Pride & Poetry Cocktail Hour
Featuring RJ Hunter and Elspeth Wilson (sponsored by Pickering's Gin)
We're delighted to bring you a brand new event for 2025! This poetry cocktail hour will celebrate queer joy and marginalised voices with performances from Loud Poets Grand Slam winner RJ Hunter and others, and a pop-up gin bar supplied by our friends at Pickering's Gin, just for Friday evening.
** There will be a variety of refreshments (including alcohol-free options) available at this event. These can be purchased in addition to an event ticket by selecting the "Additional Refreshment" option.
Friday 26 Sep 2025 5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
PRIDE & POETRY PERFORMERS
RJ Hunter (they/she) is an award-winning writer, theatre-maker and performance poet based in Scotland. Writing from a trans-feminine perspective, RJ Hunter writes with urgency yet empathy, and is known for blistering performances that exhilarate any audience, having performed in venues around the UK with organisations including Loud Poets, Push the Boat Out Festival and Glastonbury Festival. Hunter's debut poetry pamphlet, 'Flustercuck', was released in June 2023 with a sold-out launch event. 'Stupid Sexy Poem Show', Hunter's first full-length solo show, has been performed to sold-out crowds across the country, met with critical acclaim, including being deemed 'the future voice of the medium of spoken-word' (Corr Blimey). RJ Hunter is the 2023 Loud Poets Grand Slam Champion and the Runner-Up at the Scottish Slam Championship 2024 & 2025.
Elspeth Wilson is a creative writer and facilitator working across poetry and prose. She is particularly interested in embodiment, different ways of looking at nature and how who we are impacts our relationship with the environment. She also loves writing about and through pop culture. Her work has been shortlisted for the Nan Shepherd Prize and the Penguin Write Now scheme. Her debut novel is a dark academia coming-of-age story, These Mortal Bodies. Exploring girlhood, feminine obsession and (toxic) friendship all against the backdrop of Scottish witch trials, These Mortal Bodies is a culmination of all the things Wilson loves to write, read and think about.