3 March 2010
The University of Bristol and Bristol Centre for Deaf People were hosts of this year's hugely successful Bristol Sign Poetry Festival. The festival consisted of two events: a two-day sign-language poetry workshop and a sign-language poetry performance evening.The workshops, attended by 14 Deaf people from London, Preston, Bristol, Surrey, Cardiff, Edinburgh, India, Belgium, Lithuania, Czech Republic and South Africa, introduced participants to sign-language poetry and then to the Japanese art of renga, a collective poetry form. Led by Rachel Sutton-Spence and Alan Summers, the workshops culminated in group performances of sign-language rengas, in front of a 150-strong audience at Bristol Centre for Deaf People.
The performance evening at Bristol Centre for Deaf People was a sell-out. Organised, promoted and hosted by ScreamBristol, the evening centred on sign language poetry performances by leading Deaf poets - Richard Carter, Paul Scott and Donna Williams from the UK and special guest Johanna Mesch from Sweden. Their performances inspired the workshop participants also to take to the stage, and to perform their rengas to a hugely appreciative and inspired audience.
The Bristol Sign Poetry Festival is part of the AHRC-funded 'Metaphor in Creative Sign Language' project, held by Dr Rachel Sutton-Spence (CPPD) and Dr Michiko Kaneko (Centre for Deaf Studies). Many thanks to all those who supported, attended and participated in the two-day festival; in particular, Richard Carter, Johanna Mesch, Paul Scott, John Wilson, Donna Williams, Alan Summers, Siobhan O'Donovan, Ian Glover, everyone at ScreamBristol, Martin Haswell, Clare Reed and Sarah Hirons.
British Sign Language Rengas are now available on You Tube:
Useful websites:
