Hello!
We have some exciting news!
Remember the BDA was looking for the UK’s first ever Deaf BSL Poet Laureate? We are proud to announce that we have found the right person!
We received twelve poems for this first competition. They were all excellent, and we were particularly pleased to receive several entries from Deaf children and young people.
It was a difficult choice. Our seven judges voted on the fluency and creativity of the poet’s language, the content and originality of the poem itself, and the confidence of the performance. The top three were very close, just a few points apart! In the end, we identified our top three poets.
Are you ready?
In third place, winning a prize of £100, is poet Michael Watkinson, with his poem “Sailing in Silence”.
The judges called this “perfect creative poetry” and “a lovely performance using rhyming handshapes”.
Well done Michael!
In second place, winning a prize of £200, is poet Zoë McWhinney, with her poem about the history of the recognition of BSL.
The judges described this as “a brilliant mixture of BSL and VV poetry… very confident and creative.”
Well done Zoë!
Finally, in first place and our new BSL Poet Laureate 2023-24, it’s Kabir Kapoor with his uplifting and rhythmic poem about the Deaf and hearing community coming together and positivity overcoming negativity.
The judges said it was “a huge pleasure to watch and left a big smile on my face” and described Kabir as “a confident performer with a really important message of solidarity and togetherness”.
Kabir wins the first prize of £500 and the opportunity to work with DeafZone at Glastonbury 2024.
Huge congratulations Kabir! We look forward to working with you over the coming year to support and promote your beautiful BSL poetry to the world.
We’d also like to say well done to the other nine poets who created a poem for the competition. It was a very difficult choice and we loved watching each and every poem! We will share the three winning poems on our social media channels for everyone to enjoy.
Huge thanks to our judging panel: Benjamin Gorman, Paula Garfield, Donna Mullings, Nadia Nadarajah, Dai O’Brien, Moira Ross, Jean St Clair for taking the time to share their expertise.
And last but not least, many thanks indeed to our sponsor DeafZone for their generous support of this first ever national BSL Poet Laureate competition!
If you enjoyed the poems and think you would like to become the UK’s next BSL Poet Laureate, why not apply next year?
Happy Deaf Awareness Week and enjoy this beautiful BSL poetry from our winning poets!
