Lyra Poetry Festival 2022 begins this week

Lyra Poetry Festival 2022 begins this week

Posted on: 29 Mar 2022

Dive into poetry performances, walking tours, and Q+As among other events this Spring.

 

The 2022 edition of Lyra Poetry Festival - an occasion celebrating interdisciplinary poetry across different art forms and cultures - begins this week for the fourth successive year.

 

Running from Thursday 31 March until Sunday 10 April, organisers have arranged a varied hybrid programme of live and digital events hosted at various venues in the city centre.

 

For more information, a full schedule, and to buy tickets, visit Lyra's website. 

 

 

Lyra's 2022 theme is Breaking Boundaries: New Worlds, which celebrates interdisciplinary poetry across art forms and cultures, translated and multilingual poetry, and poetry as a bridge between groups and communities.

 

This year's Festival Poet is writer, poet, performer and historian Edson Burton. Edson will engage in community outreach work, give a public performance and workshop, host events, and other activities centred on the festival theme. 

 

Alongside Burton, this year’s programme features some of the biggest names in UK and international poetry today, including Roger McGough, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Zena Edwards, Anthony Joseph, Inua Ellams, TJ Dema, Raymond Antrobus, the most recent T.S. Eliot Prize winner, Joelle Taylor, and many more.

 

It's also 100 years since the publication of T.S. Eliot’s 'The Waste Land', and organisers have arranged both a lecture and a workshop responding to the poem and exploring its relevance in the present day.

 

The festival's varied programme includes readings, performances, workshops, family activities, a walking tour, a lecture, a film screening, spoken word cabaret, panel discussions, and poetry advice sessions provided by Literature Works. 

 

Lyra organisers have also taken steps to make the festival as accessible as possible, with this year’s programme including many free and low-cost events, BSL interpreted and captioned events, multilingual readings and a number of participatory activities. 

 

And if all the aforementioned isn't enough, lauded poet and writer Michael Rosen will arrive at Brunel's SS Great Britain for a special performance and Q+A after the close of the festival on Thursday 21 April.

 

If this event piques your interest, visit Lyra's website for more information and to buy tickets. 

Read more:

 

 

Article by:

George Boyle

 

 

George is a journalism graduate and writer passionate about music and culture. Get in touch via email at george@365bristol.com