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Evolution of a Deaf poet

 Digital Work
Identifier: ds_0027_lentzlectureperformance_cap_01.mp4

Dates

  • Creation: 1987

Creator

Summary

The lecture covers significant events and changes in Lentz's life and poetry in both English and American Sign Language. In particular, Lentz explains her youthful fascination with language and theatre. This developed through experiences with her Deaf parents and Deaf community as well as early National Theatre of the Deaf performers. She shares her analysis of ASL storytelling and ASL narratives, categorizing them and describing their purpose. In her analysis of ASL poetry, she performs and discusses her works "Fuchsias" and "Travels with Malz." Next, Lentz performs and discusses the context of several of her ASL poems. The poems Lentz performs are: "Eye Music," "Silence, Oh Painful," "The Dogs," "The Glass Wall," "Signing Is Like a Tree," "Wedding Poem" (later evolved to a poem titled "Circle of Life"), "Untitled Poem" (later evolved to a poem titled "The Door"), "To a Hearing Mother," and "Children's Garden."

Extent

251.34 Megabytes (mp4)

Language

Sign Languages

English

General Note

This material was digitized as part of a CLIR Hidden Collections grant: "Sculptures in the Air: An Accessible Online Video Repository of the American Sign Language (ASL) Poetry and Literature Collections at the RIT/NTID Deaf Studies Archive (RIT/NTID DSA) in Rochester, NY." Original VHS recordings were transferred to mp4 format, captioned, and voiced, by the National Technical Institute for the Deaf Production Services department.

Processing Information

Dr. Karen Christie, Professor Emerita of NTID, provided accurate sign language transcriptions of this video; voicing from ASL into English was provided by Miriam Lerner, performing arts interpreter. Dr. Christie also prepared the description, abstract, and notes.

Repository Details

Part of the RIT Archives Repository

Contact:
Rochester NY 14623 USA