Come and join this CRIPtic x Spread the Word Salon with Josephine Dickinson. Sign up for the Salon open mic if you’d like to share your work.
Whether you are new to writing or are a seasoned and published poet, gain inspiration and start a new ongoing adventure in creativity.
Read your work at the sharing spot
There are five sharing spot slots available at the Salon and if you’d like to share your work please complete the following form by 11am on Friday 30 May 2025: https://forms.gle/eHoA36KsWX7Q57aB7
You’ll be asked to provide your contact details, a short bio, and the reading you will be doing which should be no longer than 5 minutes. This is so we can send the work to our BSL interpreters in advance of the session. You can submit these in written English, video or audio file format.
About Josephine
Josephine Dickinson became profoundly deaf overnight at the age of six after a childhood illness. She went on to study Classics, then became a music teacher and composer. In 2012 she became totally deaf, and received a cochlear implant two years later. She has published four poetry collections and collaborates with numerous other artists, composers and writers.
Josephine has written about the new sound world she experienced with a cochlear implant:https://aeon.co/essays/a-deaf-musician-and-poet-receives-a-cochlear-implant
The defining moment of her life as a d/Deaf person and artist remains the decision by educators to keep her in hearing schools and away from BSL-using Deaf peers. Having made numerous attempts throughout adult life to learn BSL in classes which have invariably been organised by and for hearing people, she has come to appreciate that her position as ‘in-between’ the hearing and the Deaf worlds gives her a unique perspective for her artistic practice in language, sound and vision alike.
Her recent chapter, ’Alphabetula’, in Aural Diversity, ed. John L. Drever and Andrew Hugill, Routledge 2023, forms a personal manifesto of a kind.
Access Information
- Auto-captions
- Self Descriptions
- BSL Interpretation
- Comfort Breaks
About CRIPtic Arts
CRIPtic Arts exists to ignite disabled excellence across the arts. We provide active disabled leadership which advances world-class arts work with disabled creatives. From high-quality community activities to showcasing breakthrough performers; we’re blazing a revolution in accessibility.
About Spread the Word
Spread the Word is London’s literature development agency. We have have a national and international reputation for change-making research and developing programmes for writers that have equity and social justice at their heart.
With thanks to the City Bridge Foundation for supporting the CRIPtic x Spread the Word Salon and Connect through Connectivity.