Detail View: Deaf Studies, Culture, and History Archives: 1987 ASL Poetry Conference: Peter Cook and Debbie Rennie Performances and Peter Cook Presentation

ds_0027_cookrennie_01_cap.mp4

ds_0027_cookrennie_01_cap.mp4

1987 ASL Poetry Conference: Peter Cook and Debbie Rennie Performances and Peter Cook Presentation

Cook, Peter

Rennie, Debbie

ASL Poetry

Matthew Moore introduces Peter Cook. Peter Cook and Debbie Rennie share a short poem, and Peter then performs the poem "Bottom of the Third Inning of Romero." After this, Debbie Rennie and Peter Cook perform the poem, "Psychotic Memory." Peter Cook does a poem, "Cook's Haiku with Learner's Mind." He explains the painting he did which is on the stage. He shares the poem about his dog, "Charlie Brown." The second half of the video is Peter Cook's presentation about poetry and his background

National Technical Institute for the Deaf

Rochester Institute of Technology - RIT Libraries - RIT Archive Collections

1987

2019

moving image

MP4

VHS

American Sign Language

RITDSA.0027

Miriam and Kenneth Lerner ASL Poetry Collection

Sculptures in the Air: An Accessible Online Video Repository of the American Sign Language (ASL) Poetry and Literature Collections

RIT Libraries makes materials from its collections available for educational and research purposes pursuant to U.S. Copyright Law. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. It is your responsibility to obtain permission from the copyright holder to publish or reproduce images in print or electronic form.

This evening and he is hot. Sometimes he really shocks me. Sometimes I'm inspired by him. His name is Peter Cook. And his sign name PC. He considers himself really a true artist. He doesn't follow any kind of system or any school of thought. He's independent from all of that. And this afternoon, he said, I've never experienced myself being prohibited from using ASL. So that's where he's coming from. I'd like you all to help me give him a warm welcome, Peter Cook. [APPLAUSE] Talk with silent shout. My hands are moving its lips. As posts cries out! A post! [LAUGHTER] Wow, it's exciting to be here. It's been almost four months, struggling and struggling and getting closer to the goal. And the convention's coming up. And finally, here I am, and it's really exciting. So I'm going to express all this stuff to you tonight For many years, all along, different cultures, deaf, blind, black, have been oppressed all over the world. And now, I'd like to focus your attention on Central America where the oppression of the poor peasants has been. This is kind of a long poem. And it's dedicated to the Archbishop Romero, who's a priest in El Salvador. Bottom of the third inning of Romero. In the church, Spanish wooden doors, an arched hallway leads to an altar under aspiring clay bell tower. [BELL RINGING] The archbishop appeals to his flocks. I want to make a special call to the men of the Army. Brothers, you come from the same people as we. You are killing your brothers and sisters, the peasants. And when ordered to kill, given by a man, you should rather obey the laws of God. Thou shalt not kill. No soldier is obligated to ignore God's laws. Therefore, the Church can no longer remain silent. Her people are suffering, the cries screaming up towards heaven. I would urge you, I beg you, I order you, in the name of God, stop the repression! [BREATHING SLOWLY AND HEAVILY] On his robe, wine-like stain grows wider and wider. [BELL RINGING] Church doors burst open! Holy stampedes down stairs past National Guard. Romero's sheep, escaping missing status, down dirty streets, fray, escaping, missing, escaping. In the heart of the market, a pot-bellied vendor with missing digit. Fresh ripe melons. Piles of food on tables. Hooked chickens. [LAUGHTER] Clothing. A goat. [BELL RINGING] With a sacred bell. And an old peasant woman in fiesta dress selling yams. Through the market, a church escapee runs past the melons, trips over the girl. [GOAT BELL RINGS] Past the fiesta-dressed woman who eyes the invisible death squad in his wake. An alleyway by a little boy with a chicken for sale. Above the white clay house, through the womaned-window, an old woman haggles over the chicken while escapee comes to a huge, green wall with a man behind the counter. Hands him a ticket so he can enter past the huge, green wall, up the ramp and into the arch ceiling out into the open where his eyes meet man streaking for a fake safety as hands of dirt pierce its teeth. You're out! And the flock of baseball goes cheers and rattles in the stands. Escapee ascends the steps and finds an empty seat past a pot belly Havana-smoking man with a missing digit. As he begins to settle, unguided ball shrieks over, causing flocks of fans, elevating to tear each other. Fans climb church escapee like a ladder. As he begins to hide his head, flocks of hands reach for an American ball. But the eyes of the fans return to the stadium. [GOAT BELL RINGS] Chained to the dugout. [GOAT BELL RINGS] A white goat with a sacred bell. [GOAT BELL RINGS] [LAUGHTER] [GOAT BELL RINGS] [FOOTSTEPS RUNNING] Runners on first and third. He looks the man back, leading off first and eyes the man with a short lead off third. Runner going! Missiles ball towards second baseman, who, reaching for the ball, sees the man on third heading for home, ignores runner, sliding into second and throws from home. Runner, safe at second. Runner and ball race towards home plate, guarded by the catcher. And runner collide in spiral fashion. And the fans go wild. [LAUGHTER] And then hush as a line of police enter the stadium. But the moment is in the game. [MAKES GUN SOUNDS] It's a long fly ball, headed deep into left center field. Fielder, glasses down, heads back, running towards the all. He's on the warning track. He leaps as the fans watch the ball graze over his glove, signaling a home run over the wall and over the eye of the boy. The ball, pulled down by friction, hits a wall of white clay and bounces, chased by the boy through a crack in the wall. The boy follows. As he picks up the ball, innocent eyes travel across grass to the cheering crowd in the white lines. An American ball and a chicken. [LAUGHTER] A ball and a chicken. [APPLAUSE] OK, I'm famous for sweating easily, so. [LAUGHS] Allen Ginsberg, it's interesting. He used to use an incense for timing. Know how much time he was using up? When it was over, his performance was over. [LAUGHTER] I figured it out by swearing. That's when the performance ends. Right here, that means we're still going. [LAUGHTER] Do you mind if we have a little more light so I can see the audience? Light into the audience here? Thank you. OK, now, I'm curious. What do you think is the hottest issue from last summer? I know there's a million things. But if you had to pick one, I'm sure you'd agree with me, it would be Irangrate, all the problems, the hearings, everything. It's an interesting thing that they used two technical words, plausible deniability. [LAUGHTER] OK, now, what does that mean? Plausible means possible-- could have happened. And deniability means maybe it didn't happen, or at least you can't prove it. [LAUGHTER] So they to come together to meet a double maybe. So there's no proof that President Reagan lied. We can't get him. We can't prove it, but we know it. So that's what that means. And the reason I'm talking to you about that word is that it could mean also like something that almost happened, but didn't. Maybe it happened, but it didn't. OK, I've got a friend. Now, this is a story. And he told me that he was working in the Army. And it's a true story. And you don't believe me, that's fine. You can't prove me wrong. I know it happened, plausible deniability that it happened, OK? No proof. [LAUGHTER] OK, this is what he told me. He was working down in the missile silos with the buttons and the computers and the radar and with the missiles, things like that. And he was talking to his co-worker, signing, he was deaf. And he said, wow, did you see the game last night? He went running in towards home plate, slid in! And then when he did that, he accidentally pushed the button for the sliding sign-- ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. He was looking the other way. He pushed another button. Oh, hey, hey, Bill, what's wrong? I just pushed the button. You pushed the button? Oh my god, I pushed the button! Signing is dangerous. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. And the electrical signal started traveling up the wires. Thinking quickly, he cut the wires with a pair of scissors, and the alarm went dead. [AUDIO OUT] no, no. This is what really happened he was talking to his friend. He said, did you see that baseball game last night? He was sliding into it. Oh, shit, I just pushed the button. You pushed the button? Hey, Bill, what's wrong? You pushed the button? I pushed the button. Oh my god, I pushed the button. Pulling out his pair of trusty scissors, he cut the wire. But the electrical signal happened to jump across one little spark, and it continued. A red alert-- ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Airplanes getting into ready. Pilot, co-pilot into the cockpit. [MAKES WIND NOISE WITH MOUTH] Tell him it's a false alarm. False alarm, false alarm, [MAKES SIREN NOISE WITH MOUTH] Damn, deaf pilot. [LAUGHTER] Plane takes off. [MAKES PLANE NOISE WITH MOUTH] Shit, running on empty. Plane drops in the sky. Is that what happened? No. [LAUGHTER] What really happened, he said, baseball, slid in on home plate. I pushed the button. You pushed the button? I pushed the button. Cut the signal, signal went across anyway. Plane, guy gets into the airplane anyway. Cockpit takes off. Oh, red alert, red alert. There's the resupply plane. What are we going to do? Don't worry, it's my turn here, said the co-pilot. So he swung the plane up high, next to the other plane, so that he could be seen through the window by the resupply man who is reading. [LAUGHTER] Hey, I need gas, please. Now! Hurry up! [LAUGHTER] You need gas? You need gas? Oh, OK, I'm sorry. [LAUGHTER] Why are hose out? Rubber hose out? Filling up. I'm full. Thank you. And they flew. And soon over Russia, red square. How'd they get through the surveillance? Anyway. [LAUGHTER] Time to drop the bomb. Tell the bombardier. Now, wait a minute, the bombardier is deaf, right? Yep, he's deaf. How can I contact him? There's no TTY! [LAUGHTER] Government cuts again. [LAUGHTER] Is that plausible deniability? No. What really happened is, baseball game, slid into home play. I pushed the button. You pushed the button? I pushed the button. Cut the wire. Planes takes off. Red alert! Red alert! Call off the alert, resupply. [MAKES PLANE HUMMING SOUND] The bombardier was really playing with the button. [LAUGHTER] Oh, no! Wipe the fingerprints off. I didn't do it! [LAUGHTER] Into the cockpit. Hey, pilot, pilot, pilot? What's the problem? I just dropped a bomb. I'm sorry, I don't understand sign language. [LAUGHTER] Hearing pilot, no communication. Is that plausible deniability? No. What happened? Baseball, I pushed the button. You pushed the button? I pushed the button, cut the wire. Into the airplane, plane takes off. Ah, gas, resupply. Bomb, dropped the bomb. Co-pilot, wait a minute, I understand sign language. I'm deaf, too. OK, fine, just wait a minute, I want to talk to the pilot here. What's the matter with you? You don't know sign language? You been working this guy for three years? Ah, excuse me. Wait a minute. Stop interrupting me. Listen, pilot. [LAUGHTER] You got to learn sign language. Hey, what's the problem? I dropped the bomb. What? He dropped the bomb. Shit. Plane drops down out of the sky, catching up with the bomb, nearing the ground, the plane tip sides to upside down. Bomb bay doors open, catches the bomb neatly and flies off. [LAUGHTER] That's plausible deniability. [LAUGHTER] If you don't believe me, that's fine, but it's plausible deniability. [LAUGHTER] Thank you. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] OK, now Debbie Rennie will join me. And we're going to do a poem of hers right now. [LAUGHTER] I hope I'm ready. OK. [LAUGHTER] Good job, I didn't see that performance. That's great. [LAUGHTER] Really, Really. [LAUGHTER] See the sweat level? OK, so me, when I'm signing, you get to hold up that little sweat line for a while? Maybe. What do you think about sign language? Because you can play with several people at the same time with the language. This poem is called Psychotic Memory. And it's based on a true story, something that happened in my personal history. Ivory Victorian bath tub, silver spigot, water running. A woman lies there. A piece of broken memory. There was a van. A man was driving. A woman beside him said, I don't understand you. Shut up! And he floored it, speedometer going wild, trees rushing by! Hamburg! Stop! Stop! Stop! I don't care! Windshield, shattering into 1,000 pieces. But it was all in my mind. Trees-- Hamburg. --blurring by. Splat! I don't care! I don't understand! I don't care! I don't understand! I don't care! I don't understand you! I don't care! Shut up! I don't understand you! I don't care. Shut up! Shut up! I don't care! Windshield! windshield, Shattering into a million pieces. But it was all in my mind. Driving, driving, driving. I don't understand. Shut up! What's wrong? He floored it! Speedometer going wild. Trees rushing by. Trees rushing by! Hamburg. Splat! Stop! Stop! Stop! I don't care! Windshield, shattering. But it was all in my mind. Trees blurring by. Driving, driving. Hamburg! Hamburg! Hamburg! Hamburg! Hamburg! (SPEAKING SLOWLY) Stop, stop, stop. [APPLAUSE] OK, now, I have not-really haiku. [LAUGHTER] And it's called Cook's Haiku with Learner's Mind. It's a poem that Kenny worked on together. The water, sparkling and cold, leaping up over the water. Hair, glasses, and beard-- [LAUGHTER] --coming down. Toe coming close to touch. The ice cold water chills its way up the legs. Freezing sensation-- [LAUGHTER] --up towards scrotum, tucked in. Stomach, pulled in. [LAUGHTER] Chattering teeth submerged and out. [APPLAUSE] [LAUGHTER] OK, the next one is a fun poem, and I really enjoy this one. And also I had some private jokes for someone or people or whatever. This poem, Kenny and I worked on together in a place out there. And then we created it there. And that's where it's going to start. And it's called Weak Spot. Deaf people, you can hit yourself in the neck now. [LAUGHTER] Excuse me, off the point. Weak Spot. This sun, setting over Lake Ontario. Waves crashing against rocks, dotting the beach. A wooden wall. Me and Kenny playing frisbee. Hair, glasses. [LAUGHTER] Go Kenny! Go! Overshot and hit the wall, which starts to crack and crumble. Pieces of dirt flowing down into the water. Grass moving down trees and a house. A tree splashes into the water. House, slowly moving down into the water. Street starts going down. Parked cars falling down into the water. Policemen directing traffic-- [LAUGHTER] --into the water. Police car following police man into the water. Someone cooking in a restaurant. [LAUGHTER] The city of Rochester, Kodak, into the water. RIT NTID, it's the National Deaf Poetry Conference. Ella, continuing her way down into the water. Patrick Grable singing-- (SINGING) My man. --down into the water. Debbie Rennie-- chocolate-- into the water. Valley following a snowflake into the water. Peter Cook, weak spot into the water. Binghamton, New Jersey-- don't play me. [LAUGHTER] I'm from New Jersey, too, into the water. Washington DC, it's the Washington Monument. Galludate College, The White House. I don't know. I don't know. [LAUGHTER] Into the water. [LAUGHTER] The Atlantic Ocean, into the water. England, it's the Kings, Queens guard at Buckingham Palace. First time they've ever smiled into the water. Paris, the Eiffel Tower. [LAUGHTER] Russia! [LAUGHTER] China, the Great Wall, spaghetting down with Japanese tourists taking pictures all the way down into the water. Japan, Russia, it's a big country, still going down into the water. The Pacific Ocean, into the water. Everything, into the water, into the water. Bubbles. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] OK, If you're wondering with all this stuff is for, poems should have a pretty environment, low-key environment, something different. So that's why these things are out here. I drew that back, a few years back. I was traveling around. And I was stuck in a snowstorm in Virginia for four days. And things were canceled. I was in the hotel room, sitting there and didn't know what to do. So I put some paper on the wall, newspaper, then put some paper on and started drawing. It was a good night. So it's here tonight to watch me perform. [LAUGHTER] Now, this is my last poem. I know you've all experienced growing up, an animal that you really loved, a dog or a cat or a bird, something you could really feel close to. I had a big brown dog named Charlie Brown. And I loved that dog. And this poem is dedicated to him. Charlie. [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Charlie running through grass for love. [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] As a puppy, Charlie spots the female patron entering the store for his brother followed by a green-clad patron whose hand's colder than his big shadow carries Charlie into a small, dark box and starts turning the temperature up warmer and warmer and warmer and hotter and hotter. And then starts cooling it down a bit and colder and colder and colder. [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Charlie running through grass. [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Greenhorn Charlie, adolescent. Get it, Charlie! Come on! Come on, Charlie! Come on! Come on, Charlie! Come on! Come on! . He stumbles and drops it. Bad dog, Charlie! Stupid! You'll blow your head off! [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Charlie, leaping off grass [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Older greenhorn Charlie under barbed wire, bombs machine gun. [MAKES MACHINE GUN SOUND WITH MOUTH] [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Charlie, reaching towards a padded arm. [MAKES FRISBEE SOUND] Experienced grunt , Charlie searching for a hole. Released down into the tunnel, a rabbit ignored. Nearing the light at the end of the tunnel. It's a bungalow, small with candles on a table and a gun rack, an oriental playing Solitaire and drinking rice wine. Charlie, with an instinctive memory, jaws reaching up towards unpadded arm. Good boy, Charlie. Charlie leaps up into the bungalow! Cards spraying, candles spilling, wind down, jaws reaching towards unpadded arm, tearing blood vessels towards the jugular. And through the hole, a green-cladded patron. Good boy, Charlie. Good boy. [MAKES HELICOPTER SOUND] Chopper. [MAKES HELICOPTER SOUND] Good boy, Charlie. Good boy. Into the chopper. [MAKES HELICOPTER SOUND] Charlie leaps up towards the helicopter pontoon. [MAKES HELICOPTER SOUND] [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. OK, now we'd like to have the coordinator of the conference come on up, Jim Cone, please? [APPLAUSE] Thanks, Matthew. Peter, come up here. Beautiful job. Do I have a voice now? Yes. OK. It's very hard to know exactly where to begin, where to begin my end. There's so many people who were involved for quite a while to bring this convention, the National Deaf Poetry Conference. Of course, you've seen the performers themselves-- Peter Cook, Debbie Rennie, Patrick Grable, Ella Mae Lentz, Clayton Valley, many people that I personally want and need you want to know about. I want you to know who supported me and helped me make this conference a success. And I want you to know that I think, inside myself, that this conference was a big success. [APPLAUSE] Really. [APPLAUSE] Yeah. [AUDIO OUT] Jeff, OK, his sign name is PC, not like a book. One of a few good friends of mine. I've enjoyed his creativity very, very much. He's a very independent performer. He's not a conformist if you know what that means. He's liberated himself. He's very free as an artist. And he considers himself an artist. That's Peter cook for you. And now I will let his own presentation speak for itself, OK? It's my pleasure to welcome Peter Cook. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. Hello. I think it's neat that sometimes my friends here, all the friends here that work together really close or whatever, are people we don't know. People with different ideas come together, and they show each other their ideas. And they're the same. It's really happens often. And a perfect example here is a videotape. I had no idea what was going to happen. But some important things happen there that are in my lecture, and they're important. And that was an important moment. It influenced my life in becoming a poet. Today, I want to start my lecture with some thoughts from a woman, a hearing poet. Her name is Diane DiPrima. She's from Boulder, Colorado. She teaches poetry there. And she was lecturing to a class. And one of her students asked, how long does it take to become a poet? What do you do? And her response was, it depends on how the poetry comes out of you, , how you work on your inner self, your body, understanding your body limits, your mental limits, and how they come together. You become a tool for your body. If you understand your body limits, how your energy changes and the different levels, and if you play them and understand them and open up to it all, the history of you, if you open up to the history of you, the biology of you, the myth of you, and they all come together inside, the energy in there, and you let the poem or poems influence you and play with it and experiment with it and change it, maybe it's powerful or it's low key or rhythmic, then you can express it through a non-thinking form like zen, meaning, maybe you think about something, and you study and study and plan and think and think, you get up to lecture and you talk. No, it means you understand something after you study it. And your heart understands it. And it just comes out of you without thinking. That's what I mean. If you can take the energy, your body, and non-thoughts and kind of have it all together, you can express it. And it becomes poetry. It's a good thought because here I am with you. And I'm going to share my experiences with you that have come about since 1983. I'm not a linguist. I'm not an English teacher. I'm not a philosopher. I'm simply myself, that's all. And so I'd like to share that with you today, OK? You're going to experience a timeline. We're going to travel together through this timeline. But I'm going to go off to the point. I'm famous for going off to the point. To be less confusing, when I'm over here, [INAUDIBLE],, that means my views and philosophy, things like that. When I'm on this side of the timeline, I'll talk about technical things, how I develop my poems, my learning. In the middle is the timeline. And I'll be popping back and forth between them so that'll be a little more clear for you. Before I start the lecture, I'd like to tell you a little bit about my background and my prerequisites, my prior experiences that led up to what I am. And I was born hearing. And when I was three-years-old, I came down with spinal meningitis, and I became deaf. I went to the New Jersey School for the Deaf for three years. And my parents didn't feel too good about that so they put me into the Clarke School for the Deaf. I know a lot of people say, Clarke School? That's the sign for it because it's an oral school, your lips moving. And I'm proud of that. I mean, I'm not proud of that, but that's what happened. And I was there for nine years. And then I graduated, and I went to a private high school in Pennsylvania. It wasn't a mainstream school. It was hearing, small school. And the emphasis was on art. The requirements were like four hours a day on art. I'll explain a little bit more about that later. When I graduated, I came here to NTID RIT. That was about 1981. And this was the first time I learned sign language, about eight years ago, seven, six years ago. I graduated from here with a bachelor's degree in graphic design. And then I got involved in a theater group called Sunshine 2.0. It was a deaf and hearing group that went around performing all around the country. While I was involved in that, I was doing other programs, poetry, investigating various things around Rochester. And I got into a group called Bridge Of, which is a poetry performing group that Debbie, Jim, Donna, and Kenny are all involved with me. We're traveling a little bit, and we're starting that now. Now, that I've finished that, I'll talk a little bit about my prerequisites. They're important because they caused me to become who I am, how I deal with poetry. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here. First, thing when I was growing up, I was alone. I was a single child. There were no brothers or sisters in my family. And we moved all over the place. We never stayed in the same place. And I never had any permanent friends. So I had to make them up, like Dracula or sword fighter or a soldier. I made up my friends. And as I grew up, I realized it's really important for kids to create that. They really believe in their creations while they're doing it. When you were growing up, you doing that kind of creating. And then when you get older, and you start being an adult, and you have more responsibility, you start thinking, I can't play like that. It's too silly. And you kind of lose that and get into the world. But that creativity is really important because it's energy from your mind, from your inside. Most of you working every day are using your left side of the brain. There's two parts of your brain. The left side, that's like math business, everyday things that you have to think about. But the right side of your brain is that creative, abstract side. Now, I'll show you how I feel, like with the left side the right side. I'll show you how they are. Suppose I showed you a picture of President Reagan, for example. You would recognize him right away, ah, that's the president. That's from your left side. And it knows right off the bat what's going on. It's seen him over and over again. But suppose I turn that picture upside down. [AUDIO OUT] Look at it. And then you'd figure out it was the president. But while you were looking at it, your mind would be going to the right side. And your eyes would be-- you would be looking at them, eyes on the bottom. And then the mouth upside down. And then finally you'd figure it out. And, while you're looking at that stuff that's experiencing the right side. And if you really get into something like performance and stuff like that and that kind of creative energy, it's from that side of the brain. When I was a kid, I was doing that a lot. I was traveling a lot. I was alone. And the peer pressure didn't come to me until I was late, till I was older. So I didn't stop playing with my GI Joe Army doll until I was almost 16 years old. Imagine that. Because of that late age, I realized that creativity was really important, and that energy was really important, and playing is really important. And you can take all those experiences out and think about them and come up with something from them. So now let's put that aside and start looking at my high school experiences. My high school was called Solebury School from Pennsylvania. And I called that the Solebury experience because that school really focused on art every day very deeply-- philosophy, intellectual things. And then at that time, I didn't know sign language. I was oral, but my speech wasn't that good. So how could I communicate with the other students? It forced me to try and act things out, like I got to go to the bathroom. But if I wanted to discuss like Mark's view of communism, how was I going to explain that with my body language? I had to really add things out you know? It forced me to get really abstract when I was acting things out. For example, I saw a really good dance group one time. And they had a man who was naked and a woman with a really long dress. And she sat on his shoulders so that it looked like it was a really tall woman dancing around on the stage. And so I wanted to tell my friends about that. So I'm told my friend I saw-- and this is what I did. So I explained it with my body language and my experience. That forced me to use better body language. And I started to understand what my body could do. OK, so now, well, set that school experience aside and talk about what maybe was the biggest influence on my life. Around 1976, I went to a National Association for the Deaf Conference, NAD, in Ohio. It was 100-year celebration. And at that time I didn't know sign language. I went in the conference, and there was this deaf world. And there were all these hands flying all over the place. If you're hearing person, you go into that situation, that's the same way I felt for the first time. And I went all over the place. It was a little frustrating trying to communicate. That's not what really, really hit me. What hit me was a workshop, a theater workshop given by Bernard Bragg, sign name, BB. He gave this workshop on VV, Visual Vernacular. Let me try that again, vernacular. It's a tough word to spell. [CHUCKLES] Anyway. The technique that he explained really influenced my work. How to develop one or two characters, but stay in the exact same place? How do you use your body direction to show one person? And then the second person, depending on which way you're facing? So I'll demonstrate this with his hunting dog famous situation. There was a dog, a bird. There's a dog and the hunter. The dog, pointing. The hunter whistles. The bird flies. See what I'm doing. There's three things-- there's the hunter, the dog, and the bird. And that really hit me. And he just stayed in one place. It was amazing. So at that time, I was still in high school. And so when I was communicating with my friends, I didn't stay at one place, but I used that technique to show different characters all at once. So let's hold on to Bernard Bragg, set him aside now and go to the next prerequisite. When I came into NTID, my first two year, my friends were always talking and playing. And all of us love to read this magazine called Heavy Metal. [LAUGHTER] All these illustrated ideas, fantasy ideas drawn out. You think it's nothing, but it was a strong influence. And I'll show you what I mean. Have patience. Don't worry about the drawing and try and figure it out. The important thing is the frames themselves, the big frame and the small, thinner frames. In this experience, in this situation off in the big frame explains what's in the story, the environment. It gives the details. The bat, what's behind? What's in front? What's all around? And the smaller frames often use the same image again and again. Maybe the person is running. And he's running all in the frames. But the smaller frames help because you could see like a story with a man. And maybe I'd act this out. Men in shining armor. And the sun is out, and the trees are all around. And he's riding on a horse. And there's another knight in shining armor coming at him, and they're going to joust. OK so what I'm doing is a visual transformation. There were no words involved in that magazine, and I only used a few signs. Here he is, riding. There's the guy riding the other way, and the guy facing each other. So that technique help me to understand how to use Bernard Bragg's technique. I want you to focus on these three right here. You notice it starts far away. And then the next frame is closer. And the next frame is closer. OK, I could explain to my friends starting maybe water. There's water there. It's not clear. A rocky island in the middle and a man closer and closer. We come to the man until we see him standing there with his sword. Farther, closer and closer, that's what I'm doing. So I'd do that with my friends, and we'd all hang out like that. And then we decided to start a group, a performing group called Heavy Maze. I think I might have one more demonstration here before I show it. I enjoy explaining about this one. It's one of my favorites. It's hard to see, but there's a guy in a bar. It's a bar environment. And there's a woman, and the man's behind her. Now, it's the man's view of the woman. And he notices her cigarettes there. And there is with her. A long bar, the taps, and the patrons, a man looks across the bar the woman who's leaving. Her cigarettes were left behind. You understand this, what I just explained? OK. Now, my experience with the group, we started performing. Now remember, I was a child creating, and Bernard Bragg, high school. And now this, and it all came together. I learned all these things, but I didn't understand yet. It was subconscious. Later, I understood it fully. Now, let's start on the timeline. Around 1983, I was in this performing group. And one day, Jim Cohen came up to me. And he said, that was a neat group. And I like your poetry. Poetry? I said. poetry? What? By the way, I'd like to thank Jim because he encouraged me. Without Jim, I wouldn't be here today. What? Poetry? [LAUGHTER] And why did I have that kind of attitude? Well it's because the word poetry is a scary word, and it's a very personal word. And in the deaf community, if you drop the word poetry in the middle, everybody screams and jumps back because we've all had frustrations with English, growing up. And poetry is an expression of your experience. It means the art of self-expression. So when you express yourself, you become very vulnerable. And so a deaf kid can be struggling with this expression, maybe an experience maybe relate to his parents. Should I tell it? Should I express it? And then he does it. And the teacher looks at and says, no, the rhythm and rhyme isn't there. And really is an insult to the kid. [AUDIO OUT] And handicap. It doesn't matter. As long as you can express your feelings and your thoughts, and I count it. In the deaf community, they have it. Like, if you go to a deaf club, and you see people signing away, last night, I was going through the town. And if you took that, said show it to a hearing person, they would say, I went out and had a good time. It loses the translation. But what they're doing is beautiful. That's art. I'd like to emphasize that a lot. Now, back to Jim. Me? Poetry? Jim said, well, if you're wondering about it, there's a famous poet that's going to be coming soon named Allen Ginsberg, signed, AG Allen Ginsberg. He's a neat guy. You might want to see it. He's going to be doing a workshop and lecture. He should go. It's up to you. So I was willing to try. So on February 1, 1984-- well before, I explain to you about that, Allen Ginsberg is a famous poet. And like Jim said, from the Beat Generation. They didn't label themselves as a group. Other people did. They were actually just a group of friends that really loved each other and supported each other in the '40s and '50s. And they were kind of a rebellious group. They'd tell the audience, I love that man. He's a beautiful man. And the other guy would say I love his hair. And they're really good at it. And they're good friends. Allen is famous for that. And he came here to meet another person from another world, Robert Panara. So they got together, and they were sharing their information. But one thing that really hit me hard about the whole thing was that Allen Ginsberg said, when you're translating to another language, a poem into another language, you can offset often translate the pictures-- it's strong and clear-- but you can't completely translate the rhythm. The rhyme, the width. And what does that mean, completely translate the image? OK, you saw Patrick's example, but I'd like to show it again to emphasize it. OK, read that for a minute. Notice the green line. Allen Ginsburg asked, can anyone translate that line? Patrick Gravel was willing to do it. And he looked at the line, and he said, why hydrogen? Well, I want it sound like a hydrogen bomb. So Patrick said, it means I have to do this, and this. And then I can do it. So Ginsberg said, does that mean it loses the translation? Or is it exciting for you or what? And Patrick said, OK, put the coin in the machine. The record started on the music and the bomb. And Ginsburg said, that's it. That's good. That's another poem. What did he mean by, that's another poem? 'Cause he had taken a clearer image from the poem, but he had added the coin to start the music to get the bomb going. The concept is different, but the image is strong. So that means it's a new art form. It's a new poem. That moment, remember I was explaining about my experiences and my prerequisites? They all came to the front of my mind, and I understood what it was all about. That's really what started influencing me to really get into poetry. His experience caused my experience to grow. OK, Allen Ginsberg said that-- he said, we're lucky today because modern American poetry tends to try to experiment with visual possibilities. And so deaf people have the benefit of using that. What did he mean by visual possibilities? I'll show you what he meant. OK, read this. OK, that's from Shakespeare, obviously Sonnet number 72. It's my favorite because it's only one I can understand. [LAUGHS] In my high school program, I had to memorize the words and get up in front of class and speak them out. But it was fun anyway. OK, my point is, where's the image in there? It has it, but it's not quickly recognizable imaging. OK, that line where I lined it, in my opinion, is the most visual image, the body buried with the name. Plus, the rest of it has to do with rhythm and beauty and things like that See L- I - E, it's the same. The emphasis is there. But I struggled with that to understand with that meant-- lie. Now, from Greek times all the way through Shakespeare, a few poets were very visual with images. And then around the 19th century, there was an American poet named Walt Whitman. He loved to go out West around 1803, around that time. And he would look at beautiful things like gold miners, the gold miners' camps. Cooking their food, and they'd throw the garbage out. And that was what he would write about-- the garbage, not the trees in the sunshine. That was very visual. People really loved his work and his influence through American poetry. And another one, Frank O'Hara, William Carlos Williams, their influences, city life, experiences, personal experience. And then in the '40s and '50s, during the Beat Generation, there was this strong image happening. It's my favorite group, the Beat Generation, to read because it's the one I can understand the easiest because it's such clear images. OK, one of the Beat Generation poet's names was Peter Lasky. And he had this poem. Go ahead and read it. OK, now there's a lot of images in there. It's a lot different from that, a big difference from that. OK, let's look at some of these images. The ones I underline there are strong images that I can understand easily and do. The first line, tips of her toes should be where her bone toe stubs protruding out. It's a clear image. How about eat? She has to use her rot to eat. Sh he to use her rotten, leper fingers. "I saw a four-inch ring of maggots," could mean a ring of maggots around the wrist or like this or like that, a ring of maggots. It doesn't matter. There's a lot of different images you can get out of that. So you see what I mean? Allen Ginsberg said that, modern American poetry seems to be very close to what death poets could use. And I can take things out of that much easier than from the Shakespeare poem. OK, so now I'll a full demonstration of a poem from Gregory Corso he was a late poet from the Beat Generation. OK, now, notice the underlined parts. Those are the ones that I used, played around with experimented with. And this is what I came up with. A child came to me, swinging in ocean on a stick. My sister is dead. I pulled down his pants and gave him a kick. I drove him down the streets of my generation. I screamed his name, his cursed name. And children enjoy lept to the name and running came. I screamed his name. And mothers and fathers bent their heads to hear. I screamed his name. And the fury of the parents came gnawing on his brain. I called on the angels on the rooftops of my generation. I screamed his name. And they came and gnawed the child bones. I screamed his name, beauty, beauty, beauty. [APPLAUSE] OK, now, I took the images from there, but I didn't translate it word for word. I couldn't. I couldn't use the rhythm exactly. I added a person. I added that. He didn't say anything. Who was me? Could have been a priest, it could have been anyone. But I added, I created it, and it flowed. I needed to make it flow just like the hearing poet would. So that was my form of doing this poem. OK, after that experience, [? Romero ?] and Ginsberg, and Panara, and that workshop, a student group was formed called the Bird Brain Society. And it was named after Ginsberg's poem, Bird Brain. And we used to perform here in the student bar in NTID and exposed a lot of people to that kind of work. And at that time, my early work, I used, remember, Bird Brains' technical ideas. Bernard Bragg's technique influenced me a lot. So I'll show you how that happened. Before I do that, though, I'd like to talk about my visual text. OK, so let's remember that for a minute and go to the-- there was a-- in general, poets take their experiences and express them through images. Then they look for fresh words, different words. Maybe nobody's ever used that specific word before to describe that image. And they kind of put them together and weave them together till they've got it. And then they can stand up there and read it off of the piece of paper. And if the words' no good, then it doesn't sound good. How can a deaf poet do that? That's why I call it a visual text. Because I have my experiences, maybe the different senses-- taste, smell, sight, feeling, hearing is out. And I'll improv on those experiences. Suppose, for example, the taste was in the city, and there's machinery going on. And so the air is kind of polluted. And it's kind of an acidic taste in the air. And smell is maybe a poor bum on the street. That's the smell. Hello? Hello? Feeling maybe is an underground subway. You can feel that. OK. So we take that inner experience and all those things that I've seen and put them together, and this is what you come up with. Walking down the street, traffic passing by, buildings. Guy taps me on his shoulder. And it's a bum. His breath is revolting, and I push him away from me. And then there's the air and the pollution in the air. And I feel something strange. There's not very many cars. So what could it be? There's the stairway to the subway. Oh. And all around me, this dirt. And I think of the farms that used to be here, people riding in carriages. So that's the perspective. And it all comes together into a poem. That's the visual text, gathering all those things together. We're not searching for words, we're still searching for visual experiences. So I call that the visual text. And that got involved into my technique. So one of my really techniques of being talked about Bernard Bragg's influence. And let me show you this one in early one of my poems. The presidential candidate, Secret Service, the crowd of citizenry, Secret Service, president, Secret Service, the cheering crowd, and the man in the crowd with a gun. Slow motion technique now. The crowd cheers. The Secret Service searches the crowd. The candidate-- OK, so that's a really early technique I used. Notice, there was the important person. There was the security. There was the crowd, and the person with the gun. And they were all right there in one spot. And that influence was from Bernard Bragg. So then I experimented with that a little bit. And it led to-- that was 1983. Around '83, '84, I started playing with place to place. It would be a place like in America and Florida where the space shuttle is and Central America and Nicaragua. Kenny's voicing for me is always criticizing my spelling. [LAUGHS] [LAUGHTER] Nicaragua. [CHUCKLES] Farm areas, people working on the farm, remember they're over on that side of the stage, OK? T minus 30 seconds. [MAKES SPACE SHUTTLE LIFTOFF SOUND] The cheering crowds' in the space shuttle. T minus 10, 9. [MAKES SPACE SHUTTLE LIFTOFF SOUND] When in Central America, man works on the farm. Beyond the fields and through the trees come T minus 6, 5, 4, 3, 2. Man with a gun enters the farm land. 1, 0. [MAKES SPACE SHUTTLE LIFT OFF SOUND] We have ignition. Roll, Challenger. Space shuttle, Central America. OK, so that shows two different things happening at the same time in different places. And later that [AUDIO OUT] [INAUDIBLE] the dog, running through grass. As puppy, Charlie, running through grass. As an adolescent, he's running after a ball. So it goes back and forth in time very quickly from person to person, from place to place, from time to time. OK, that was a strong technique from Bernard Bragg. Is there another way that we could do that? And Kenny and I talked about that for a long time. And we decided to use television movement, like a camera, close ups far away to show emotions and feelings, like in a movie when things come close to you, that feeling. OK, for example, what's a TV movement? OK, like fire. OK, huge, red, orange walls glowing, white rocks, smoke, and a red river roaring along the rocks, fire. Beyond the fire, a circle of rocks surrounding a pair of shoes, pants leaning to the stomach of a beer-bellied man sitting with his beer, watching the fire. So it started real close. We were in the fire and slowly move back. OK, now written poem has a lot of details in it. And I want that, too. So I benefit from another thing that's a TV movement, like a farmer's market. Ripe, fresh, melons for sale in the heart of the market, tables piled with fruits, pole with hooked chickens. [LAUGHTER] Selling clothing, a goat. It described the details, and so those techniques that I created with Kenny. And I know, as time goes on, we'll play more and more and more with that. Now, let's go back to around 1984. Jim came up to me again. And he says, your poetry's really nice. You think maybe you'd mind doing it in front of the hearing community? The hearing community? [FRANTIC SOUND] By the way, thanks, Jim, for giving me the opportunity again. Me? Wait a minute, I-- and I was afraid because there was no voice. A voice interpreter might limit my creativity. I didn't want to have to meld with someone like that. And Jim said, don't worry, I have a friend. And it was really worth it because that person met me, became a great friend of mine and really got involved with my poetry. And he's been my voice almost every time I've ever done poetry. And he's voicing for me right now. That man with the glasses and the beard and the shirt. What's your name? Abdul. [LAUGHTER] Abdul. Rumor has it his name is Kenny. He and I started working and influencing each other. It was a really important moment in my life. Two things happened, the first is the voice. I really respect people who translate deaf poetry and translate it in search for words and whole phrases and fit it right in, word for word, with what the poet is doing. I really respect that. But in my opinion, in my work, the translator responsible for translating my poetry is me. And I enjoy doing it because I can control the voice. I don't know what he's saying right now, for instance. I don't know. I don't know what's he's about. But in a poem, it's my personal expression. I want to know what he's saying. So this is how we work together. Kenny voice in the most minimal possible way. Maybe, he'll throw out words. But between the words, maybe he'll fill it with sound like, for example, if I'm doing a helicopter, he won't say, the helicopter just landed. He won't say that. He'll just say, chopper, helicopter, and make the sound. [MAKES HELICOPTER SOUND] Like that. And I can feel the sound. Or when a gun shoots off, he won't say pow. He'll go and make a sound with his breath so that you can feel it. So when I'm performing, I can feel the speaker do the gun, and sometimes it scares me during the performance sometimes. [MAKES MACHINE GUN SOUND] Machine gun fire. Experimenting with words and sounds and playing with them. And he lets me create what I want and supports me. So he helps the hearing artists understand what I'm doing while I'm doing my work. So now we often create things together. And he should have a lot of credit for that. And we share a lot more equal in this. OK, creatively, really, it's the most amazing thing in the world to create. You have to become crazy. You have to just be silly and create. You can't just think about it, you got to do it and then take all the different choices out of what you've done. It can be a misunderstanding. It could be a misunderstood communication. It Could be improvisation. OK, perfect example of misunderstanding. One day we were working, and I was doing a boy, a Spanish boy who was holding something up. And Kenny was going, oh, that's really good. And we worked on it for a while. And then I noticed I wasn't sure if he got it right. And I'm saying, what am I holding in my hand to him? And Kenny said, a dead chicken. [LAUGHTER] And I said, no, wait a minute, I meant a doll, a corn doll. It was a misunderstanding, but I liked that image of the dead chicken. So that misunderstanding, that image, we used it. We kept it. OK, misunderstood communication. I'm famous for going to off of the sign and doing it wrong. For example, pig, I sign it like this. I don't know why, I just do it wrong. Or the king, I'll do it backwards. So sometimes Kenny, will notice that I'm signing wrong like that. My fingers should be extended. And then we'll end up turning it into a man whose fingers been cut off. Hey you! Fingers cut off. So we'll take that symbol and use it. And then we'll improve with it. And the way we're going to do, we do it, is it's now it's time for Kenny come out of the box. OK, now we're going to show you how the two of us improv and come up with poems. Were not going to create a poem right now. We're just going to play, OK? And I'm going to play with Kenny. OK, now, often, what happens is that-- like 2 o'clock in the morning, it often happens-- the reason for that is because Kenny, dear Kenny can't sleep. He has insomnia. So pretend we're in my bedroom. I'm just about ready to go to sleep. I'm all psyched for it. Oh, I just want to talk for just a short time. Come on, sure, sure. Don't worry about it. OK, would you want to? OK, I have an idea. He's not shy. I'm surprised he's not being shy. Congratulations, Kenny. Well, I've been thinking all night about this stuff. OK, I have an idea. I remember you and I were talking about-- Wait, wait, you have no ideas. Remember, you have no ideas. OK, no, well, this is from a long time ago, remember? You and we're talking about this idea. Oh, come on, really? Prove it. Well, OK, I'll prove it. Remember we're talking about people and living together as friends. And getting together and then just someone just dropping right out of the picture. What do you mean? Like, a lifelong friend of mine. I've had some friends who have died. You mean somebody that was friend a long time ago? Or somebody you're that you're friends with now dying? What do you mean? Well-- Hey, why are you talking about like Blair? You mean your friend that died a long time ago? OK, yeah, my friend, Blair. Your friend, long time ago. Well, this guy had cancer, OK? And-- (WHISPERING) cells. Oh, I mean, some of the cells inside became cancerous. And it's just got him and he died. OK. So I was thinking maybe we could show that happening in like speeded-up motion and show someone died and then buried and go on cast. And should we do it-- should we do pretend I'm buying the casket and going to the funeral? And I'm the person buying? And I'm pallbearer? And then there's the gravediggers? And then maybe I go inside the body. And I could become a microscopic view. And I could see each cell. And I could see them uniting, and I can see them mitosing. And I could see them expanding. And the cancer cells taking over the whole body and expanding throughout the body and eating up every single part of the body, up the arms and into the body and up inside the eyes? I mean, like, I should go inside the body like that? Uh, yeah, it sound like a good idea. Create some other kind of idea? Yeah, well, that's great. Let me see. OK, that's a great concept. [LAUGHTER] What? [LAUGHTER] Oh, OK. OK, you got me. [LAUGHTER] The up, and I often do it at home. [LAUGHTER] I think you get the idea with that kind of thing the two of us kind of do. I thinks that's enough. Or do you want to do more? Oh, I've enough. I want to get out of here. I'll voice for you now. I'm going to go sit in the [INAUDIBLE].. And I'll voice for you. OK. Thank you [APPLAUSE] OK, now you get an idea how we work together a little bit. Now after I met Kenny, and I started working in the hearing community, then I was thinking about 1985. Jim was printing a magazine called Action [? Seventy ?] and it was going to focus on deaf poetry. Debbie, Patrick Gravel, and me, our poems were printed. It was a deaf person writing poetry for me, speaking for myself. It's beautiful writing. But when I take that writing, there's two ways I can do it. I can sign it, make it up in my mind, and then type it. Or I can type out the poem, think about how I want to translate that into sign. When I'm finished with that, it's not the same. So I have to type up new words to fit the signs. So I like to call that my press secretary, meaning it represents my work. It doesn't show the beauty of my work. Remember, in the mind of the deaf poet, movement of an eye beats all the words on paper. For a deaf poet, for example, what I'm doing, I can get an individual experience from reading that, but I need a group experience So when I put things down on paper, that's my press agent. But I refuse to let those words beat me or take me over. And as time went on, Debbie Rennie set up probably what's the first deaf poetry series in a restaurant called Jazz Berries. And a lot of deaf people went there and got exposure, deaf poets like Matthew Moore, like Ed Swazey, Ailey Panzer, Ray Kenny, Howie Seago. And all that exposure was going on. And that leads to where I'd like to close with in my lecture. I think I have a strong belief that deaf poetry has strong possibilities, a strong drive to preserve the deaf culture because poetry allows playing with language. And the language is part of art. And art is part of our culture. And the language and the culture go together. And I really believe that exposure could become mainstream American literature because our society is very, very visual. Every day we see advertisements, TV's, movie things, billboards, MTV, all different kinds of things like. You walk down the street. It tells you to stop. You stop. You don't walk across the street. It's strong exposure. And deaf people are very visual, too. So it could become part of American literature. Hearing people don't know sign language. And they see it, and they say it's interesting. The hands are pretty. And it's fascinating. But the hearing people who know sign language will say, wow that's amazing. That's far out. That's far out how a sign that. And then a deaf people will say, wow, look at that guy on stage signing ASL, and they're inspired by that. So all three groups feel a benefit from that. They can educate people in schools to show the art of that, of deafness and deaf creativity. But let me warn you, because this is a very, very new thing. This convention, this conference is the first time it's ever happened. And it's a very personal thing so don't try and label it. There must be these rules and start infighting. You really can't label it. You can't label it. Only I can label my own work. No one has the right to label my work. And I don't have the right to label yours. But I have the responsibility to carry deaf poetry into maturity, all of us do, so we can stand strong. Let it grow. Don't worry about the mistakes. Let it grow. Let it build up. Don't fight. Let's throw that out. In the next three days, you're going to see four other deaf poets and their perspectives of their work. And their perspective is very valuable. And they have different values. And I really look up to that. Let it grow. See what happens. Just watch it and enjoy let the poets express themselves from their hearts and through their hands. It's beautiful. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] My voice and Susan [? Chappy ?] back up. [APPLAUSE] Thank you. [APPLAUSE] [CHUCKLES] OK, thank you very much, Peter. OK, very wonderful presentation, very good start for [INAUDIBLE]. And we have four more presentations to go. And they each will be very, very much variety. They'll show us a lot of their different experience. And I'm really looking forward to it. OK, I'd like to say one thing. You see how I wrote the stand as I used space to show the differences between my ideas. ASL can also use space in that way. I hadn't known at the time, but I started to realize that the way I wrote things down on paper correlated with the ways I thought of it and signed. Ocean, huge and blue, spreads out in space, ripples getting bigger and bigger. Waves, bigger and bigger, splashing its hands upon an old rock, rising up in up on top of to tree, old and crooked, watches and muses upon the ocean, both conflict, yet both blend. OK, now you see the way the standards are situated upon the page. one, indicator the ocean, and how it's on the left side the page washing up on the right side the page against the old rock. Now, you see how you have to read from side to side. And you have to figure out which way you want to read it. First, I had I played with different ways to write it, but I thought it didn't work on paper. Next, I tried a similar idea, but in a different way. This is entitled, O-- it's called Love Song, love song sign. O, you see how O's are written on both sides of the paper? I use simultaneous movement of my hands on either side of my body. And in the middle, my heart beats in the middle of my designing space as in the middle of the page. For you and I love you much, much, much. [LAUGHTER] It's kind of a bit much, a little bit sickly, sweet. But and then I have part 2. You are like the gentle rain that falls on my face. You are like the sun shines warmly on my face. Both are coming from either direction. And do you have a question?