Ithaca College

 "The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox" a screening of the documentary film about American Sign Language (ASL) poetry will be presented by producer, Miriam Nathan Lerner on Sunday November 8 in Textor 103 from 2:00 - 4:00 with a discussion to follow.  What if a minority community has been inculcated with the belief that their language has no poetry?  And what if that community begins to experiment and finds that their language is not only capable of poetic form, but is practically poetry in and of itself?

The documentary 'The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox' explores these questins by tracing the evolution of American Sign Language poetry.  Interviews and archival footage from the 1970's, 80's and 90's reveal ho the Deaf poets broke away from the constraints of English form to discover how the unique grammar and startling visual clarity of ASL could become a new art form of its own.

One segment shows the historic 1984 meeting between Deaf poets Allen Ginsberg discussing translation and poetic imagery.  This meeting culminated in a reading from HOWL, which proved to be the "ah ha!" moment for Deaf artists in the room.  The title of the film is derived from the line, "... listening to the crack of doom on the hydrogen jukebox".  An image that refers to sound in turn unlocked a"loud" image in a Deaf participant's mind, unleashing a new era in ASL poetic exploration.

'The Heart of the Hydrogen Jukebox' is about the power of language, minority identity, and pride but, above all, this film is a love song to POETRY.

Special thanks to the following for their support of this event: Fingerlakes Interpreting and PAH Relay for sponsorship, the faculty from the Deaf Studies Minor in the Speech and Language Department and the ASL Club at Ithaca College.  For information contact Michele Hochstetter at mhochstetter@ithaca.edu