Friday in Edinburgh – What’s On Today

Spanish Fine Foods and Gifts Open Day: join El Olivo olive oil company for a glass of wine, and taste the oils and other Spanish delicacies. Gifts, oils, chorizos, tapenades spices, antipasti, rice, vinegars and much more! Plus Spanish wines from Calduero Importers, jewellery, baskets, cashmere ponchos and nutritional advice. 11am -9pm (drop in), 1 Dalrymple Crescent. 10% of takings will be donated to local cancer charity itsgood2give. For more information call El Olivo on 0131 668 4751 or email info@elolivo-olive-oil.com Hasta luego!

Caesura #27: Goodnight Press. One of a series of events exploring experimental writing and performance through stripped-back, often anarchic, perfomances. This month’s event features Belfast-born writer and critic Maria Fusco, London-based experimental poet Jennifer Cooke, sound poet and Dada scholar David Hopkins and found poetry duo Ed Smith and Thomas MacColl. For ages 12+. 8-10pm  (doors open 7.30), Demonstration Room, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets £5: book via Summerhall’s website or at the box office (0131 560 1581).

Jenni Calder and Sir Walter Scott’s Waverley: a new edition celebrating the 200th anniversary of what is widely regarded as the first historical novel in the western tradition. Come along to hear Jenni Calder discuss the themes of Waverley and her reworking of the text for modern readers. 3-4pm, Scotland’s People Centre, New Register House, 3 West Register Street. Free tickets should be booked via eventbrite. Part of Previously….Scotland’s History Festival.

Amnesty International and Relief Theatre Present Even If We Lose Our Lives, exploring the difficulties faced by women in modern Afghanistan through the stories and words of Parween, founder of the only girls’ school in Laghman province, Manizha, the American-raised organiser of a women’s shelter, and Dr D, an anonymous gynaecologist operating in an unnamed province. Interviews were conducted by actor and human rights activist Christine Bacon. Each peformance will be followed by a short talk and Q & A session led by Amnesty activists and other guest speakers. All proceeds will go to Amnesty International. Please note: this play includes references to violence and domestic and sexual abuse. 8-9.15pm tonight and 15th November, Cairns Lecture Theatre, Summerhall, 1 Summerhall. Tickets £6/£5: book via Summerhall’s website or at the box office (0131 560 1581).

Storytime: 10.30am today and every Friday, Piershill Library, 30 Piersfield Terrace.

Edinburgh University Singers: Parry Blest Pair of Sirens, Parry I was glad, Stanford Magnificat Op.164, Finzi Part Songs. Conductor and organist: John Kitchen. 1.10pm, McEwan Hall, Teviot Place. Free and unticketed.

LGBT Women’s Wellbeing Group: Feeling Good. An opportunity to learn about – and try out – relaxation techniques and adrenalin boosters that can make us feel good about ourselves. 2-4.30pm, LGBT Health & Wellbeing, 9 Howe Street. Contact alison@lgbthealth.org.uk or call 0131 652 3283 for more information or to be added to the group’s email list.

Edinburgh College of Art Friday Lecture Series: Michelle Sank. Sank is a photographer whose work reflects a preoccupation with the human condition, encompassing issues around social and cultural diversity. Free and open to all: for details of time and location contact ECA.

Bookbug: 30 minutes of rhymes and songs for very young children. 2.30pm, Corstorphine Library, 12 Kirk Loan.

Macular Society: Macular Degeneration (loss of central vision). If you have MD or know someone who does, drop in for an informal chat and coffee with others who have the same condition and learn more – don’t worry on your own, join the group for friendly support, information and help. 10.30am-12 noon today and on the second Friday of each month, Falcon House, 91 Morningside Road, EH10 4AY.

The Hare and the Tortoise: Recitals for Wrigglers. A concert for babies and toddlers. 10.30am, Charles Smith Room, Morningside Library, 184 Morningside Road. Tickets £5 for one adult and one child, £2.50 for  each additional child.

Scottish Fair Trade Forum Fair Trade Awards Ceremony and Exhibition Launch: an evening of awards and culture. Browse the stalls, taste Equal Exchange’s new hot chocolate, be the first to hear who this year’s award winners are (awards presented at 6.30pm), and view the Fairtrade Foundation’s photography exhibition Fairtrade at 20: The Power of You. The exhibition will then run in the Chaplaincy Centre until 21st November. 6-8pm, Chaplaincy Centre, University of Edinburgh, 1 Bristo Square.

The Transfer of Science and Philosophy Across Religious Boundaries in the Middle Ages: Professor Charles Burnett of the Warburg Institute, London, one of the world’s leading scholars working on the history of science in the Islamic World, will deliver this special lecture exploring what happens when a scientific or philosophical work is translated from one religious culture to another, specifically from pagan Greece to Islamic Arabic and from Islamic Arabic to Christian Latin culture. 6-8pm, King Khalid Building, Royal College of Surgeons, Hill Square. Free tickets should be booked via eventbrite. For more information contact rosie.mellor@ed.ac.uk.

Quiz Aid! come and have fun and test your knowledge at this Christian Aid fundraiser, and help people in the world’s poorest communities work their way out of poverty. Come with a ready-made team of 4-6 people, or come on your own and join a team on the night. Enjoy a glass of Fair Trade wine or juice. Donations for bottle stall much appreciated. 7.30pm, The Walpole Hall, St Mary’s Cathedral, Palmerston Place. £5 per person, no charge for children.

Indian Encounters: a new exhibition exploring the changing relationships between Great Britain and India during the 18th and 19th centuries through the lives of two men with very different experiences of British Imperial rule, Captain Archibald Swinton and Maharaja Duleep Singh. Duleep Singh became the first resident Sikh in Britain after he, at the age of 10, had to surrender the Sikh Punjab and all his treasures to the East India Company.  Archibald Swinton served in the East India Company’s army at the beginning of its military expansion into India. 18th century miniature paintings and  19th century jewellery, plus Casualty of War, a contemporary work completed in the miniaturist tradition by artists The Singh Twins, reflecting on their personal view of Duleep Singh’s life and their own Sikh heritage in Britain today. 10am-5pm from today, Exhibition Gallery 2, Level 3, National Museum of Scotland, Chambers Street. Free. Closes 1st March 2015.

The Travelling Gallery: GENERATION TG – a group exhibition including five artists working in a range of media, focusing on what it is like to be a contemporary visual artist in Scotland and including a film of artists talking about their work to pupils from Edinburgh schools. 1.30-4pm, Craigmillar Community Arts, 58 Newcraighall Road.

The Fine Art Society of Edinburgh: Derek Clarke MBE RSA 1912-2014: Portraits of Rocks – Eighty Years of Landscape Painting. The first major exhibition of landscape paintings by the late Derek Clarke to be shown since the artist’s death in February at the age of 101. Inspired by Scottish and Irish landscapes and painted over a period of 80 years, the 25 paintings in this exhibition had, until recently, sat undisturbed in the artist’s Stockbridge studio. Clarke studied at the Slade School of Art (1931-35) and taught at Edinburgh College of Art for 30 years, retiring in 1978. His pupils there included Elizabeth Blackadder, Barbara Rae, John Bellany and George Donald. 10am-6pm Monday to Friday, 11am-2pm Saturday, Bourne Fine Art, 6 Dundas Street,