Virginia Woolf said of rhythm in writing, “A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it; and in writing … one has to recapture this, and set this working … and then, as it breaks and tumbles in the mind, it makes words to fit it.” Taking inspiration from these words, theater director and sign language interpreting student Brikena Gishto will organize poetry workshops in Athens and Thessaloniki for individuals fluent in Greek Sign Language (GSL). Opportunities for creative writing that cater to GSL-speakers are rare, and these workshops will give members of the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities the chance to use visual-kinetic language to compose poetry, while also exploring how these writers can challenge and expand the conventions of the form. The poems created in workshops will be published in a special issue of a literary magazine, both rendered in GSL via videos and translated into written Greek.

Image: The Wave in the Mind. © Brikena Gishto 2024.