18 MB 17th Apr 2013 Edition 22 - Spring 2005

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DEAF HISTORY INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER
SPRING 2005
Narrating Deaf Lives:
Biography, Autobiography, and Documentary
An International Conference held November 3-5,2004 at th.e Kellogg Conference
Hotel at Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C.
BY MARGARET MULLENS
Deaf and hearing authors and scholars revealed
hurdles they encountered and strategies they
found to be successful in writing, researching
and documenting deaf lives, both past and present, at the Narrating Deaf Lives conference held
recently at Gallaudet University. I was privileged
to attend this conference, and offer below a
report of highlights of some of the sessions I was
able to attend.
Sponsored by Gallaudet University Press
Institute with support from the Office of the
Dean, the Graduate School and Professional
Programs, and the Gallaudet Research Institute,
this forum offered a showcase of existing publications as well as the chance to preview forthcoming works in the areas of autobiography,
biography and documentary. Supplementing
three renowned keynote speakers were author
readings, performances in embodied space, and
panel discussions on issues related to research
and writing about deaf lives. Presentations
reflected the diversity of deaf lives, as they
addressed issues of gender, age, disability, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion and other
factors which can intersect with deafness in
shaping identities.
Gallaudet University Press is not alone in
publishing works that focus on deaf lives, but
their weighty influence was felt not only in the
wide range of deaf biographies and autobiographies on their book table just outside of the auditorium, but also in providing the inspiration for .
CONTINUED ON PAGES
2, 3,4
AND 5
AN ASSOCIATION FOR ALL INTERESTED IN THE STUDY/
PRESERVATION/ AND DISSEMINATION OF DEAF PEOPLES
HISTORY.
..
DHI NEWSLETTER, No.
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(SPRING 2005)
N a rrati ng Deaf Lives .. CONTINUED
this event, a book series they initiated five years
ago titled "Deaf Lives." Conference attendees
were privileged to witness readings by a variety
of authors whose works have appeared or are
forthcoming in that series (Gina Oliva, Robert
Miller, Bainy Cyrus, Frances Parsons, Eileen
Katz with Celeste Cheyney, and Madan Vasishta).
Autobiographical readings and interpretations formed a large part of the conference.
Audience members wanted to know what motivated each author to recount his/her experiences. Mary Herring Wright, who read from her
autobiography Sounds Like Home, a memoir
about growing up black, female and deaf in the
south, wrote to reassure her daughters that deaf
people can prevail despite their deafness and to
express her pride at the accomplishments of deaf
people. Madan Vasishta, a native of India whose
memoirs document his pursuit of advanced education and careers as a photographer, an administrator of a deaf school and a Gallaudet faculty
member, spoke about writing's self-therapeutic
effect and the boost it gave him to eventually
become a fiction writer. Gina Oliva, whose book
Alone in the Mainstream gives voice to the deaf
and hard of hearing children and adults she calls
"solitaries" who, like Oliva, experienced the isolating effects of mainstreaming, found the
process of writing surprisingly enjoyable. Oliva
admitted she had worried about its effects on
family and whether she had adequately reflected
the truth, but in the end she was pleased with the
positive response it drew. Robert Miller, whose
Deaf Hearing Boy reflects the complexities of
CODAs' lives in negotiating communication
modes, determining their own roles and mediat-
ing their parents relationships with family and
community, experienced writing as a "voyage of
self-discovery" and acknowledged the book's revelatory effect on his parents.
The intersection of race, eugenics, deafness and southern history played a determining
role in the fate of Junius Wilson, a black deaf
man from the south falsely accused of attempted
rape, who suffered decades of abuse including
wrongful institutionalization in a mental hospital
and sterilization. Susan Burch and Hannah
Joyner recounted the "story behind the story,"
how they found, interpreted and explained the
story of Junius Wilson for a forthcoming work.
Most fascinating was their account of problems
encountered conducting oral histories, includi
coming to terms with their outsider status, transcribing video interviews and regional signs,
using backup CODA interpreters, and dealing
with persistent segregation, which limited what
were considered acceptable interview locations.
The challenges of writing living biographies were explored by two presenters, Jane
Maher and Harry Lang. Maher, in writing a dissertation about William C. Stokoe's groundbreaking work in ASL, struggled with the vast
bank of information needed to understand his
field but found her outsider status an advantage
in maintaining a needed neutrality, through
which she was able to put flaws and accomplishments in proper perspective and to look beyond
his famous stubbornness to the loyalty enjoyed
by fellow faculty and students. Lang, who has
written a number of books on the contributions
NARRATING DEAF LIVES CONTINUED ...
DHI NEWSLETIER, No. 22 (SPRING 2005) 3
of deaf individuals, was inspired to write as a
reminded the audience that Keller had a life
"legacy", to discover his own personal history by beyond her celebrated childhood, that she was a
strong advocate for controversial political ideas,
telling many stories of the lives of deaf men and
including birth control, socialism, and resistance
women in history and science, and to inspire
others by making these individuals' lives and
against both world wars, but that Americans
tend to suppress recognition of her adult political
work visible. Lang warned of problems in interinvolvement because of their disability prejuviewing and researching, such as interviewees
with faulty memories and perceptions, and inac- dices, and because it doesn't fit well with their
curacies of primary and secondary sources.
cherished image of her near-miraculous triumph
Historical biography presents its own chalover adversity. "Helen Keller jokes" and attitudes
lenges, as witnessed by Harlan Lane and Susan
toward the famous deaf-blind icon reflect
Plann. Lane, a well-known biographer and psyAmericans' unease with various aspects of disability and feminism, including independence,
cholinguist, explored deaf clans in Maine in the
early 1800'S in his research for Nancy Rowe and
sexuality, body image and physicality, disability
propriety, and the pursuit of non-traditional genGeorge Curtis: Deaf Lives in Maine 150 Years
Ago. Letters written by members of these two
der roles.
Keller's vaudeville performances were the
family clans are fascinating windows into the
lives of deaf people of this time - their concerns, target of criticism by Yvonne Pitrois, a deaf-blind
their pleasure at sharing language and outlook,
French contemporary of Keller's, as Rachel
and the surprisingly high level of literacy indicat- Hartig, researcher of deaf autobiographers in
ed by their writing. Plann, known for her work A France and the U.S., revealed. Pitrois, ironically,
was a biographer of the life of the Abbe de
Silent Minority: Deaf Education in Spain, 1550l'Epee, who was known for using students as
1835, detailed her current work involving portraits from the Spanish National Deaf School,
models in public demonstrations of sign lanfocusing on 19th century deaf female students
guage, yet Pitrois herself was led by her own difand their educators. Her research highlights the fering personality and values to abhor vaudeville
as mere exhibitionism and spectacle. Though
limited expectations, opportunities, and educahurt by Pitrois' criticism, Keller continued her
tion afforded Spanish female deaf students of
theatrical performances, which not only provided
this era, particularly those from the lower classes, despite lone efforts by the feminist Marcelina her with a steady income, but which she regardRuiz Ricote, an educator employed in the latter
ed as a dignified and noble means of educating
part of the 19th century, who advocated for train- the public about deaf-blind concerns, as well as
ing of more marketable skills for the girls.
an opportunity for adventure and contact with
Over a hundred years after the publication other famous people.
Creative writer Georgina Kleege, who
of her autobiography, Helen Keller still fascishared a tongue-in-cheek essay, "Blind Ragenates; research highlighting new aspects of her
An Open Letter to Helen Keller", expressed her
life was the focus of one conference panel.
Feminist biographer and historian Kim Nielson
NARRATING DEAF LIVES CONTINUED ...
4
amazement at Keller's seemingly boundless fortitude and cheerfulness, attitudes which society
expects other disabled individuals to exemplify.
The essay ponders how Keller was able to hide
the rage she surely must have felt in the face of
others' doubts about her intelligence and capabilities.
Conference participants were entertained
by celebrated deaf American actor Bernard Bragg
with stories from the summer of his 19th year
when he worked as a dishwasher in a hotel in the
Berkshire Mountains of New York, taken from
his autobiographical book, Lessons in Laughter.
Bragg and his collaborator Eugene Bergmann
were long-time friends, their shared experiences
one of the reasons their collaboration worked so
well. Bergmann noted that in their weekly collaborative meetings, "Bernard craft[ed] the signs,
I craft[ed] the words." Not so much autobiography as a series of short vignettes, Lessons in
Laughter increasingly took on Bragg's style as
Bergmann gradually came to understand it.
Audiences were offered much food for
thought not only by the fabulous selection of
panels, papers, and performances, but by a
dynamic series of keynote addresses. Keynote
speaker Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind
(the biography of Nobel-prize winning mathematician John Nash) opened the conference by
concluding from her experience that "you can
never write the last chapter of your own story it's never over." Biographers of deaf lives can
take inspiration from Nasar's celebration of
Nash's extraordinary life - his meteoric rise,
tragic fall, and eventual resurrection. Nasar's
account highlights the destructive impact of
mental illness and its concomitant stigma upon a
life; the result nearly denied Nash the Nobel
prize, and complicated Nasar's research, when
DRI NEWSLEITER,
No. 22 (SPRING 2005)
friends and admirers surrounded Nash with a
protective silence.
Award-winning stage and screen actress
Emmanuelle Laborit, author of the autobiography The Cry of the Gull and artistic director of
the International Visual Theater (IVr) in Paris,
commented on the writing process as well as her
current theatrical work in the second keynote
address. Confronted with the difficulties of using
written French, her second language, Laborit
found it necessary to work with a professional
writer, Marie Therese Cuny, to revise her original
draft. Their excellent working relationship
developed from sharing time together and relishing similar tastes, but they struggled with the
style of the book, which Laborit wanted to be
simple and clear, not academic or "symphonic",
to reflect her own style and personality. Working
with Cuny allowed Laborit to gain some distan
from her memories, enabling her to assess the
meaning of her experiences. One of her'motivations for writing was to demonstrate to hearing
people that deaf children can have a choice of
communication, but that sign language must be
the foundation, because it provides an essential
means of identity to deaf people. This message is
reflected in a pivotal moment described in her
autobiography, a visit to Gallaudet University at
the age of ten. The IVr, with its theatrical
expression of deaf culture, has made an equally
large impact on her life, and Laborit described
the creative process employed by company
actors, who must improvise when adapting and
translating plays into French sign. As director,
Laborit has labored for twelve years to find and
finance a permanent home for the company
(slated to open September 2005), which will
NARRATING DEAF LIVES CONTINUED ...
DHI NEWSLETTER, No.
allow them to provide a year-round schedule of
performances, invite other European troupes to
perform, host children's workshops, and expand
their offerings to showcase a variety of cinematic
works. Laborit referred to an IVf website
(www.ivt.fr) which provides updated theater
information.
One of the most animated discussions followed the third keynote address byaward-winning documentary filmmaker Larry Hott, who
has taken on the Herculean task of transforming
the controversial "History Through Deaf Eyes"
exhibit into a two-hour PBS-sponsored documentary. The documentary, Hott noted, will
have two focal points: deaf lives from inside, and
a history of the deaf community, which will consist of five historical stages, concluding with the
present. Recognizing that the Deaf experience is
intensely visual, Hott intends to include such elements as short personal video journals about
deaf lives, as well as descriptions of how the
motion picture and television industries have
dealt with deaf images and actors.
Representatives from PBS and WETA were on
hand to discuss possible educational outreach
efforts (a website, a publicity component, teacher
and viewer guides, and focus groups) and to
solicit feedback from the audience. Audience
members responded by expressing concerns
about getting it right, making sure the deaf advisory panel has broad representation and enough
input power, and noting the large impact the
documentary will ultimately have, with which
deaf people will have to live. Deaf professionals,
they insisted, should have responsibilities in
editing; descriptions of controversial technologies such as cochlear implants should be balanced with narratives showing the development
22 (SPRING 2005) 5
of ASL. Hott admitted early doubts about his
own involvement as an outsider with a topic that
elicits such strong emotions, but believes it will
be a successful effort, helped greatly by close collaboration with main deaf advisor Harry Lang,
and with the input of the advisory panel, which
Ben Bahan, Arlene Kelly, Dirksen
Baumann, Howard Busbee, Kevin Nolan, David
James, Jack Gannon, Vic Van Cleve, Mary
Watkins, Glenn Anderson, Harvey Corson, and
others. His challenge in a competitive market,
Hott says, will be to produce something exciting
and interesting to appeal to everyone, not just to
deaf people. The advisory panel has already
worked for two years on the project, and Hott
vowed to bring screening and focus groups into
the editing process. He gave out his email contact information ([email protected]) and
encouraged audience members to contact him
with further feedback.
The variety of offerings and ideas at the
conference, the moving stories, exciting research
and reports of ongoing work all testified to the
importance of this conference for anyone interested in the recording of deaf lives, whether from
personal interest or for scholarly study. It was
impressive to see what has already been accomplished in this fairly new area of study, but it was
equally inspiring to discover what is left to do.
6
DRI NEWSLETTER,
No. 22 (SPRING 2005)
Deaf Archives From Around the World ...
Royal National Institute for Deaf People [RNIDJ Library
BY ULF HEDBERG
Royal National Institute for Deaf People
[RNID] Library
Address: 330-332 Gray's Inn Road London
WClX 8EE, UNITED KINGDOM
Telephone: (+44) 020 7915 1553
(both text-telephone and voice)
Our catalogue can be searched online, as part
of the joint catalogue of University College
London Library Services at library.ucl.ac.uk, or
follow the link from our webpage. All RNID
Library holdings are marked RNID.
Special collections at the RNID Library
include:
Fax: UK ( +44) 020 79 15 1443
Email: [email protected]
WWW: www.ucl.ac.uk/library/rnid
OPEN 9:30 - 17: 30 Monday - Friday
COPYING FACILITIES: Yes - subject to UK
Copyright Legislation. Prices on the Webpage.
COLLECTIONS:
The RNID Library is a research collection of
approximately 7,500 books designed to support research into Audiology and Deaf Studies.
Key subject areas in the RNID collection
include clinical audiology, physiology of hearing and hearing aids, psychology and mental
health, signed languages and interpreting, education, and history and culture. The collection
is reference only, although we will loan to
other libraries - please contact your own
library for details of their interlibrary loan
servIce.
- A significant collection of 'grey literature' on
relevant subjects.
- Biographies and autobiographies of famous
Deaf or related figures.
- Archival materials from UK Deaf Institutions.
- RNID Archives.
- A Government collection, covering relevant
UK legislation and research undertaken by
Government Departments.
- A collection of historical books and pamphlets of interest, going back to the 17th century.
- Works of fiction featuring deaf characters.
NOTES FOR INTERNATIONAL INTERESTS:
The RNID Library also has an extensive collection of publications and newsletters from Deaf
organisations all over Europe and the United
States, in languages including French, German,
Italian, Russian, Czech, Norwegian, Swedish,
Finnish and Spanish.
ADMISSION: free
The RNID Library also has subscriptions to the
key academic journals in the fields of
Audiology and Deaf Studies, as well as receiving a large number of non-scholarly journals,
pamphlets, bulletins and newsletters from Deaf
and related organisations.
ATTENTION or NOTES:
The RNID Library is a co-operative venture
between the RNID and University College
London Library Services.
JOIN DEAF HISTORY INTERNATIONAL!
The Membership Association for All with Interest in Deaf History
Membership in Deaf History International (DIll) is open to anyone interested in the study, preservation and
dissemination of Deaf people's history.
Yes! I1we wish to join as member(s) of DIll. This application is for
( ) NEW membership
( ) RENEWAL membership
Dues for DIll membership through 31 October 2004 are payable in USD only:
( ) Individual US $20
Name:
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The following information is for the use of the DIll Bureau only and will not be shared without your
permission:
Telephone: _ _ _ _ _ __
Fax: - - - - - - -
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Please mail this form with your US$ check or money order made payable to "Deaf History International" to
Mr.
P.
Rockville,
Ulf Hedberg
O.
Box 298
MD 20848-0298 USA
DHI Directory Form
All members of DIll should fill out this form, providing only the. information you want to have made available in the directory.
Please mail this form to:
Mr. Ulf Hedberg
P. O. Box 298
Rockville, MD 20848-0298 USA
Name:
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Preferred contact information (please check at least one):
email:
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maiVpost: ________________________________________
HomeFax: ________________________________________
VVorkfax: ________________________________________
Please provide only the information you want to appear in the directory.
Preferred written language:
Istchoice: _______________________________
2nd choice: _______________________________
Job title and place of employment: ___________________________________
Areas of special interest:
Countryorcountries: ______________________________________________
Period (example: 1600s, VVorld VVar II) _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ __
Field (circle as many as apply): History of Deaf associations, schools, families, sign language, work, civil
rights, other: _____________________________
Important! You must be a member of DIll to appear in the membership directory. If you wish to join DHI or
renew your membership, a membership form is on page 7.
DHI NEWSLETTER, No. 22 (SPRING 2005) 9
Sounds Like Home:
Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South
A Review by Tanya Stremlau
Mary Herring Wright, Sounds Like Home:
Growing Up Black and Deaf in the South
(Gallaudet University Press, 1999).
Mary Herring Wright's memoir Sounds
Like Home: Growing Up Black and Deaf in the
South (Gallaudet University Press, 1999) is an
important addition to the body of deaf autobiographical writing, but it is much more than that.
It has something both for readers interested in
deaf history and deaf culture, and for readers
interested in the history of the segregated
American south. However, one need not be
specifically interested in any of these topics to
enjoy the book.
Sounds Like Home covers Wright's life
from the mid 1920'S to the early 1940'S. The first
part chronicles Wright's early childhood through
her eighth year, when she was hearing. Her family is large-not only is she the fifth of six children, but her parents also took in other children
to raise, and the community was full of her
extended family.
Wright has a remarkable memory and is
able to tell much about her early years. Wright's
memory is so unusually good that there is a natural question of the validity of her recollections.
Wright is aware of this and specifically addresses
the issue. The earliest memory she describes is
of when she crawled into danger (before she
could walk) and her mother yelled and rescued
her. She says that she has never been able to
convince her family that she remembers this
because she was too young. However, she writes,
"I always knew what I felt, heard, and saw" (5).
She goes on to say that her memory really kicked
in on the day her younger brother Sam was born,
when she was almost three.
These early memories ring true both
because the memories of are of events with emotional components (fear, excitement) that would
I
help preserve them in memory and because
Wright tells this part of the story from a young
child's point of view, and when she includes
information she learned later on, she identifies it
as such. Her believability as narrator is one of
the book's greatest strengths.
Wright's loss of her hearing was gradual,
so it took a while for her (and her family) to
notice; she was also having vision problems, so
there was fear she would lose her sight. She
describes experiences common to those who lose
their hearing in mid-childhood, including multiple doctor trips, unanswered prayers for restored
hearing, and a turn to solitary activities such as
reading and playing with pets.
Once it became clear that Wright's hearing was not going to come back, her parents
made the decision to send her to the North
Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind. (Like all
southern states at the time, North Carolina
maintained separate schools for white and
"negro" children: the NCSDB, which was located
in Raleigh, educated only "negroes. ") The family
placed a high value on education, and even
boarded the teachers for the local elementary
school, but they also were a close family, so it
was difficult for them (and for Wright) to have
her live away from home during the academic
year. Students were not allowed to go home for
weekends, or even for Christmas. After a difficult adjustment, Wright found much to enjoy at
the school, from making good friends to participating in-and eventually leading-a signing
choir. She even returned after graduation to
work as a teaching assistant.
However, the North Carolina School for
the Deaf and Blind was not a refuge from the discrimination its students faced in the outside
world for both their skin color and their disabiliCONTINUED ON PAGES 10 AND 11
10
DHI NEWSLETIER, No.
22 (SPRING 2005)
Sounds Like Home
•• CONTINUED
you really get to know her, and that it would be a
ties. As with other deaf (and blind) schools at
pleasure to have a conversation with her.
the time, instruction focused on gender-specific
Occasionally the transitions are abrupt, but that
vocational training. Boys and girls were strictly
is a minor distraction from a compelling story.
separated and not allowed to even talk to each
other. So in some ways the segregated blind deaf
school shared limitations imposed on white deaf
... Tonya Stremlau, Professor of English at
students.
Gallaudet University, is the editor of The Deaf
In other ways, though, blind students
Way II Anthology.
were clearly shortchanged. Once they took a
field trip to the school for white blind children,
and were given a tour of the campus, and saw
that school was much nicer-with home-style livCOVER OF SOUNDS LIKE HOME CAN
ing for students where students roomed two or
BE VIEWED ON PAGE 12
three to a room and had a living room and nice
dining room (with tablecloths and china) in the
house instead of the big dorm rooms with long
rows of beds and large dining hall that used
metal plates and cups that the blind students
had. The white school had an auditorium and a
separate gym with a heated pool while the blind
students had only a plain room with wooden
benches.
Wright had made friends with some of the
blind students (she could speak to them), and
prior to that field trip the blind students had
asked Wright to persuade the deaf students to
help them revolt against the restrictive school
rules. The field trip made some of the deaf students mad enough to want to protest as well,
although nothing happened until after Wright
had graduated.
Since segregation pervaded all areas of
southern life, Wright also experienced its effects
while at home. For example, even if she had not
become deaf, she would have had to go away to
school for high school, because high school was
in town, and only whites had access to bus service to school.
What is most remarkable about Wright is
how well she handled all of the difficulties life
placed in her path. Her autobiography shows a
cheerful, intelligent, resourceful girl and young
woman. When you read this book, you feel like
DRI NEWSLETTER,
No. 22 (SPRING 2005) 11
From the Editor's Desk
LOIS BRAGG
Dear Friends of Deaf History,
For those who were unable to attend the
Deaf Lives conference at Gallaudet last
fall, Peggy Mullens's report on the conference provides an excellent overview and
some websites of interest. Also, Tonya
Stremlau reviews an autobiography about
growing up black and deaf in the segregated south in the early 20th century.
Interested readers should keep their eyes
open for the sequel to this book, coming
soon from Gallaudet University Press.
My second term as newsletter editor will
expire in the spring of 2006, just before
out 2006 conference in Berlin. I have had
wonderful experiences working for DHI
for five years, but it's time for me to move
on and make room for someone new.
Members interested in the editor's posi-
tion should have good competence in
written English, should like to write and
should enjoy history, and should have
contacts in the Deaf community, ideally in
the international Deaf community, who
would assist in gathering news and
spreading the word about DH!. If you're
interested, contact President Odd-Inge
Shrader.
Organizations:
Japanese Association of Deaf History
By TSUYOSHI SAKURAI
Japanese Association of Deaf History
The Japanese Association of Deaf History was established on 3 November 199B. We
have about 250 members We publish a newsletter three times a year and hold annual
conferences. Our 2005 conference will be held in Niigata. For more information,
email [email protected]
12
DRI NEWS LEITER,
No. 22 (SPRING 2005)