Books / Poetry
Funding Secured for the new Bristol Poetry Festival
Bristol’s dynamic poetry scene has received another boost following the announcement of Arts Council England funding for the new Bristol Poetry Festival.
The festival will be co-directed by poet, rapper, producer and founder of Raise the Bar spoken word nights, Danny ‘Craft-D’ Pandolfi, and Lucy English, poet and lecturer at Bath Spa University whose latest collection, The Book of Hours, was published last year. Acclaimed Bristol poet, Tom Sastry, will be poet-in-residence at the festival.
Co-director Danny Pandolfi says: “The new festival is particularly exciting because Bristol poetry has never been in a more thriving place. It is an art form selling out some of the city’s finest venues and attracting a variety of audiences through its interdisciplinary influences including storytelling, theatre, hip-hop, comedy and music.
is needed now More than ever
“The festival will reflect this diversity and aim to provide something for everyone. It is an exciting programme, with a mixture of local talent as well as feature acts from around the country, and possibly even a couple of big international acts. The talent pool in Bristol is huge, and the festival will aim to platform these voices as well as discover new ones through workshops, discussion panels, open mics, an open slam and so on.
“Having a number of different organisations reflected in the programming was very important to us. We want people to come to the festival who would never normally associate poetry with being a source of entertainment, and for them to then become aware of all the brilliant events that happen all year round in theatre venues and pubs across the city.
“Poetry is for everyone, and we’d like everybody to feel they are able to engage with it and feel represented through it, whether they’d like to come to a quieter page-reading, an energetic spoken word theatre show, or come to everything!”
Full details of the new Bristol Poetry Festival, which will have its first outing in spring 2019, will be announced soon.
Main photo L to R: Danny ‘Craft-D’ Pandolfi, Lucy English, Tom Sastry
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