Bradford-born poet, spoken word artist and playwright Kirsty Taylor is the dramaturg – the literary adviser - of Bradford 2025 City of Culture, which was launched on Friday night in front of a packed crowd on a below-freezing night.

The opening events on 10 and 11 January were created by local magician Steven Frayne (formerly known as Dynamo) and directed by Kirsty Housley. The event featured aerial performers, acrobatics and magic, with local people, voices and stories at its heart.

Bradford was selected as a city of culture in 2022 after a record 20 bids, and has some of the poorest wards in the UK, and wards where only about 10% of residents are white. “This old bullshit narrative of Bradford, we know it’s fuelled by racism,” Kirsty Taylor told the Guardian. “We know what the narrative is of the city, nationally, worldwide. And it’s time to move on from that.”

She added: “I’ve got a poem about how you can take us out of Bradford, but you can’t take the Bradford out of us. Even if we do go anywhere else, it has shaped us in that way. And it sounds so cheesy, but it’s bloody true.”