You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘ASL’ tag.
eaf West has been a really amazing experience. I’ve been there all week for tech week, learning all the quick changes and taking care of all the costumes for dress rehearsal. I know I should have realized this before hand, but Deaf West works with some AMAZING people. I’ve met the gal in charge of making wigs for the Mark Taper Forum; the costumer does shows at all sorts of impressive places in LA, including the Mark Taper Forum; the director has done some amazing things too, most impressive to me was working with John Kander of Kander and Ebb fame (Chicago, Cabaret…). I’ve met Linda Bove (!!!!!!!), and am also quick changing Deanne Bray (also known as Sue Thomas, FBEye!!!!!). The best part is that everyone is sooooo nice. If I think about things too much, I get a little intimidated by the caliber of people I’m surrounded by. It’s impossible to feel that way for long, though, with everyone being so friendly and inclusive.
My grandmother asked me the other day how Deaf people know when to go on stage for their cues if they can’t hear or see where we are in the show. I don’t know how many people have been backstage at a regular theater, but usually there is a speaker in the dressing room broadcasting what’s happening sound-wise on stage and that’s all the help the actor gets. At Deaf West everyone, hearing and Deaf alike, gets little blue cue lights. When the cue light goes on, it’s your warning to be ready; when it goes out again, it’s your cue to walk on. There are cue lights everywhere, even one out in the audience in case someone needs to be signaled while they’re on stage. There’s also a camera in the audience that picks up the whole stage. In the dressing room there’s a TV monitor that broadcasts the camera footage so everyone can see the show as well as hear it. Personally, I love this. It makes me feel like I can watch some of the show even though I’m relegated to back stage.
The other interesting thing for me is adapting to quick changes. I have over 20 quick changes in the show and only 3 of them are with hearing actors. I’m used to just being able to say “OK” when I’m done and have the actor run on stage. It doesn’t work that way for the two Deaf girls I’m helping. Usually I’m directly behind them zipping them up or fixing their hair. I’ve taken to either holding out a hand in front of them at about eye level and signing “OK” or holding out both hands on either side of them and signing “Finished”. It seems to be working well, I just hope I’m not being rude. If I am no one has enlightened me yet, so I’m going to assume I’m fine.
The production is really great, and I would recommend that everyone come to see it if you can. Don’t bring your kids, though. There are some lesbianism themes and some violence. My Sister In This House is a really compelling story. It really happened, in 1933 in Le Mans, France. Really cool stuff.
‘ve been volunteering off and on for Deaf West Theater for about a year now, more off than on. It’s been a strange experience. Usually I go in to help with behind the scenes work or to help in the office, and I don’t meet any Deaf people. I meet a lot of hearing people who know sign, but the folks who are assigned to deal with the volunteers are all hearing. It’s probably better that way. You never know what kinds of volunteers you’re getting or how competent their ASL is.
Prior to my volunteer stint, I also applied for an internship at Deaf West. I’ve been in theater my whole life and I know what’s going on. I’ve also worked lots of office jobs to support my theater habit, so I know my way around an office too. I felt like the interview went really well, and I was excited to work with them. Unfortunately, I was a few school units shy of qualifying for the internship. That’s when I decided to volunteer instead. It has been fun. I didn’t realize how much I miss real theater and real theater people. Disney seems to either chew these people up and spit them out or slowly change them into happy Disney techs. The debauchery and uncouthness that’s so prevalent back stage doesn’t really exist there, and that’s part of what I love so much. When Deaf West asked for volunteers to help usher for their new production, “My Sister In This House,” I signed up immediately, and also included my phone number in case they had any problems.
I was called later the same day. They needed a wardrobe person for backstage ASAP, and remembered that I had a lot of experience with costuming. Needless to say, I jumped at the chance. They asked me to do basically the same job I’m doing at Disney… put people in costumes, make sure the costumes are being sent to the correct cleaning places (washing machine or dry cleaner?), and doing minor repairs if buttons break etc. Instead of dealing with costumes for 100+ people like I do at Disney, they have a cast of no more than 20. I figured that volunteering and giving up all those Saturday nights was worth it for all the experience I would be getting. Working with Deaf actors would also allow me to improve my rusty ASL. Then they let me know they would be paying me a stipend.
WOW! Was all I could think. My 2 favorite things in the world are ASL and Theater, and I would be getting paid to work at an ASL theater. You can’t get better than that. I start going to rehearsals this week and I can’t wait to meet everyone. This is such an exciting opportunity!!
“
ee What I’m Saying” is a documentary that was made about a year in the life of four different Deaf performers: C. J. Jones the comedian, Bob Hiltermann of the band Beethoven’s Nightmare, T. L. Forsberg the singer, and Robert DeMayo the actor. It covers all their disappointments and successes throughout the year in trying to become better known for the things they love to do. C. J. Jones, a huge celebrity in the Deaf world, tries again and again to break through into the mainstream hearing culture but is constantly rebuffed. Bob Hiltermann has been teaching for two years, and feels the need to get the band together for one more show so he can be a rockstar at least once more before he dies. T. L Forsberg tries to find her place in the Deaf world even though many people look down on her because she can pass as hearing, has a singing career, and imperfect signing skills: they feel she isn’t Deaf enough. Even though Robert DeMayo is considered a premier actor and even teaches at Juliard, he finds it hard to get work; everything culminates for him when he is evicted from his apartment and is forced to live on the streets. The documentary premiered in Los Angeles on March 19th and is being shown exclusively at the Laemmle Sunset 5 in Hollywood until April 1st. After that, it goes to New York and then into wider circulation.
I had been DYING to go see the movie. Everyone in my classes was talking about it and saying how amazing it was. I finally told my husband, Brian, that we were going whether he liked it or not, so we did. I can’t believe how much everyone was low-balling how great the documentary was. You wanted to cry with the performers through their difficulties and cheer with them through their successes. Even Brian, who knows no sign and nothing about Deaf Culture, found the movie incredibly inspiring. We both agreed that when Beethoven’s Nightmare puts on it’s next show, we will be there with bells on and nothing can keep us away; the concert they showed was just about the coolest thing I think I’ve ever seen.
Little by little, Brian is learning more about Deaf Culture. I took him to the ASL Comedy Tour about a month ago and he loved it a lot. At one point during the movie, Keith Wann interprets for Robert DeMayo. It was really fun for Brian and I to turn to each other and say excitedly, “That’s Keith Wann!!”. While in theory I know how small the Deaf world is, it was highlighted a lot in this movie. The performers all know each other and work together constantly. The same people turn up over and over.
While the movie was AMAZING, the best part was the ending. Brian turned to me before the lights came up and said, “Don’t look now, but the girl from the documentary is standing in the aisle right behind us!” T. L., Bob, and the director Hilari Scarl all showed up to answer questions at the end. It was really great to meet everyone!! We bought a Beethoven’s Nightmare CD, T. L.’s newest CD, and a See What I’m Saying poster which everyone was more than happy to sign for me. It was crazy, because you get all star-struck seeing what amazing artists these people are on the screen and then their right in front of you. I’m sorry to say that my ASL suffered a little bit of a breakdown due to nerves, but not too badly. It was a really great day, and I’m so happy that the open captioning on the film and the amazing volunteer interpreter made me able to share it all with Brian.
I would strongly recommend that anyone who is able to should go see this film. It was a wonderful experience. The director was telling us all that the future success of the film relies on how many people go to see it in LA right now: I guess movie theaters in other big cities like to gauge how much interest there is before deciding to screen a film. So if you go to see it, not only will you be treating yourself to a really good time, you’ll be helping people in other cities have a really good time too. This was, without a doubt, the best time I’ve ever had seeing a movie!
For more information on how to see the film, visit http://www.seewhatimsayingmovie.com/
ndrew Foster was born in 1925 in Ensley, Alabama where racism was at it’s strongest. His father was a coal miner and the family had very little economic opportunity. When he was 11 years old, Andrew and his brother both contracted Spinal Meningitis and became Deaf. The family did what they could to send the boys to the Alabama School for Colored Deaf in Talladega, but their education wasn’t very good. When Andrew was 16, the family moved into his Aunt’s house so the boys could get a better education. Andrew finished high school at the Michigan School for the Deaf.
The family was deeply religious and attended church services every Sunday. It was in Sunday School that Andrew realized his true calling. A missionary from Jamaica came to the school one weekend and gave a talk about his work in Africa. Andrew was extremely interested in the man’s experiences and felt that it was his calling in life to become a missionary in Africa too. If he was to succeed, Andrew also knew he would need a lot of education. He wrote to Gallaudet College and they accepted him on a full scholarship. He was the first black student to ever have been accepted at Gallaudet; four years later he became the first black, deaf graduate of Gallaudet in 1954. He then went on to accieve two Master’s degrees.
Then came the hard part. Andrew visited every mission he could think of, but in spite of his thorough education they would not accept him as a missionary because of his race. Instead, Andrew finally started his own mission. He flew to Liberia for the first time in 1957. What he saw there was extremely upsetting. The other missionaries he was in contact with told him that deaf people didn’t exist in Africa at all, but eventually Andrew found them. Many people thought that deafness was a sign that a person was cursed, so parents were forced to hide their children. Deaf children who weren’t hidden were frequently left in the wilderness to be eaten by animals. There was absolutely no education available, and most Africans believed that the deaf were unable to be educated. The best a deaf person in Africa could hope for was to become a family’s servant, using rudimentary signs for basic communication. Andrew knew he had to do everything he could to change the fate of African deafs.
Andrew heard about a community in Ghana with a high rate of hereditary deafness, much like Martha’s Vineyard in the United States. Figuring that he could make an impact quickly in this community, he traveled to Ghana and used the regular school facilities to teach deaf students after hours. Within no time at all, he had 300 families from all over Africa requesting that he teach their children as well. The borrowed facilities were no longer enough. Andrew flew back to the United States to raise money for a permanent boarding school to be built. A year later, the first school for the deaf in Africa opened in Nigeria.
Andrew faithfully promoted his new schools everywhere he could. It was at the Third World Congress for the Deaf that he met the love of his life, a German deaf woman named Berta. She felt just as strongly about Andrew’s mission as he did. They were married in Nigeria in 1961, and worked together to establish more schools across Africa. In addition to the schools, they also established deaf Churches, Sunday Schools, Youth Camps, and Teacher Training facilities. The two also had five children, 4 boys and 1 girl.
Sadly, in 1975 Berta was diagnosed with terminal Cancer. Although their worst fears weren’t realized (she is still alive and well today), Berta felt that she could not keep up with their nomadic life in Africa any longer. She and the children moved back to the United States. Andrew still felt that he had not finished his work in Africa. He decided to split his time, spending half of the year in America with his family and the other half of the year in Africa establishing more schools and churches. In 1970, Gallaudet University honored Andrew with an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters.
In 1987, Andrew was on a small plane traveling between schools when the plane crashed in the hills of Rwanda. There were 11 people on board the flight and none of them survived; Andrew was 62 years old. As one of his students, Gabriel Adepoju, said, “Andrew Foster is to Africa what Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet is to the United States of America.” Andrew established 31 schools in over 17 African countries. The mission he started is still going strong, and his legacy lives on in the tens of thousands of deaf Africans who are now literate and living good lives thanks to his lifelong effort on their behalf.
OK, this is a little long and wordy. What can I say? I’m back in school and I’m feeling more schollarly-like. 🙂
~~~
he Deaf President Now protests of 1988 were a huge turning point in Deaf history. Until this point, Deaf people had not been responsible for their own leadership. Even Gallaudet University, a place many people believe to be the Mecca of Deaf Culture, was run by a hearing president and a hearing board of directors. Over a week of intense protest, all that changed. Deaf people snatched their destiny from the hands of the hearing and installed a Deaf president and a 51% Deaf board of directors at the college, reigning in a new era of Deaf Pride. While the Deaf President Now rallies were empowering, it raises a question in my eyes. The Civil Rights era kicked off in this country with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. All through the 1960s, groups raised up and demanded to be treated equally. Why did it take the Deaf community almost 30 years to insist upon their rights as well? I believe there were three root causes: the sad state of Deaf Education for many years, the fact that Gallaudet University had the same hearing president from the 1960’s to the 1980’s, and the uncertainty of the Deaf community that hearing people would let a Deaf president be successful.
What really happened during the Deaf President Now protest? Several campus leaders got wind of the fact that the current President, a hearing man, would be stepping down. They immediately started lobbying for a Deaf president to be appointed. Things looked to be going well when the Board of Trustees announced their final three candidates for the position. Two were Deaf, and only one was hearing. Unfortunately, the Board decided to pick the only hearing candidate as the next president. Worse still, the woman, named Elisabeth A. Zinser, didn’t even know sign language. The Board announced their decision rather cowardly, at a local hotel, and not on campus where they knew there would be extremely unpopular. Students awaiting the decision at the Gallaudet campus were upset that the decision had not been announced to the group it mattered the most to, and they also wanted answers. They all decided to march to the hotel and demand to know why a Deaf president wasn’t chosen, and they made it just in time to interrupt a national press conference. With a whole nation watching, the Board had to play nice. They offered to meet with the Student Body the next morning.
All night, student leaders met to decide what their demands would be. They finally settled on four concrete demands: 1) Zinser must resign and a Deaf president selected; 2) Spillman, the director of the Board who continually brushed aside student concerns, must resign; 3) The percentage of Deaf members on the Board of Trustees must be increased to at least 51%; 4) There must be no reprisals against any of the protesters. Just before the large student meeting, the student leaders presented the Board of Trustees with their demands. The board rejected all of them. As soon as the meeting started and Spillman started to speak, one of the student leaders jumped up on the podium. “They have rejected our demands” he signed, “there is no reason for us to stay. Let’s all leave.” As the director futilely tried to regain everyone’s attention, waves of people moved out the doors. They traveled off campus to the nation’s capital where the protest was kicked off in full force.
Protests continued constantly for several more days. Students refused to attend classes, and the whole campus completely ceased to function. When Zinser arrived in Washington DC to take over the presidency, students flattened the tires of several buses which blocked all access to the campus. Zinser could not even get onto the campus of the University she was supposed to be leading. She called a meeting with the student leaders and told them she would put a 51% deaf majority on the Board of Directors and would guarantee no reprisals, but that she wouldn’t step down, and wouldn’t let Spillman resign. Zinser was polite and understanding, and urged them to work with her. Though the student leaders felt that she was a good person, the knew they would never get what they wanted if they gave up now. Again they marched to the capital and resumed protesting in full force. Faced with a non-functioning University that no one could even enter or leave, the Board of Trustees had no choice. On March 13, 1988, the Board agreed to all student demands and I. King Jordan was elected the first Deaf president of Gallaudet University.
So why did it take Deaf people 30 years longer than hearing people to stand up for their rights? One of the most important reasons is that, until recently, the catastrophic state of Deaf Education in America kept Deaf people from entering many important careers. Early in the 20th century, Alexander Graham Bell and others advocated for a completely oral approach to teaching Deaf students. They refused to let them sign, took them out of the classroom so they could attend thousands of hours of speech therapy, and encouraged them to go to trade school as opposed to university. This method was completely uneffective and stressed the importance of sounding “normal” at the expense of education. At the mercy of their hearing parents, Deaf people had little to no say in the kind of education they recieved. Many Deaf people graduated from these programs barely literate, trapped in blue collar jobs, and unqualified to lead a major institution. In the 1970’s, when sign language came into it’s own as a true and valid language, Deaf education changed in this country; Oral only programs fell out of favor, higher education was stressed, and Deaf people began to hold white collar jobs and positions of leadership. Suddenly, they were qualified to be president.
In 1969, Edward C. Merrill, Jr. was elected the 4th hearing president of Gallaudet University, and he didn’t step down from that position until the 1980’s. While Deaf people may have wanted a Deaf person to be president of the University before the 1980’s, they didn’t have a chance to stand up for their rights until the president decided to step down. Another hearing president was elected after Merrill, but when they heard he was going to resign, students acted immediately. They started a grassroots movement to have a Deaf president installed, and they were passing out DPN buttons almost a year before the last hearing president resigned. Having a hearing president from the 1960s up to the 1980s didn’t allow Deaf people to assert their position any sooner, but when they saw their opening, they took it almost immediately.
Another small factor in electing a Deaf president was that Deaf people were not sure hearing people would let a Deaf president succeed. There were two main reasons for this concern: 1)Gallaudet University gets most of it’s funding from the United States Congress. 2) Deaf people tend to hear from hearing people all about what they can’t do, and deal with discrimination called “Audism” all their life. If the hearing people in Congress were prejudiced against Deaf people, or refused to work with the president, Gallaudet University could be in serious financial trouble. Everyone was certain that a Deaf person could handle any and all aspects of the job itself, but they didn’t know if the hearing community would pause long enough to put aside their Audism and give a Deaf president a chance. Though these concerns were ultimately proven to be unfounded (Congressional support actually increased by a bunch under I. King Jordan), at the time they were real concerns for many in the Deaf community. Not that a Deaf president could do the job, but that a Deaf president would be allowed to do the job. A superficiall worry, this would certainly not have held the community back from insisting on a Deaf president, but it may have stalled things temporarily.
Though the civil rights in this country happened for most minority groups in the 1960’s I believe that the Deaf community was not behind the times by waiting until the 1980’s to stand up for their rights. Deaf people, through catastrophic educational conditions, no opportunity to replace the president of Gallaudet, and worries that a Deaf president would not be allowed to succeed, were not ready in the 1960’s to take over their destiny as completely as they did later in the century. Because of the Deaf President Now protests, Deaf people are leading their own community as never before. There are Deaf roll-models for children to grow up revering. Oral only schools are almost non-existent now. Would this have been able to happen in the 1960’s? Yes, but it would have been a harder and longer fight.
ast year when it was so hard to get classes, my husband cheered me up with Randy Pausch’s “Last Lecture” (for a transcript, go here: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/TenWays/story?id=3675954&page=1 ). Evidently, it is a tradition that college professors who know they will be dying give a last lecture on what matters most to them. Randy’s was amazingly inspirational and has garnered him a bit of fame. In it, he explains that obstacles are there for a reason: they let you prove how much you want things.
I must really want to be an ASL interpreter. I went through another horrible week of being turned away at every class. The worst part is, I didn’t get the class that’s the prerequisite to everything else. If everything goes well in the future, it will now take me double the time I thought it would to graduate with an ASL degree.
I do have a backup plan. I need a BA anyway, so I’ll transfer and go to a “real” school while I’m finishing up my AA in sign. I just feel so defeated right now. I’m at a school I hate, fighting an uphill battle, for absolutely no gain. I am so tired of loosing the fight against the California State budget cuts.
I’ll cheer up in a little bit, I promise. I’m not giving up. After all, if I work hard enough this year my ASL should be AMAZING by the time I get into those interpreting classes. It will make my journey easier in the long run, right? Hopefully? Maybe?…
from left to right, Peter, Crom, Branton, Keith, and me down in front in the green.
first came across Keith Wann on Youtube. I was looking for videos in ASL so I could improve my receptive skills, and I came across his hilarious version of the Sir Mixalot song “I Like Big Butts” in American Sign Language. It was hilarious to watch Keith awkwardly sign the song, almost as if he was the 10 year old boy he was talking about in his story. After watching this gem, I was introduced to Keith’s version of “Ice Ice Baby”, “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” and tons of little stand up comic bits, like his explanation of how technology ruined Deaf Pizza Night. I was rolling on the floor laughing by the end of it. I insisted that my husband, who doesn’t know any ASL, come and watch all of them immediately. He ended up in stitches as well.
I don’t know why it never donned on me that there were ASL comedians out there. I know about C. J. Jones, of course, and he’s what most people would call a comedian as well as an actor and writer. I just never thought there might be more people on a mission to entertain the signing masses by making them laugh so hard they fall over.
I’m always on the lookout for more biographies of Famous Deaf Americans. Keith isn’t deaf, he’s a CODA, but I thought I might want to include a biography anyway. He’s been really important to me lately in my quest to learn ASL. To my surprise, I found that he and a bunch of others were touring around the country with the ASL Comedy Tour. Even better, they were coming to my area!! I immediately bought 2 tickets, one for me and one for my husband.
We arrived at the Marriott in Irvine about an hour early, then waited in the hotel lobby for the time to pass. I’m always nervous in situations when I know I’m going to have to interact in sign. I have a decent vocabulary, but I never seem to get any better than “rusty”, and my grammar is bad. I’m also never sure how to behave with a non-ASL-speaker present. I don’t want to just sign, because they won’t understand me, but I don’t want to not sign because the deaf people won’t understand me and it’s rude. It’s a catch 22.
It ended up not being a problem. People all around us were talking, so I felt comfortable talking as well. My husband and I sat and just enjoyed the general atmosphere when suddenly the comedy started. I realized once again how in love with ASL I am. Even when it’s dirty, it’s just so picturesque. There was a voice interpreter, so my husband understood most of what was going on, although occasionally he missed things because the crowd was laughing so hard he couldn’t hear the interpreter. I was thrilled to realize that I understood almost everything that was happening, even when I couldn’t hear the interpreter.
There were four comedians that performed that night. Keith Wann was first, Branton Stewart was second, then came Peter Cook, and Finally Crom Sanders. I was so disappointed when the night was over. I could have listened to all of them go on for hours. After their acts were finished, anyone who wanted to could go on stage and take pictures with all of them. I was shy at first, but I finally got up the gumption to ask for a picture. I was then able to tell them all how much I had enjoyed myself.
I know my husband experienced mad culture shock, but the night only made me realize more fully how much I love ASL and Deaf Culture. It also made me realize that my ASL is coming quicker, I don’t have to think about it as much as before. That must mean I’m getting better, right?
But seriously, if you’ve never seen any of these guys sign, you need to check them out immediately. They are the funniest guys I have ever met, and they will revolutionize your ASL experience.
I thought for sure that there were Deaf events I went to last semester that I never posted about, and in looking through my old school papers, I found this one. It’s the very first time I ever went out into the Deaf community, twords the end of my first semester of ASL. I know I still have a long way to go before I become an amazing ASL speaker, but reading this makes me realize how far I’ve come.
***
went to the MATA convention by myself, as no one I knew could make it on Friday, the only day I could go. I went after work, knowing I’d only have a few hours to peruse the convention before it closed. Usually I drag my husband Brian to these things. He’s always up to new experiences and it’s nice to not feel wholly alone in a crowd of strangers, I knew Brian would be good moral support. As I pulled up to that giant white building full of windows, I thought of him in his safe little cubicle at work. I wished I was there myself. I am notoriously shy in social situations and I abhor feeling stupid, something I was sure I couldn’t avoid with my inferior ASL 1 vocabulary. I’m well aware that it takes time to be good at things, but I never want to wait that long. I’d like to be good right off the bat, especially if I’m displaying my inexperience to large groups of people. I was very nervous.
I was relieved as I stepped inside the giant room where the MATA conference was held. It looked just like any other convention I had been to, with the bright banners stretched behind folding tables spread with interesting items. There were thick crowds of people milling from one booth to another and, besides the people signing back and forth, this was a scene I was familiar with. I couldn’t follow anything people were saying to each other, my sign language skills were not quick enough to keep up, but you could certainly tell the emotions people were trying to get across. Most people seemed happy to be there.
I knew this was a good opportunity to practice my signing skills, and even though people were extremely nice to me and tried to start conversation, I felt odd about it. I realized that even in the English speaking world that I live in, I usually give a quickly polite answer to any question that’s asked of me, and don’t elaborate. By the time I had thought of more to say, the person I was speaking to at the booths had usually moved on to the next person. It didn’t help that I usually didn’t know the signs for anything I could ask about at the booth. In class I feel like I can communicate anything I want to, but out in the actual world, it’s a little different. I realized how much I’m hampered by my lack of vocabulary. I definitely felt as if people wanted to be inclusive and friendly. Those I did sign briefly with were incredibly kind in signing slowly so I could understand.
I’m glad I went to the MATA convention, instead of to a reading or other type of Deaf Event. I’ve heard of some of the services available to deaf people, such as fire alarms that shake the bed and doorbells that flash a light. It was really neat to see all the products and services out there, especially the video chats, which make life the same for a deaf person as for a hearing person, as far as technological conveniences are concerned. It was neat to get to understand that aspect of deaf life.
I learned a lot at the MATA convention. I loved seeing all the neat products they had displayed, and I liked seeing people sign back and forth to one another. It made me want to be better at ASL, so I could join in on the conversation as well, though I didn’t understand what people were saying. It also made me realize how little I communicate in English when I’m alone in a large group. Usually my conversation is confined to “Oh, I’m fine thank you,” and “no, I’m just looking.” It was harder to branch out from that habit into actual conversation especially because I was trying to use a new language. Visiting the MATA convention made me excited to be better at ASL, and excited to practice communication in the new language I’m learning. It was a great experience.
uliette Magill Kinzie Gordon was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1860, the second of six children. Her father was a wealthy and well-known citizen in Savannah, and a Captain in the Confederate army during the American Civil War. Juliette received a debutante’s upbringing, attending several boarding schools before graduating from Mesdemoselles Charbonniers French finishing school in New York City. She was well-known for her vibrant sense of humor and her artistic abilities; she wrote poems, acted in plays, drew, painted, and sculpted. Unfortunately, Juliette’s early years were also plagued with chronic ear infections. When she was 25, one of these ear infections was improperly treated with Silver Nitrate, leaving her almost completely deaf in one ear.
In New York City Juliette met William MacKay Low, the son of a wealthy land owner in England. They dated for four years before getting married. At the wedding, a grain of good-luck rice got lodged in Juliette’s good ear. The doctor who removed it punctured her eardrum and destroyed most of the nerves inside her ear, rendering her completely deaf. That didn’t stop Juliette. She and William moved to his estate in England. He was away a good portion of the time, and he tended to drink a lot, so Juliette proceeded to travel. She divided her time between Scotland, England, and America.
When the Spanish American War broke out at home, Juliette felt it was her duty to move back to America and help her mother establish a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers returning from the war. When she returned to England several years later, she found that William had been having an affair. The two agreed to start divorce proceedings, officially separating in 1902. But before the divorce could be finalized, William died of a stroke and left his entire fortune to his mistress. After months of legal negotiations, Juliette was granted the sum of $500,000, which would enable her to continue living her life as she liked.
Again, Juliette went traveling, this time in hopes that she would find something productive to do with her life. In 1911, she met the founder of the Scouting movement, Robert Baden-Powell, and his sister Agnes. Agnes had started a Scouting group for girls in England, called the Girl Guides. Juliette was excited. She immediately started a troop for poor girls in Scotland, and then two more troops in London. In 1912, she moved her permanent residence back to America and imediately started a group of Girl Guides in Savannah.
In 1913, the name of Juliette’s group was changed to the “Girl Scouts of America.” It took off like wildfire, and in 1915 the organization was incorporated. Juliette put everything she could into the organization, even going without electricity so she could pump more of her money into making the Girl Scouts wonderful. She served as the president until 1920, when she was granted the title of Founder.
In 1923, Juliette learned that she had Breast Cancer. Refusing to let others feel sorry for her, she hid her condition and continued working tirelessly for the Girl Scouts. She died in 1927 and was burried in her Scout uniform in Savannah, Georgia. Though many disheartening things happened to Juliette, she never lost her positive outlook and quirky sense of humor. She fostered pride and self-worth in millions of girls in an era when they were being told to stay at home and have babies. And she did it all without being able to hear.
Every year I like to make some New Year’s resolutions and write them down so I can tangibly track how I’m doing. This year, my resolution is to attend more Deaf Events than I did last year.
I don’t remember how many I attended for ASL 2, but I know that I attended 4 last semester. If we take that as the norm, that’s 8 per year. So my concrete and unchangeable resolution is that I will attend more than 8 Deaf Events this year.
You can count the entries to see how I’m doing, if you want. Otherwise, I’ll report back on how I did next January.
If My Hands Could Speak... 
