The Quiet Ear: Raymond Antrobus in conversation with Bidisha (In person)
Award-winning poet, Raymond Antrobus, was first diagnosed as deaf at the age of six. He discovered he had missing sounds – bird calls, whistles, kettles, alarms. Teachers thought he was slow and disruptive, some didn’t believe he was deaf at all.
In his first work of prose, The Quiet Ear, Antrobus considers his own experience of growing up in East London to an English mother and Jamaican father and his education in both mainstream and deaf schooling systems, to explore the intersection of race and disability, the shame of miscommunication, the joy of finding community and the decline of deaf education in Britain. Woven throughout - and drawing on his extensive research within The London Library - are the stories of other D/deaf cultural figures – from painters to silent film stars, poets to performers – the inspiring models of D/deaf creativity Antrobus did not have growing up.
In conversation with broadcaster and critic, Bidisha, Antrobus discusses his essential and groundbreaking exploration of deafness.
This event will be BSL interpreted.
The Quiet Ear and other books by both speakers will be available to buy at the event and online from our partner bookshop Hatchards.
Raymond Antrobus is the author of three poetry titles: The Perseverance, All The Names Given and Signs, Music; two children’s books: Can Bears Ski? and Terrible Horses; and The Quiet Ear: An Investigation of Missing Sound is his first work of prose. His work has won the Ted Hughes Award, the Somerset Maugham Award and the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year Award and his poems have been added to GCSE syllabi. In 2019 Raymond became the first ever poet to be awarded the Rathbones Folio Prize for best work of literature in any genre. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2020, appointed an MBE in 2021 and he is an Ambassador of The London Library.
Bidisha is a broadcaster, critic, journalist and lens-based artist. Currently a critic and columnist for The Observer and the Guardian, she also presents and commentates for BBC TV and radio, ITN, CNN, Channel 5 and Sky News. Her fifth book, Asylum and Exile: Hidden Voices of London, is based on her outreach work in UK prisons, refugee charities and detention centres, and her most recent publication is the essay The Future of Serious Art. Her first short film, An Impossible Poison (2017) has been highly acclaimed, widely screened and selected for multiple international film festivals. Her latest film series, Aurora, ran from 2020-2023 and stars Alessia Patregnani.
NB This event will take place in person at The London Library. Doors (and the bar) will open at 6.30pm for a 7pm start. Please see our Event Access Guidelines before you arrive.
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