About this Event
'Adaptive Strategies for a Sensitive System is a lovingly disordered field guide for surviving a world that keeps turning up the brightness. Disguised in the respectable badge of a diagnostic title, this is in contrast a poetic log of being too sensitive in a society built for the perpetually unbothered.
From violent mornings to dreich late nights, Kate sifts through bedrooms, public transport, supermarkets, her Gran’s house, the surveillance-era optimism of mindfulness apps, and the wild terrain of her own mind- gathering softness, silliness, and unexpected wisdom along the way.
With raw energy, wry humour and the stubborn softness of someone who has spent a lifetime feeling like a faulty blue tooth speaker trying to connect, she questions what’s innate, what’s inherited, and why everything seems to be “improving” faster than any of us can adapt. Connection, dislocation, loneliness, identity, social failure, and the strange hope that still glimmers beneath it all; this is a companion for anyone who has ever felt out of alignment with the world’s settings, and is still learning how to stay tender without falling apart.'
Blether is proud to present the launch of Kate Ireland’s debut collection of poems, stories and secrets: Adaptive Strategies for a Sensitive System, published by Burning Eye Books.
Step into an immersive space where Kate will perform words from the book, accompanied by the transcendent sonic world of Sheffield-based producer Losssy.
Kate Ireland is a Glasgow-born poet, artist and performer who revels in the profound and the mundane. Her work dredges stories from the far reaches of the heart and delivers them with lyricism, bite and a mischievous wink. She has performed across theatres and festivals throughout the UK, with poetry featured on BBC 6 Music and appearances at Glastonbury Festival.
Her debut album Self Regulating Behaviours was released in 2024, and in 2025 she premiered her one-woman spoken word show Golden Time and Other Behavioural Management Strategies at Pleasance Dome during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The show has since transferred to Roundhouse and HOME.
Kate has supported the likes of Antony Szmierek and Harry Baker, and will soon support Jacob Alon at the Roundhouse and join Joshua Idehen for his full UK tour.
We’ll also be joined by some of Manchester’s most exciting wordsmiths - 6FA Maisie, and Biz - alongside the ghostly, folky tones of the gorgeous Maggie Channelor.
There will be books to buy, beers to drink, and words that will fester and soar somewhere deep inside your chest.
A limited batch of early bird tickets is available. Grab them while you can!
See you there, Bletheren.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Bridge5Mill, 22A Beswick Street, Manchester, United Kingdom
GBP 9.38
