A video about what was billed as the UK’s first sign language poetry slam has appeared on the BBC website. The film follows 20-year-old Honesty Willoughby, from Bristol, as she prepares for and talks about the slam.

Honesty says that “there are loads of different ways to make poetry visual … you can repeat a sign along with body movement to create pace and rhythm … rhythm is created through repetition, or you can use personification”.

The event was held recently at the Water Poet in Shoreditch, east London. "Two months ago there was a viral video going around of Douglas Ridloff, the executive director of ASL [American Sign Language] Slam, performing," said event organiser Pazbi Zavatzki. "The [UK] deaf community were sharing the video and asking, when's our one?”

Pazbi began learning sign language after meeting his girlfriend, who is deaf, three years ago. He said: "Sadly the deaf community is often excluded from enjoying the arts in the hearing world."

As well as BSL, performers at the Water Poet were invited to use Visual Vernacular (VV), a method of expression which involves re-enacting an event through body movements as opposed to using the language of sign. Other performers included brother and sister Thomas and Zoe McWhinney, and Sahera Khan.