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The Bard of Bath is a prestigious title awarded to the winner of an annual competition designed to discover Bath's finest poet, singer, or storyteller. This vibrant competition takes place each year, featuring a different theme that invites participants to submit a manifesto alongside a performance piece.
The title revives an Iron Age Celtic Druid tradition, where Druids served as law-makers, judges, and ceremonial leaders; Ovates acted as mediums, healers, and prophets; Bards were poets, musicians and history-keepers. All of them held high status and a place in mystical/religious circles. [1]
Each Chaired Bard becomes a member of the Gorsedd and retains their title (specified by year). The current Bard of Bath, as of November 2024, is Michelle Hawkins-Collins.
In 2025, the theme was “Home,” and Michelle won the competition with her poignant performance titled "Home is Not a Place but a Presence." Her piece drew inspiration from the life of her grandmother, who lost her home at the age of 12 during World War II and grew up in a concentration camp in East Germany. As the current Bard of Bath, Michelle is dedicated to promoting the bardic arts throughout the city and fostering a sense of community through creative expression.
Michelle is also the founder of The Wisdom Space CIC , which helps individuals to reconnect more deeply with themselves, their local communities, and the natural world through regular workshops, events, and retreats.
A slam poetry is a competitive art event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery.
Shannara is a series of high fantasy novels written by Terry Brooks, beginning with The Sword of Shannara in 1977 and concluding with The Last Druid which was released in October 2020; there is also a prequel, First King of Shannara. The series blends magic and primitive technology and is set in the Four Lands, which are identified as Earth long after civilization was destroyed in a chemical and nuclear holocaust called the Great Wars. By the time of the prequel First King of Shannara, the world had reverted to a pre-industrial state and magic had re-emerged to supplement science.
In Celtic cultures, a bard is an oral repository and professional story teller, verse-maker, music composer, oral historian and genealogist, employed by a patron to commemorate one or more of the patron's ancestors and to praise the patron's own activities.
In Welsh culture, an eisteddfod is an institution and festival with several ranked competitions, including in poetry and music. The term eisteddfod, which is formed from the Welsh morphemes: eistedd, meaning 'sit', and fod, meaning 'be', means, according to Hywel Teifi Edwards, "sitting-together." Edwards further defines the earliest form of the eisteddfod as a competitive meeting between bards and minstrels, in which the winner was chosen by a noble or royal patron.
The New Saints of Oswestry Town & Llansantffraid Football Club, commonly known as The New Saints or TNS FC, are a Welsh professional football club that play in the Cymru Premier, but are based completely within England, in Oswestry, Shropshire. They are the most successful club in the Welsh league structure, with 16 league titles to their name. Since the 2001–02 season, they have finished as champions or runners-up in every season, apart from 2008–09, where they finished third in the league. They became the first side playing in the Welsh league system to qualify for the group or league stage of any European competition after reaching the league phase of the UEFA Conference League for the first time in the 2024–25 season.
Archdruid is the title used by the presiding official of the Gorsedd. The Archdruid presides over the most important ceremonies at the National Eisteddfod of Wales including the Crowning of the Bard, the award of the Prose Medal and the Chairing of the Bard. Although Iolo Morganwg was the first to preside over the Gorsedd when the National Eisteddfod came into being, his successor David Griffith, under the bardic name "Clwydfardd", was the first to be known by the official title "Archdruid".
Edward Williams, better known by his bardic name Iolo Morganwg, was a Welsh antiquarian, poet and collector. He was seen as an expert collector of Medieval Welsh literature, but it emerged after his death that he had forged several manuscripts, notably some of the Third Series of Welsh Triads. Even so, he had a lasting impact on Welsh culture, notably in founding the secret society known as the Gorsedd, through which Iolo Morganwg successfully co-opted the 18th-century Eisteddfod revival. The philosophy he spread in his forgeries has had an enormous impact upon neo-Druidism. His bardic name is Welsh for "Iolo of Glamorgan".
Michelle Danielle Collins is an English actress. She is known for her role as Cindy Beale in the BBC soap opera EastEnders, as well as appearing as Stella Price in ITV's Coronation Street. Her other notable television roles include the BBC dramas Real Women (1998–1999), Sunburn (1999–2000) and Two Thousand Acres of Sky (2001–2003).
The bard is a standard playable character class in many editions of the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The bard class is versatile, capable of combat and of magic. Bards use their artistic talents to induce magical effects. The class is loosely based on the special magic that music holds in stories such as the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and in earlier versions was much more akin to being a Celtic Fili or a Norse Skald, although these elements have largely been removed in later editions. Listed inspirations for bards include Taliesin, Homer, Will Scarlet and Alan-a-Dale.
Dame Valerie Kasanita Adams is a retired New Zealand shot putter. She is a four-time World champion, four-time World Indoor champion, two-time Olympic, three-time Commonwealth Games champion and twice IAAF Continental Cup winner. She has a personal best throw of 21.24 metres (69.7 ft) outdoors and 20.98 metres (68.8 ft) indoors. These marks are Oceanian, Commonwealth and New Zealand national records. She also holds the Oceanian junior record (18.93 m) and the Oceanian youth record (17.54 m), as well as the World Championships record, World Indoor Championships record and Commonwealth Games record.
The NSW Schools Spectacular is an Australian variety show featuring more than 5,500 students from public schools across New South Wales and was performed annually at the Sydney Entertainment Centre between 1984 and 2015, after which the venue was permanently closed. In 2016, it moved to Sydney Olympic Park, and found its new home at Qudos Bank Arena.
The National Eisteddfod of Wales is the largest of several eisteddfodau that are held annually, mostly in Wales. Its eight days of competitions and performances are considered the largest music and poetry festival in Europe. Competitors typically number 6,000 or more, and overall attendance generally exceeds 100,000 visitors, the highest recently being 186,000 attending the 2024 festival in Pontypridd. The 2018 Eisteddfod was held in Cardiff Bay with a fence-free 'Maes'. In 2020, the event was held virtually under the name AmGen; events were held over a one-week period.
"Take Me Home" is a song written and performed by English drummer, singer and songwriter Phil Collins. It is the tenth and final track on Collins' third solo album, No Jacket Required. Collins co-produced the song with Hugh Padgham and released it as a single in the UK in July 1985 and the U.S. in March 1986. It did moderately well in the UK, peaking at No. 19. While it was not as successful as other singles from the album, such as "Sussudio" or "One More Night" in the US, it still reached the top 10, peaking at No. 7.
Suzanne Collins is an American author and television writer. She is best known as the author of the young adult dystopian book series The Hunger Games. She is also the author of the children's fantasy series The Underland Chronicles.
Colleen Smith Clinkenbeard is an American voice actress, ADR director, line producer, and writer. One of her major starts was as the English voice provider for Rachel Moore in the long-running detective series Case Closed. She then later served as the Co-ADR director on Fullmetal Alchemist, which aired on Adult Swim in 2004. She has since starred in many popular anime dubs, including as Monkey D. Luffy in One Piece, Erza Scarlet in Fairy Tail, Moka Akashiya in Rosario + Vampire, Maria in Burst Angel, and Momo Yaoyorozu in My Hero Academia. She also voiced Kisara Nanjo in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple.
The Crowning of the Bard is one of the most important events in a Welsh eisteddfod or Scottish Gaelic Mòd.
Somerset is a county in the south west of England. It has a varied cultural tradition ranging from the Arthurian legends to The Wurzels, a band specialising in Scrumpy and Western music.
Kelly Reichardt is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working-class characters in small, rural communities.
Gorsedd Cymru, or simply the Gorsedd, is a society of Welsh-language poets, writers, musicians and others who have contributed to the Welsh language and to public life in Wales. Its aim is to honour such individuals and help develop and promote their fields in addition to maintaining relationships with other Celtic nations and Y Wladfa in Patagonia. The Gorsedd is most prominent at the National Eisteddfod of Wales where it is responsible for the main ceremonies held.
Chari Wanda Hawkins is an American track and field athlete who competes in combined events. She won the 2022 U.S. Indoor Pentathlon title and has represented the U.S. in the heptathlon at the 2019 World Championships, finishing 12th, and at the 2023 World Championships, finishing 8th.
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