SMHAF Podcast

Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival

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Arts
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Mental Health Arts is a year-round arts programme led by the Mental Health Foundation Scotland, built around the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF). Established in 2007, the festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world and among Scotland's most diverse cultural events, covering everything from music, film and visual art to theatre, dance, and literature.

6d ago

4. The Windowpane (Tape Version)

Written and performed by Jo Mango, commissioned for the 2026 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. Engineered and produced by Adem Ilhan (at his Werehome). Cover photo – Flannery O’Kafka Lyrics: There is a dot There is an itch There is a loneliness The tapping of a fingertip There is a pearl There is a pig A bitter fruitfulness The scratching of an earwig The dredger scrapes along the sound And passes by our door I feel the churning of the silt The raising of the stoor The darkening of the river skies The veiling of the shore I am a wing I am a chain A reaching out for it The azure of the windowpane Between the mirror skies Oh what is it that I have prayed So hard for you to wake That then should make me so afraid Of everything you take? And why is it your hand is here Beyond the reach of joy? In blind recesses of the spheres That make of me a toy This kicking thing inside of me It never will be owned By all the violence of desire That makes a feeling groan Oh who can parse the sentences Speaking out our past? Or work at this entanglement Of root and branch and mass How delicate the fingers are To tease apart the veins But still I feel the weightiness Of all that will remain The spooling out inside of me Of everything I’ve known And all the animus and the fire The ravelling has shown Feed the cold and starve the fever First deserve and then desire Feed the cold and starve the fever First deserve and then desire Feed the cold and starve the fever There is a fork There is a choice There is a still small voice
6d ago

3. What Isobel Told Us (Tape Version)

Written and performed by Jo Mango, commissioned for the 2026 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. Recorded to tape and mixed by Jo Mango Cover photo – Flannery O’Kafka Lyrics: The mirror in the hallway Finds the mirror on the wall And in those endless passages I wonder who’s behind it all Remember how Isobel told us The ways that glass is made An image of one returns to me now: It’s lightning striking the sand And though my mind got out of hand The lightest tap Will shake the stand And change the view The kingfisher on your finger The grasshoppers on the hill The lazy oven by the baker’s doorway The moth upon the windowsill You cannot live in fear every day Draw the curtains Make the darkness flee away Remember what Isobel told you That the dizziness of freedom Is a small price To pay
6d ago

2. The Before (Tape Version)

Written and performed by Jo Mango, commissioned for the 2026 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. Recorded to tape and mixed by Jo Mango Cover photo – Flannery O’Kafka Lyrics: In ‘94 I lay on the floors Of all the churches Where God knocked us down I counted tiles on the ceiling While our parents lay weeping And wondered what love I had found Is she the before That I am after? Later I felt myself twisting and turning A wrestling below the surface While the faithful clapped their hands The prophet stopped the service To tell me I’d be blind And while I cried The choir sang ‘We are the before The ever after We are the before The ever after’ Those were the days before the stories broke Did they lay me out cold or was I awoken? Those were the ways that some things broke They fell away slow but they left us open And now there’s a phantom underneath the lake Her words unspoken If she’s the before Am I the after? We threw our phones into the water Some kind of fit of piety? I don’t remember But I call it now to talk to her – my inner daughter My body’s a stone but my voice is tender As I say… You are the before I am here ever after You are the before And I am here
6d ago

1. Raising Ourselves (Tape Version)

Written and performed by Jo Mango, commissioned for the 2026 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. Recorded to tape and mixed by Jo Mango Cover photo – Flannery O’Kafka Lyrics: Raising Ourselves There’s a windowpane Between this world and a dark land out in the snow Reflected on the glass Where everything we know is out there laying on the grass We’re trying so hard to grow Caught between the future and the past We are a forest planted scattered Landed awkward, reaching tall So little help with all the wreckage Building everything from something within That tries to dawn despite it all We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves There’s a windowpane Between my voice and you A fragile layer the waves - my words - can travel through A vision on the glass Of a future Not that past We are a forest planted scattered Landed awkward, reaching tall So little help with all the wreckage Building everything from something within That tries to dawn despite it all We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves We’re raising ourselves We’ve sheltered in books By the sea as it courses We’ve survived in the songs And the eyes of the horses Through the love of our dogs And writing it down Our feet on the ground We’re speaking it aloud There’s a windowpane
10/26/2024

Invisible M*ther

Invisible M*ther is a collaborative piece by Rebecca Livesey-Wright and Indra Wilson, commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation for the 2024 Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival. The piece uses polyvocal writing techniques to to visibilise hidden maternal narratives whilst affording an element of anonymity important for preserving a safe space for both ourselves and those who are adjacent to our stories.
10/26/2024

Flutter

Flutter explores the constant interruption of Tourette’s to everyday life, through small sounds as well as the shame which can be experienced when experiencing tics. A collection of erratic, arhythmic voclisations are counterbalanced by soothing lullaby-esque humming, exploring both shame and empathy. Fragments of spoken word explore the complexities of this condition alongside public perception. The work addresses the festival theme of Invisible, particularly considering masking in women (Tourette’s is often underdiagnosed in women, or symptoms are less noticeable whilst still being present).
10/26/2024

Premonitory Urges

Premonitory Urges is a sonic exploration of the sensation experienced by Tourette’s sufferers which is an overwhelming sensation to perform a tic, an experience similar to the urge to blink. This work uses sound and voice to express this buildup and release. It also uses sine and saw waves to act as a grounding solace providing a drone underneath the vocals. Other sounds include groans and also vocalised inhales, common tics experienced personally by the artist. As the piece progresses, it transitions into a harmonious blend of choral and ambient electronic elements, culminating in a euphoric soundscape that symbolises the calming effect of sound and singing on the body.
10/26/2024

Sit Still

Sit Still is a choral composition for four voices that delves into society's assumption that stillness comes naturally. It challenges the notion that movement—such as fidgeting or wriggling—is a sign of disengagement, immaturity, or misbehavior. The work draws on the artist’s reflections on her own self-criticism for struggling to achieve stillness, especially in moments when it feels most necessary.

Mental Health Arts is a year-round arts programme led by the Mental Health Foundation Scotland, built around the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (SMHAF). Established in 2007, the festival is one of the largest of its kind in the world and among Scotland's most diverse cultural events, covering everything from music, film and visual art to theatre, dance, and literature.

Creator

Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival
Years Active

2017 - 2026
Episodes

116
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© All rights reserved
Show Website

SMHAF Podcast