D/deaf and Disabled Artists on Making Work Now

Join poet, writer and researcher Jamie Hale and four fellow disabled artists for this online conversation.

They reflect on their different experiences and practices, and ask what it means to be a D/deaf or disabled artist in a pandemic.

The artists talk for 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of questions and answers.

Live captions are provided by Stagetext, and BSL interpretation is delivered by Michelle Wood.

Host: Jamie Hale
@jamierhale on Twitter
Jamie is an artist, curator, and founder of disability arts showcase CRIPtic. They create poetry, comedy, scriptwriting and drama for page, stage and screen. They have written for publications including the Guardian and Magma, and have performed at venues including the Barbican and Southbank Centre. Their pandemic poetry pamphlet, ‘Shield’, is published in January 2021.

Speaker: Amelia Cavallo
Amelia Cavallo is a blind theatre practitioner, academic and workshop facilitator who works as a multi-disciplinary performer, musical director, lecturer and consultant on access and audio description. They are a PhD candidate studying intersections of gender, disability and sexuality. Amelia co-founded Quiplash, a theatre company making space for Disabled people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Speaker: Miss Jacqui
Miss Jacqui is a poet and songwriter who performed at the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony, and at venues including the Southbank Centre. She knows a lot about working with the cards that you are dealt, and always tries to challenge societal perceptions, like what it means to be a Black woman with a disability.

Speaker: Keith Salmon
Born in Essex in 1959, Keith Salmon studied Fine Art at Shrewsbury and Falmouth Schools of Art in the early 1980s. Registered as blind in 1999, he now works from his studio in Irvine, Scotland and exhibits his semi-abstract landscape paintings throughout the UK.

Speaker: Signkid
Signkid is the UK’s first and only Deaf music producer, writer and performer, pioneering a unique aesthetic that integrates British Sign Language signing into a visual language for live hip-hop, rap and urban music. SignKid has performed at festivals including Deaf Rave, Wireless and Latitude, and has had extensive BBC coverage.

Speaker: Emma Selwyn
Emma graduated from Access All Areas’ 2016 Performance Making Diploma at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Their work includes ‘My Hands and Feet are Wiggling’ (2016), ‘#Binariesbegone’ (2019), ’Not F**kin’ Sorry’ at Soho Theatre with Not Your Circus Dog (2019), and ‘unReal City’ at Battersea Arts Centre with Access All Areas and dreamthinkspeak (2020).

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