 This morning, I want to share with you an analysis, not of the poem that I performed last night, but I want to focus on the concept of play. And hopefully, at the conclusion of my talk, it'll be so thought-provoking that you will see the concept of play in a new light. For example, when you take a photograph on an old Polaroid camera, the photo pops out and you wait for the picture to form. However, have you ever thought about the process, how the photo gets developed while it's still in the camera? I'm not a chemist, so I don't know the chemistry of photography, but we see the photo pop out of the camera and then we enjoy the final product. However, you know, you need to think about the process. For example, the painting, the Mona Lisa has a quirky smile and we enjoy that painting, but have you ever thought about how the artist used the process of painting it and coming up with a final product? You see the product, but what about the process of getting there? Oftentimes, we don't consider that. I learned my lesson some time ago about considering process and product. Let me share with you, back when I wasn't too young, I was a member of the NTD, the National Theater of the Deaf, and I had a chance to go to Syracuse, a city not too far away, went to an art museum with a friend of mine. He was studying pottery at the university, so together we went to the museum. My friend was very excited about seeing this one artist's work, Louise Nevelson. I had never heard of Louise, so I said, oh, I wouldn't mind accompanying you. So we went to the museum and we saw the artwork. It was very dark, there were some blacks and whites, different sizes of the pieces. The artist had used railroad track, some of the wood ties to form this piece. They had taken the bits and pieces of the track and placed them on the wall in an arrangement. They painted some pieces white, took other pieces and painted them black and set this arrangement, this artwork. So I studied that piece, and I told my friend, I said, anyone can do this. Why is this woman so famous while my friend, who's an artist, looked at me and says, you don't know anything about the artist's process. You have quite an attitude. You think you know everything about artwork. Why don't you do it? And I stood there and learned that I must consider the process and how important that is. So that's an important point for you to ponder. Think about the process and how important that is. Certainly the final product is there and sometimes you're more successful than other times, but it's so critical to consider the process of developing art. And why am I so fascinated by the process and the product? Well, let me share. There was a time when I was a professor teaching at the Western Maryland College, I was teaching a graduate class, students who were studying to become teachers of the deaf. And so I had them read a book and here it is. This book entitled Creative Drama in the Classroom written by Nellie McCasslin. Now Nellie's hearing and the students who I was teaching had wished that I had rewritten that book for the purposes of educating deaf children. And while I was encouraged to maybe consider that endeavor and had been asked over and over again, I didn't have the time to engage in such an activity. Maybe someday down the road I might be able to. But there is one chapter in this book that presents the concept of how important the process is. Allow me to test you guys on a certain idea. Coming back to the concept of play. You see it up there on the overhead? Yes? Is that visible? Is that play? Would you agree that play is part of playing games? Okay. Next. Is play involved with this? Sports? I'm seeing some heads nod. And I'll discuss this more in depth soon. When we think about theater, you see the idea of movement dance on the stage. Is that play or pantomime in the theater? Is that play? Next, what about creative drama and skits? And lastly, formal drama. The basis of all of these, we're talking about sports, games, drama, theater. It all starts with the idea of play. There's no rules, pure freedom to do what one wants. You think about the idea of children's play. Think back to a time when you were little and when you engaged in play. Your parents may have been there. You played cowboys and robbers. You played tea parties when you were young. Sally or others in the audience. Parents, when you look at children today and they play, what do you see? Video games? What? Power Rangers? Okay. Power Rangers is an idea of play in this day and age. Now think about when you were young and you played and played. Did you feel any pressure from those activities? There was some pressure, maybe if you were playing a game or you pretended that someone was shooting you and you were supposedly supposed to die and you're saying, no, I was living and no, the other person said, I shot you, you died. So there was some pressure, but in general, it was just play with no limits until your parents called you in for dinner. But the importance of this. Do recall that to keep ourselves healthy, we need to play regardless of one's age. But sadly, if you look at professional sports, for example, those athletes have forgot the concept of play and they're led by greed, money, or they want to know all the rules of the play. They are limited by the rules and they have squeezed out the idea of play to the point where play is dead. Wow. And they need to get back to the concept of play. Last night, I sat in the audience watching Juliana Feld. Juliana, remember her and she allowed that little child to come out of her and her performance. And all of us have a little child within us. However, we've forgotten about that and we've stifled it. But the child is here. Hey, I'm lonely. I need your attention. They're calling out over and over again, but we're so busy. The business world keeps us going. But the idea of play, we forgot what that means. Because we're so engaged in the business world, we've lost the meaning of play. Because we think about, oh, we're professionals. This is all about being a professional professionalism. But the idea of play is so freeing, it's a tremendous value to us. I must admit that I am sometimes a little fearful about ASL lit and the conferences and where we're going. Many of us know that with ASL lit, it is so new and exciting. However, we bring it to a conference and learn about it. Then go back home and teach it or the deaf club and provide workshops as leaders. How do we forget about the idea of play? We force these artificial rules and results. You must be just like Patrick. You must be just like Ella. You must be just like Clayton Valley and others. And so people say, oh, OK, I must accept that. Why do you hate poems in English? Do you know why? Because they emphasize the results. They don't focus on the process at all. The fun, the playing around, the whole idea of the process. Just like the Polaroid picture. Think about the process and the chemistry where you finally come up with a final product. That process is so important, such a value. And I know I can even look at my own poetry over time. When I first started back in 1984, that was the first time that I tried to come up with poetry. And it was so much fun. Had a lot of fun. And there were times to the process I was asked to give a workshop, help us learn or give us a performance. So I would take this final product and share my performances, my poetry. However, the idea of play was being stifled through that. Well, of course, I was making money and that was really cool. You suckers, you pay me, right? But the spirit of play was not there. And I would get tremendous applause. But where's the play? I want to go back to the idea of play and not make it so much work. Arduous work. What purpose does that serve? Work can be pleasurable if you include play. For example, the idea of going to church or going, let's see, to traditional family celebrations, holidays, Christmas time, the Seder Passover as a few examples. Those are rituals. But however, think about where they originated. There was tremendous play as part of it. But when you start doing things over and over again on an annual basis, it becomes habitual and you do the same thing over and over again. When you go to church on Sunday, you know, okay, I grew up Catholic and, you know, I would have to do the sign the cross with the holy water, genuflect, take my seat in the pews. Did that every week, weekend, week out. And that's not what God means for us. What God means is for you to enjoy the spirit of play, to be in awe of life. My gosh, that's great. And think about art and how we can include play and intermingle within the field of art and come up with a beautiful piece. But the piece is only one small part of it. And so allow me to look at the share out all video of mine back in 19. Let's see. It must have been, yeah, yeah, 1984. And you know, I love sharing stories, right? Back in 84, I was a professor here on campus and I taught a class. It was called Creative Translation. Translation. And we would read certain pieces in English. And then we'd work on how to translate it into American sign language. That was the whole point of the class. But back at that time, I was asked over and over again by the students if I could create stories or poetry that originated in two, originated from ASL and then would be translated in English. I wasn't planning to teach that process, but I thought, let's give it a try for a couple of weeks this semester. Let's experiment for a bit. So I sent the students home. I gave them a homework assignment to come up with a poem or a story. And then as a professor, I had never tried that myself. So I had my own homework. And so I thought about it. I thought, how do I broach this topic? And I tried to keep the idea of being a student as I thought about this work. And I had a chance to, I guess, see where am I at now? I'm out of practice. What's direction am I looking at? Oh, it's the student union, the student, the S student. What's the A? Oh, alumni union. OK, that building. I was over there in the cafeteria one day. And as I was leaving after eating, I was looking up at the ceiling. And I noticed there was this balloon stuck in the corner of the ceiling. And I looked at it for a little while. And I felt like I was looking at a piece of art. And I thought about it, the idea of blowing up this balloon and holding it. And maybe it was a purple. You could play with the balloon. And that started to see a thinking about this. So look at this piece, which originated from that experience. And tell me what you think, what you see. Let me tell you, I am a professor. But I am not a technician. So let's hope this works. Watch me. A little girl, so cute, has a balloon. It's a purple balloon. And she squeezes it. And the balloon rises. But it stops because it's held on by a string to her little pinky. And she pulls the balloon up and down, up and down. And then lets it go and says, bye-bye balloon. And so that purple balloon rises. And the string follows the balloon as it rises higher and higher to the point where the balloon is no longer seen. OK, so tell me, what did you see there? Do share. A little girl, yeah, a girl looking up. But what I'm asking you is, what was the, not so much what the poem was about, but how was I signing it? Looking at Patrick Graybill. Yes, what did you see? My signs were elevated, right? And oh, we have a copy signer, excellent. Over here, right? I was looking up in the corner of a ceiling. And how about over here? What did you see? Using your imagination and the idea of using classifiers? That's true. But you saw the final product, but you didn't see the process. Let me talk about that. I looked very stiff. And I signed in a very small signing space because I was restricted by the words, not the words, but by the form. I was frozen by that form. And so I signed in a very small space about this wide and high. It wasn't free flowing like water and using plenty of a space. That was not the case there at all. And I felt like I was signing English. Oh, you know, it was American Sign Language. Still, I was constrained in my space. Remember, Ted said that I'm in the fifth generation of signers of ASL. It all started with Laurent Claire. He was the first generation. I'm part of the fifth generation. And many of you are part of the sixth generation. And so we're going to transition from signing poetry in English to a point where now it's originating in ASL without the English form. Last night, when I performed here, I was in the midst of that transition. For example, what was the title? It was Woods Forest. Yeah, Woods. In the past, I wouldn't have been so free flowing. No voice, please. Trees have. Walking. Not yet, because I was still. So my signing space was small. You didn't get that back then, right? ASL is a free flowing language just like water. I compare that with the idea of the Bible and how it talks about the river Jordan flowing, free flowing down until it enters the dead sea. And it's become stagnant. ASL is that free flowing water to enjoy one's own process on how you can take the water from the dead sea and make it alive again. And having body shifting, using the full body movement, free flowing, and being in touch with one's little child, your inner child, and playing with your little child, the baby inside of you, and feeling alive again and enjoying that. So now let's talk about American Sign Language and American Sign Language poetry. Are there rules? Well, I would like to applaud Clayton Valley in his work looking at linguistics. He is a linguist. And so that's how he sees the world. He describes the language and what it looks like. But we can't have that constrain us at all. No. If you constrain it, you come up with the rules and you feel stagnant. You're stuck and you feel like you've got to do it that way. There's only one way. And if you break that paradigm, you feel guilty. You're doing things incorrectly. Therefore, if that happens, the idea of play is gone. So when you go home, take what you've learned here, please, and take some time to encourage your students, to encourage them to play. And you'll see things differently than what you've seen here. For example, last night, that young person came forward and gave a performance. And I didn't understand it fully at all. It was a different generation. And is it my duty to be a critic and criticize them? No. I used to be that way. That was my mindset. I was taught that way, that my teachers would be critical of me. And so I carried that criticism paradigm forward. But then play gets diminished. And I used to be someone who would look at students signing together and they'll use right hand or right hand. And someone would use their left hand. I would say, no, you must use your right hand. We have that as a rule. And that person using left hand said, oh, I did it wrong. I'll use my right hand. But I was killing the child inside them. And they would struggle. That was abuse, abusive. So when you go home, encourage your students to play. So here, I present some information that's not my idea, but it applies to poetry in general. Things that I've learned over time, that I've adopted, these are not my rules, but these are just some ideas, a theory that I have from what I've seen as a performer. I'm not a linguist. We need linguists to assist us in ensuring that we are abiding by the rules. But we are a team. And then we'll evolve and grow and improve and consider the process, not just the product. Poetry typically starts with a deaf-centric vision. You have an idea, like a movie in your head. And with that vision, you look at certain selections, certain decisions, because American sign language relies tremendously on space. It's not a written language. It's not a spoken language. So you have to visualize space, come up with a picture, come up with a movie, and then edit that, change it, arrange it, to come up with a final product. So that's first. So it starts with a feeling. You take your feeling, and you convey it through that. And hopefully, your audience will connect, because my experiences, my feelings, and your experiences, your feelings can be similar. And you react, you respond to my artwork. And with English, between hearing people, there is a connection, just like between a deaf performer and the deaf audience, there is a connection. You don't get everything. You don't understand everything, but there's enough similarity from having similar deaf experiences that we share a background, one being that we are fluent in American sign language, secondly, that we are deaf. Again, you don't catch it all, because artist poets, they have their own private meanings that they keep to themselves. So you don't connect with that at 100%. However, there's enough there that does connect. Maybe your interpretation can be different, because you do have some differences in your experiences. For example, Ella. Ella made lens last night. She signed that performance with an argument, and then it was sudden silence. And many of us in the audience sat there, watched that. We didn't know who she was arguing with, and then she became silent. So we had no idea who this other person in her piece was. So in poems, within poetry, there's some certain things that you must consider. One is sign selections, just like a movie editor. They choose certain things. They leave out certain things. And then they put them in an order that doesn't necessarily follow a logical sequence. They twist and turn certain events. But you don't see the process. The artist, the poet, is responsible for making those decisions through the process. Secondly, you think about the use of your hands. In everyday conversation, we typically use our dominant, whether it's right or left hand. But poetry, you use both. And you play with your hands. That's second. Thirdly is the flow. How the performance flows. Fourthly is we decide how we place things, location. Just like Louise Nevelson in her piece, placing the different items on the wall. That was a decision that she made. Just like a poet will decide where to place certain signs. You saw me signing the idea of a challenge or rocket ship taking up. And then I signed one minute, 49 seconds. And that's what that meant. One minute and 49 seconds later. And I played with the sign. The rocket, I kept that location. And then I said, one, 49. And I showed the rocket exploding as an example. And then fifthly, tempo is a movement fast. Is it slow? How you control the rhythm and the tempo. And then what you want the audience to take away from that. OK, so now you see the creative process. Important that you give it time. That you're not rushed. That you're allowed to evolve. You plant the seeds. For example, growing flowers, that takes time. If you try to rush it, it won't work. So the process is so, so critical. And enjoying it and having fun. And you're responsible when you go back home to teach these concepts. Use these outlines that I'm talking about. Try it yourself. You say, oh, I can't. I can't be like Patrick or Ella or Clayton Balli. But you can, as Frank Turk signed, instead of can't, you can in his own way. Try one or two lines. You can do it. And children will enjoy the play part. They will feel free. And they will learn. They will. The pressure, the stress will not help them learn. Got to be sensitive and allow them the play to experiment. I must admit that my inner child sits there as a youngster. And I look at myself with my curly hair back. When I was young, I had curly hair, believe it or not. And the freckle-faced kid I was, the hazel eyes that I had looking up at myself, I was cute. Believe me, I was. But I see myself as a child. And now I'm bald. And when I engage my inner child, I become so proud of myself. Think about children. Deaf children need that same opportunity to build your self-esteem. And ASL-LiD will, as a result, reach new heights. Thank you. Thank you, everyone.