I am very interested in Sign language and Deaf culture, so I thought I would show you guys some Deaf poetry. Let me know what you think of this. The first link is a hearing man, so it's a little more accessible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbtVepS53t0
This next clip is a man telling a poem about a two-faced friend, and it's entirely in ASL (American Sign Language.) Don't worry about trying to understand it, I am just curious about how a person might experience poetry differently when it is visual as opposed to auditory.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSiquwxJAa8&feature=related
Let me know your thoughts :)
13 comments:
Wow! This post was so interesting! I thought it was really cool to see how people who are deaf are able to express their thoughts through poetry. I never considered deaf poetry so this was a really good experience for me. I especially enjoyed the second poem. It was really fascinating to watch the poem completely rather than to listen. I don't understand ASL so I mainly just watched his facial expressions and hand gestures. Overall I think that the meaning for a deaf poem can be more profound because it is coming from a different perspective than what we are used to.
It is so cool that body language and facial features add so much to the human language. Seeing the deaf poetry performed added much more to the piece by giving it an extra form of expression. In the second poem, it was difficult to know exactly what was going on, but it was interesting to see that poetry does not have to be spoken. One of the criteria discussed for a poem to be “great” is for it to be good spoken as well as on paper, so does deaf poetry have the same criteria? All I know about sign language is that a lot of it does not make sense on paper because filler words such as “the” and “and” are not really used? (I could be COMPLETELY wrong about this) but if that is so, would a deaf poem on paper use those words? Or would it be translated exactly as it is shown? I really enjoyed both of the poems because they were completely different than any other type of spoken word I had seen before.
I'm glad you guys enjoyed it :) In response to Claudia's question, Deaf poetry would not have the same criteria on paper, since it has its own grammar system.
Also there are interesting ways in which a Deaf poet can make his words have a sort of double meaning, almost like visual rhyming, by using classifiers (which don't exist in English.) By the same token, English rhyming words would not rhyme in sign language, therefore the rhythm of Deaf poetry would not necessarily come across in an English paper translation.
Though I don't know sign language which is a barrier to fully appreciate the poem, but just watching his body language and facial expressions I was able to understand some of the emotions and ideas he was trying to convey( I think). In the film last week, we saw a lot of the poets use body language, facial expressions and hand gestures often in their poetic performances, this is just taking it to a whole new level because the movements of the hands have concrete meaning. As far as the experience of seeing rather than hearing poetry, I think it might depend a lot on the individual. For example if I saw an ASL poem(given that I could understand it), I might still associate the words of the poems with the audible counterparts that I knew, whereas someone who had always been deaf would internalize the words of the poem in an entirely different way. It's the same with any language, if you aren't perfectly bilingual and immersed in the language you still have to translate the words your hearing(or seeing) into your native language in your mind, until you are actually able to think in the other language.
Even though there were no words, I'm pretty sure that I understood the story (poem). This is for two reasons. First, the facial expressions that the artist provided helped IMMENSELY. There were even points when I could read his lips for what he was trying to say. I've never really been around anyone who is deaf, but I'm sure that they still show emotion with their face, just like anyone else.
The second reason I was able to understand it is because the artist seemed to use his hands as though they were puppets. My Sign Language knowledge is extremely limited, so I'm not sure how much signing the artist was actually doing. It almost reminded me of sock puppets minus the socks because of the way life was being generated into and from his hands.
Overall, very cool and very effective! Thanks Holly : )
This is really interesting. Like Candace, I had never thought about deaf poetry either. The poets face expressions and hand movements are essential to deaf poetry. Unlike slam poetry, where the voice is really important. The audience isn't able to experience emotion or expression from the speaker's voice. Watching this made me wonder how deaf poets would incorporate certain sounds into their poetry. For instance, when we watched the movie the group performances used a lot of different sound effects. There was one with a car speeding up, slowing down, honking, etc. How could this type of poem be portrayed for someone who is deaf? I don't know anything about ASL :( but is there a way of displaying sounds?
I think it would really neat to try to make this kind of deaf poetry, but I think it could get really complicated.
I really liked this. In high school my boyfriends mother was deaf so i learned sign language so that I could easily communicate with her. I am a person who loves languages and sign language is just another language, another way for people to communicate with each other.
I like how much emotion and expression this poetry has without any words. Sometimes things that touch you the most or speak to you are things that have no words at all. For me visuals are much stronger than words in many cases and these poems were very nice.
I really liked this! Both of those videos were excellent and entertaining to watch. I am fascinated by Deaf poetry even though my signing is very limited. I actually am supposed to present a song in my intro to sign class tomorrow. I really like seeing the ways that ideas are being expressed through this form of art. When we were translating our songs, my classmates and I were often getting hung up on trying to find the idea that we were trying to express rather than the words of the song we were translating, which proved to be very challenging to some. It was really odd to see how tightly most of us were/are still trying to cling to our English grammar conventions. I found it so very interesting to try and tell a story this way, like leaving picture of ideas in the air. I love (and am very, very bad at) the way that facial expressions are incorporated into the grammatical structure of the language. It sounds silly to phrase it this way, but I love how visual the language is; I feel that it is simply beautiful to look at.
I think it is amazing that deaf people can also be poets through sign language. It is like dancing in a way, without music. The performance with the death man reminded me of a puppet show in a way. I thought it was really funny what the teacher was saying, and telling the students' poems. I think those who can hear often view deaf and blind people as disabled, when in reality they are just like us, except lacking in a sense. That does not make them less aware than those who have all senses. I think sign language poetry and written poetry are different, and I am sure deaf people could write written poetry. There are different levels of impaired hearing, so they might be able to hear certain tones of words.
I thought this was pretty incredible. To see how some people can communicate without words was astounding. I personally have never really seen deaf people communicate, or watched a conversation in ASL, but to know that someone could write poetry through motions rather than words (even though I know that the motions stand for words) is pretty incredible to me. As a communications major, I am always interested in how people communicate and how the means in which people communicate varies based on their intent. In this particular instance, it was not only words that were used to communicate but gestures and expressions in lieu of tone and pitch, and I found that pretty amazing.
So I was really touched by the first video with Rives. He had a sing song flow to his poetry without trying..his voice and choice of words were suave. He also incorporated humor which I appreciated, while still addressing the bigger issue of how deaf children are still able to have beautiful poetry full of meaning as they appreciate lyrics more than music. I liked that he incorporated deaf poems and explained them to the audience. They were extremely profound...I really enjoyed the poem about the child who was hearing when little but described the silence in the house as "deafening". The poem was uplifting as Rives talks about children rocking poems at deaf jams which is absolutely inspiring. I noticed that he was very intune with his body language and this coupled with how he presented himself gave a nice flow to the piece which didn't seem forced or recited so after a while I forgot it was even a poem at all but he was speaking directly to the crowd relating awesome stories.
I kept an open mind when watching the second video clip. If the title had not been referenced I don't think I would have come close to figuring out what the poem meant. It seemed to me that he was doing the same motion over and over (twirling his hand around his pointer finger), yet my untrained eye probably didn't pick up on the signals that indicate little words or phrases throughout. His facial features helped as I was able to determine which signs were good and which were bad. At one point I thought he had signed something about the devil. Personally, I would appreciate it more if there was subbed voice telling the poem in the background and I could follow his motions throughout the poem. Because I was wondering what was going on the whole time I was unable to appreciate it as much as when Rives told the poem while signing. I think the whole signing aspect is beautiful, essentially its using your hands to tell a story and I love the flow and grace it provides the poem. Now I am very curious what the two faced friend poem is all about!!!!! Thank you so much for the posting I enjoyed both greatly!
This is a really neat post! I think that Ife makes a good point in reminding us that sign language like any other, has its own way of expressing emotion, imagery, etc. Although sign language itself is not an art form, just as the language English is not an art form, it has its own way of portraying artistic beauty. Holly, you mention in your later post that Deaf poetry makes use of certain things that are not available to written or spoken poetry. This kind of goes back to the idea that every artistic medium has its own strengths and weaknesses. I think that some of the goals of translating art into a different medium are to take advantage of the new medium's strengths and downplay its weaknesses.
This is something that I had never considered before. I feel like my eyes have been opened!
This is beautiful. I found myself watching him perform instead of actually listening to the poem. I know some signs and got very excited when I recognized them. It's like watching a movie with subtitles.
As so many other have stated before my post, facial expressions and gestures are essential for deaf poetry. Facial expressions and gestures are essential to ASL in general.
I also agree with Candace in saying that deaf poem has a very profound meaning. It makes one approach poetry from a different perspective.
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