A fun session with spoken word poet Simi Roach as she teaches the basic building blocks of how to create engaging spoken word poetry.
A fun session with spoken word poet Simi Roach as she teaches the basic building blocks of how to create engaging spoken word poetry. Join us for writing and performing activities, a chance to share your work with others, and a performance from Simi Roach herself. This session is BSL interpreted.
About Simi Roach:
Simi Roach is Jamaican-British and has spent most of her life living in the Netherlands. Simi is a professional writer, performer, public speaker, and Disability rights activist. She was born with a progressive Disability which caused her to gradually lose the ability to walk and the mobility in her wrists and fingers. She performs and writes her own spoken word poetry as well as short stories, poems, and novels.
Simi writes about her experiences as a Black, Disabled, queer woman on her blog The Wheelchair Teen. Following the success of her website, she began public speaking to educate children about Disabilities. She has since spoken at numerous schools and venues. Simi has been interviewed about her activism work on multiple podcasts and the radio. She continues to fight for awareness of Disability culture, heritage, history, and pride.
About the Writers’ Salons:
CRIPtic x Spread the Word is a year-long programme of writers’ salons, led by industry-leading creatives including a workshop, reading and open mic. The Writers’ Salons are run in a partnership between CRIPtic Arts and Spread the Word. The Salons are supported by Scope and Arts Council England.
The Salon aims to support and promote underrepresented writers and be an inclusive space where deaf and disabled writers can be part of a community, learn, have fun and share their work.
This Salon has a workshop, followed by a reading and Q&A with Simi Roach and an opportunity for you to take part in an open mic (five x five mins slots are available and you need to apply for them in advance – there is more information on this further down this page).
The Salon is open to deaf and disabled writers writing in any genre, new or more experienced and is hosted by Alice Christina-Corrigan, Community Programmes Officer at CRIPtic Arts.
If you’d like to be considered for an open mic slot, please book a ticket to the event. We’ll email you through an open mic application form. You’ll need to complete this to be considered for the open mic. We ask you to share your writing bio and writing you’d like to read on the night at this point. We have five x five minute slots for each Salon so if we’re oversubscribed for applications we’ll choose those who haven’t read before, and also consider a balance of reading genres.
The Salon is free to attend.
This Salon:
6.30pm – 7.20pm: Writing workshop with Simi Roach on ‘How to write and perform spoken word’
7.20 – 7.35pm: break
7.35pm – 8.30pm: Reading and Q&A with workshop with Simi Roach + open mic
Accessibility:
The Salon takes place on Zoom.
The Salon will be BSL Interpreted by Michelle Wood and Lynne Bateman.
It will also be auto-captioned.
The Salon is a relaxed space. People will be given regular breaks and are able to take additional breaks as needed.
Open Mic participants and guest readers will be asked to self-describe when introducing themselves.
Any images used at the Salon will be described, and Open Mic participants will be asked to describe any slides or images used in their own work.
We cannot guarantee a trigger-free space, and we will request that people participating in the Open Mic slots flag content likely to trigger.
Please email us about any other access needs: [email protected]
FAQs:
What do you mean by deaf and disabled?
When we say deaf and disabled, we include within that neurodivergence, chronic and long-term health conditions and mental health conditions.
How do I sign up to take part in the open mic?
There will be five x 5 minute open mic slots available at each Salon.
In your confirmation email for the ticket you’ll receive a link to complete an open mic application form, which we need you to complete in order to read at the Salon. We ask you in this form to share your writing bio and five minutes of reading material with us – this can be in English written form, or as a video or audio file. We’ll let you know if you have an open mic slot by the Wednesday before the Salon takes place. We ask for this info as it enables us to send work through to our BSL interpreters in advance of the Salon.
If the open mic slots to be oversubscribed and will prioritise writers reading from a range of genres and those who have not read at the Salon before.