Deaf Poetry in the New consciousness--Expanding our Reality

Let’s revisit our connection to language and expand our understanding of reality. We all know that language shapes our minds and the way we perceive the world. What if, during this shift in consciousness we are experiencing, our standard language was challenged by Deaf poetry as a unique art form? Hearing poetry vs. Deaf poetry introduces a new way of relating to the world, the art itself, and ourselves. Join me and my special guest, Kenny Lerner, as we explore how language in motion (Deaf poetry) can help us transcend the traditional boundaries of spoken words and communication. The new consciousness of the 21st century is challenging all the borders that Western societies have built—culturally, politically, metaphysically, and beyond. Let’s see how language can be challenged in turn, opening up something more empowering for all of us in our journey toward experiencing Oneness. “Poetry is stretching language to explore new ways.” (Kenny Lerner)

Kenny Lerner is a professor of history at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is also the hearing member of an ASL poetry duo called Flying Words Project along with his Deaf signing partner, Peter Cook. The goal of Flying Words is probably the same as all other poets, to play with language. As luck would have it, ASL is a language of moving pictures. So, Kenny and Peter juxtapose imagery you can see in creating their work. In a sense, Peter is like a three-dimensional living movie while Kenny's voice is the soundtrack that allows the hearing audience to see and understand the images. Much of their work focuses on social issues often combined with the beauty of the world around us. Of course, Kenny's understanding of history has always been integrated into their pieces. Kenny has been featured at the Poetry Days Festival (Dzejas Dienas,) in Latvia, the Annikki Poetry Festival, Tampere, Finland, The Whitney Museum in NYC, and many places in between.  Kenny can be reached at: kdlnge@rit.edu