Katinka Kraft is a spoken word artist, performer and artistic director of Shut Up and Sign_Speak, a project that brings together deaf and hearing poets in Berlin. On the cobble stone streets of Berlin, she started her performance and directing career, at the early age of 7, with a 80s pop rendition of Mary Poppins. She grew up in a German-American family and moved to the United States from Germany, as a teenager. There she discovered spoken word and eventually became a teacher, organizer and performer in the spoken word and poetry slam scene in the USA for over 12 years. She moved back to her hometown Berlin in 2008.  Here she works as a freelance workshop facilitator, consultant, and artistic director.

She received her B.A. degree from Western Washington University, Bellingham (USA) in Cultural Studies, Youth Advocacy, and the Performing Arts and my M.A in Biographical and Creative Writing from the Alice Salomon University, Berlin. She speaks German, English and is currently learning German Sign Language.