New Bristol City Poet takes on the premature menopause

New Bristol City Poet Kat Lyons was formally appointed on October 7, when their predecessor in the role, Caleb Parkin, formerly passed the baton at an official handover ceremony at City Hall.

It’s been a notable year for them. 2022 marked the release of Lyons’ debut collection Love Beneath the Nails, published by Verve Poetry Press, as well as a nomination for the prestigious Jerwood Poetry in Performance Award.

Lyons describes themself as “a Queer Bristol-based writer, performer, workshop facilitator and creative producer whose work is grounded in everyday politics and a love of storytelling”.

They are currently on tour with Dry Season – an unapologetically honest, intimate and darkly funny spoken word show about their experience of the premature menopause.

Coming to Bath’s Rondo Theatre on November 3, the show mixes poetry with medical texts, music, choreography and animation in its representation of Lyons’ gruelling experience in the year after their final diagnosis at the age of 39. This followed 18 months of worrisome symptoms, ranging from paranoid anxiety to depression and insomnia.

Lyons wanted to confront, and counter, their initial feelings of shame and isolation, choosing instead to create the space for open discussion, greater understanding and wider representation of menopause in society, across all ages, genders and experiences.

Bristol24/7 caught up with them to talk more about their new role as Bristol City Poet, the idea of poetry as inspiration or activism, and some of the most pressing issues raised in the show.

Kat Lyons – photo: Charley Williams Photography

How are you feeling, as the newly crowned Bristol City Poet?

“Excited but also a wee bit intimidated – it’s a massive honour to be selected to tell stories for an entire city, but also a huge responsibility, and the City Poets before me left some big shoes for me to fill. My own world view is obviously shaped by my particular circumstances, and in order to be authentic I have to speak from and acknowledge that.

“But this role isn’t about telling just one person’s story. I hope to use my own perspective to hold different facets of Bristol’s past, present and future up to the light, and even if some people hate my poems, I hope they still spark thought and conversation.”

Can you share your vision for where you want to take the role?

“I’d like to look deep, not wide – I’m really interested in the city as a series of interlocking networks of smaller systems, about the community-level network support that is so vital to the everyday life of so many of us, and all the little things that join together to make the reasons why so many of us live in and love this city, despite its various problems.

“I’m also really looking forward to learning more about the local histories of local campaigning and protest – Bristol has a reputation as a forward-thinking, accepting city but it didn’t just get that way by accident; it was individuals and communities coming together to create change that made it happen. There’s so much I don’t know yet and I can’t wait to listen and learn and share it!”

Kat Lyons, Dry Season – photo: Suzi Corker

Who or what are you inspired by, creatively?

“My first inspirations were my parents- they were amateur folk musicians/singers. They’d sing me stories at bedtime (there was one I especially loved about a female highwayman) and take me to folk festivals where I got to experience performance storytellers and storytelling through song.

“I’m also inspired by all the people who’ve ever got up to share a song or a poem at a party or in a pub, or told a spooky story round a campfire, and all the Bards, Griots and travelling ballad-singers who’ve kept oral folk culture alive all over the world.”

What has been the general audience reaction to Dry Season since you first began to perform it? Is it changing?

“I think so yes, it was 2019 when I did my first scratch performance, and I’m getting more people come up after the shows and tell me about other menopause-focused events they’ve been to or share something they read in a magazine or heard on TV or radio.

“People are desperate to see their experiences represented, and to feel like their voices are being heard.”

Kat Lyons, Dry Season – photo: Suzi Corker

Are you optimistic that through public campaigning from Davina McCall among others, the conversation around menopause is finally getting more vocal?

“Yes, absolutely. I think it’s following along the same lines of menstrual health in that it was really taboo to talk about it publicly 20 years ago, and now thanks to a lot of period activism we’re in a much better place.

“There’s still a long way to go but we’re seeing open discussion of the issue in parliament, ‘period policies’ in some workplaces etc, and I’m hoping that menopause will follow the same route. Half the human race will experience it so it’s about time we talked about it more openly!”

How do you think we can enlist people of all genders to help lift the perceived stigma and shame around menopause and perimenopause? In an idealised future, what do you think this could achieve?

“Living and ageing in these bodies of ours is already difficult enough without adding unnecessary shame into the mix. Ideally, discussing reproductive health for all bodies and genders would be de-stigmatised entirely, and peri/menopause taught at school to everyone – lots of teenagers have parents going through menopause and actually knowing what’s happening would probably prevent a lot of arguments or at least generate some empathy and understanding.

“And I’d introduce targeted support around menopause within the workplace. We should also talk about it LOADS. The more it’s talked about the more normalised it becomes, and the easier it becomes for someone to seek and find help.

“It also shows that it’s an issue that lots of people care about, and which should therefore have proper amounts of money dedicated to researching it and providing that help – it’s appalling how underfunded reproductive health research/care is, especially when issues such as menopause affect so many of us.”

Kat Lyons – photo: Charley Williams Photography

In your view, what is the power of poetry and spoken word to change mindsets?

“I think poetry has a beautiful way of enabling someone to step inside someone else’s skin for a moment and create empathy with their life experiences. When I read poetry, techniques such as metaphors seem to bypass the ‘thought’ bit of my brain and go straight to the ‘feeling’ or ‘memory’ bit. It joins the poem to my own embodied experiences of the world via my senses.

“I also think spoken word is a very democratic art form – you don’t need an expensive instrument or loads of lessons – all you really need is a pen and a piece of paper, and you can start writing.”

Kat Lyons: Dry Season (age recommendation 12+) is at The Rondo, Bath on November 3 at 8pm. There will be a post show Q&A. Tickets are available at www.ticketsource.co.uk.

Follow Kat Lyons @wordsandweeds on Instagram.

Main photo: Suzi Corker

Read more: Bristol’s new City Poet announced

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