"People evolve a language in order to describe and thus control their circumstances, or in order not to be submerged by a reality that they cannot articulate." - James Baldwin, "If Black English Isn't a Language, Then Tell Me, What Is?"
One of the new things I have picked up is a love for ASL. I have only been studying for less than a year, but I have found the language to be nuanced and extremely beautiful. Below is a video featuring Clayton Valli. He was the first person to ever receive a PhD in ASL Poetry. Watch and enjoy a giant of the field.
Clayton Valli (1951—2003) was a prominent deaf linguist and American Sign Language (ASL) poet whose work helped further to legitimize ASL and introduce people to the richness of American Sign Language literature. As a poet, Valli created original works in ASL that he performed to appreciative audiences around the country. His poems make sophisticated use of handshape, movement, use of space, repetition, and facial expression. Influenced by canonical American poets like Robert Frost, as well as Deaf poets such as Bernard Bragg, Valli often chose nature imagery to convey subtle insights into Deaf experience. His brief "Hands" -- which makes use of the 5 handshape throughout—is a celebration of the power of sign language to describe anything in the universe. "Dandelion" uses simple nature imagery to convey the persistence of ASL despite oralists' best efforts to weed it out. (source Wikipedia)
No comments:
Post a Comment