Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
This past weekend, seven poets came to campus for the Cooper Series event Signing Hands Across the Water: An International Festival of Sign Language.
Orchestrated by Cornell Visiting Professor Rachel Sutton-Spence, a Reader in Deaf Studies at Bristol University in the UK, the event offered a rare glimpse into sign language poetry in the United States and in the British deaf community.
The three-day event featured a public conversation, an open performance, and a panel discussion with poets Richard Carter, Peter Cook, Kenny Lerner, Debbie Rennie, Paul Scott, Donna Williams, and John Wilson.
View our images from the weekend, below. Photographs provided by Congwen Wang (a Bryn Mawr student) and Claire Broad ’13.
For more information on Signing Hands Across the Water, or to contact Rachel Sutton-Spence, please visit the event website.
This three day event was awe-inspiring. Many, many thanks to all the people involved in bringing these talented individuals to our campus!