‘I believe that telling stories is part of what makes us human. We tell stories to know ourselves, to share our experiences, and as a way of making and remaking our culture. Poetry exists in a continuum within that tradition alongside folksongs, punk cabaret, griots and bards, and everyone has the right to access it.’
Kat Lyons is a Queer Bristol-based writer, performer, workshop facilitator and creative producer whose work is grounded in everyday politics and a love of storytelling. They perform throughout the UK, were nominated for the 2022 Jerwood Poetry in Performance Award and their collaborative animated poetry film Duvet Days was selected as part of the official program at ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival 2021.
Kat is currently touring their debut solo show Dry Season, a spoken word theatre show exploring gender, age and menopause. Their debut poetry collection is forthcoming in Feb 2022 from Verve Poetry Press.
Kat is passionate about using the power of stories to re/connect people to themselves, each other and their environment.
LOVE BENEATH THE NAILS
Kat Lyons traces lines of grief, resilience and r/age with a storyteller’s sensibility and a lyrical touch. Exploring bereavement, familial relationships, ecological crisis, and Queer life and identity, Love Beneath the Nails scratches at layers of regret, reminiscence and self-delusion to reveal the beauty in the mundane.
By turns tender, visceral and fierce, these poems grip your hand and pull you into a world of acutely observed human frailties with surreal notes; where polar bears work the night shift, Grief eats toast on the sofa, and Shakespeare’s Beatrice defends her cannibalistic choices.
SAMPLE POEM
When Eve Met Isaac
they talked about apples, and the mechanics of falling.
examine the sheen on the ruddy skin, how it calls
your fingers, adjust your grip, they bruise easily.
their energy cannot be destroyed, but look
what happens when they tumble
how they lie spread, smashed into the dirt.
deflect the force, slap the ground and roll.
she learnt that in her self-
defense class. ignore the hiss. how they suck
their teeth at your body.
blame it on the hothouse weather.
walled gardens are always microclimates.
she packed her knowledge and left. he stayed
beneath the tree. the apples
cradled their maggots, swayed in the wind
waited for their chance.
DRY SEASON
Lyons’ debut spoken word show, Dry Season, is not only an unflinching examination of menopausal chaos, but also a sharp look at societal expectations of age and gender.
Dry Season interweaves music, movement and medical texts with original poetry and animation. Using the role of women in fairytales as a starting point, Kat takes the audience on a journey through a chaotic year of hormone issues, NHS visits and unexpected connections.
Created as a collaboration between Kat and Edalia Day, Duvet Days is a short animated poetry film and part of Kat’s ‘Dry Season’.
