Linda Bove was born November 30 1945 in Garfield, New Jersey with to two parents who were also deaf. Growing up deaf herself, she used ASL her whole life. In the beginning, she went to St. Joseph School for the Deaf in Bronx, New York. Later, in 1963 she was fortunate to graduate from Marie Katzenbach School for the Deaf in Trenton New Jersey where she was surrounded by her pears which helped place the foundation for her success. Upon completion of Marie Katzenbach School, Linda later attended Gallaudet University and received her Bachelor’s degree in library science. While attending Gallaudet she was in several plays including The Threepenny Opera and Spoon River Anthology. After graduation she attended a summer school program at the National …show more content…
Theatre for the Deaf. It was there that Linda met Ed Waterstreet whom she would later marry. After the summer school program in 1968, she decided to give up being a librarian to become an actress. Two years later, Bove made her Broadway debut in Sganarelle and Songs from Milk wood in 1970. That same year she happily married Ed Waterstreet. Soon after that National Theatre of the Deaf received news that Sesame street was looking for a new face. Sesame Street found Linda and she played Linda the Librarian on Sesame Street on PBS from 1971 to 2003, a little over ten years, which is the longest running role for a deaf person. During that time Linda exposed, informed, and familiarized thousands of children to ASL which many children had never seen before on television. She wrote and contributed to her Sesame Street Books “Sign Language ABC with Linda Bove”, “Sesame Street Sign language Fun”, and many more. In 1974 Linda received an American-Italia Award for her work on Sesame Street after only being on the show for three years.
While on the cast of Sesame Street, she made an appearance on the soap opera Search for Tomorrow as Mellissa Hayley Weldon in 1993 and on Happy Days as Fonzie’s deaf girlfriend in 1973. She also had a small role in The Land Before Time Four as an interpreter in a pop up box. Linda later reunited with the National Theatre of the Deaf when they went on a 30,000 mile world tour. After the tours biggest success in Japan, they were asked to be on a television show that was later attended by the royal family. Linda Bove also appeared back at Broadway as an understudy for the lead role, Marlee Matlin, in Children of a Lesser God in 1980. In 1991 Linda mentioned that she worked with the Sesame Street writers to develop a authentic deaf character in a interview with Barbara Harrington. “When I joined the cast I found the writers would write about ‘How would a deaf person do this?’ ‘How does a deaf person do that?’ And it was just related to my deafness and it didn’t feel like they were treating me as a person. I found my character one-dimensional and kind of boring. It showed how brave a deaf person was to do this and that in everyday
life. I said it was no big deal. I have a sense of humor; why don’t you show that? I can be angry over something. Show that I can have a relationship with another person. Maybe a love relationship with Bob. It’s not perfect, but … we do have misunderstandings over sign language, make fun of it, and show the funny side of it. It’s OK.” Linda said. Later, her and her husband, founded Deaf West Theatre in 1991 in Los Angeles where she now lives. It was the first theatre of its kind with hearing and deaf actors telling stories using a combination of spoken and sung english and ASL. Sense the start, Deaf West Theatre has produced several award-winning shows sense its start. The theatre still continues to produce shows. Today Linda Bove is a large supporter to Non-Traditional casting project which encourages the casting of minorities and people with perceived disabilities. Linda still continues to perform on stage, at the age of 71, sometimes even with her husband Ed still by her side. The life of Linda Bove has impacted the Deaf and acting communities by inspiring deaf children to fallow their dreams.
Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again is a biography about his life between two dimensions of the Deaf world and the Hearing world as well as the implications he faced throughout his journeys’. Mark Drolsbaugh was born from two deaf parents and was basically forced to adapt to the hearing world even though his parents are deaf. When Drolsbaugh was born he was hearing, however, by first grade his parents and teachers discovered he was losing his hearing. As time went on Mark realized the issues he faced from trying to adapt to the hearing world. Mark Drolsbaugh quotes in his biography, “Deafness is bad. I am deaf. I need to be fixed. I must be like them, no matter what, because deaf is bad.” However, no matter what his family believed that he
Have you ever felt like there was nothing that you can do for your child? In this book, Deaf Like Me, by Thomas S. Spradley and James P. Spradley, I can see the journey that Lynn’s parents took to get her help. (Spradley & Spradley, 1978). This book was an excellent read. I really liked the way that they described the ways they tried to help Lynn to understand the world around her. The book, is a great asset for any family that might be unexpectedly put into a situation that they know nothing about such as a deaf child.
In the autobiography Deaf Again, Mark Drolsbaugh writes about his life being born hearing, growing up hard of hearing, to eventually becoming deaf. By writing this book, he helps many people view from his perspective on what it is like for someone to struggle trying to fit in the hearing society. Through his early years, his eyes were closed to the deaf world, being only taught how to live in a hearing world. Not only does the book cover his personal involvement, but it covers some important moments in deaf history. It really is eye-opening because instead of just learning about deaf culture and deaf history, someone who lived through it is actually explaining their experiences.
Alice Cogswell - The Beginning of American Deaf Education - Start ASL. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19, 2016, from https://www.start-american-sign-language.com/alice-cogswell_html
Tanner, D.C. (2003). Chapter 6: Hearing Loss and Deafness. In Exploring communication disorders: A 21st century introduction through literature and media (2nd ed., p. 189). Boston, Massachusetts: Allyn and Bacon.
In the following chapters, there is an extensive amount of knowledge to learn about how Deaf culture is involved in our modern world. The pages assigned give us an outlook of how Deaf people are treated in our daily life, and how we should learn from it. Its gives a clear line between what are myths and what are facts, to those who are curious about the Deaf community or have specific questions. This book has definitely taught me new things that I could put to good use in the near future. In specific chapters, my mind really opened up to new ideas and made me think hard about questions, like “why don’t some Deaf people trust hearing people,” or “do we need another ‘Deaf president now’ revolution?” I realized many new things in the course of reading this book, and have recommended this to my family.
The narrator begins this chapter by introducing himself as well as his colleagues and co-authors. Ben Bahan, the narrator, is a deaf man from New Jersey whom was raised by deaf parents and a hearing sister. After spending an immense amount of time studying American Sign Language (ASL) he moved on to now become an assistant professor at Gallaudet University in the Deaf studies Department. His colleague Harlan Lane, a hearing man, is a specialist in the psychology of language and having many titles is a key aspect of this book as he believes, as does most of the Deaf-World, that they are a minority language and takes up their point of view to the hearing world. Lastly Bob Hoffmeister is a
While reading Mark Drolsbaugh’s Deaf Again where he wrote about his experiences with becoming postlingually deaf, I realized that I was able to relate to some of the situations he encountered, especially when he spoke of his frustrating childhood due to his disability. As he grew older, he needed to find new ways to cope with and accept his deafness. Because of his unique viewpoint with deaf parents who were not allowed to sign around him, the book gave readers a different perspective to look at deafness with. Drolsbaugh’s personal account of his life was inspirational as he grew up with a truly exceptional situation, yet was able to overcome his obstacles and become successful after he quit denying who he really was.
In the book named “Deaf Again”, the author has discussed the life of the young deaf boy who was very
Marie’s life long advocacy and work in the deaf community earned her the place as an icon in the deaf community. Her efforts to legitimize ASL as language and bridge the deaf and hearing communities, have had a lasting impact. To this day she remains a respected and revered figure, and a pioneer in the bilingual-bicultural movement.
The book “Power” by Linda Hogan is very rich with literary devices like juxtapositions, foreshadowing, symbolism, and personification. It is about a Taiga Native American named Omishto, who sees a Taiga woman named Ama, kill an endangered Florida panther. Omishto, whose name means “the one who watches”, starts viewing Ama as something bigger than herself. The image of Ama is represented as an animal, power, and spirituality.
Walker, L. A. (1986). A Loss for Words: The Story of Deafness in a Family. New York: Harper
Robert DeMayo is a Deaf actor, educator and ASL consultant. He was born in Connecticut but currently lives in Philadelphia. DeMayo grew up in a hearing family. It was hard for him growing up in a hearing family. He often felt like he was being left out by his family, who never bothered to learn ASL so that they could better communicate with him. This being the case DeMayo decided to leave his home since his family seemed like they did not care about how he felt being Deaf when the rest of his family could hear. DeMayo often struggles to make ends meat. Being a Deaf actor makes it even harder to find work while trying to pursue his dream. According to DeMayo there are not many jobs for Deaf actors that have flexible enough hours for him to also be an actor. He often had to take short term jobs like translating for other actors or musicians as they sang and performed. These jobs did not provide enough income and because he could not make enough money to support himself he eventually became homeless until one of his friends let him stay with them until he got back on his feet. These are just a few of the struggles DeMayo faced being a Deaf actor, TL Forsberg also faced many struggles as a hard of hearing singer.
Up until now Lynn had it very tough growing up in a hearing world, but as soon as she started learning and using sign language her world turned around. Lynn finally gained a means of communication and Thomas and Louise were finally able to understand and communicate with their beautiful little girl with whom they were cut off from with a language barrier. Through communicating with other deaf individuals like her, Lynn finally felt like she was “normal” without trying to please the society’s normalcy.
With that knowledge the deaf character gained more confidence when communicating and was able to achieve bigger goals in their life then when they had little to no knowledge of how things worked in society. Reading about these characters just gave me a small insight into the deaf community but with the documentary ”Through Deaf Eyes,” has open my mind and eyes that they are people who can thrive in and change the world just as anyone can when they put their mind to