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Stephe Harrop

@stepheharrop.bsky.social

1.8K followers 2.3K following 230 posts

Associate professor, storyteller, author, Greek chorus wrangler. Also: tea, islands, debatable lands, long walks on cold beaches. "Impressively undaunted." https://www.stepheharrop.co.uk/

www.stepheharrop.co.uk

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · Dec 26

Some really nice news for the year's end: I just spotted that Contemporary Storytelling Performance is now available in paperback!

And, right now, with an extra 20% off ...

shorturl.at/9ieLF

#storytelling #research #femaleartists #contemporaryperformance #spokenword

Book cover with a pattern of gold, green, and coral swirls on a blue background. Title reads - Contemporary Storytelling Performance: Female Artists on Practices, Platforms, Presences

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 14h

Got a new pair of specs, got my paper (very nearly) drafted, and I'm off to Brighton in the morning to deliver a keynote - combining live storytelling and ecopoetic reflection - at this fantastic symposium: www.techne.ac.uk/training-and...

Selfie of Stephe wearing very smart new glasses (sort of dark tortoise-shell pattern) and smiling.

Poster showing an image of golden cereal fields and rolling green hills. Text reads: Beyond the Pastoral, A Symposium, 9-10 Oct

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 3d

I had one at Boots (in Liverpool) a a couple of weeks ago.

Reposted by Stephe Harrop

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 4d

My dad has turned up this photo from a visit "many years ago" to the Forth Bridge. I think it's taken from what he calls the howff, just below track level, used by the maintenance workers.

I guess when you're engaged in a proverbially endless task, you need a wee cup of tea once in a while.

Black and white photo showing a kettle on the sill of a very dirty window. Immediately outside the window is the very recognisable steelwork of the Forth Bridge.

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Dark and Wondrous - it's in the trees! it's coming! @darkandwondrous.bsky.social · 8d

As October begins, we contemplate how the sea wind had its way with this now-fungal saint.

scary sea-weathered saint on the church near Hartlepool headland (body of saint is heavily eroded down to a veined or boxwork-like underlying structure of the stone, which looks like weird branching fungus).

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 4d

‪Just a month from now, it'll be time for #Dusking.

This laid-back storytelling gathering is a chance to come together, sharing atmospheric old tales, as darkness gathers around us.

At Studio 1 at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Saturday 1 November
Full details and booking: shorturl.at/mvL3S

Dusking: A Storytelling Gathering for the Turning Year

Be part of a new folk tradition, sharing atmospheric old tales as darkness gathers

shorturl.at

Reposted by Stephe Harrop

London Review of Books @lrb.co.uk · 6d

Tony Harrison’s poem ‘V.’ is to be performed in the Leeds cemetery that inspired it.

The day of site-specific readings will now also serve as a tribute to the poet, who died last week.

Read the article: www.theguardian.com/stage/2025/s...

Book tickets here: www.slunglow.org/v-a-homecomi...

Tony Harrison’s poem V to be performed in the Leeds cemetery that inspired it

The site-specific performance of the once controversial poem was planned for its 40th anniversary in October, but will now double as a tribute to the writer who died last week

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

ProfAFinlayson @profafinlayson.bsky.social · 6d

George Formby in South Africa. Worth reading for the quotation from Beryl Formby which ought to go into the anthologies.

ayewellhmm.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/g...

George Formby; Anti-Apartheid Hero

Yes, you read that title right! After blogging about how my neighbours and friendly rivals the Wiganers came by the name ‘pie eater’ earlier in the week, I thought I’d shed the sp…

ayewellhmm.wordpress.com

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Rebecca Lambert (She/Her) ♾️🐭🍉 @ladyliminal.bsky.social · 7d

“A circle outdoors is part of the place it is in, sometimes as far as the eyes can see, while indoors the circle and materials demand more attention”

Norfolk Flint Circle, Richard Long, 1990 @tate.bsky.social Bankside

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Elizabeth Preston @inkfish.bsky.social · 7d

Scientists rappelled down cliffs to reach the nests of bearded vultures, which have a diet of bones and paint their feathers red with mud. Inside the nests were perfectly preserved human artifacts from the Middle Ages. By me, for Nat Geo: www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/arti... 🧪

Found: 650-year-old shoe, in vulture nest

Many unexpected human artifacts have been preserved, for centuries, in vulture nests.

www.nationalgeographic.com

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

John Raimo @johnraimo.bsky.social · 8d

A lovely 2017 appreciation of the great poet and dramatist Tony Harrison (1937-2025) by Blake Morrison in the London Review of Books (@lrb.co.uk): www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v3...

Blake Morrison · The Authentic Snarl: The Impudence of Tony Harrison

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Tom Cox @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social · 10d

I hand over an invisible ‘Tree Of The Day’ award to the most charismatic tree I see on each of my walks. Here are just a few past winners of this esteemed but still largely unknown prize.

An angry man with branch hands pretending to be two conjoined Sycamore trees.

A tree on Exmoor which has some fucking stories to tell even though it doesn't go around shouting about it.

A tree on Dartmoor which, though old, is still quite cheeky, and likes using its branches to sneakily tickle cattle, ponies and people when they pass it.

A tree which is so endlessly proud of the village where it lives that it stands constantly at the edge of it, constantly welcoming everyone who arrives, with a wave and a smile.

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 11d

Every year I read this poem with students in Liverpool. Every year they know exactly what he's talking about.

Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 11d

In memory of the great poet Tony Harrison, my own school of eloquence.

Image c/o library.leeds.ac.uk/special-coll...

Draft text of Tony Harrison's poem 'Them & [uz]', with phonetics handwritten on a typewrittten page.

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 11d

Looking for a moment to pause, breathe, and reflect?

This laid-back storytelling gathering is a chance to come together, sharing atmospheric old tales, as darkness gathers around us.

At Studio 1 at The Bluecoat, Liverpool, Saturday 1 November
Full details and booking: shorturl.at/mvL3S

Dusking: A Storytelling Gathering for the Turning Year

Be part of a new folk tradition, sharing atmospheric old tales as darkness gathers

shorturl.at

Reposted by Stephe Harrop

New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 14d

"For... interesting holidays".

Something about the spookily lit trees in the foreground makes this feel like the kind of poster you'd catch sight of on a mildewed wall in the early minutes of an MR James adaptation.

(SMG: collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co23...)

1930 LNER poster advertising "Dunfermline For Interesting Holidays". Spookily lit trees in the foreground and the Abbey beyond.

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Birmingham 81 @birmingham81.bsky.social · 14d

RIP Danny Thompson. Here's a playlist featuring just some of the hundreds of songs that were graced by his bass playing. Includes Nick Drake, Pentangle, Donovan, John Martyn, Sandy Denny, Marc Bolan, David Sylvian, Kate Bush, Talk Talk, Lilac Time, Julian Cope etc
▶️ open.spotify.com/playlist/4XS...

RIP Danny Thompson

open.spotify.com

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 14d

New for @beinghumanfest.bsky.social 2025!

Cressida's Tale is a contemporary storytelling workshop inspired by Shakespeare, celebrating tales of cross-cultural journeys, resilience, and personal transformation.

At Unity Theatre, Liverpool on 15 November: www.beinghumanfestival.org/events/cress...

Cressida’s Tale: A Storytelling Workshop

Inspired by the story of Shakespeare’s Cressida, this immersive workshop focuses on stories of cross-cultural journeys, resilience, and personal transformation. We will start with a lively introductio...

www.beinghumanfestival.org

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Mat Pringle @matpringle.bsky.social · 15d

Finally got round to watching Micheal Powell’s ‘The Edge of the World’ (1937). Like a harbinger to ‘The Wicker Man’ but instead of Pagan ritual, agricultural and socioeconomic pressures haunt the dwindling community of a remote Scottish island. Recommended.

Available on BBC iplayer.

A brother and sister lay on the edge of a cliff top on a remote Scottish island making plans for their lives.

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 17d

(Entirely excellent pies, though.)

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 17d

Such a weird space.

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Paul Connolly @thepaulconnolly.bsky.social · 18d

Skies are the grey of turps-thinned whitewash from my train this morning. The land exhales. Three horses on a hillside nibble at the earth, indifferent or disconsolate, I cannot tell
‘We are now approaching…’ says a voice. The train rocks gently

We’re still approaching. Maybe we’ll approach forever

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Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 18d

Focusing on plans for this fantastic upcoming symposium: www.techne.ac.uk/training-and...

In my keynote, I'll be combining live storytelling and ecopoetic reflection to explore how sharing un-pastoral tales drawn from mythic Britain might help us dream together towards liveable, shared futures.

Poster showing rolling fields, and gently rising hills, under a blue sky. Text reads: Beyind the Pastoral, A Symposium, 9-10 Oct 2025

Stephe Harrop @stepheharrop.bsky.social · 20d

Really looking forward to welcoming Corinne Harragin to Liverpool this October with her new storytelling show Troubled Waters.

A tapestry of transporting tales that have shaped our relationship with rivers, the lifeblood of our landscape.

Details and tickets: capstone.hope.ac.uk/whatson/trou...

A graphic poster showing blue water, trees, green sky. The shadows of fish pattern a riverbed. Text reads: Troubled Waters, created and performed by Corinne Harragin.

Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Not That Doctor @notthatdoctor.bsky.social · 21d

BBC news showing the Trump protest in London, Sylvester McCoy has just appeared on a vox pop.

A television showing Sylvester McCoy at an anti Trump protest.

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Reposted by Stephe Harrop

Arts Emergency @artsemergency.bsky.social · 22d

Be generous. Now be more generous. Share your privilege.

We need creative professionals to step up & volunteer to mentor a young person who doesn't have the connections or financial backing to believe they could access a creative career.

Sign up to mentor in 2026 👉 www.arts-emergency.o...

The Arts Emergency manifesto - a pink background with statements written in alternative colours - red and blue reading:
There are things that are bigger and better than money. We have things that those in power will never understand.
We take it as a given that a civilised society values education, lifelong learning and creativity as a public good.
We are a social justice not social mobility organisation. Arts Emergency is no substitute for justice withheld.
Fight the conditioning that tells you to demonise young people.
Be fearless. You are just as entitled as anyone to have the life you want.
There is no recession of the imagination.
The future is another place. Allow yourself to believe a better life is possible. Say it loud, defiantly, to everyone.
Be generous. Now be more generous. Share your privilege.
Do something. Start small, start local, keep going.
Optimism is a weapon and if all else fails be silly.

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