Zoë McWhinney is a British Sign Language (BSL) poet, theatre maker, Visual Vernacular (VV) artist and one of the founders of BSL slam. She works as a freelance theatre-maker, consultant and workshop facilitator in BSL, storytelling and Deaf Culture. As an actress, she has performed internationally both on stage and in films.

Zoë will be running a workshop called “Introduction to BSL poetry” (including Visual Vernacular). This workshop is aimed at people who are deaf, or have achieved at least level 3 BSL competency. By the end of the workshop, participants will have created their own short poems in BSL and/or VV, and will have learnt about deaf BSL (or BANZSL) poets and VV performers around the world!

Zoë will also be providing a performance of her own work for everyone to enjoy.