Each year, Lyra commissions a variety of community groups to collaborate on delivering specific activities, with some new work being showcased at Lyra Festival.

2024 Community Collabs

Our 2024 commissioned groups responded to the theme of Poetic Futures.

‘Bonds’ Poetry Exhibition

‘Bonds’ is a poetic exploration of the significance of the word ‘Bonds’ in all its contexts in the entwined histories of Bristolians, led by Ralph Hoyte and Martin Rieser. They delivered writing workshops with facilitators including Jenny Mitchell, bringing together communities across the city, as well as both an app-based experience and a visual exhibition at Bristol Beacon during Lyra Festival 2024. You can use the information below to experience the Bonds Audio App and hear the site-based poems that were created.

Word by Word

Word by Word, an online-first collective, facilitated writing workshops themed around climate anxiety and land, aimed particularly at writers whose identities are marginalised.

Bristol After Stroke

Bristol After Stroke ran Zoom poetry workshops for an aphasia group with communication disabilities, facilitated by a speech and language therapist, using group poetry to consider futures and whether AI/technology can help people with aphasia.

Our Future (Braiding Stories and Poetry Together)

Our Futures was a collaborative project bringing together Polish and Somali women in Bristol to explore and share stories, poetry in their own languages and in English, and creating line-by-line poems, working alongside a number of community organisations across Bristol. Led by Agata Palmer. You can read the poems written by the Our Future groups by clicking the link below:

We Will Read You

We Will Read You delivered a project themed around Queer Futures, inviting artists from Bristol and beyond about to respond to queer futures, utopias and (sometimes) dystopias - including navigating race, disability and class. Their cabaret-style event opened Lyra Festival on April 12th 2024.