Bristol City Poet
A voice for the city’s conscience, reflecting events, anniversaries, communities, histories and futures of Bristol.
Since 2016, Bristol has had a City Poet to tap into public opinion and act as a communicator of local views.
The current Bristol City Poet (2024-2026) is Sukina Noor.
Sukina was named Bristol City Poet in October 2024. She will write 10 commissioned poems, perform at civic and community events, and run outreach projects and initiatives around the city.
About the role:
Traditionally, the person who holds this role can become the city’s conscience and can also reflect on what makes the city tick. What they convey through their poetry and creative writing can provide important insights onto contemporary events and feelings.
Some of the events that City Poets have performed at include the State of the City Address, World Book Day, Windrush Day, Bristol Pride, International Women’s Day, and many more anniversaries, celebrations and community events. Poems may be written for the opening of new buildings, commemorative anniversaries, current events, and in collaboration with community groups and young people.
The role of the City Poet was founded and run by Bristol Ideas in 2016, in association with the Mayor’s Office, and since 2024 has been run by Lyra Bristol Poetry.
The current City Poet is Sukina Noor (2024-2026). Former City Poets include Kat Lyons (2022-2024), Caleb Parkin (2020-2022), Vanessa Kisuule (2018-2020) and Miles Chambers (2016-2018).
Sukina’s response to being named Bristol’s 5th City Poet:
“I am beyond thrilled to have been selected for the role of Bristol City Poet for the next two years. It means so much to be given this opportunity to connect to my city through the art of poetry.
I am a daughter of Bristol, born and raised in Easton and after 18 years of living in London I returned home to lay my roots in the city of my birth just before the pandemic hit, so this role is a stunning opportunity to reconnect, to listen to the pulse of my city and pay attention to its heart beat. Being chosen for this is a beautiful homecoming gift, a way to reconnect to the soil where I took my first steps, whose streets shaped me and impacted the way I exist in the world. I am excited to explore how much Bristol has changed and how much has stayed the same and what new worlds are brimming beneath the surface.
To be able to explore this renewed relationship with Bristol through a poetic lens would give birth to a rich body of work, the perspective of a familiar stranger. I am very keen to explore the potential poetry has to connect communities and am bursting with ideas of ways to bring poetry into unlikely places within the city and make it more accessible. I'm interested in cultivating places of sanctuary where poetry is a safe space to explore our truth and finding ways to highlight the plethora of voices who call this city home.”
Kat Lyons (2022 - 2024)
Kat Lyons was Bristol’s fourth City Poet, appointed in July 2022. At the end of their term, Lyra Bristol Poetry published a pamphlet of their work, ’Everything comes from somewhere’, which is available to download as a PDF via the link below. You can also view their poetry video ‘10 things to remember about surviving climate crisis’ here.
Caleb Parkin (2020 - 2022)
Caleb Parkin was Bristol’s third City Poet, appointed towards the end of 2020 when Bristol was in a state of flux with endlessly changing Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. At the end of Caleb’s term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of his commissions, ‘All the Cancelled Parties’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.
Vanessa Kisuule (2018 - 2020)
Vanessa Kisuule was the second Bristol City Poet to be appointed. At the end of her term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of her commissions, ‘The View From Above and Below’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.
You can view the film made by Bristol City Council of her 2020 poem City of Hope here.
Miles Chambers (2016 - 2018)
Miles Chambers was Bristol’s first City Poet. At the end of his term, Bristol Ideas published an anthology of his commissions, ‘This is Our City’, which is available to download as a PDF at the link below.