While enjoying the bands at the recent Boston Calling Festival, I happened to glance over to the side at a super-animated woman gesturing wildly out to the audience, in time to the music. At first I had no idea what this was, but soon realized it was an ASL (American Sign Language) interpreter. I had seen this before at other shows, and became fascinated by these “unsung heroes.” Some were as entertaining as the musicians, dancing and gesturing and fully absorbed in the music and the moment.
Entertainers in their own right, they bring the joy of the performance to audience members who are deaf or hard of hearing. Clearly I’m not the only one who’s been noticing these folks. Earlier this year, The New York Times did a great piece on one such interpreter at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
It was because of my appreciation for these special music lovers that a recent email caught my eye. It was about the Deaf Professional Arts Network (D-PAN), an amazing organization whose mission statement reads as follows: “D-PAN aims to make music and music culture accessible to the deaf and hard of hearing community, and to give recognition to deaf and hard of hearing artists everywhere.” They’re based in Detroit and spearheaded by hip-hop artist Sean Forbes. Founded in 2006, they released their first ASL music video for “Where’d You Go” (by Fort Minor), which generated over half a million hits on YouTube. Their 2008 DVD “It’s Everybody’s Music,” which sold over 10,000 copies worldwide, featured videos for James Brown’s “It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World,” The Killers’ “Mr. Brightside” and Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” (performed by Sean). Their unusual and imaginative videos created quite a buzz. This brilliant one for The White Stripes’ “We’re Going To Be Friends” (see below) was featured on The Today Show, CBS.com and The Huffington Post.
For their second music video collection, “It’s Everybody’s Music” Volume Two (with songs from The White Stripes, Owl City, Carly Rae Jepson, The Clark Sisters and an original song from Sean Forbes), they’re been taking it on the road with concerts nationwide. On 11/9 (tomorrow night), they’ll be in Los Angeles for their DVD Release Party. Learn more about D-PAN’s activities on their official site. For a serious dose of inspiration, check out Sean talking about his project back in 2009 on CNN. Truly awesome.
D-PAN: web | facebook | twitter | youtube
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