Deaf Way Two Anthology

Cover -- title page -- Copyright page -- Contents -- Introduction -- Curtis Robbins -- No Rhythm, They Say -- Empty Ears -- Solo Dining While Growing Up -- Learning Up Front -- About the Tale of an Old Bay Fisherman -- Hand Tied -- Melissa Whalen -- The Noisy House -- Christopher Jon Heuer -- The Hands of My Father -- Bone Bird -- Diving Bell -- Holiday -- Corresponding Oval -- Listening for the Same Thing -- Carmen Cristiu -- Leaves on the Water -- Is It a Sin? -- My Mother -- Gaynor Young -- My Plunge to Fame -- John Lee Clark -- Q -- Exuberance -- Carl Wayne Denney -- Borrowed Time -- Sibylle Gurtner May -- "if I could wish to hear well"--Sotonwa Opeoluwa -- The Victim of the Silent Void -- Douglas Bullard -- Yet: Jack Can Hear! -- Pamela Wright-Meinhardt -- When They Tell Me ... -- Silent Howl -- A Letter to C.F. -- Kristi Merriweather -- Be Tellin' Me -- Remember -- It Was His Movin' Hands -- Raymond Luczak -- How to Become a Backstabber -- Depths of the River -- Justine Vogenthaler -- Between Two Worlds -- Cicadas Roar -- 2 Triple Ought -- Willy Conley -- Every Man Must Fall -- Salt in the Basement -- The Cycle of the X-Ray Technician -- The Perfect Woman -- Tonya Marie Stremlau -- A Nice Romantic Dinner

Selected papers from the conference held in Washington DC, July 9-14, 1989.

In July 2002, more than 9,700 Deaf people from around the world met in Washington, D.C., to share their arts, research, and languages at Deaf Way II, a joyous festival of diverse Deaf cultures. Deaf Way II: An International Celebration offers 250 full-color photographs with captions and introductory essays to capture again the excitement of this historical event. Those who attended the gathering will relive their rich experiences visually, while those who view it for the first time through this book will feel as though they had lived its splendor in person. The Deaf Way II photographs, taken during the course of the six-day event, create a matchless pictorial record that travels back and forth from the formal grandeur of the opening celebration to fascinating looks behind the scenes at the arts festival and the scholarly conference program. The warm depictions of the youth program and many attendees complement the compelling portrayals of the people and technology that made Deaf Way II accessible to all. Through this magnificent cross-section of photographs, Deaf Way II reveals a wonderful international society of Deaf people that will engage all who see it.

"I need not tell you that a mighty change has taken place within the last half century, a change for the better," Alphonso Johnson, the president of the Empire State Association of Deaf-Mutes, signed to hundreds of assembled deaf people in 1869. Johnson pointed to an important truth: the first half of the 19th century was a period of transformation for deaf Americans, a time that saw the rise of deaf education and the coalescence of the nation's deaf community. This volume contains original writing by deaf people that both directed and reflected this remarkable period of change. It begins with works by Laurent Clerc, the deaf Frenchman who came to the United Sates in 1816 to help found the first permanent school for deaf students in the nation. Partially through is writing, Clerc impressed hearing Americans-most of whom had never met an educated deaf person before-with his intelligence and humanity. Other deaf writers shared their views with society through the democratic power of print. Included here are selections by James Nack, a deaf poet who surprised readers with his mellifluous verse; John Burnet, who published a book of original essays, fiction, and poetry; Edmund Booth, a frontiersman and journalist; John Carlin, who galvanized the drive for a national college for deaf people; Laura Redden, a high-achieving student who would go on to become an accomplished reporter; and Adele Jewel, a homeless deaf woman living in Michigan. The final sections contain documents related to deaf events and issues at mid-century: the grand reunion of alumni of the American Asylum for the Deaf in 1850; the dedication of the Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet monument in Hartford; the debate over the viability of a deaf state; and the triumphant inauguration of the National Deaf-Mute College (now Gallaudet University) in 1864, which in many ways culminated this period of change. Taken together, the individual texts in this remarkable collection provide a valuable historical record and a direct glimpse of the experiences, attitudes, and rhetoric of deaf Americans during this time of change.

This collection showcases the best scholarship on all aspects of Deaf life presented by more than 100 researchers at the 2002 internationial Deaf forum in Washington, DC.