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The enchanting music of sign language | Christine Sun Kim
She was taught sound wasn't hers. So she took it back, and showed us the music in sign language. 🤟
Who it's for
Kim describes learning that sound was something hearing people owned and policed, then deciding to unlearn that and claim it in her art, which models reclaiming something you were told was off-limits.
Feelings it meets
What it is
In a talk given in American Sign Language at the TED Fellows Retreat in 2015, Deaf sound artist Christine Sun Kim describes growing up being taught that sound belonged to hearing people. She explains how she learned the 'etiquette' of sound by watching how hearing people respond to it, came to see sound as a kind of social currency, and reclaimed it through her art.
Where to find it
YouTube, official TED channel (free). Transcript on TED.com.
Before you start
Age: Ages 9+
This above all: to thine own self be true,William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3
