Free

20 Sep 2025

CSL Poetry Shorts: The Power of the Women of Bradford

The voices of Bradford’s women, now and through history, are distinctive, strong and effective.

Event Details
Date 20 Sep 2025
Times 10.30-11.15am
Location Bradford City Library

Kirsty Taylor, Nabeela Ahmed, Kate Fox and Kim Moore provide a masterclass in illuminating the lived experiences of the city’s women through their words.

About the poets

Kirsty Taylor

Kirsty Taylor is a writer and educator inspired by her beloved hometown Bradford. She is passionate about story telling through poetry and has performed all over the country telling tales about people, class and the realities of Broken Britain. Kirsty was a BBC Verb New Voice in 2017 and was awarded the Apples and Snakes & Jerwood Arts Poetry in Performance award in 2020. She is the creator of the imitable Front Room Poetry, which takes nanna style living rooms and world class poets to unusual settings suchas car parks and housing estates.

In 2022 Kirsty’s first full length play Cashy C’s: The Musical, a unique rap and bassline show about poverty and austerity sold out all it’s shows in under twenty four hours, received five star reviews and was voted inThe Guardian Readers favourite stage shows of 2022. In January 2024 she was awarded the Kay Mellor Fellowship and is pursuing her writing with support from Rollem Productions and Leeds Play House, developing an idea for screen and theatre about mothers who have had their children removed.

Kirsty opened Bradford’s City of Culture year in January performing her words to 20,000 across the weekend in City Park.

 

Nabeela Ahmed

BNabeela Ahmed is a writer, multilingual poet and spoken word artist. Her poetry manuscript will be published in 2025 by Yaffle Press. She published her novella, Despite our Differences, in 2018. She delivers readings and creative writing in schools, libraries, museums, for First Story, the National Literacy Trust, online and at various festivals including The Brontes and Jaag. She has compiled two anthologies from these sessions. Her poems have featured in collaboration with artwork and photography atgalleries such as Salts Mills and Trapezium Arts. She hosts Bradford Writes, which platforms local published writers and is responsible for organising the first public Pahari Mushaira in Britain through Intercultured Festival. She has featured on Word of Mouth with Michael Rosen on Radio 4 and her project, The Pahari-Pothwari Literature Project has been selected to deliver new writing for City of Culture Bradford 2025.

 

Kate Fox

Kate Fox is a stand-up poet, spoken word artist and broadcaster. She is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s spoken word cabaret “The Verb”, has made two comedy series for Radio 4, been Poet in Residence for the Glastonbury Festival and the Great North Run and completed a PhD in stand-up comedy.

She is the author of “Where There’s Muck There’s Bras: True Stories of the North of England’s Women” published by Harper North, and poetry collections including “On Sycamore Gap” (Harper North, 2024), “Bigger On the Inside” (Smokestack Books, 2024) and “The Oscillations” (Nine Arches Press, 2021). She is also a neurodivergent advocate whose latest show “Bigger on the Inside” explores neurodiversity through the lens of Doctor Who.

 

Kim Moore

Kim Moore’s pamphlet If We Could Speak Like Wolveswas a winner in the 2011 Poetry Business Pamphlet Competition. Her first collection The Art of Falling(Seren 2015) won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. Her second collection All The Men I Never Married(Seren, 2021) won the 2022 Forward Prize for Best Collection. Her first non-fiction book What The Trumpet Taught Mewas published by Smith/Doorstop in May 2022. She is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University andthe Deputy Programme Leader for the MA/MFA in Creative Writing. A hybrid book of lyric essays and poetry Are You Judging Me Yet? Poetry and Everyday Sexism was published by Seren in March 2023.

Please note: line up subject to change.

Credits
BBC Contains Strong Language is a partnership between the BBC, Word Up North and Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture. It is supported by Arts Council England.

Sold out →

  • CAP =  Captioned
Poet Kirsty Taylor wearing a green jacket performs using a microphone. Poet Kirsty Taylor wearing a green jacket performs using a microphone.

Part of BBC Contains Strong Language

The UK’s biggest poetry and performance festival for new writing is coming to Bradford for the first time.

Related Events

Three children in Victorian dress wave red flags at a steam train, on a sunny day in West Yorkshire.

The Railway Children

The classic production heads to the Keighley & Worth Valley Railway.

A man talks to a group of children in a bus which has been converted into a library
FREE Part of The Beacon

Share Your Story: Bradford Stories Bus

National Literacy Trust in Bradford

We’re inviting children and young people to share their stories aboard a classic American school bus.

A young boy pulls another young boy who is sat in a makeshift cart across some grass
FREE Part of The Beacon

Play Bradford’s Mobile Adventure Playground

We’re teaming up with Play Bradford to bring mobile play to The Beacon at Lister Park.

Part of The Beacon

The Cocoa Butter Club

An unforgettable night of cabaret, where rhythm meets resistance.

Three women look into a mirror. They wear gold dresses and have drawings on their faces. One of them has a penis drawn on her forehead.
Part of Loading Bay

EGGS COLLECTIVE’S DARK NIGHTS

Twisted cabaret nights at Loading Bay.

A group of performers dance in Bradford City Centre.

A World Without Death

Displace Yourself Theatre

It’s a devilish carnival and you’re invited!

Part of The Beacon

Khooghi

Come on a journey as Kauser weaves together her history with the life and songs of Pakistani folk legend.

FREE Youth Pass

Youth Pass: Poetry Workshop

Got something to say but not sure how to say it?