Clayton Valli Jazzberries performance and presentation

Clayton Valli begins his performance telling about how he became interested in English poetry at school and how that flicker faded until he began creating poetry in ASL. The poems performed here are "My Favorite Summer House," "Windy Bright Morning," "Lone Sturdy Tree," "Snowflake," "Dandelion" and "Cave." He briefly introduces each poem, noting that "My Favorite Summer House" was the first poem he created in ASL and "The Cave" was his most recent creation. In the presentation, Valli seeks to discuss the nature of ASL poetry by looking at the characteristics of the structure of spoken language poetry (rhyme, line, stanza, etc.) as well as the recent research in ASL linguistics (comparing spoken consonant/vowel word components with ASL movement/hold sign components). He also demonstrates how one ASL phrase differs when signing a string of citation form signs vs. everyday signing of ASL prose forms vs. signing poetic forms. The specific poems he analyzes here are "Hands" by Clayton Valli and "Wedding Poem/Circle of Life" by Ella Mae Lentz. In Valli's poem "Hands," the end of lines in the poem can be recognized by patterns of final downward movements. In Lentz's poem, the end of lines can be recognized by patterns of final handshapes.