Emma Claire Sweeney is serving as the Silent Room: A Journey of Language project’s visiting poet and workshop leader.

Silent Room: A Journey of Language is a collaboration between poet and visual artist, Denise Saul, film maker Helmie Stil and the communication disability network, Connect. The project gives an insight into the regeneration of identity post onset of aphasia and language breakdown, encouraging greater arts participation from adults who have aphasia. Workshop participants use a variety of communication methods including gesture, writing and pictures to create poetry using film.

In the Southbank Centre exhibition at the Royal Festival Hall, Silent Room allowed the audience to understand more deeply the mostly ignored experiences of speech disorder, and consider how silence is a powerful theme in language breakdown. Emma’s poem on the subject was featured in the exhibition:

As part of Wandsworth Library’s Diversity Month, Battersea Library will be hosting Silent Room on Tuesday 11 October from 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm. For more information, see the event website. To make a booking, call 020 7223 2334.

For more information on the project, click here.

Upcoming events and coverage of the project will be featured on the site – stay tuned.