Glasgow 2014 Cultural Programme launched

The details revealed yesterday – there are more to come – show an eclectic range of performances, site-specific events, pop-up shows and venues, and touring works which at first glance have no overall theme (or, perhaps, coherence) but could, at the least, provide some cultural distraction, joy and illumination, as well as participation, during the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games themselves.

One of the more potentially politically-charged events will come with biscuits and tea. The Empire Cafe, a temporary cafe to be based in the Briggait in the Merchant City, will, for seven days – via talks and discussions, debate between artists and academics, papers and reading –explore Scotland's involvement with the North Atlantic slave trade. Curated by author Louise Welsh and Jude Barber of Collective Architecture, its programme will include 20 new works written by Commonwealth and Scottish poets, with the whole cafe patterned with symbols of the slave trade.

According to Welsh, the project is not intended to lead to angry contention but a free dialogue about the past and Britain's Empire. "This is all about the free spirit of debate, now in the 21st century, and to show we can talk about that side of our history," she says. "When we look at history, we have to look at the slave trade as well. For seven days we will be a public debate space, and it is also a challenge to museums in Scotland: if you don't show the history of this, why not?"

The programme also features works and projects involving Scottish Opera, Tam Dean Burn, Cora Bissett, Kieran Hurley, Phil Collins (not the singer, the visual artist), Janey Godley, the Scottish Poetry Library, Citizens Theatre and Barrowland Ballet. There will be a nationwide celebration of singing, The Big Big Sing and, as already trailed a few months ago, 20 new commissions of modern music in the New Music Biennial, as well as a celebration of the life and work of pioneering Scottish filmmaker Norman McLaren.

Performer and choreographer Claire Cunningham is not afraid of tackling hefty subject matter, and in her project, Guide Gods, she will look at the attitude to disability in the major faiths and religions. The piece, which was partially inspired by a recent visit to Cambodia where she was told that disability could be the result of karma from a previous life, will look at all the major traditions and be performed in sites related to religious worship throughout Glasgow.

Another tradition, that of storytelling and story-songs, will be addressed by award-winning songwriter Aidan Moffat, who will work with filmmaker Paul Fegan on Where You're Meant To Be, a road trip which will see the former Arab Strap singer touring in a route in and around Glasgow, performing old songs and new, accompanied by local artists and singers at each show.

The experience will be filmed by Fegan and made into a documentary. Each gig will be preceded by filmmakers visiting the tour's planned destinations and engaging with local arts communities, writers and musicians, exploring the history of the cities, towns and villages, and storytelling, with the final film premiered in Glasgow around the close of the Commonwealth Games in August 2014.

"I was interested in the storytelling songs," explains Moffat, "and I wanted to write those drinking songs, those old songs that people used to sing when they were out together, as well as some modern ones.

"It will be in a ceilidh style, with me starting off and then local artists coming on and singing their songs. We want to do it in all sorts of places, in wee places and boats and towns as well as the big cities before returning to Glasgow."

The exercise won't involve 12 nights of revels in a row. "No, it will be over three weekends," Moffat admits. "I am not sure I could do 10 nights in a row, like the old days. Hopefully there will be 10 or 12 new songs – enough for an album."

For full details of the culture programme, visit www.glasgow2014.com/culture