Michael Isaacs - ‘SEEN presents BAHA’
Ramsgate Festival of Sound - Sonic Trail
As part of the ninth Ramsgate Festival of Sound, CICRP was invited to collaborate on this year’s Sonic Trail, which featured installations across eight locations in Ramsgate. We were delighted to help bring one of these installations to Ramsgate station.
At the heart of the installation was a poem by Deaf poet Michael Isaacs, reflecting on his childhood memories of Ramsgate station. As a Deaf child, Michael would use the reverberations of the station’s booking hall to feel the vibrations of his own voice. Visitors could listen to Michael’s recording of the poem through binaural headphones in the very place where these memories began. They could also take away his zines and explore his wider collection of poetry.
There was something particularly poignant about hearing Michael’s words and voice in the space that inspired them, bringing a personal memory to life for audiences travelling through the station. We’re grateful to Ramsgate Festival of Sound for inviting us to be part of such a brilliant event, and to Michael for sharing his beautiful work with local communities and visitors to Thanet.
Thank you to Southeastern Railway for their continued support.
About Michael Isaacs
Michael Isaacs is a deaf poet from Ramsgate. He began writing poetry as a way of channelling his grief when his mum died in 2019. His poetry has since grown into raising awareness for his hidden disabilities, Crohn's and OCD. Michael Isaacs a multiple slam winner, Margate bookie grand slam final runner up, has run poetry workshops for STAK, Inspiration Inclusive and the Pie Factory. His work has been turned into music, he has had poems published in local magazines, charity magazines and on the East Kent Hospital website. Michael has recently been awarded an arts council grant, which he is using to fund a poetry anthology about hidden disabilities, which will be published later this year. He has received mentoring from deaf poet Raymond Antrobus and Margate poet Henry Madd.
