2007  Patti Durr and Karen Christie Interviews
Channel: RIT Libraries
Date: 2019-03-26

Summary by Joan Naturale. 2007 Interview of Patti Durr and Karen Christie. This video is from the Miriam and Kenny Lerner collection. Both are interviewed by Miriam Lerner. Patti describes how minority groups such as African Americans express themselves through visual art to share their Black experience. The Harlem Renaissance and Black Culture movement showcased African Americans doing creative work. They performed plays, did storytelling, and created visual art, which helped them to confront oppression and be free. Deaf people have a parallel experience, and Patti describes the history of the De'VIA (Deaf View Image Art) movement spearheaded by Betty G. Miller at the Deaf Way conference in 1989. When Betty G. Miller exhibited her work in 1972, she received mixed reactions. Some people reacted positively to the Deaf experience she portrayed, and others criticized her work. They thought that hearing people might feel offended by some of the images she painted. It is essential to document and preserve Deaf-themed art so that they can be analyzed and use it as a method for freeing oneself from oppression. The works are compelling and eye-opening.  She describes several artworks by Susan Dupor and Betty Miller such as 'Family Dog', 'Milan 1880' by Mary J. Thornley, a mural by Chuck Baird, and 'Ameslan Prohibited' which capture the Deaf experience and themes Deaf people relate to. Patti has identified Resistance art and Celebration (Affirmation) art as categories within De'VIA. You can see elements of Liberation art in both types as well. There is a continuum, and one must experience resistance before affirmation and liberation occur. Karen discusses how De'VIA art and the Affirmation, Liberation, and Resistance categories also apply to ASL poetry. She analyzed poems with Deaf themes such as Ella Mae Lentz, 'The Door', 'The Children's Garden', '' The Treasure', Sign is Like a Tree', 'To a Hearing Mother', 'Eye Music, Patrick Graybill, 'Memories: Speech Class', Clayton Valli, 'The Seasons', 'The Cocoon', 'Hands Folded', 'Deaf World', 'The Lone Study Tree', 'The Cave', 'Snowflake', 'Dew on a Spider Web', 'Hands', Debbie Rennie, 'Black Hole: The Colors of ASL' and Flying Words Project, 'Lost Culture',  'I am Ordered Not to Speak' and Robert Panara 'On His Deafness'.  She has done this work analyzing poems with Dorothy Wilkins. Karen also discusses African-American poetry such as 'A Dream Deferred'. Karen points out the rich history of Deaf arts in the Rochester area makes this a hotbed for Deaf artists. For example, the Deaf Artists of America group, a theatre company, Deaf poetry and literature conferences, and Deaf schools flourished in Rochester. Visual description: Karen Christie has short blonde hair and glasses and is wearing a purple shirt with a black sweater and jeans. Patricia Durr has long curly red hair and is wearing a black v-neck sweater with gray slacks. They are in front of a brightly colored yellow, red, and blue abstract painting in the background. For more information, please go to the Deaf Studies Archive finding aid link URL: https://archivesspace.rit.edu/repositories/2/resources/815

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"This project is supported by a Digitizing Hidden Collections grant from the Council on Library and Information Resources (CLIR). The grant program is made possible by funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation." https://www.clir.org/2018/01/clir-ann...