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Artist and musician, Bee Asha, is launching What a beautiful place to fall over – a multi-art-form project that blends music, poetry, photography, film-making and live performances, "to honour the historically diverse borough of Leith – and to shed a light on the complex effects of gentrification on local businesses and communities."
At the heart of the project is a live album inspired and written collaboratively with Leith creatives. The project will include six performances in venues that have become cornerstones of Leith's culture.
Performances are set to include local acts Night Caller, Queen of Harps, Mike Allan, Lou McLean and Subie Coleman, who will each write a track on the album in collaboration with Bee.
Venues for some of the performances are yet to be confirmed, but Leith Laundrette, Adeel Phone Repairs, Settlement Projects and the Shore Deli have already signed up to take part.
Each performance will be recorded live, filmed and released online, accompanied by a 20-minute documentary that traces the story of each venue and its owner. The addition of a lyric book illustrated by graphic designer Bernie Reid and local photographer Cameron Rennie will offer a tangible, visual expression of Leith's spirit and help document the project.
Bee had the idea for the project when cycling through Pilrig Park one morning, when she passed a familiar spot and began to see it in a new light:
“When I was young, so often I would see drug users resting beneath the trees, with foil and bottles of methadone surrounding them. This time, I only saw the imprints left behind, pressed into the patches of bluebells, and the forgotten debris hidden under droplets of deep violet and blue.
“I thought: ‘What a Beautiful Place to Fall Over.’”
That day, Bee also admired Leithers sitting out in the sun on the Kirkgate, queueing at Storries Pies and waiting for their washing in the Laundrette: “I went into Adeels and he said he'd fix my phone at a discount because my dad installed his son's kitchen counter, and I thought how much I love Leith, and how much I love this community”.
She added: “On my cycle home I couldn't ignore the rapid changes transforming the Leith I knew from my childhood. I realised then that I wanted to document its story before it was too late.”
Photography: Cameron Rennie, of Bee Asha
