uodsp: FW: FW: This Friday at UO... Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL

Tue Oct 8 16:31:33 PDT 2019

Thank you, David. A great opportunity.

From: David de Lorenzo <ddeloren at uoregon.edu>
Subject: Fwd: FW: This Friday at UO... Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL

I thought you should know about this event on Friday which I just received information from Valentino.

This is groundbreaking work by Ceil Lucas, who I know and is a respected ASL scholar and linguist. It should be quite interesting and I hope you can get the word out to folks at UO.

Cheers,

David
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David de Lorenzo, Giustina Director
Special Collections and University Archives
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403
P: 541-346-1904
E: ddeloren at uoregon.edu<mailto:ddeloren at uoregon.edu>
W: https://ischoolapps.sjsu.edu/facultypages/view.php?fac=de_lorenzod
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This living hand - see here it is - I hold it towards you.
~Keats~
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Valentino Vasquez <vvasquez at uoregon.edu<mailto:vvasquez at uoregon.edu>>
Subject: FW: This Friday at UO... Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL

Hi David,

I am forwarding this message to you about the “Signing Black in American: The Story of Black ASL” event I just learned last Friday. Hope to see you there!

Valentino Vasquez

ASL Instructor

From: Communication Disorders & Sciences
Sent: Monday, October 07, 2019 2:50 PM
Subject: FW: This Friday at UO... Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL

Sent on behalf of Jill Potratz -

The University of Oregon is hosting NWAV48 (the 48th meeting of New Ways of Analyzing Variation, a conference devoted to sociolinguistic language variation and change, https://nwav48.uoregon.edu/<https://nwav48.uoregon.edu/special-events/#SBiApremiere>) this week! We wanted to alert you to a short documentary film being premiered as part of the conference, titled Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL, along with a panel discussion with the film’s producers. See more about the film here, and below: https://nwav48.uoregon.edu/special-events/#SBiApremiere . The film will be shown in the Redwood Auditorium of the EMU (2nd floor) this Friday, Oct 11 from 12:10-1:40pm The event will be interpreted. We would like to note that boxed lunches are being provided at the film for registered, paying NWAV attendees. So, while the film event is free and open to the public, we would ask that you please not take a boxed lunch if you are not registered for the conference! Thanks! We look forward to seeing many of you there.

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Signing Black in America: The Story of Black ASL

Friday, Oct 11, 12:10-1:40pm, EMU Redwood Auditorium

Film description:

While African American Language is the most widely recognized ethnic variety of English in the world, the use of American Sign Language (ASL) by Black Americans has been largely ignored or dismissed as part of an assumed ASL system uniformly used by the deaf community in the United States. But ASL, like any language, may show robust diversity, including traits associated with Black Americans.

Signing Black in America, produced by the Language and Life Project (with Walt Wolfram, Executive Producer), is the first documentary to highlight the development of Black American Sign Language. Based on extensive interviews with Black signers, linguistic experts, interpreters, natural conversations, and artistic performances by Black ASL users, it documents the development and description of this unique ethnic variety of ASL. Many of the same conditions that gave rise to the development of spoken African American language affected the development of Black ASL— residential, educational, and social segregation along with the internal development of an autonomous cultural community indexing black identity. At the same time, deaf African Americans had contact with the spoken African American Language community, borrowing sign language analogs of unique spoken-language African American expressions.

Different uses of space, directional movement, and facial expression are exemplified by Black ASL users, including an expanded perimeter for hand movement, the differential placement of hands and their directional trajectory, the use of two-handed vs. one-handed signs, facial expressions, and borrowing from spoken African American Language leading to a variety of ASL that is an analog of the variety used in spoken African American Language. The Black Deaf Community is now embracing the notion of Black ASL as a symbol of solidarity and agency in constructing ethnolinguistic identity.

Following the presentation of the documentary, a panel discussion of the film will include the following participants:

Facilitator: Ceil Lucas, Professor Emerita, Gallaudet University
Lucas is a pioneer in research on variation in ASL, and the author of many books and articles about language variation in ASL, as well as an Associate Producer of Signing Black in America. She has led several research projects on the development and description of Black ASL and is a co-author of The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure.

Panelist: Joseph Hill, Rochester Institute of Technology
Hill is a professor at Rochester Institute of Technology and an Associate Producer of Signing Black in America. He has done primary research on Black ASL and is the co-author of The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL: Its History and Structure, in addition to other research articles on the nature and development of Black ASL.

Panelist: Danica Cullinan, North Carolina State University
Cullinan is an award-winning producer who serves with Neal Hutcheson as the co-producer and co- director of Talking Black in America as well as Signing Black in America. Her extensive experience with various venues of media video production has given her insight into the logistical and editing challenges of producing a documentary such as Signing Black in America.

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