Soup Ink – a creative co-op to soothe the soul
Emma Buckley
True to its name, Soup Ink is a creative cooperative to soothe the soul. As a Belfast-based grassroots platform, those at Soup Ink are working together to build a strong creative community through workshops and creative events around the city.
From livestreamed music sessions during lockdown to a Bonnie & Clyde themed poetry reading at The American Bar, there is something for every local creative here, as Soup Ink carries on the city’s tradition of gathering around for a night of storytelling paired with some strong pints.
As one of the founders of Soup Ink, Hannah Gibson (known artistically as H.R Gibs) takes pride in how the cooperative has grown since being established by herself and a group of friends over the summer of 2020, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Their idea to set up a creative cooperative was a response to “the abuse that was consistently happening around the Belfast music scene” – at this time, a series of abuse allegations were emerging online about local musicians and other figures in the city’s music industry, leaving many in search of alternative artistic spaces where their safety and comfort could be assured.
In an artistic climate dominated by these allegations, as well as national lockdowns, Soup Ink began as a music-oriented cooperative that focused on finding ways for live events to thrive in the face of these difficulties. To combat the lack of live events during lockdowns, they began hosting monthly livestreams to showcase various musical artists, a project funded solely through viewer donations, a true testament to the eagerness and persistence of musicians and music-lovers alike.
In spite of the success of these livestreamed events, Soup Ink felt the anxiety of moving away from the online world. Once the lockdowns began to ease, the challenges of running live events emerged. Hannah describes how “streaming meant we could cushion the blow if viewing figures were low” yet now they would have to deal with the possibility of setting up an event that nobody would show up for.
This couldn’t have been further from the case. Since November 2021, Soup Ink has never failed to fill their venues beyond capacity. From the Gig for Choice at the Oh Yeah Centre to open mics at The American Bar and Black Box, the success of these events has proven the city’s hunger for thriving artistic spaces.
Hannah is confident in Soup Ink’s no-tolerance policy for harmful behaviours, firmly describing Soup Ink as a “safe space” for artists and supporters alike. While this has resulted in the cooperative having to “cancel gigs and remove people from stages” to uphold this, Hannah states that “being able to assert this ethos and ensure everyone is comfortable at our events has been empowering” – a fact which many will attest to.
Writer Seren McKeever describes the open mic events as a “really positive, inclusive space” where she can confidently share her work, often in the form of deeply affecting personal stories where gut-wrenching honesty meets self-effacing humour. Another avid workshop participant, Hannah Johnston, who consistently brightens the open mic events with her striking storytelling, describes the events as “relaxed and casual” enough that writers of every background and experience level can feel comfortable sharing their work, and describes the atmosphere as “very equalising and breezy, unintimidating and uncompetitive” which creates the perfect space for public performance.
This goes against the assumption that artists like Hannah originally had, which is that “the creative field in such a tiny city can seem very exclusive and closed-off” to others. Seren also shared that while traditional artists can find each other through gallery spaces or theatre programmes, “writing isn’t necessarily like that” and is often an insular, isolated activity, a reality that Soup Ink is actively combating. As Hannah Gibson believes, the reward of running Soup Ink is “the community itself” – and Soup Ink has created a flourishing, well-nourished community that keeps coming back for more.
As well as providing a safe and comfortable space for artists to share work, there are also the social benefits to packing a pub full of writers. Reader and occasional host Brian Kerr, whose hilarious and sharp-witted poems (often written en route to the event on the back of a bus ticket) never fail to make the entire room heave with laughter, describes the social element of these events as the most rewarding aspect. Brian describes the open mics as a “class excuse to get absolutely rubbered to the cupboard” while connecting with artists and making new friends who share a “passion for writing” that is often difficult to find in less curated spaces.
This rings true when you pop your head into the upstairs of American Bar and see poets and storytellers laughing together over pints, clapping uproariously for the performers, and excitedly trying to organise themselves into the next available bar once the night is done. As someone who has been attending and performing at these events for almost a year now, I can personally attest to the convivial atmosphere – and what can only be described as absolute craic – that emerges when you give creative eccentrics good booze, a cosy room, and a stage with a microphone on it.
These spaces also work as powerhouses for creative inspiration. It is rare, on these nights, to find someone who isn’t scribbling down a new idea onto the back of an old supermarket receipt in between performances or crouched over the Notes app of their phone so they can type up the perfect line that just popped into their head. One particularly inspiring aspect has been the themed events – themes so far have included Feral, Virtual Space, Talking Heads, Bread and Butter, and Bonnie and Clyde. These themed nights are accentuated with a specially curated playlist, to create the perfect atmosphere. Hannah Johnston shares how the themed events have helped her to experiment with different subjects that she might not have otherwise considered. She describes that the “open mics make me want to leave my comfort zone as a writer, and I find myself wishing I had gone further every time, which shows how they’ve helped me develop”.
As well as the themed aspect, the sheer fact of having to perform in front of others is also a major motivator for a lot of the Soup Ink readers. Seren shares that “signing myself up for open mics has been the best way for me to encourage myself to continue producing new work” as the combination of having both a deadline and the opportunity to bring her work into a public space has proven invaluable. As Seren describes, “writing is a very insular thing. A lot of the time it’s just me sat in a dark room, talking to absolutely no one. Doing open mics means that I get to see people’s real-time reactions to my work – I know if a joke-in-the-works is actually funny, or if a paragraph just doesn’t land” (although, in my opinion, this is rare, as her work never fails to have the audience completely enraptured, both choked up and in stitches multiple times by the end of it).
When asked what it is that makes Soup Ink work – particularly in the aftermath of so many venue closures, performance cancellations and overall social aversion following multiple lockdowns – Hannah Gibson affirms that consistency is key. Soup Ink is run exclusively by volunteers and does not benefit from any official funding. The initial goal was that the cooperative could continue to run itself even if Hannah and Conchúr (the only two founders still active with Soup Ink) were to step away completely, a stage that Soup Ink has finally found itself in due to the level of community building they have accomplished.
As Hannah says, “we only keep going because there is an appetite for the space and platform we provide” – a statement that is clearly evidenced through the ever-growing numbers of open mic participants and the mutually supportive relationship between Soup Ink and its venues. The American Bar has developed a partnership with the cooperative, while their relationship with The Black Box grew out of what Hannah describes as a “supportive friendship with Addison Paterson” who is a live events curator with Table it! Promotions.
Ultimately, Soup Ink has carved out a creative niche in the city by creating a space for artists to share their work. The cooperative provides a place for new and seasoned readers alike, for performers and solitary writers, for the artists and their supporters. Soup Ink is a testament to a certain appetite in the city, an appetite for community, for sharing, for swapping stories. The kind of appetite you might feel when sitting around a campfire, sharing a flask of soup.
Join Soup Ink’s ‘Doing Rocky’ event at The Black Box on the 27th October for a night of Rocky Horror music, costumes and poetry. Find out about more events here.
Emma Buckley is Head Culture Editor at The Scoop and an MA Poetry student at Queen’s University Belfast.