"I'm An Artist" ASL Poem in YouTube

I uploaded "I"m An Artist" ASL poem into YouTube for the world to watch and enjoy. The poem is about me being an artist facing anti-art, fear of creativity, denial of truth, and so forth schemes or activities that exist in reality, and that as an artist, I should never feel ashamed, guilty, or bad about my work, creativity, truth, and so on. It's my revolt against anti-art attitudes or political ploy against freedom of expressions. It's my fight against fascism or ultra-conservative extremities going on. 

Click on this YouTube site address to see the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdrISR9hgUg&feature=plcp

Dangerous Signs To Perform for Fringe Festival

Dangerous Signs, an ASL poetry/performance arts group, will perform for Rochester's upcoming Fringe Festival in September. Luane Davis Haggerty, (Director/Voicer/Actress) got Dangerous Signs to become part of the whole Fringe Festival. The Festival will show all kinds of stuff: poetry, dance, music, and etc. Troy Chapman, myself (Eddie Swayze), and others will perform poetry, performance arts, and storytelling in American Sign Language at this particular Festival.

Luane, Troy, and I were at the Little Theatre downtown Rochester to be part of their Press Release celebration. A few performers (hearing) did their short skits on stage at the Theatre (P.U.S.H., Kasha Davis - drag queen performer, and a few others). Speeches were presented as well. Thomas Warfield, a renown dancer/singer/actor, who teaches Dance at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) were there. We are all excited to present our talents for this special Festival. Details of dates/time/etc. will be posted in here soon.

Dangerous Signs Photos at the Deaf Festival

Here are great photos of my and 3 other guys' performances in our titled performance group, Dangerous Signs, taken at the Deaf Festival, 2012. The performers are Eddie Swayze (myself), Troy Chapman, Nic Shaw, and Joseph Fox. Interesting enough, there were so many comments on Facebook of our performances that they had to be scrolled down to read them all. I am to interpret that Dangerous Signs turned out popular from all those positive responses on Facebook, which is a good thing. Since I brought up the idea of presenting Dangerous Signs to the Deaf Festival this year, Luane Davis Haggerty (director/voicer/performer) thanked this great idea and should do it again next year. Deaf Festival will take place at the Genesee Park as a better, bigger place and its 5th year by then. We will strive to continue, grow, and pursue as a touring group down the road.

Dangerous Signs Performance at Deaf Festival

Luane Davis Haggerty, our director and participant, had us rehearse and then present our performance at the Deaf Festival on June 9th in Rochester, NY. I (Eddie Swayze), Troy Chapman, Joseph Fox, and Nic Shaw as Dangerous Signs (name of group) did American Sign Language poetry, sign along a song "Crazy", and some skits in front of the audience under the tent at the Deaf Festival on Ellington Park. The crowd was great and the show went very well. Mostly of what we performers did was to interact each other when doing the poetry, song, and skits. The interactions helped me expand more than just being a single performer and it is a fun challenging thing to do. It's good to perform with cast together than being myself for a change. I was the one who came up with the idea of having our Dangerous Signs perform at the Festival and it became a reality. Luane and I think we shall present for the Deaf Festival's upcoming 5th year next year.


In picture, from left to right, Eddie Swayze, Troy Chapman, Joseph Fox, and Nic Shaw.

I am pleased to have my one poem titled "Magic in the Sky" published in Silver Blade Magazine. The publisher uploaded my electronic music with my recorded spoken words of the poem in it, a GIF animated slideshow of my 4 computer-generated science fiction images I created, the written poem, itself, and the biography of myself and what I do. They did a great job and I am impressed with the sound quality of the music in their music player, the animated slideshow of my sci. fi. images, and the rest of the whole thing. This is a paid work. I'm honored to be part of their science fiction and fantasy magazine.


To read my "Magic in the Sky" poem, hear my "Magic in the Sky" electronic music, see the animated slideshow of the sci. fi. images, and etc, click on the Silver Blade site address:

http://www.silverblade.net/content/?p=1237

9 ASL Poems for RIT Root Event

I will perform my 10 poems, all translated into ASL (American Sign Language) along my recorded voice in electronic music software on May 12th at 7 PM for RIT Root, an event for RIT student government, WITR (college radio), NTID Student Congress, and etc. My particular poetry performance is made possible by RIT's OUTspoken, an LGBT student organization. Some of my poems will have only my voice in the software, others will have my original composed electronic music. Some of the music are part of the poems and some are just looped background soundscapes. For example, my science fiction-themed poem titled "Cyborg Drag Queen" have several looped sci. fi. sound effects while my recorded voice speaks the lines. I will translate all of the poems into ASL on stage with dance, body language, facial expressions, mime, and acting. The event will take place outside on RIT campus. 


The 10 poems are:


"Howl" (cover poem by Allen Ginsberg), "Joey", Arthur Rimbaud", "After Breathing Glass", "A Lady In A Blue Dress", "Youthful Queen", "Cyborg Drag Queen", "The Village", and "Night Life".

Two Videos of ASL Poetry Performances at U of Rochester

Two videos showing my ASL poetry performance along my original composed electronic music are posted on YouTube. I presented my performance for University of Rochester's HeArt of Disorder exhibit and show on May 26th. The first was "An Amazon" which is about domestic violence and it includes a video that I made of a woman's face going through changes from abuse to healing. The second was "The Blues" with only electronic music without video and it's about going through melancholy and getting rid of it. HeArt of Disorder at University of Rochester was an educational event about anxiety, depression, and etc. 

Click on this YouTube site address in order to watch "The Blues":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihGmRQ8kbH4

Click on another YouTube site address to watch "An Amazon":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAPHmBUvxx8