Yay! The Bristol Poetry Festival, Lyra, kicked off on Friday 17th April with a panel discussion on why poetry now and the Queer Cabaret. My take aways were on the importance of keeping on writing with hope even in the dark times, and the need to grow poetry audiences to lift us from being the Cinderella art form. Perhaps a change of name as Spoken Word did twenty years ago. I've been mulling this and have come up with Word Shorts. I'm going to start referring to my work like this and see what happens, so we have no more children screaming outside Michel Rosen's set on Saturday 18th that they hate poetry. At the Cabaret Keith Jarrett's performance was awesome and I'm glad I had the chance to tell him so.
Saturday 18th for me was all about the Braid Poetry Walk around Clifton. I had a lot of fun devising the route, researching the writers associated with Clifton and chosing what to read. And with my Braid colleagues we put together great poems from our oeuvres to share with the twenty plus folk who came to enjoy the architecture, history and literature of the part of Bristol I call home. It was enthusiastically received and we've been asked to do it again next year. Hurrah!
The rest of Saturday I admit to being absolutely shattered, but I did manage to enjoy John McCullough, Karen McCarthy-Woolf and Matthew Rice. Even if I did drift off for ten minutes, at least I didn't snore. The readings from Gaza poets were very moving indeed. The notion of going to the beach and looking at the sunset while holding on to the idea that the sea cannot be taken away will stay with me.
Sunday 19th and we missed the start of Inua Ellams' improv reading due to my inability to decipher the programme. We caught most of it and enjoyed his dexterity in finding pieces to read suggested by words from the audience. Interesting too were his comments on writing: how everything starts with a poem, even if it then becomes a play or essay or story. Bravo.
The highlight of Sunday, and probably the whole festival, was the stunning performance of her new book, Maryville, by doyen of Spoken Word and T.S. Eliot superstar, Joelle Taylor. Marvellous. I was moved to tears and the standing ovation she received was never more deserved. Do not miss the chance to see this show. Seriously.
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