11/23/2023 0 Comments Deaf translator![]() It’s very artistic, the way she is expressing the music too. “And next thing I know, I’m not singing anymore. I’ll sing, and then I’m curious, what does that look like in sign language? So I’d look over at Edie,” said Bell, referring to Edie Jackson, who has been interpreting for the band for 12 years. Lead singer John Bell said that the first time he saw his music performed in ASL was like the first time he heard his music on the radio. Widespread Panic is a highly-improvisational rock band that frequently performs with an ASL interpreter. Sign language interpreters worked the concert. Also our facial expressions are a big part of it.” Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Bluegrass legend Del McCoury and his band play Red Rocks on Sunday July 21. So we have to show that through our bodies, through replicating the instruments with our hands. hearing audience members can sit back to the jam and feel the different levels - if it’s just a soft jam, when it gets more intensified. “So you can imagine, a lot of that is showing the guitar and showing the drums. Austin said that FLOW is often hired to interpret jam bands. They’re communicating the musicality of the song with their bodies. Which in sign language, doesn’t always translate to something that makes sense to a deaf audience member.”Īt the concert, interpreters are performing more than the lyrics. And so they’re just doing it because the words maybe rhyme with each other. “Because a lot of times, when they do improvise, it’s nonsensical improvisation. “Rap definitely is one of the most difficult genres, I would say, to interpret,” said Austin. Hart Van Denburg/CPR News FLOW sign language interpreter Cherish on the right side of the stage at Red Rocks on Sunday July 21, 2019, as String Cheese Incident play a concert. That’s a challenge because ASL is a distinct language with its own idioms, and its word order is different from English. She looks up the lyrics, and translates them into ASL. Performance ASL interpreting requires requires a high level of preparation and creativity.Īhead of a concert, Austin will research an artist's top songs, and set lists from previous performances. That experience and her passion for the arts grew into FLOW, which interprets art events from jam bands to musical theater. She studied Deaf Education, and spent years working in schools. When she was 13 years old, doctors recommended she learn ASL because she could lose the rest of her hearing rapidly. She was born with a condition that causes progressive hearing loss. Hearing loss is something Austin has grappled with herself. “It’s a personal passion project for me because I know how important the music and the arts is in my life that I want to do everything in my power to make it accessible to people who are deaf and hard of hearing,” said Austin. ![]() Hart Van Denburg/CPR News A sign language interpreter on the right side of the stage at Red Rocks on Sunday July 21. Two years ago, she co-founded FLOW, a sign language interpreting agency that specializes exclusively in performing arts. Natalie Austin interpreted that show as she has many others, at Red Rocks and venues around the state. Her favorite concert? Metallica, which came with a hair-raising performance, bright lights and intense drums. ![]() So overall, it’s just a different way of viewing and experiencing the music. Plus we’re provided the words through the interpreter. “That means that deaf and hard of hearing people can enjoy the music. “So to go to a concert with an interpreter provided, they give me the words, the accessibility,” said Berman. Sign language interpreters worked at the concert. Hart Van Denburg/CPR News Bill Nershi and String Cheese Incident play at Red Rocks on Sunday July 21, 2019. She pointed out that other concert goers may not hear a single note, but they can still feel the pounding rhythms. She has residual hearing and uses a hearing aid that allows her to hear some lower tones, but she said she struggles with the high notes and cannot make out words. “There are a lot of hearing people who seem to think that deaf and hard of hearing people can’t enjoy music,” said Rachel Berman, a concertgoer who is deaf. As the lead singer steps up to the microphone, at the corner of the stage an interpreter translates the lyrics into American Sign Language and uses her whole body to communicate the emotion and feel of the song. The first beats of the drum and the vibration of the bass reverberate through Red Rocks Amphitheatre, where great sandstone slabs jut into the sky, surrounding the audience, and the energy is electric.
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