Success of Def Meets Deaf Poetry Jam 6

On February 15th Def Meets Deaf Poetry Jam 6 presented deaf/hard of hearing and hearing performers at Lovin Cup. The turn out of the audience was packed. This is the 6th year event that provides two cultural worlds: the deaf world and the hearing world. Deaf/hard of hearing and hearing performers took turns on stage, which English spoken words and American Sign Language (ASL) were available. This is an unique performance arts that occur once a year. John Roche, a poet and professor under RIT's Liberal Arts program, and I (Eddie Swayze) coordinated this extravaganza.

Besides the show, DEAAF (Deaf Education and the Arts for African Families) was there to encourage the audience to donate that would help the deaf/hard of hearing children get the education that they need, which is located in Zambia, Africa. Jonathan Rosenfield, one member of DEAAF, stood on stage and explained what DEAAF is about to the audience and took care of the suggested donation among the audience during the show. The donation result is almost $200.00, which will go toward books, pencils, shoes, and other supplies at the school for the deaf/hard of hearing children.

I shall thank the owner of Lovin Cup for providing the performance space for free for 6 years. I shall tip my hat to two interpreters who voiced the deaf/hard of hearing's work into English for the hearing audience and translated the hearing's work into ASL for the deaf/hard of hearing audience: Miriam Lerner and Denise Herrera. All in all, the performers were fantastic and they are: The deaf/hard of hearing - Hinda Kasher, Eric Epstein, Vicki Nordquist, and yes, myself as well, and the hearing - Paulette Scwartfgazer, Kitty Jopse', Nick Eckrerson, Catherine Faurot, and yes, John Roche, too. 

Here are the photos of the event.

Miriam Lerner (interpreter) and Paulette Scwartfgazer 

A packed crowd

Vicki Nordquist

John Roche

Denise Herrera (interpreter)

Hinda Kasher

Eric Epstein

The owner asked me to sign my name on Lovin Cup's wall as a "Hall of Fame".

John Roche, Miriam Lerner and Kenny Lerner chit chatting after the show.

Def Meets Deaf Poetry Jam 6

You can click on the image above to get it bigger and easier to read.

John Roche, RIT professor under Liberal Arts program, and Eddie Swayze, myself, will present an unique poetry, storytelling, and performance arts by the deaf/hard of hearing and the hearing at Lovin Cup on February 15th, free to the public. I plus three other deaf/hard of hearing performers will showcase our work: Vicki Nordquist, Hinda Kashner, and Eric Epstein. John Roche will present the hearing performers: himself, Paulette Scwartzager, Lori Nalasco, Nate Taylor, Nick Eckerson, Catherine Faurot, and Kitty Jospe'. This combined deaf world and hearing world performance event will last for 2 hours, 2-4 PM. Two interpreters: Miriam Lerner and Denise Herrara will provide access to hearing audience along American Sign Language (ASL) by the deaf performers and to the deaf/hard of hearing audience along spoken English by the hearing performers. This is a 6th year of the event. 

Also, Deaf Education and the Arts for African Families (DEAAF) will be there to ask for donations and provide information about their non-for-profit organization. DEAAF is a program that provides funding and support toward deaf and hard of hearing African children get the education and other things that they need in Africa.

Goal to Become A DJ with GoFundMe.com

Here is a photo of the dj device and it's called Numark NS6 Digital DJ Controller. I saw several YouTube videos of how this device is played and how it works. I have a good sense of how to play the device because I played around few trials of dj software online plus the experience of playing GarageBand, one CD dj machine that I had that didn't last long, playing Kaossilator and so forth. 

I used to have a single CD dj player machine, but it didn't last long and broke. I wasn't very happy with the thing at all anyway. I had to use iTune to create a music list to dj, hooked with my M-Audio speakers. I presented that way one time or another, but not much. Henceforth, I've been thinking about getting a real dj device for a while. Since the cost of getting the device can be prohibitive, I had to figure out a possible way to make my ability to purchase it a reality. I researched the devices that are available at Guitar Center in Rochester, NY online and found what I would like to look at and get. I will go look at the device at Guitar Center soon. Yet, it is $499.00 (plus tax), therefore, I will need the support of some kind to enable me to get this device. I discovered GoFundMe.com. It is similar to Kickstarter.com, but it does not require to get exactly $500.00 goal to win, meaning that I could still get a check, let's say, at $400.00, and use that with the rest of my own money, as a saving the money procedure. So, I will get the feel of the real device at the store and get the full price. I will then video-tape myself to explain what I want to do, present my dj and performance skills (with GarageBand and Kaossilator for now) and what my goal would be. I will then post that on GoFundMe.com and get that out to the public for a fundraising effort. 

The main goal is to develop three approaches of performances with the dj device. The first idea is to create an ability to perform my original electronic music, mixed in the dj device. The other idea is to play my music with my spoken word poems in the device and translate the words into American Sign Language (as a performing artist). The third idea is to play the famous musicians' work by creating the cool effects and mixes in the device as a regular dj for parties, weddings, or whatever else. The three performance approaches will expand my creativity and skills. 

"Self-Respect" Artwork

You can click on this photo to see it bigger

I thought about creating an artwork that shows a portrait of myself, and make it become related to pride upon myself as hard of hearing or a person with hearing loss and being gay. Though I didn't have any canvas and much paint at the moment, so I came up with a solution. I discovered a 8x12 inches picture frame with its wooden back, slid into its frames, for hanging the frame. I slid that off and only used that wooden back part of the picture frame, which already has its own maroon color on the surface. I then sought for a photo of myself in iPhoto in my computer and found one. I then used the picture of myself as my reference.

I used acrylic paint, using only white, orange, blue paint, and created Cubism-alike structure on my face. I then used color wax crayons and color pencils for the rainbow background. In regards to being hard of hearing, you have to look at my ear and you would notice a small hearing aid in and around the ear. Of course, the background has a rainbow color which conveys the message upon my self-respect as a gay person other than being hard of hearing. The idea of combining self-acceptance and pride as having a hearing loss and being gay is what I wanted to portray in this work. 

"The Struggle" Artwork

You can click on this photo to see it much bigger.

Several years ago (don't remember which year), ImageArt (Rochester, NY's annual glbt art exhibit during ImageOut Film Festival every October) rejected the work. I was also unsatisfied with the work and left it in the storage for a while. I happened to ponder about the work and decided to bring it back up. I took the time to redo the work, using color wax crayons and color pencils on the major male figure. I also re-drew the little male figures with a white pencil to make them stand out more. I only used orange, yellow, white, gold, and black color pencils to do the major male figure. I used the color wax crayons to do the pink triangle and the rainbow lines, and the rest of the lines. There are some fabrics on the canvas and I used a back pencil to draw black lines that show them a little bit. Before I even applied the wax crayons and pencils, the work was  made of acrylic paint in gold and black, which you can notice below the male figures and lines. The male figures and the triangle were much darker without the crayons and pencils, which were more challenging to see. When applying the colors and lines, I realized that they really helped the male figures and lines stand out much more. It took me a while to figure out how to solve the problem with challenges, forcing me to fix this and refine this and so forth. So, it is officially done to my best.

This work is certainly clearly related to the gay men's struggle. As you may know, pink triangles were used on Jewish gay male prisoners' shirts in death camps during the Nazi regime as a label for "Gay" and many were executed. The little male figures are pulling, pushing, lifting, and holding the triangle to keep reminding us what really happened. The dark black and gold with stripes and splashes in the background give the mood of darkness or the feeling of oppression. The rainbow lines, of course, represent glbt pride. All in all, this is the message to say gay men's struggle for freedom is carried on from the Holocaust under the Nazi regime and still is today all over the world regardless of where they live.

ASL Performances at Equal Grounds for DEAAF, 2013

The ASL Poetry Show at Equal Grounds Coffee Lounge was a smash success with a great packed crowd. DEAAF (Deaf Education of the Arts for African Families) made up to $213.00 from the fund raising effort during the show, which will help deaf/hard of hearing African kids in Zambia, Africa get the education that they need. The performers were great: Vicki Nordquist, Jojo, Dangerous Signs, Chris Coles (plus Joe Fox as Chris's guest performer), and myself (Eddie Swayze).

As it could possibly happen, my computer had tech difficulty by refusing to play the CDs that two performers brought in to play the songs. Had to use someone's iPad and iPhone to play the YouTube version of the songs with the microphone close to the device's speaker, and that surely worked very well. How could that be possible without such high tech devices available when something doesn't work? Also, my computer froze and had to re-boot it, which caused the waiting to happen, but it went back up and the show went on. 

I would like to thank John White, owner of Equal Grounds, for granting me the opportunity to present the event and making the funding toward DEAAF possible. I would also like to thank Grey Van Pelt and Mike Drees for being the voice interpreters.

Here are the photos that you can enjoy.

Eddie Swayze

Vicki Nordquist

Chris Coles

Jojo

Barb Deitz discussing about DEAAF and the funding effort.

Dangerous Signs

Two Photos: "Song of the Journey" ASL Poetry, Tiger Talk

Here are the two photos of my ASL poetry performance titled "Song of the Journey", taken on Oct. 12th 2013, at the Robert F. Panara Theatre at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID).  I was told that the video will be posted soon and that may not work well in this blog. I may put the video into my WildPoet YouTube that already have other ASL poetry stuff I created. 

Enjoy the photos. You can click on the photos to make them  bigger.