Coming next –the team launches Phase 2 with new ECN+ funding
From microbial drag spectacle to everyday ecological citizenship
Flow.Walk.Drag.Everyday – “pooling parties” popping up where communities pool together – resources, capacities, needs – experimenting with bacterial wisdom. Think: sharing like microbes share genetic material to survive together.
We have completed its first phase with sold-out walking tours led by drag artists performing as microbes across Liverpool L8 and Margate – exploring how Cholera and E. coli respond to water inequality in two coastal communities shaped by migration, exploitation and resistance. The project engaged 1,000+ live participants, with the stinger video reaching 2,696+ views.
Now the audio tours take the experience into new streams and channels. The Liverpool Cholera Audio Tour is out – a four-episode podcast narrated by Cholera itself, tracing bacterial flow through Liverpool’s water histories from the 1831 epidemic and Irish Genocide to the Toxteth Uprising and today’s sewage crisis. Episodes 1 and 2 are live now and Episodes 3 and 4 dropping soon.
Stay on the waves – the Margate E. coli audio tour is coming soon to your ears!
“Phase 1 proved that drag performance can shift people from climate anxiety to multispecies solidarity,” says Dr Annalaura Alifuoco, project lead at Liverpool Hope University. “When humans dress as bacteria, something unlocks. Phase 2 asks: how do we sustain that? How do we embed it into everyday life?”
Starting in Spring 2026, the team will enact “spill overs”– flowing into existing community venues – climate cafes, community centres, local gatherings – bringing pooling practices, microbial drag interventions and toolkits into spaces where people already are. No grand new infrastructure, just embedding radical generosity into the everyday.
The research innovation threads through both phases: using drag to make visible how bacteria respond to the same inequalities humans face, then translating bacterial survival strategies (horizontal gene transfer, pooling resources) into community practices. From spectacular intervention to regenerative everyday action.
Pooling parties begin Spring 2026
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