What's Up?: January 2012 Edition

A Letter from What's Up?:

Welcome to our first edition of What’s Up?, Deaf Spotlight’s new literary and visual program starting January 2012, featuring local writers, artists, bloggers, and vloggers. Contributors will document histories, interviews, and photos on, about and for the Pacific Northwest Deaf community, places, and events. You will have the opportunity to read and to enjoy different perspectives, images, and ideas. Upcoming editions will be updated monthly. Here are our first edition’s authors and their refreshing contributions:

Jena Floyd wrote the first article on our first event with Michael Freeman, who shared his experience as a Deaf animator. Dov Wills interviewed Richard Ladner about his incredible contributions to the Deaf community. Aimee Chou wrote an Op-Ed on Deaf Jam, a documentary film. Gabby Hopkins captured Seattle deaf community’s street fashion. Loren Ashton captured a stunning photograph of a friend’s dog, recently passed away.

Do you want to see more of these creative perspectives? We cannot do upcoming editions without your ongoing support and contributions. Please urge other peers to submit something relating to the Pacific Northwest Deaf Community to us. You can, too, if you are a Deaf, DB, HH, or a hearing resident of Pacific Northwest (Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia) and would like to submit something to us in these formats: blog, article, photo, or a vlog on, about, and for the Pacific Northwest Deaf community. Topics can vary from nature, travel, people, places, fashion, etc. In exchange, you will receive free publicity and traffic to your own website, FaceBook, and other social media outlets from our audience.

Please email us the required information: your name, contact info, city/state, article limited up to 300 words, attachment of your work with a title, and website if you have one by the submission deadline: the 25th of each month. We will screen and select for the upcoming month’s online edition. Looking forward to see more creativity from the Deaf community of the Pacific Northwest!

Enjoy.

Patty Liang
Deputy Director

Michael Freeman Lecture
By: Jena Floyd

On July 6, 2011, Deaf Spotlight’s first fundraising event, 3D ASL Animation by Michael Freeman, took place at Kane Hall on the University of Washington campus. The usual pre-event social mingling lasted until 7pm when Nat Wilson, the emcee of the night, introduced Deaf animator/graphic designer Michael Freeman to the audience.

Michael, who graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology, talked about his experience as an animator. He then showed a 3-minute video clip of his work, which had spread like wildfire through Facebook a few years ago. The clip featured a 3D dark-haired, olive skinned, mustachioed male character telling a story in ASL. The character signed briskly and clearly, as if signed by a real human being, which caused a reaction in many audience members. Some attendees said it was surreal seeing it in 3D as no ASL was seen in any major 3D animated films such as James Cameron’s Avatar. Some expressed wonder whether VRS interpreters would be replaced by 3D characters with voice and sign recognition software in the future.

Even more, there were several gasps in the audience after learning that Michael spent 3 months working on a video that lasted only 3 minutes. Michael then explained why and how it took so long to complete the project. Towards the end of his presentation, Michael answered questions from the audience; given the number of questions asked, it was apparent the audience was mesmerized by Michael Freeman’s talent, especially the featured 3D animation.

The event ended with social time with light refreshments donated by Starbucks and the Fairmont Olympic Hotel. It was a successful event!

Deaf Jammin’ Out Of The Box
By: Aimee Chou

A poetry teacher will tell you that a haiku has 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5 words. An ASL teacher will tell you there 5 components of sign shapes. Stick to these rules, and your possibilities are infinite. As a New York student of teachers, poets and life, then-16 year old Aneta Brodski nails this concept beautifully in "Deaf Jam," Judy Lieff's PBS documentary.

New York is living poetry. Last year, I hung out at Bowery Club ASL Club watching slapstick Superman imitations and learning how to sign "iPhone." But it was only when Deaf Spotlight presented “Deaf Jam” in Seattle’s Frye Art Museum, that I learned who inspired the Bowery Club ASL Slam: A gutsy, deaf teenager. We are invited to watch, only to realize ... her world is our home, too. The story is Aneta's, but the deaf experience belongs to us.

We watch as Israeli-born Aneta (deaf) and Palestine-born Tahani (hearing) create one poem with two languages and two cultures. Tahani good-naturedly fumbles her signs, suggesting that they “start break dancing and spinning on our heads." The boundaries they break already make heads spin, when Aneta asks: "How can you translate ASL poetry into spoken language?" It’s not just a challenge for interpreter Gina Bivens. Visiting poet Bob Holman called ASL “the irony of ironies,” because it cannot exist in a book. He is one of many mentors sculpting the teen into poetic perfection. After Lexington’s ASL poetry team becomes the first-ever deaf contestants at a spoken-word poet slam, workshop leader Manny Hernandez urges the teens to make their poetry "splitting-hair sharp."

We watch as funding for Lexington’s ASL poetry workshop shuts down, and it hits home: Recent ITP budget cuts at Seattle Central Community College threaten ASL as much as cochlear implants allegedly do. But when deaf storyteller Gerardo DiPietro performed a lively ASL visualization of Shel Silverstein poem “Giving Tree” at the "Deaf Jam" viewing, we are also reminded that ASL is securely in our community’s hands (no pun intended).

In a poem about the single sperm's heroic quest for its egg, Aneta declares all of us winners. Alas, winners have battles to fight: With her family's immigration status still up in the air, Aneta wonders how she will afford college without the sizable subsidy government grants its deaf citizens. Tough cookie as she is, she is achingly honest to the camera. I choked up when she admitted that she was glad her brother was born deaf. It meant I’m not a bad sister to wish mine were, too.

Who has not yearned for a sibling to share secrets of our heart? Poetry is like Aneta’s second sibling: "When I feel upset, I create poems. I feel free. Free from my thoughts." But it is her thoughts that free us. Like a kiss in the Seattle rain, her poetry helps us release the feelings that we didn't even know we had.

Richard Ladner

Lunch with Richard Ladner
By: Dov Wills

Richard … I’ve seen this tall, white-haired man at various fundraising events and walking through the halls at Abused Deaf Women’s Advocacy Services (ADWAS) with Marilyn Smith. At some point, I learned his name was Richard Ladner and that he was on the Advisory Committee for ADWAS. When I began working at ADWAS, I was holding a session with a client and her children in the playroom and noticed a picture of a stately group of people with a placard identifying them as Emil & Mary Ladner. Richard’s tall figure immediately came to my mind, and I wondered … who is this guy?

After learning that Richard donated a substantial amount of money to Deaf Spotlight to help us get our non-profit status, I knew: I had to know who this man was!

I arranged to interview him for the What’s Up?’s column. As you may know, I’m a short statured woman who sometimes feels inconsequential next to taller people. But, when this tall man arrived and stretched out his hand, I felt immediate warmth and kindness.

As we enjoyed lunch (he with his green salad and me with my meatloaf), I learned such facts as that he’s been a professor for 40 years at UW; he’s a CODA; his father was the first executive director of RID; he’s on the Board of Gallaudet University; he’s a father of two daughters and a husband; he has received various honors, such as UW’s Samuel E Kelly Distinguished Faculty Lecture which is dedicated to recognizing research on diversity and social justice; he enjoys golfing and skiing; he began a competitive computing summer academy for Deaf and hard of hearing kids at UW; he has a great sense of humor; he was offered a Guggenheim fellowship to teach at Gallaudet University in the 1980s; and he has done research projects that have enhanced the world for Deaf, Blind, Deaf-Blind and hearing.

Richard introduced me to the concept of two types of technology – hearing and Deaf. Hearing technology includes hearing aids, cochlear implants, and is focused on improving hearing. By constrast, Deaf technology includes closed captioning, VP’s, and VRS. Deaf technology is the aspect of technology that Richard has delved into. As he puts it, “hearing technology can be divisive as it may not be inclusive of culturally Deaf people”.

Some of his research projects include a web forum to enable sign language to grow in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, enabling sign language communication on mobile phones, bridging the world for blind, low-vision, and deaf-blind people with mobile accessibility, and accelerating the production of tactile graphics for blind people, a research presentation on “Why American Sign Language is Important to the University of Washington” (which you can find on-line at http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/ladner/LinguisticsVideo.html -captioned and interpreted). He has found a way to mix two passions – computer science and the Deaf, Blind, and Deaf-Blind communities. His research on video data compression for high quality transfer over cell phones contributed to why we can now VP on cell phones via applications like Tango and ooVoo.

I know that I’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg with knowing this generous, passionate, intelligent, and personable member of the Deaf community. But, I do know I’ve acquired a new friend and someone that I can’t wait to learn more about!