CRIPtic x Spread the Word Salon with Daniel Sluman and Zoe McWhinney

Join poet Daniel Sluman and Visual Vernacular performer and poet in British Sign Language Zoë McWhinney for a special Festival edition of the CRIPtic x Spread the Word Salon for D/deaf and disabled writers writing in any genre, new or more experienced.
 
 
5.30pm-6.30pm: Workshop with Daniel Sluman
Join Daniel in a relaxed and supportive setting where you’ll be looking at language through the lens of our own bodies and our bodily experience, talking about the things we have in common and using writing exercises to create your own original work. For writers of any ability, including those just starting out.
 
 
6.30pm-7.30pm: Performance + Q+A with Zoë McWhinney + Open Mic
Zoë will be performing and discussing with Daniel her iconic and visual-based bilingual poetry and Visual Vernacular inspired by her own personal life as an ocularcentric human being. There’s also the opportunity for five writers to share their work at the open mic. If you’d like to be considered for an open mic slot, please book a ticket to the event by 23 February and we’ll send you more information.
 
 
About the artists:
Daniel Sluman is a poet and disability rights activist. He co-edited the first major UK Disability poetry anthology Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, and he has published three poetry collections with Nine Arches Press. His most recent collection, single window was released in September 2021, and was shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize.
 
Zoë McWhinney is a Visual Vernacular performer and a poet in British Sign Language (BSL), honoured with British Deaf Associations’ Poet Laureate silver title. As a Deaf person and native BSL signer, she works as a freelance theatre maker, consultant and workshop facilitator in BSL storytelling, poetry and Deaf culture. As an actress, she performed internationally both on stage and in films. Over the last 5 years, she participated in national and international Visual Vernacular shows and championships both on and offline; and graduated from University of Birmingham (BA International Relations and Political Science) and École de Théâtre Universelle in Toulouse.