SisterVerse Festival 2026
About this Event
Get Ready for SisterVerse Festival 2026!
✨ SisterVerse Festival 2026 ✨
SisterVerse Festival returns in 2026 with our Autumnal Energy a female-only gathering rooted in sisterhood, creativity, connection and community. 🍂🌙
As the seasons turn and nature invites us to slow down, reflect and release, SisterVerse creates space for women to come together, share stories, explore creativity and reconnect with themselves and one another.
This year, we’re leaning into the ancestral, mystical and witchy honouring the wisdom carried through generations, the power of women’s voices and the magic found in gathering together.
🖤 And as always, we have a theme…
So come dressed in your witchy dresses, autumnal colours and magical selves. ✨
Expect poetry, creative writing, conversation, artists, creative stalls, wellbeing, henna and face painting, with our incredible artists, creatives and stallholders to be announced soon.
📍 City Library, Bradford
🕛 12pm–6pm
🎟️ Booking is required more details coming soon.
SisterVerse is more than a festival. It’s a space to pause, remember, reconnect and reclaim a little magic.
Come as you are. Leave connected, inspired and reminded of your own power. 🖤🍂✨
Woman Am I
Writing for Wellbeing Workshop
Maya Angelou says: “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story
inside you.” In this experiential workshop we will use a carefully selected poem
written by Anne Waldman internationally acclaimed poet, performer and activist as a
springboard for writing, reflection and conversations.
You can discover the transformative power of putting pen to paper in a supportive
and inspiring space.
Whether you're looking to ignite your creative spark, this workshop invites you to
reconnect with yourself and tell your story in new and meaningful ways. It
encourages you to nurture self-compassion and curiosity, offering a space to express
whatever arises without judgment.
There is no need to worry about spelling, grammar or style. No previous
experience of expressive writing or poetry is required. There will be an
invitation to read your writing aloud if you wish, there is no obligation.
Join us as we celebrate womanhood.
About Charmaine Pollard
Charmaine Pollard is a BACP accredited/ registered counsellor with over 25 years’
experience, she is a coach and a certified poetry therapist, accredited with the
International Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy in the USA.
She has facilitated poetry therapy groups in: schools, prisons, churches, libraries,
museums, clinical settings and in the community, with a particular focus on
confidence and resilience. She has worked in the violence against women and girls
(VAWG) sector for over 20 years, helping hundreds of women create a new legacy.
She is author of Writing for Resilience: Finding the Courage to Bounce Back, 2021, a
book designed to improve your resilience and well-being through poetry and self-
reflective writing.
CREATE YOUR OWN MAGIC
We have the wonderful Louise joining us at SisterVerse Festival, bringing a little bit of magic for our creative witches! Come along and create your very own: Magic potions & spell jars; Magical wands for children; Woven spells using beautiful silk scraps, words, beads, and sparkly treasures. A gorgeous drop-in creative workshop running 12–6 pm, where you can make, weave, sparkle, and create your own little piece of magic to take home. Come and get witchy with us!
Louise Grassby is a creative artist and facilitator who works with people aged 4 to 104, using creativity and art to build confidence and support wellbeing.She runs creative art workshops for children, families and adults across West Yorkshire and beyond, working with community groups, museums and charities. Her sessions include drawing, painting, printmaking, crafts and silk painting, designed to be welcoming and accessible to people of all ages and abilities. Whether participants are complete beginners or looking to develop their skills, Louise creates a relaxed space where people can explore their creativity and enjoy making art.Louise also works as a freelance artist, collaborating with dance, theatre, cultural and health organisations to design and deliver creative projects, including festival work. Her practice includes set design and prop making.
Our HOST THE wonderful Shamim is BACK! And we couldn’t be happier to have her hosting SisterVerse Festival once again.Get ready for a full day of creativity, warmth, friendship, sisterhood and GOOD energy.Join us on 18th October at Bradford Libraries, 12–6pm, for a beautiful day celebrating ancestral wisdom, female connection, creativity and the power of women coming together.Meet our wonderful host, Shamim.
Shamim has been part of the BCB Radio family for the past 12 years, playing an active role on the station’s Management Committee and bringing her passion for community engagement to everything she does.She is also a Team Manager for the Adult Health & Wellbeing team at a local CIC, where she is dedicated to supporting people and improving the wellbeing of local communities.We know Shamim is going to bring her warmth, energy and magic to the day.It’s going to be beautiful.
Ancestral ENERGY
We have the incredible Dr Lara Rose joining us, with her powerful ancestral voice, summoning our female energy in the room. Join us at Sisterverse Festival and enriching experience of togetherness and female celebration.
Dr Lara Rose is a multidisciplinary artist based in Leeds whose work spans visual art, sculpture, poetry, authorship, singing, and songwriting, deeply rooted in Yoruba culture. Her creative journey explores themes of identity, heritage, and the fusion of cultural narratives. Her poetry is published in Jacob Ross anthologies, 'Weighted Words' & 'Sanctuary' by Peepal Tree Press, and she recently presented a TEDx Talk – 'Finding My Yoruba Voice' at Leeds Beckett University. As a Creative prodigy of the late Dr Geraldine Connor - (Carnival Messiah), she created a life-size ultramarine blue Aworan statue of Geraldine, the first statue of a black woman in Leeds, currently installed at the entrance of the Leeds Beckett, School of Art building.
Women’s Voices in Desi Folk Songs.
This session, led by Abda Khan, will be all about women’s stories passed down through the centuries, which are found in traditional South Asian folks songs, such as Tappay and Mahiye. Come along and join in with the dholki session, a mixture of singing, reflection and discussion. Come discover the largely unknown but moving stories that lie behind some of the songs we sing at weddings; the stories of women’s collective grief, tragedy and heartbreak, and the triumph of the human spirit to find solace through the sisterhood, by sharing stories and turning them into songs which have been passed down orally through the generations.
️Abda Khan is a lawyer turned writer and author of the novels Stained (2016) and Razia (2019), her poetry collection Losing Battles Winning Wars (2023) and her third novel That Which May Destroy You was published in 2025.She runs creative writing courses, and produces and directs a variety of creative community projects which have included Sidelines to Centre Stage (sharing the stories of marginalised women), Tappay Tales (creating new work by taking inspiration from old Punjabi folk songs), and Aurat Kahani, a creative oral history project which featured women’s stories about South Asian migration.She writes commissioned pieces (short scripts, poetry, fiction and non-fiction) for various publications, organisations and projects. Her work has included a script written as part of Tribe Arts’ live show at The Armouries in Leeds delving into the complete joined up story of Partition (nominated for an Asian Media Award) and a spoken word script written and narrated for the short film Threaded Together directed by Sima Gonsai (nominated for a Royal Television Society Midlands Award).Abda Khan is a Desi Blitz Arts Ambassador, a Lloyds Bank Women of the Future Ambassador, and she won British Muslim Woman of the Year
LINDA BAKER IS JOINING US AT SISTERVERSE!
We’re so excited to welcome the incredibly talented Linda Baker to SisterVerse Festival! Based in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Linda is an award-winning face and body painter with a passion for transforming faces and bodies into beautiful works of art. With many awards and trophies from face and body painting competitions over the years, Linda has turned her passion into her profession and we absolutely LOVE that she gets to bring joy to people through her creativity. Come along, say hello to Linda and experience her incredible artistry at SisterVerse Festival!
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
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