D/deaf and Disabled artists on making work now

Jamie is an artist, curator, and founder and artistic director of disability arts organisation CRIPtic Arts. They create poetry, comedy, scriptwriting and drama for page, stage and screen, and are currently directing a showcase at the Barbican Centre for autumn 2021 and a disability arts documentary. They have written for Wellcome Collection and the Guardian newspaper and have performed at venues including the Southbank Centre. Their poetry pamphlet, ‘Shield’, was published in January 2021.

Amelia Cavallo is a blind theatre practitioner, academic and workshop facilitator who works as a multi-disciplinary performer, musical director, lecturer and consultant on access and audio description. They are a PhD candidate studying intersections of gender, disability and sexuality. Amelia co-founded Quiplash, a theatre company making space for Disabled people across the LGBTQIA+ spectrum.

Miss Jacqui is a poet and songwriter who performed at the 2012 Paralympic Opening Ceremony, and at venues including the Southbank Centre. She knows a lot about working with the cards that you are dealt, and always tries to challenge societal perceptions, like what it means to be a Black woman with a disability.

Born in Essex in 1959, Keith Salmon studied Fine Art at Shrewsbury and Falmouth Schools of Art in the early 1980s. Registered as blind in 1999, he now works from his studio in Irvine, Scotland and exhibits his semi-abstract landscape paintings throughout the UK.

Emma Selwyn graduated from Access All Areas’ 2016 Performance Making Diploma at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Their work includes ‘My Hands and Feet are Wiggling’ (2016), ‘#Binariesbegone’ (2019), ’Not F**kin’ Sorry’ at Soho Theatre with Not Your Circus Dog (2019), and ‘unReal City’ at Battersea Arts Centre with Access All Areas and dreamthinkspeak (2020).

Signkid is the UK’s first and only Deaf music producer, writer and performer, pioneering a unique aesthetic that integrates British Sign Language signing into a visual language for live hip-hop, rap and urban music. SignKid has performed at festivals including Deaf Rave, Wireless and Latitude, and has had extensive BBC coverage.