Book Review: The Language of Light: A History of Silent Voices (2017) by Gerald Shea Yale University Press. New Haven. By Jean F. Andrews This is a history of sign language – “the language of light” – and how Deaf people have fought for centuries for the right to use their language. The controversy of […]
By Jean F. Andrews Embed from Getty Images In his book, Literacy, Culture, and Development : Becoming Literate in Morocco, Professor Daniel Wagner (1993) describes the complex language learning contact situation of hearing boys and girls in Morocco. Deaf children are no different. They too are born into a complex language contact situation where their […]
By Jean F. Andrews Backspace by Steve C. Baldwin, published by Savory Words Publishing (2015) Set in southeast Texas, Dr. Steve Baldwin crafted a briskly paced murder mystery filled with family violence, addiction, bullying, blackmail, deceit and greed, murder, and incest. In the early 1950’s, stuck in an unsympathetic hearing world filled with ignorance, misinformation, […]
By BitcoDavid A few months ago, we did a piece on Si5S, a written form of ASL. Si5S deserves your attention because it nullifies the argument that ASL isn’t a language due to the fact that it has no written form. But its relevance goes beyond that. For one thing, it can help non-Signers learn […]
By Joanne Greenberg I wrote the book In This Sign, parts of which were made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame production. The book had been out for some years and had won an award for its portrayal of Deaf people and their hearing children. Because my husband and I had become part of the […]
By BitcoDavid As many of you know, for about the past 3 weeks, I’ve been working to translate and caption the video “What is ASL?” by Deaf activist and Signing whiz, Lilcoco Love. But she’s a native Signer, and I’m… well… I’m me. It’s an awesome video, and she’s got a lot to say. About […]
By Jean F. Andrews Tom Holcomb, writer-scholar-teacher who is Deaf, captures the heart, mind and soul of the Deaf community in his book, Introduction to American Deaf Culture. Respect me as a member of a cultural-linguistic group, don’t pity me as a member of a group of disabled individuals. While sign languages are not universal […]
By Joanne Greenberg This is a memoir of fifteen months spent in Danbury Federal Prison work camp. In the range of prisons, this was the highest (best); the others were downhill from there. Piper had been a drug dealer, left the drug game, and ten years later was arrested in connection with a sweep arrest […]
By BitcoDavid The Huffington Post recently featured a story by Radley Balko, author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces. The article centers around the death of Cheryl Ann Stillwell, a middle-aged single woman, shot to death in a police raid gone awry. According to Balko, Stillwell was a recluse, […]
By Jean F. Andrews CHOICE is a publication which reviews books for academic settings. This book appeared in the April 2013 issue of CHOICE. Outcasts and angels: the new anthology of deaf characters in literature, ed. by Edna Edith Sayers. Gallaudet, 2012. 361p bibl afp ISBN 9781563685392 pbk, $35.00; ISBN 9781563685408 e-book, $35.00 Fiction […]
By BitcoDavid While reading Prison Riot, I was struck by how similar this story is to the classic Melville novella, Billy Budd. Of course, the latter was written in a much more stilted voice, and was built on Biblical allegory – but the thread of the story is very much the same. Here we have […]
By Jean F. Andrews John Lennon’s sad lyrics in “Nowhere Man In Nowhere Land,” resonate in the life of Junius Wilson (1908-2001). Wilson was a Black Deaf man who was incarcerated for a rape he did not commit. His first six years at the State Hospital for the Colored Insane developed into a total of […]
By BitcoDavid Who better to speak to the horrors of a broken prison system than a former inmate? Glenn Langohr’s inside view of life behind bars, in some of California’s most brutal prison facilities, is an eye opening, day in the life view that no other author could provide. Through his eyes, we see the […]
By Jean F. Andrews [Author’s Note: If you live in Texas, you know about Deaf Smith, a popular hero among deaf and hearing Texans alike. Dr. Steve Baldwin a prolific writer, presenter and trained historian, shares his Deaf culture research with deafinprison readers. Dr. Baldwin gives us a fresh perspective on Deaf Smith’s role in […]
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