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Posts tagged ‘ASL’

Feb 29

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Voicing ASL performance poetry in Flying Words Project

We are delighted to announce that Kenny Lerner will run an additional workshop on Saturday 17th March, 2pm to 4pm.  Kenny will talk about his experiences being the ‘hearing half’ of the Flying Words duo and doing the voicing of ASL performance poetry.

The language of this workshop will be English.  This will be of special interest to interpreters, students of sign language and anyone interested in issues of translation and poetry.  The venue for Kenny’s workshop is Kohlberg Hall, Room 115

Feb 8

Closure in Sign Language Poetry

In any poem there will be a moment when we suddenly feel its full impact. It is when we think ‘A-ha!’ It is the moment of the cracking whip that gets the full focus of our attention. That whip-crack is often at the end of the poem. Students at Swarthmore College have made the first ever study of closure in sign language poems, in preparation for the Festival in March. In the piece they have written here, the students show how the sign language poets ‘crack the whip’ to make us feel the full impact of the poem. Have a look at their complete work, in the full text of ‘Closure in Sign Language Poetry‘ and see some of the potential and the richness just waiting to be explored in sign language poetry.
There will be more poems like this performed at the festival, March 16-18 2012.

Jan 12

Welcome

Welcome to the Signing Hands Across the Water Festival celebrating sign language poetry in March 16th – 18th 2012 at  Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, USA.

Sign language poets from Britain and America will come together and explore this rich and beautiful art form with members of College, the Deaf Community and visitors from the wider community. The festival will include:

  • Friday evening – a “public conversation” between the British and American poets, discussing national, cultural, linguistic and personal differences in their work;
  • Saturday evening – an open performance of poems in British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL);
  • Sunday morning – a Panel discussion ‘how signed poetry works’, exploring the language and themes used in BSL and ASL poetry.
  • Additionally, on Saturday daytime there will be a workshop for fluent signers to compose signed poetry.

Signing Hands Across the Water will give College members and visitors to College a unique opportunity to discover sign language poetry in the United States and in the British deaf community where traditions, language and culture are different. All events will be fully accessible in ASL and spoken English.

The event is organised as part of the work of Rachel Sutton-Spence, Cornell Visiting Professor to Swarthmore for 2011-2012. Professor Sutton-Spence has worked on creative sign language for over 15 years, especially researching and promoting British Sign Language poetry (www.bristol.ac.uk/bslpoetryanthology).

The Signing Hands Across the Water Festival is made possible by the William J Cooper Foundation at Swarthmore College

Dec 21

Seven sign language poets

Signing Hands Across the Water

On March 16th – 18th 2012, Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, USA celebrated sign language poetry. Sign language poets from Britain and America came together and explored this rich and beautiful art form with members of College, the Deaf Community and visitors from the wider community, to see

  • Friday evening – a “public conversation” between the British and American poets, discussing national, cultural, linguistic and personal differences in their work;
  • Saturday evening – an open performance of poems in British Sign Language (BSL) and American Sign Language (ASL);
  • Sunday morning – a Panel discussion ‘how signed poetry works’, exploring the language and themes used in BSL and ASL poetry.
  • Additionally, on Saturday daytime there will be a workshop for fluent signers to compose signed poetry.

Signing Hands Across the Water gave College members and visitors to College a unique opportunity to discover sign language poetry in the United States and in the British deaf community where traditions, language and culture are different.  All events were fully accessible in ASL and spoken English.
The event was organised as part of the work of Rachel Sutton-Spence, Cornell Visiting Professor to Swarthmore for 2011-2012. Professor Sutton-Spence has worked on creative sign language for over 15 years, especially researching and promoting British Sign Language poetry (www.bristol.ac.uk/bslpoetryanthology).

The Signing Hands Across the Water Festival is made possible by the William J Cooper Foundation at Swarthmore College

Dec 21

Debbie Rennie

Debbie Rennie

I am Deaf American but have lived in Sweden for many years now, working as a freelance artist, directing, acting, making films, travelling and giving lectures and workshops on  theater and sign language poetry.  I teach deaf children theatre arts: movements, acting, poetry, and storytelling. It is so important to educate deaf kids to have bilingual language. It provides a rich education for young minds. I grew up in English and I wanted to learn Spanish but I wasn’t allowed to learn another language because of my poor English. Now, I am living in Sweden so I get many new ideas and different perspectives in my mind. Poetry in Sign Language experiments with language itself, like making movies. I feel it will be an honor to come to the Festival and share my knowledge of Poetry in Sign language and learn new things from new people including the Deaf British poets.

Dec 13

Flying Words Project in action

Peter Cook & Kenny Lerner

‘Flying Words Project has accomplished what poets have been trying to do for several centuries now; to make their poems more visual, more embodied, more
alive.  To witness the work of FWP is to witness a milestone in literary history.’ Dirksen Bauman, Professor,Department of ASL and Deaf Studies, Gallaudet University

Flying Words Project is at once imaginative, experimental, and intense.  We are Deaf American Sign Language poet Peter Cook (I present the three dimensional imagery) and collaborator Kenny Lerner (my spoken words allow the hearing in the audience to literally see the ASL image and become lost in the movement).Together we create a moving tapestry uniquely accessible to both hearing and deaf audiences. Our collaboration started in 1984 when we began performing poetry together. We established a deaf poetry series in Rochester, NY, which led to the First National ASL LiteratureConference in 1992.

Flying Words has been featured at the Poetry Days Festival (Dzejas Dienas,) in the Latvian towns of Liepia and Riga.  We have also performed at the 36th International Poetry Festival in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Harvard University, The People’s Poetry Gathering in NYC, Theatre de Lucernaire in Paris, and many places in between.

Peter Cook:  I am also an internationally reputed Deaf storyteller and I teach at Columbia University in Chicago.  I love to tell stories to my son.

Kenny Lerner:  I teach History at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester, NY and I live in the country with my wife, two children, and two dumb dogs.

You can contact Flying Words Project at Flyingwordsproject@yahoo.com