. They will be our headliners for March. Photo from their Facebook page.
Getting on to that - the next Speakin Weird event will take place on the 16th of March, at the Gaelic Lane Cafe again, and this time we will have the wonderful Wanderlust Women all the way up from Glasgow. Comprised of Linda Jackson, Donna Campbell and Lesley Benzie, they last headlined in October 2021, back when we were still at Spin. This time they are up to promote their newest collaborative anthology, ‘She’s Some Woman’, released in September last year. Here’s more info about the three of them, in their own words:
Lesley Benzie is Aberdonian, and lives in Glasgow. She won Wigtown’s Scots Poetry Prize in 2024. Previously she received Highly Commended in Federation of Writers Scotland, Runner-up in McCash Scots Poetry Competitions and nomination for 'writer of the year' in the Scots Language Awards. Writing in both Scots and English, her work appears in numerous magazines/anthologies, and she has two poetry collections Fessen/Reared (Seahorse Publications) and Sewn Up. She aims to make it a hat-trick soon.
Touring widely with the collective ‘Wanderlust Women’, she has collaborated in three collections: Three Poets 2021, Extra Baggage 2023, She’s Some Woman 2025 (Seahorse Publications). She’s also one of three poets in Doric collection, Norlan Lichts 2022 (Rymour Books), nominated for Scots Language Awards ‘book of the year’.
Dr. Linda Jackson is the founding editor of Seahorse Publications, (www.seahorsepublications.com). Her memoir work includes The Siren Awakes (2020) described by Stephen Watt ‘witty, poignant, distressing and unshrinking’.
Of her debut poetry collection Cabinet, Red Squirrel press (2021) Graham Fulton comments ‘gritty Paisley language and humour and haunting imagery brings a world of humanity back to life’. Her second collection, Siren Calling, published, 2024 A.C. Clarke describes as ‘a rollercoaster journey but an exhilarating one’.
Linda is one of three poets in collaborative collections’ Wanderlust Women: 3 Poets (2021), Extra Baggage(2023) and in 2025 She’s Some Woman: Testaments (Seahorse Publications).
She is published in various anthologies, including New Writing Scotland, and has been a creative writing tutor for 35 years. An academic in ‘another’ life, Linda continues to be a musician who has toured widely, and has released 6 CDs, See www.lindajaxson.com.
Donna Campbell is a performance poet who has showcased her work widely throughout the UK. She has had work published in various magazines and anthologies and has two collections of poetry, “Mongrel” in 2022 and “Looking for Mae West” in 2024, both published by Seahorse Publications. The first time Donna performed her work, in public, was over thirty years ago at the Kelvin Grove Galleries, Glasgow, as part of the “Out of Sight Out of Mind” exhibition. She lives alone and wouldn’t have it any other way!
The front cover of ‘She’s Some Woman’ by the Wanderlust Women
Upcoming Changes
As well as our headliners, we have a couple of other items to mention:
Since its earliest editions in 2017, Speakin Weird has always opened doors / open mic sign ups at 7:30pm, with the first open mic set kicking off at 8pm. Orla had been receiving feedback in recent months from some audience members who felt that this sometimes led to the event ending rather late. This was demonstrated best last month, where a full open mic meant that we didn’t finish until 11pm, and this is certainly not a first time occurrence. It’s also not escaped our notice that the venue often empties during the break between the headliner and the second open mic set. In order to try and reduce the likelihood of this happening, and also increase the chance of finishing at a more reasonable time of night, we’re going to trial an earlier start time this month - that is to say we’ll open the doors / open mic sign ups at 6:30pm, and start the evening’s proceedings at 7pm. We hope this works for folk, but for anyone unable to get there on time who would like an open mic spot, please contact us through the social channels or email us. We’d also like to gently remind folk that open mic performers are permitted to perform two poems or five minutes of other material and we ask that you please try to stick to this as much as possible, especially on evenings where the open mic is busy.
From next month’s event onwards we are going to have a dedicated photographer and videographer. Many of you already know Dáibhí, our resident Cornish-born Yorkshireman, who has been a regular attendee of Speakin Weird over the last couple of years and who was also a headliner in January 2025. He has been accepted to the SCQF Level 6 Creative Media course at NESCol, commencing in August of this year, and as part of this he would like to build up a portfolio of photos and videos. If anyone does not wish to be filmed, or to have photos shared on here or our social media channels, please let us or him know on the night.
Dáibhí Armitage, our newly minted resident photographer and videographer. Photo courtesy of the man himself.
We look forward to seeing you at Gaelic Lane Cafe on the 16th of March at 6:30pm - until then, look after yourselves and stay safe.
Hannah, Aron and Esmond
The poster for our event for March 2026, created by Aron.