Rise Up! at The Bluebird Bakery York

Rise Up! is a monthly celebration of poetry featuring three invited guests, including, recently, Anthony (Vahni) Capildeo (pictured), Rosie Garland, Rachel Long and JP Seabright. Following a couple of months off over the summer months, Rise Up! will be back in September and welcoming to the mic Ian Duhig, Kirsten Luckens and Henry Raby.

Ian Duhig has published seven books of poetry, won the Forward Best Poem Prize once, the National Poetry Competition twice and his New and Selected Poems was awarded the 2022 Hawthornden Prize for Literature. Ian Duhig’s most recent book of poems, An Arbitrary Lightbulb, was the 2024 Poetry Book Society Winter Choice.

Kirsten Luckins is a Teesside-based poet whose work explores ekphrasis, ecopoetics and experimentation generally. Her latest pamphlet, Offworld (The Braag, 2025), tells the journey of two runaways as they planet-hop through a disintegrating empire of colonised worlds, where octopi seek out strip clubs and anything can be bought at a spaceport. It’s described as: “Beautiful, shocking, funny and prescient, this pamphlet presents us with glimpses of ruined and defiant futures.”

Punk poet Henry Raby’s work has been described as playful, highly charged, passionate and anarchic. Henry writes about anger and hope – the twin emotions to keep you fuelled for the fight, he says. Henry has been published by Burning Eye Books and co-runs York spoken word organisation Say Owt. He co-hosts the Vandal Factory podcast, looking at the magic moments where art and activism meet.

The Rise space is the evening arts venue at the Bluebird Bakery (hence the name) and regularly plays host to spoken word, art exhibitions, live music, theatre, comedy, family-friendly nights and much more. Here’s what the blurb says: Rise aims to be a vibrant and independently-run creative hub, driven by love and support from the local community – and an ardent sense of adventure.

Now a regular on York’s expanding live literature scene, Rise Up! hosts and Northern Writer Award winners Nicky Kippax and Elizabeth Chadwick Pywell also offer three open mic slots to performers who’ve signed up in advance – giving emerging voices an important opportunity to share their work with a live audience. The whole event usually finishes with a signing, when you’ll have the opportunity to buy books from the readers. Tickets are £10 + Eventbrite booking fee of £1.55.