New Play: "Journeys of Identity"

From a recent announcement on H-Connecticut and H-Disability. If you're in New England and get a chance to see this, let us know what you thought!

The National Theatre of the Deaf and Connecticut’s Old State House present
Journeys of Identity

Hartford, CT - Journeys of Identity, a new play by Garrett Zuercher, brings to life the story of Thomas Gallaudet, founder of the nation’s first school for the Deaf, Laurent Clerc, its first teacher and Alice Cogswell, its first student as they struggle to overcome the obstacles and prejudices faced by Deaf Americans in 1817. Journeys of Identity will premiere at Connecticut’s Old State House on October 14, 15 and 17. This new play chronicles the creation of American Sign Language and the American School for the Deaf - events that transformed the nation’s attitudes on Deafness and education in the U.S.

Journeys of Identity has been written to be performed in the unique award-winning style of theatre created by the National Theatre of the Deaf where every word is seen and heard by the entire audience. Thursday, October 14 has been designated American School for the Deaf Day by Governor M. Jodi Rell. The first general public performance will be on Friday, October 15 at 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., followed by a 1 p.m. Sunday matinee and 4 p.m. afternoon performance on October 17. There is a special discount ticket price of $8 for students and seniors while general admission is $15 and includes a tour of the Old State House.

Tickets can be purchased at The Bushnell box office by calling (860) 987-5900. Groups of 10 or more should call 860-236-4193. For more information visit www.ctoldstatehouse.org for more information on ticket sales and prices.

Rebecca Taber-Conover
Connecticut's Old State House
Programming and Curriculum Manager
800 Main Street
Hartford, CT 06103
860-522-6766, ext. 11

November 30: Linda Bove (b. 1945)

[Visual description: Linda Bove in the 1970s, wearing a rust-colored turtleneck and signing "I"]

When I joined the cast I found the writers would write about 'How would a deaf person do this?' 'How does a deaf person do that?' And it was just related to my deafness and it didn't feel like they were treating me as a person. I found my character one-dimensional and kind of boring. It showed how brave a deaf person was to do this and that in everday life. I said it was no big deal. I have a sense of humor; why don't you show that? I can be angry over something. Show that I can have a relationship with another person.

Today is the birthday of Linda Bove, born on this date in Garfield, New Jersey. If you were a hearing American kid in the 1970s, chances are the first place you saw American Sign Language was on Sesame Street--and chances are, it was being used by Linda Bove, one of the show's longest-running cast members (1972-2003). Bove attended Gallaudet University and became involved in theater as a student; she toured with the National Theater of the Deaf, and co-founded the Little Theater of the Deaf and Deaf West Theatre Company.

Now, for old times' sake, video from Sesame Street, first aired in 1980, in which Olivia (Alaina Reed) and Linda sing and sign the song "Sing" (lyrics here):

Video: "Coming Out"

This isn't brand new (it was on the festival circuit in 2007, and first televised in January 2008), but I just learned of it (at the Berks, thanks Susan). And Jana has requested "things to make me laugh," so here's "Coming Out," an award-winning short film from BBC2's See Hear, written by Charlie Swinbourne and directed by Louis Neethling. David Hay and Debbie Norman are playing the son and mother.



Visuals described: A nice suburban kitchen, mother cooking tea, toast, frying something for breakfast. Twenty-something son comes into the kitchen. He signs his lines; all the dialog is subtitled:

Mum!
What darling?
I've got something to tell you.
All right dear, just a minute.
I've been wanting to tell you something for a some time now....
This sounds serious.
It is serious!
Are you ill?
No, it's nothing like that.
It's about me. Who I am.
What do you mean?
The thing is that I...I'm different to other people.
Oh, I know that, you're my special boy! Always have been.
No, I mean really different. I've know for sometime now, but... I'm deaf.
No you're not, just don't concentrate enough, always away with the fairies in your own little world...

[I'm not sure about the legalities of typing out the whole six-minute script--I wish there was a transcript somewhere online already! Ideas?]

Charlie Swinbourne's "Four Deaf Yorkshiremen" is also on YouTube. (This one has no audio at all, all subtitles.) Fookem and Bug has an interview with Swinbourne.

Editorial Note: Disability and the Holocaust event

Readers: thanks to Heather and Liam, we just received followup photos from the "Disability and the Holocaust" event that took place May 11, 2008 in Nottinghamshire, England. Enjoy!

Disability and the Holocaust Event in Nottinghamshire, UK

Heather Hollins wants to alert our readers to an event she is organising as Access and Heritage Officer at The Holocaust Centre, in north Nottinghamshire, in partnership with the Nottinghamshire Disabled People's Movement on Sunday 11th May 2008. The event will acknowledge and remember the histories of the Deaf and disabled people who were sterilised and killed during the Holocaust, and will see the dedication of the first rose and plaque in the Centre's memorial gardens to the Deaf and disabled people affected by the Holocaust. The Pioneers Young Disabled People's Forum will also be unveiling their plans to create the UK's first permanent memorial to the Deaf and disabled people killed in the Holocaust at the Centre.

The day will include speakers and debate. Speakers will include Liz Crow, director and producer of 'Roaring Girl' films, who is currently making a film about the T4 programme; 85 year old Hans Cohn, MBE, will be speaking about his personal experiences of being one of the very few blind German Jewish children to have survived the Holocaust by escaping to the UK; and Ricki Westbury, Director of Disability Access Services, will be exploring the impact of the Holocaust on Deaf culture.

[Image description: A black and white family snapshot of Hans Cohn with his wife and his black labrodor seeing eye dog, posing in a back yard with folding lawn chairs on the background.]

Hans Cohn tells his story in an article entitled 'An Adolescence in Crisis,' from The Braille Monitor 47(5), published online May 2004. Inqueries about the event should be directed to Heather Hollins by telephone on 01623 836 627, by mobile or text on 07963 371 282, by fax on 01623 836 647 or by email.

[Image description: Hans Cohn sharing his story from notes, at the Disability and the Holocaust event. Standing behind him is a sign language interpreter.]

Update: "Dear Mike, Following our event, Disability and the Holocaust, attached are photos." Best, Liam

The Journey exhibition (launch 8th September 08) The Holocaust Centre (+00)1623836627

[Image description: Kim in her wheelchair, and Hans Cohn and Alison sitting on a bench in the garden at the Holocaust Center. Kim and Hans are holding a plaque that reads in white against a black background, and in braille, "This is dedicated by Nottinghamshire Disabled People's Movement in memory of Deaf and disabled people who were targeted or killed by the Nazis and other oppressive regimes. Spring 2008"]

Stop Eugenics video and the HFEB

The HFEB, or Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (the full phrase sounds ominous already, doesn't it?) is a piece of legislation before the British parliament that would make it illegal for couples or individuals to choose for an "abnormality." Clause 14 spells it out:

Persons or embryos that are known to have a gene, chromosome or mitochondrion abnormality involving a significant risk that a person with the abnormality will have or develop—

(a) a serious physical or mental disability,
(b) a serious illness, or
(c) any other serious medical condition,

must not be preferred to those that are not known to have such an abnormality.

This would prohibit, say, a Deaf woman from choosing a deaf donor to increase the chances of her child being deaf like her. There are myriad other troubling possibilities. English bloggers Grumpy Old Deafies are all over the case. Today they posted a video made in protest of the HFEB by stopeugenics.org:





Transcript of the title cards, which appear in white against black, between scenes of a line of paper cutout dolls being cut away from the line, one by one, with large scissors:

Nobody's perfect.
Nobody.
Not even you.
Stop Eugenics.
Just stop.
stopeugenics.org

More videos from the same campaign are here.

Happy Deaf Thanksgiving

Check out Deaf Thanksgiving: A New Tradition by Mark Drolsbaugh, to read about one plan to solve the conundrum of wanting to spend a holiday with your family, but also with people who speak your language and get your culture. The idea is to get together with Deaf friends on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, for a meal gathering that doesn't even need to involve traditional elements (because, of course, by Saturday, nobody's looking for more turkey dinner). Sounds good to me. Enjoy! (Thanks to the ASCBlog for the tip about this.)

Breaking News from Gallaudet: Fernandes contract rescinded

The news just came across DS-Hum, but here are some links to open-access news sources:
Washington Post
Gallaudet Press Release
WJAC-TV

New books on Dixmont asylum, Deaf in Japan

There are two new books on disability history out just this month to note.

Karen Nakamura's Deaf in Japan: Signing and the Politics of Identity (Cornell University Press 2006), starts from the first Japanese schools for the deaf in the 1870s, and relies on both archival and ethnographic research to reveal recent shifts in attitudes, both toward and within the deaf community. Karen Nakamura is an anthropology professor at Yale.

Mark Berton's Dixmont State Hospital (Images of America, Arcadia Publishing, 2006) is a photographic record of the title institution, an asylum on the Ohio River outside Pittsburgh; built in 1859 (and named for Dorothea Dix), it closed in 1984 and the building was razed earlier this year. Berton is a Pittsburgh-based newspaper photographer who "spends his free time photographing asylum architecture."

[Dixmont was apparently a popular site for photographers; Rowdydow has a webpage featuring images from inside its ruins, and Dixmont.info has video and many more stills. The pictures of Dixmont at the Hours of Darkness gallery give you some flavor of the place's style and state before its demolition.]