Song of the Journey, Tiger Talk

My poem "Song of the Journey", translated into ASL, got accepted by the jurists and I was able to perform the work on stage at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) in the Robert F. Panara Theatre on Saturday, October 12th. The performance included my video and electronic music, all put together along my ASL performance. A technical difficulty popped up a bit, but it got straightened out quickly and I was able to pull it off. Ha! I will eventually get the video of the performance from NTID soon. Meanwhile, I would like to share "Song of the Journey" in writing for you all to read. Enjoy!

    "Song of the Journey"

Beautiful creatures on campus,

You may stomp your feet and echo your voices across the continents and the seven seas.

Spread your petals and send their aromas with crucial contributions through the air. 

Expand your innovations like glowing wings upon the air.

Your precious jewels of visions shall never dissipate. 

Expand! Expand! Expand!

You, scholars with crowns of laurel on your heads, have the power to provoke new images, new words, new actions;  you have the power to accelerate dialogues in our majestic society.

Dialogues on behalf of new ideas float among us, a togetherness that enhances our quality of life.

You are in charge of your visions!  

Provoke! Provoke! Provoke!

As avid explorers, you may maneuver your vessels up toward the distant corners of the sky

And seek for places you have never been before.

Take an electronic compass and follow your paths.

The expanding space and time can carry you toward your dreams. 

Explore! Explore! Explore!

You, the students, faculty, and staff, like trillions of stars and planets circulating far in the distance, 

May yearn and scatter your dreams like the Milky Way across the midnight sky. 

Your imaginations may glide like space crafts heading up into the open blue sky.

Your abundant beauty may bloom just like a thousand embryonic stars. 

Scatter! Scatter! Scatter!

Your tasks shall not be viewed as marginal, nor as irrelevant, nor as abysmal, 

For they are to be seen by the very eyes of everyone all around our globe.

Your insights can be seen or heard, the beauty of your creative work, 

Just like how the astronomers discovered Bernard's star, Alpha Centauri, Vega, Sirius stars, black holes, pulsar stars, brown dwarfs, supernovas, dark matter, and other cosmic miracles.

Invite yourselves onboard the ships, warm travelers that you all can be,  with great appreciation of respect, beauty, and diversity. 

Roar! Roar! Roar!

Allen Ginsberg's "Holy" Poem in ASL on the Web

My translation of Allen Ginsberg's poem in ASL (American Sign Language) got uploaded by Peter Hale last week. Peter's Allen Ginsberg site also includes Miriam Lerner's vid clip of Allen Ginsberg visiting NTID (National Technical Institute for the Deaf) in 1985. I am indeed honored to have my ASL translation of Ginsberg's work in the site. Unfortunately, the video isn't in high quality but that has nothing to do with the webpage; it has to do with using my Mac laptop's PhotoBooth through the laptop video camera instead of being able to afford an expensive high-quality video camera.

Here is Peter Hale's Allen Ginsberg webpage address for you to click on:

http://ginsbergblog.blogspot.com/

You'll need to scroll down until you see "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox" and then you'll see a video of me doing the poem in ASL and Miriam's video of Allen at NTID.

Deaf Lit Extravaganza Book with 3 Poems

My 3 poems are published in an anthology book titled Deaf Lit Extravaganza.  The 3 poems are "The Fable of the Fox and the Heron", "Diva", and "Fragile Earth". It's out in the public for sale. You can order online, using this site address:

http://www.handtype.com/books/deaflitextravaganza/index.html

Here is my one poem titled "Diva" that is in the book for you to read and enjoy.

“Diva”

Young wise woman.

Brown-cinnamon flesh.

Black braided hair.

A heart listener.

No one can exploit her.

Listen to her stories.

Honest as an open bowl.

Men don’t understand.

She knows what she needs.

She is a diva!

A deaf woman she is.

Doesn’t matter.

She isn’t a light-headed bird.

It won’t work if men try playing tricks.

Beautiful she is.

Intelligent she is.

But she doesn’t lift her tail feathers up.

She doesn’t want to be a pawn.

Respect her dreams!

Respect her existence!

She carries the armor.

ASL Poetry Show at Equal Grounds for DEAAF

I will host an ASL Poetry Show at Equal Grounds on October 19th. It will start at 7 PM. It is for a fundraising effort toward DEAAF (Deaf Education and the Arts for African Families), which is a program that provides deaf and hard of hearing African children the education that they need in their country. I have had this done last winter at the same location and it was a huge success with good amount of funds raised and a large packed crowd. Several performers will present their work on stage at Equal Grounds whether it'll be ASL poetry, ASL storytelling, ASL sign-to-songs, or whatever else. The performers will consist of deaf, hard of hearing, and ASL-skilled hearing performers. I am honored and I thank Equal Grounds owner John White for giving me this opportunity last year and again this year. Here is the flyer with details of the show. You need to click on the flyer in order to see it much bigger.

Three Poems Published in Deaf Lit Extravaganza Book

My 3 poems are published in this anthology book titled "Deaf Lit Extravaganza". It will be out on the market this October. There are other work by other writers/poets in this book. This book focuses on the deaf culture, deaf experiences, deaf political issues, and so forth. 

Here is my one poem that is in this book titled "Diva"

“Diva”

Young wise woman.

Brown-cinnamon flesh.

Black braided hair.

A heart listener.

No one can exploit her.

Listen to her stories.

Honest as an open bowl.

Men don’t understand.

She knows what she needs.

She is a diva!

A deaf woman she is.

Doesn’t matter.

She isn’t a light-headed bird.

It won’t work if men try playing tricks.

Beautiful she is.

Intelligent she is.

But she doesn’t lift her tail feathers up.

She doesn’t want to be a pawn.

Respect her dreams!

Respect her existence!

She carries the armor.

Korg Electronic Music

I bought a brand new Korg electronic music device and it's called Kaossilator Pro. I have been playing around with the device for several weeks now and still learning how to play it as time goes on. The goal with this device is to use it when performing my poetry in ASL (American Sign Language). I still need to get a small memory card (SD Card) in order to be able to store the work in this device. I also would like to get a microphone and hook it to this device. The microphone into this device will enable me to speak my poems (in English) and create special vocal effects like robot voice and etc. Down the road, I would love to add a synthesizer and go beyond what this device can do. The idea is to play the device, push the buttons to save the sound effects I want, and speak the poems into the device with the microphone, then translate the spoken words in ASL on stage. It may appear as if I am a D.J. and performing artist/poet at the same time or back and forth. This enables me to go beyond just using GarageBand in my iMac laptop. It is also possible to play the device along the GarageBand in my iMac laptop simultaneously to add more soundscapes. This is truly an exciting experiment for me and I am looking forward to using this Korg Kaossilator Pro device on stage in the near future.

Performance with Dangerous Signs at MuCCC

On May 11th and 12th, I and the cast members performed poetry, songs, and storytelling in ASL (American Sign Language) as a group called Dangerous Signs at the Multi-unity Cultural Community Center (MuCCC). Also, glass pieces were laid out on the table and me and some Dangerous Signs cast members played the pieces into sweet sounds. That was a great and unique experience for me to do. Eastman School of Music students joined us to play a violin, cello, guitar, and other music instruments while we performed.

MuCCC presented the College Festival. Other colleges showed their theatrical productions. They were Monroe Community College, Eastman School of Music, Brockport University, Nazareth College, and few more. This event gave students' work a chance to be showcased in the community.

As for myself, I translated Annie Lennox's "Broken Glass" and Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence" songs into ASL. I also performed my original poem titled "Bones" with cast members that interacted along while I did the work. I also interacted along another cast who performed Ella Mae Lentz's "Eye Music" poem as well. Lastly, I played the glass pieces for one cast member's original poem. 

After the performances, we stayed to be interviewed by the audience and the interviewers. The questions and answers, feedback, and comments helped us see what needs to be worked on, what was successful, and the comments enabled us to see where to go. 

All in all, this experience was a tremendous learning opportunity and a great success for us, which I can only feel proud to be part of.

Here are photos of our performances.