A window on Bristol
Earlier this year we launched an opportunity for an artist to produce creative content for our Mission Net Zero Gathering in November. We were seeking a creative piece to speak to the themes of courage, grief, joy and determination, as well as reflect and emphasise the strength of collective climate and nature action.
The winning submission was from Florence Grieve, a writer and poet whose poetry has been published in Mslexia and Acumen, among others. She was longlisted for the 2024 Heroica Poetry Prize, runner up at this year’s Womad Poetry Slam and third in the Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival Slam.
Our Gathering ‘Transforming Bristol Together: a work in progress’ was held on 20 November as part of Mission Net Zero, an innovative city-wide initiative helping Bristol to accelerate climate action by addressing the barriers to progress.
At the halfway point between Bristol’s declaration of a climate emergency and our 2030 carbon neutral target, we gathered our membership and wider regional stakeholders to take a moment for reflection and remind ourselves of the potential of our collective action. You can read more about the event in this blog post by Suzannah Newham from Bristol Zoological Society.
We wanted a creative piece to disrupt the usual conference format. Florence wrote a poem especially for the event which includes real and imagined perspectives from Bristolians about this moment in Bristol’s journey. To develop the poem, Florence spoke to several Bristol residents for inspiration, and to build a picture of the wide range of experiences and views in the city.
“I wanted to reflect the different experiences of people in our city from the perspective of the views from our windows, what it tells us about today and the future we are building together.” Florence Grieve
Her poem inspired and motivated the live audience and now you can hear it for yourself. You can find more of Florence’s work at https://verylatereviews.co.uk
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