Echo- Deaf, Biracial & Multilingual

Straight from David Mack's page.... March 2010 Marvel Solicitations
Below are solicitations for two David Mack-related Marvel projects that will debut in March 2010:
	Daredevil/Echo: Parts of a Hole Premiere HC Written by DAVID MACK, penciled by JOE QUESADA, cover by JOE QUESADA She is Echo. Though seemingly kindred souls, their secret identities are very much at odds. Maya seeks out her father's killer, a man that Kingpin fingers as Daredevil. Can Matt Murdock clear his name before his new love becomes his executioner? Acclaimed writer/painter David Mack and artist Joe Quesada weave a tale of dangerous liaisons and forbidden romance that will change the Man Without Fear forever! CollectingDAREDEVIL #9-12. 184 pages, $24.99. Release Date: March 24, 2009 Previews Product Code: JAN100661 Source: Marvel.comNew Avengers Vol. 5 Hardcover Written by Brian Michael Bendis, penciled by MICHAEL GAYDOS, DAVID MACK, JIM CHEUNG & BILLY TAN, cover by ALEKSI BRICLOT Who can you trust? Now that the shape-shifting Skrulls' plot to infiltrate Earth has begun, that question has a clear answer: Trust no one! Explore the dramatic turmoil of the Avengers roster as the slow-burning Skrull menace ratchets up and finally explodes in their faces. Featuring Luke Cage, Echo, Wolverine, Spider-Woman and other NEW AVENGERS favorites. Learn the shocking answers to these burning questions: has Captain America truly returned to again lead the Avengers? What were the Skrulls able to learn from the captive Illuminati? How did Spider-Woman and the Skrulls survive House of M? And whose side will the super-powered criminals of the Marvel Universe take as the Skrull invasion decimates New York City? These vivid stories of paranoia and suspense are brought to you by writer Brian Michael Bendis and a dream team of comics brightest art talents - including Michael Gaydos, David Mack, Jim Cheung and Billy Tan. Collecting NEW AVENGERS #38-47. 256 pages, $29.99 Release Date: June 2, 2010 (per DiamondComics.com) Previews Product Code: JAN100649 Source: ComicBookResourcs.com

Shameless Self Promotion

http://www1.ncte.org/proposals/annual101/speakers/?pid=2160

The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is pleased to announce that Sharon Pajka-West will be speaking at the 2009 NCTE Annual Convention.

Pajka-West, of Gallaudet University, Washington, DC, will be presenting during the roundtable session, "Comics, Contacts, and Conflicts: Graphic Novels In the Classroom." An excerpt from the description of this session in the Convention Program reads:

Practicing English teachers and teacher educators share experiences working with young people-adolescents and pre-service ELA teachers-as they make powerful text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world connections vis contact and conflict with comics and graphic novels.

The session will be held from 9:30 AM to 10:45 AM on Friday, November 20, 2009.

Each year, the NCTE Annual Convention draws thousands of K-12 teachers, college faculty, administrators, and other educational professionals from around the world. They gather to hear award-winning speakers, attend idea-packed sessions, share best practices, participate in workshops, and test the latest teaching materials. The 2009 NCTE Annual Convention will be held November 19-22, in Philadelphia, PA.

For more information, or to register for the Convention, visit http://www.ncte.org/annual.

Understanding Diversity in Comics: A Look at Marvel Comics' Echo- Multilingual, Biracial and Deaf

View more presentations from Sharon Pajka-West.

Gallaudet's writer-in-residence Myron Uhlberg's presentation

Writer-in-residence Myron Uhlberg presented today, or rather told three dynamic stories, about his childhood and his Deaf parents to the Gallaudet University community this afternoon in Elstad Auditorium. Uhlberg, although I think I can call my friend Myron, began with a story about how his parents always considered him such a strange kid. He explained that to be like his father whom he so admired (although I shouldn't use the past tense here because it is clear that everything he does is still to earn the respect of his father and mother whom have both passed) he put bubble gum in his ears as a young boy to make himself deaf. 


While his first story was humorous, the second story about his boxing performance had the audience rolling. Lastly, Myron recounted how his father, a printer by trade, would make printer's hats for him. Young Myron, and I would argue the adult Myron too, so loved these hats that he would often beg him mother to allow him to  sleep in them. 


While I could go on and on about how much I adore Myron Uhlberg (I do! This professional crush tops them all-- move over Josh Swiller and David Mack... okay, I'm still crushing on all of you), my favorite part of his personality is how he connects with our Gallaudet students. When I first had the idea to bring him to campus, I knew how fascinating I found Myron once he started storytelling, but I wasn't sure if a gentleman in his 70's would be able to capture the attentions of 18-year-old freshmen. During his February visit, he captured the hearts of so many. Today's presentation was no exception. He made us laugh and cry! His final message to our students was for them to go write their own stories, "It isn't hard. You write a story from your heart... a true story for you!"


Videos to come!!!

New in Young Adult

Ricky's Adventures by Rick S. Decker
Reading level: Young Adult
Perfect Paperback: 160 pages
Publisher: Tate Publishing (October 13, 2009)

Main Character Ricky is deaf.
Product Description
I guess we never can tell about some of the things we do in life and how they will affect other people later on...I guess that's why it's so important to always try to do the right thing in life, huh, Ricky? Ricky lives life in 'the middle.' In the middle of his brothers. In the middle of the city and country life. And in the middle of every new adventure just waiting right around the corner. Beginning with the discovery of the artesian well near his parents' home to unearthing pirate booty and the secret family history that has been buried for decades, follow Ricky down the hot-sand sidewalks of 1969 Florida to the best places 'in all the world'. With the help of his camouflaged G.I. Joe survival watch, Ricky will transport you to a different time; a time with Peggy's Popcorn, the 'cowboy life' in Texas, road trips, and bicycling to new places in hopes of discovering the unknown. Learn about life in the middle during Ricky's Adventures!

CODA Author Myron Uhlberg returns to Gallaudet University

It may not come as a surprise to anyone that Gallaudet University's First Year Experience program annual Common Reading book selection is Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love by Myron Uhlberg. After a presentation on April 14 by Common Reading Committee members, community members expressed positive feedback for both Mr. Uhlberg’s new publication as well as his February campus visit which was well-received by students, faculty and staff. Uhlberg is a critically acclaimed award-winning author of several children's picture books (Dad, Jackie & Me, The Printer) that often include accounts of his Deaf parents.

The committee felt that Hands of My Father provides a framework for community members to interact while creating a sense of community in and outside the classroom, and looks forward to the numerous intellectual discussions that will derive from this memoir.
 
This week, Gallaudet's Daily Digest posted:
Presentation by writer-in-residence Myron Uhlberg
Myron Uhlberg will speak about his groundbreaking book, Hands of My Father: A Hearing Boy, His Deaf Parents, and the Language of Love, on Thursday, October 22 at 12:30 p.m. in Elstad Auditorium. This public presentation is the culmination of Mr. Uhlberg's three-week stay at Gallaudet University as a writer-in-residence.


Mr. Uhlberg's book is the Common Reading selection for all first-year students for the 2009-2010 academic year. He is currently visiting all GSR 101 classes, and other classes by invitation, and will also meet Kendall Demonstration Elementary School and Model Secondary School for the Deaf students and teachers.


http://aaweb.gallaudet.edu/Daily_Digest/EventXite_-_Announcements/Public_Presentation_by_Writer-in-Residence_Myron_Uhlberg_.html

Jacqueline Woodson interview about her book, Feathers, and Deaf Culture

This video is not captioned, for click here for a transcript.

Read my interview with Jacqueline Woodson!

Sifting Dirt by Willy Conley

SIFTING DIRT by Willy Conley

Thanks to Adreanaline for posting a comment about this story.

Ashley Fiolek featured in Might Motoxers

Mighty Motoxers (X-Moves) by Michael Sandler

Library Binding: 24 pages

Publisher: Bearport Publishing (August 2009)

Includes artciles on the history of Motorcross and includes one article about Ashley Fiolek who races as a pro on the Women's Motorcross Association circuit.

Minor Deaf Charactes in Spring Break

Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke by Patti B. Pruitt

• Paperback: 74 pages
• Publisher: Dorrance Publishing (July 16, 2009)

Deaf Characters: There is a brief scene where a few Deaf boys who use Sign Language nearly drown and are saved.

• Product Description
  Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke is the second installment of the surprising adventures of young Jason and the leprechaun he has inherited from his grandfather.
  
  Now almost nine years old, Jason looks forward to his much-anticipated spring break in Destin with his family and friends but their plans are threatened by the appearance of the bratty cousins and a series of other near catastrophes. While Paddy continues to revel in impish pranks at the expense of Jason's pride, he and his unusual friends are also close at hand to smooth the way for his young friend when the need arises.
  
  Readers of all ages will enjoy the spirited comedy that develops in Spring Break with Paddy O'Rourke as we come to better know Ms. Pruitt's engaging characters in this rollicking sequel to Meeting Paddy O'Rourke.

Interview with Deaf Playwright Willy Conley

Playwright and Gallaudet University Professor Willy Conley feature deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing characters created

from the Deaf perspective in his latest work, "Vignettes of the Deaf Character": And Other Plays by Willy Conley Gallaudet University Press; 1st Edition edition (May 15, 2009). His work has also been recently featured in Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology, John Lee Clark, Editor (March 2009).

Because I often believe I am the luckiest girl in the world, I actually met Willy Conley one morning on the Gallaudet shuttle while heading to work. He recognized me from my blog (giggles... how dorky for THE Willy Conley to recognize ME!). I get overly excited when I receive emails from famous people so you can only imagine my excitement sitting next to him. As I always do, I asked for an interview.

************************ Check out my interview with Willy Conley below************************

SPW: Will you explain when you started writing poetry and plays? I read that you noticed how most of the NTID plays were written by hearing people and that was how you became inspired... I'd love for you to elaborate on that.

WC: I believe I wrote my first poem while in college – a sappy, Hallmark-type of poem that I wrote for my mother (who can hear) to send to her on Mother’s Day. It wasn’t until after I took a course in poetry that I began to learn about reading and writing “real” poetry. Real poetry for me involved poems that stimulated my eyes, imagination, and feelings more than my ears. Sure, if I wrote something that rhymed, followed a traditional poetic formula, and sounded cool to the ears, fine by me. But, if I wrote something that was visually or emotionally stunning or provocative, that was a real poem for me.

My first play was written in parts on a big Greyhound bus after I graduated college and was on tour as an actor for three years with the National Theatre of the Deaf. We performed in plays typically written by famous hearing playwrights who originally thought of hearing characters talking in English. If you think that’s an absurd situation for a group of mostly Deaf actors who communicate in American Sign Language – you are right!

As a Deaf actor, it felt artificial to act in a role originally written for a hearing actor from the hearing point of view, no matter how much adaptation was done to get me to fit the mold. After traveling around the U.S. performing in over 500 shows to mostly hearing audiences, I decided it was time to get formal training in playwriting. I then went to graduate school at Boston University to study playwriting. Lucky for me, my teacher, Derek Walcott, won the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is a poet and a playwright. I wanted to be able to write plays with deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing characters created from the Deaf perspective. I loved the opportunity to create art with my own characters born out of little sparks of imagination and found pieces of everyday life – this is every playwright’s dream, deaf or hearing. To have that live, moving, three-dimensional art put on stage before an audience would double the thrill. I imagined opportunities for more Deaf theatre companies and university theatres to produce works by Deaf playwrights, which in turn would create more jobs for deaf and hard of hearing people.

SPW: How did you first become published?

WC: In college, I took a course called, Deaf Characters in Literature and Film from the phenomenal, well-known Deaf professor, Dr. Robert F. Panara (you can read about his awesome life and teaching career in:“Teaching from the Heart and Soul”). He taught us how to look for the “Deaf Experience” in the books we read and the films we watched. We would closely examine each to see if a “Deaf Experience” was real or fake to us. Then, he asked us to write an essay about a specific Deaf Experience that we had in our lives. Since I was a Biomedical Photography major at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), I wrote a story about my experience as a medical photography intern called to photograph open-heart surgery, and trying to lipread doctors and nurses who were wearing face masks. Panara gave me an “A” for the paper and encouraged me to submit it to RIT’s literary magazine, Symposium. I followed his advice and notched my very first piece of published writing. It is a very special feeling to see a part of your imagination and/or real-life experience become concrete and real on the pages of a book. It is sort of what the famous diarist once wrote: “We write to taste life twice.”

SPW: I’ve admired Panara’s work for some time now. Tell me what type of research do you do for your plays and your poetry?

WC: Generally, my research involves studying my own feelings about life as well as people from all walks of life -- paying close attention to how they behave, dress, communicate; figuring out what they like or what bothers them. If there is something technical that I need to learn more about -- like the history of bomb shelters -- I go to libraries to read up on them, take notes, and make photocopies, if necessary.

SPW: What do you hope that readers will learn or take away from your work?

WC: That the experience, or imagined experience, that you write about is uniquely yours, whether you’re D/deaf, hard-of-hearing, hearing, male, female, straight, gay, black, white, green or purple – no one can take that away from you.

SPW: What advice would you give to young people who are reading your poems for the first time?

WC: Try to imagine that you are looking at photographs, or watching a movie clip.

********************************************************************************* For more information about Willy Conley or to buy his book, follow this link that describes the book and receive a promotional code to receive 20% off. http://gupress.gallaudet.edu/enewsletters/enewsletter118.html