When Karen McCarthy Woolf heard Chicago House classic French Kiss for the first time, it changed everything.

For one night only, this celebrated poet and electronic music fanatic invites you behind-the-scenes and into the world behind her boundary-pushing poetry and music collaborations.

With live poetry and soundscape, journey with us from rave to Detroit techno, soundscape to jungle, house and more, and question: how can electronic music as a largely ‘lyric-less’ form intersect with the music of poetry?

Poetry & Lyrics Festival 6—7 Jun 2019

Poet in the City’s genre defying festival returns to celebrate the relationship between words and music.

Poetry & Lyrics Festival, a unique celebration bringing together musicians and poets spanning genres from jazz, neo-soul, punk and disco is here, and this year we’re looking back on the songs and words of our years, from the tracks that define a moment to the words that shape our identities.

Headliners include Lavinia Greenlaw and special guests with their nostalgic Village Hall Disco, and Belinda Zhawi and members of Steam Down Collective performing a genre-bending jazz set to the words of poetry’s lesser known black foremothers.