Northwest Deaf Arts Festival
June 16th 2018
I served as the Artistic & Technical Director for the NW Deaf Arts Festival. For the first time in Portland’s history, the event brought together top national Deaf musicians, dancers, and artists who shared a vision for an inclusive and innovative multi-sensory event for both Deaf and hearing audiences.
The NW Deaf Arts Festival introduces cutting edge sound visualizations, interactive lighting displays, open captions, and even the experience of tactile sound, providing an immersive and inclusive experience beyond sound for everyone and anyone.
According to the US Census, more than 180,000 Oregonians have difficulty hearing. Many experience isolation and negative stigma. It is my goal to tackle these challenges by providing role models and increasing awareness of Deaf culture, which has a rich heritage of social beliefs, behaviors, literary traditions, values and artistic talent.
Headlining the NWDAF was Detroit’s Deaf hip-hop artist Sean Forbes who complements his lyrics with American Sign Language. Sean has created a series of popular music videos with Oscar-winning Deaf actress Marlee Matlin and Deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie. The festival also featured dance sensation Antoine Hunter of the Urban Jazz Dance Company, and renowned Deaf poet Raymond Luczak. In addition, several local performing artists were on the roster, including myself as a multimedia performer.
I am especially proud of our technical team who work year around to create the lighting and tactile technology for this event. Our goal is to create inventions which are accessible to all. We share these inventions by making our software and hardware free and open-source.
Northwest Deaf Arts Festival website: http://www.nwdeafartsfest.com/
CymaSpace website: http://www.cymaspace.org
CymaSpace website: http://www.cymaspace.org
Press
Oregon Public Broadcasting, Think Out Loud: Deaf Musician Myles de Bastion Founds Northwest Deaf Arts Festival
