Green Capital 2015: A poetic tribute

Twenty three of Britain’s top poets performed their work to a public audience in Bristol on Friday, as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas programme for the Green Capital year.

Bristol was central to the birth of Romantic poetry.

William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge worked in the city; the first edition of the Lyrical Ballads was published in Bristol; and Bristol at the time was a place for debate, often led by Coleridge in a celebrated series of lectures in 1795 and the publication of his newspaper, The Watchman.

In the year when Bristol is European Green Capital, the city celebrates this great heritage with a new Lyrical Ballads written by 23 of Britain’s best poets and the launch of a new annual lecture series – the Coleridge Lectures. 

The poets performed their work to a public audience at At-Bristol on Friday.

Andrew Kelly, Director of Bristol Festival of Ideas, said:

“Coleridge and Wordsworth lived and worked at a time of revolution, youthful democratic politics and the wide debate of ideas. Their work looked at nature and the emotions, place and the environment.

“The present-day looming ecological crisis makes a renewed focus and debate essential.  We hope our special series will create a new battle of ideas about the environment, society and the world.”

The project is directed by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership as part of the Bristol Festival of Ideas and the Bristol 2015 programme.

Commissioned poets include:

Fleur Adcock
Patience Agbabi
Rachael Boast
John Burnside
Gillian Clarke
Paul Farley
Isabel Galleymore
Jen Hadfield
David Harsent
Kathleen Jamie
Nick Laird
Liz Lochhead
Jamie McKendrick
Ian McMillan
Andrew Motion
Sean O’Brien
Alice Oswald
Ruth Padel
Don Paterson
Greta Stoddart
Michael Symmons Roberts
Jean Sprackland
Adam Thorpe

Phil Gibby, Area Director, South West, Arts Council England, said:

“This is both an extraordinarily exciting celebration of one of the most important literary movements in our history and a unique opportunity to hear new work from some of our most gifted contemporary poets.

“Bristol 2015 is placing arts and culture at the heart of its vision for future ways of living and we are delighted to be supporting their ambition with events and commissions that have genuine international impact.”

Coleridge lectures

Also launched is a new series of Festival of Ideas lectures. Inspired by Coleridge’s radical lectures in the 1790s in Bristol, this annual series will look at issues of concern around one theme.

The 2015 theme is Radical Green. The lecturers are:

Kathleen Jamie, writer and poet: Poetry, the Land and Nature

Anna Coote, New Economics Foundation: Green and Social Justice

George Monbiot, journalist, campaigner and writer: What a Green Government Could do if it Really Tried

Roger Scruton, philosopher: The Only True Conservationist is a Conservative

Richard Holmes, biographer: Coleridge, The Ancient Mariner, Bristol and Beyond

Andrew Kelly, writer and festival director:  Animals ‘in the Fraternity of universal Nature’

Melissa Harrison, novelist and commentator: Reimagining the City

The Coleridge Lectures are run in association with the Cabot Institute, University of Bristol.

Rich Pancost, Director of Cabot, said:

“The Cabot Institute explores the many ways in which people interact with their environment, and so we are particularly proud to co-sponsor these events.

“The Romantic Poets’ scholars and artists represent diverse and exciting new perspectives on our relationship with our planet, widening our appreciation of nature but also of one another.”

More information on Bristol 2015