18 thoughts on “Final Projects”

  1. Justin Celebi

    Here it is!

    A Story of Deafclarations

    Dear every adult ever who belatedly noticed my cochlear implants and didn’t do a good job of hiding the sudden look of panic,
    I understand your surprise. At least if someone’s in a wheelchair, you know what you’re in for.

    Dear person who met me and chatted in a perfectly normal manner for a few minutes until I turned my head and you saw what was on my ears,
    HEL-LO? Can you HEAR ME?? It is VERY NICE to MEET YOU! How are you TO-DAY? I am FINE!
    You really don’t need to make yourself sound like an Elmo toy with a malfunctioning sound chip. Yeah, that’s how it sounds to me, too.

    Dear people who have apparently been living under a rock since 1987,
    No, “deaf” is not synonymous with “mute” anymore.

    Dear people who keep staring at my cochlear implants while desperately trying not to say anything,
    Forget politeness, just ask me. At that point, you’re making it more awkward than the little kids who ask me upfront, “Hey, what’s that thing on your ear?”

    Dear people who took a class in American Sign Language in college,
    I really do hate to disappoint you. You see my cochlear implants, and your eyes light up. Finally, you think, you can put those wasted class credits to use by being a good accommodating citizen! Unfortunately, I have no idea what on God’s green earth you’re saying when you start flapping your hands at me. I haven’t known anything resembling fluent sign language since I was five years old. You might have better luck signing to a hummingbird or an elephant seal.

    Dear overconfident gossipers,
    I can hear what you’re saying and you need to stop. This is a quiet room, you’re five feet away, and you’re the only two people talking. What, do you think I’m DEAF or something? Oh. Wait.
    I can see the confusion. Guess I’ll just leave. It’s less embarrassing than telling you guys to stop
    and having you realize that I now know every single juicy detail of your love lives.

    Dear anyone who watched Grey’s Anatomy or House or any other serial medical drama:
    My so-called “brain surgery” was much less harrowing and dangerous than you might think. The implant goes in my cochlea, which is nowhere near my brain, believe it or not.

    Dear overly enthusiastic all-caps internet commenters who are exponentially less smarter than they think they are,
    Yes, I know that many people in the deaf community still oppose cochlear implants. Yes, it does sound stupid. Why would anyone want to deny their child the gift of hearing?
    Maybe because for centuries, deaf people grew up in a world where it was impossible to attempt life in the land of the hearing and they were forced to form their own communities to survive. Maybe because in those communities, it wasn’t considered a flaw to be deaf—it was considered a cultural point of pride in themselves. Maybe because cochlear implants forced the definition of deafness to regress from a trait to be proud of back to a flaw in need of correction, and that was more than the deaf community could bear. Maybe because a deaf person “going mainstream” is something that still carries an enormous risk. Maybe because the quality of life with cochlear implants still varies tremendously. Maybe because cochlear implants are a technology that’s barely been around for half a lifetime.
    Surprise, we’re not a monolith.

    Dear person who I just asked “What?” to for the fifth time in a row,
    No, I’m not disrespecting you. I literally can’t hear what you’re trying to say. Cochlear implants aren’t a miracle machine. If there’s background noise, if there’s other people talking, if you’re mumbling your words, then I can’t hear a damn thing. Please, for the love of god, do not say “never mind” and walk away if I ask you to repeat what you said. Nothing fills me with rage faster than that.

    Dear Hollywood,
    I am tired of the same story being told over and over again. Deaf people can talk. I am not an outlier.

    Dear attentive listeners,
    If I sound like I’ve contradicted myself, that’s because deafness is full of contradictions.

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1nW41x7ejK7HGZr8FX8HXw_xV7IPgEPsfGA0OFq7OMUU/edit?usp=sharing

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  4. Samuel Dubner

    Two Worlds

    You bury your head deeper into your textbook,
    the dark stained wood walls close in on you
    suffocating
    you are trapped.
    A momentary panic as you check the clock
    The door swings open,
    the green mountains unfolding before him
    as he makes his way across
    the cool linoleum floor
    to dress himself
    He glances at his phone
    I need to get to class!

    With a groan you rise from your
    intellectually induced coma.
    The bookcases loom over you as you
    precariously navigate your classmates
    Backlit Apple logos become
    valued buffers, as you avoid small talk.
    The cool Vermont air feels
    refreshing and invigorating on his skin.
    His lungs,
    mind
    body.
    The snow crunches under his feet

    What do I need to do today?

    You are once again sent into a panic.
    Did you get enough done
    at the library?
    Were you really productive with your time?
    “Hey, do you when that English paper due?”
    someone calls out behind you.
    He is pulled out of his ruminations
    by a teammate walking toward him.
    “There he is! How’s the man doing today?”
    the upperclassmen bellows.
    He gives a casual nod,
    smiles,
    and moves on

    Did they ask me something?

    The knot in your stomach tightens.
    The walls, asylum white,
    the blinding LED light,
    the sheet metal gray of the stairs
    close in around you.
    You are alone.
    He looks up,
    over the mountains.
    As his gaze settles,
    the people emerge.
    Strangers and friends alike,
    milling before him.
    Am I ok?

    You look around.
    You don’t know.
    He sees a friend walking towards him.
    He begins to smile.

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  8. Peter Diamandis

    That’s What I Meant, I Guess
    By Skylar Diamandis

    Their talking but you’re ears don’t understand
    Me and you don’t speak like that
    For whom it may concern,
    Or, um, to whom it may concern?
    Who’s whom? Whose whom?
    What’s the big deal? You get what I mean,

    I mean, you understand, right?
    What else is there to know?
    I talk, you listen,
    You nod, I keep going.
    We chew the fat, chitchat, converse, parley.
    Do we prattle or prate?
    Can you tell the difference? Because I can’t.

    This is the epitome of English,
    The epi•tome.
    Do I sound pedantic or just unintelligent?
    The verbiage (ver•bij, ver•baj, ver•bi•ij?) is too much.
    I read it, but can’t say it,
    And yet, you know
    What I’ve been saying this whole time.

    You do understand! But I don’t
    Understand what I am
    Doing wrong.

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  11. Clara Wolcott

    https://drive.google.com/open?id=1F1mOCfZdgNJUGPT98QQVve3x-auj0xYx

    Memory

    We hold everything in this tiny little soul of ours.

    The more we learn, the more we think, the more we either hate or love or both and it doesn’t let us go it can’t let us go because then we are not human are not individuals are not ourselves You are not yourself I am not myself

    we have these tired cells in our tired brains that spunk and flutter and can’t seem to make a thing because that’s not our job.

    passing down or not passing down

    living in borders, living outside of borders

    better or worse?

    How much do we hold?

    How much can we say?

    How much can I say? When I seem to have no history worth saying.

    But wait.

    How much do we keep: Do we keep Aunts’, do we keep Mothers’, do we keep Fathers’, do we keep Farfars’ or Farmors’ or Nannies’ or Grandbills’ or sisters’ or Isaacs’ or friends’ or who else.

    Who else can we keep?

    Why else can we keep?

    Do we hold histories do we seek our heritage or do we, do we, do we not?

    That doesn’t seem right. None of this seems right.

    The bulls, the light, the gardens, the lobes, the rooms, the beauty, the blackness, the otherness, the ‘natural’, the ‘unnatural’, all are tied up in the same thing:

    Memories

    History,

    a longing for what isn’t ours and the desperation to be what we are not and the insecurities and the pain when we follow through or when our lobed ones follow through or we are incapapctiated by our lobe or by our hate and we have everything passed down upon us by our parents,

    or lack of,

    our grandparents,

    or lack of,

    our friends,

    or lack of,

    our homes,

    or lack of,

    our belonging,

    or lack of,

    ourselves…or lack of.

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  13. Lauren Eskra

    Into/Out of
    I was born like Caesar
    Sectioned out of my mother

    We enter through doorways,
    Crawl into Wardrobes
    But we only define the crossing,
    Not the beginning or ending

    What Adults Do
    • Take care of themselves?
    • Take care of others?
    • Think?
    o Acceptignoredreamofelsewhere
    What American Adults do
    • Cars, Houses, nine to five jobs, yelling at your wife
    • ~

    Boys are Boys and always will be
    except when they’re girls
    In this case raise a doll like your future child,
    PRAXIS of adulthood
    except when they never grow up
    white women fight to be not be defined bymen (ms)
    black women fight to exist ontologically (mrsmiss)

    mental illness is Closed, Self-Centered, Cutting,
    killing
    she can work but not talk
    talk but not work
    and now she’s nothing at all

    Children
    •

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  14. Aidan Wertz

    I wrote out the script for everyone, here’s a link to access it because it would be formatted strangely on the comments.

    Something I want to make clear: while I am critical of academia in the larger sense, this class has been relevant and important in my opinion. This was the purpose of the scene where you all were reading the quotes from books we have read in the semester; these books end the silence, they crack the heart in two, they bring out the guilt… and more.

    Hopefully the video will be up soon, I’ll add it to the comments section of this comment (#commentception).

    https://docs.google.com/document/d/1S5N-vK08vxrvNPxceXLb1PIMGKGbLNLR9ge1ogRbjUg/edit?usp=sharing

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  15. Acadia Hegedus

    TED Talk: “The surprising neuroscience of gender inequality” by Janet Crawford, TedX San Diego

    Crawford’s central argument, in her TED Talk, is that gender equity is not a single gender issue, but a universal one; both women and men equally contribute to gender inequality. She uses evidence from implicit association tests to show how all humans are unconsciously biased in regards to gender. She also describes how we create environments to create these biases, like in the media. To address gender inequalities, therefore, since it is unconscious, our society shouldn’t blame others, but speak out when one sees these biases. Both men and women would benefit from an upheaval of this inequality.

    Since this TED Talk was primarily based in neuroscience, I share similar ideas to this topic (I can’t disagree with scientific evidence). For me, when thinking about borders, I am obsessed by the human brain’s tendencies to categorize the world and how borders are manifested as a result. This idea of creating binaries, and inequalities, unconsciously, can not only be applied to gender but to borders between races, nationalities, and humans/animals as well.

    Dance
    Did you know who my great-great-great-great….great-grandmother was?
    She was your great-great-great-great….great-grandmother, too.
    Her name was LUCA.
    L. U. C. A.
    a n o n
    s i m c
    t v m e
    e o s
    r n t
    s o
    a r
    l
    She was a small, single-celled organism, prokaryote.
    From her, all life shares an ancestor.
    They say she lived on the ocean floor.

    Slowly, over years and years, a more complex organism emerged.
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    Cyanobacteria
    years
    years
    years
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    Eukaryotes
    from a parasitic relationship
    with little organelles
    years
    years
    years
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    EXPLOSION
    algae flowing
    years
    years
    fish feeding
    years, multiply
    tetrapod reaches land crawling
    insects, spiders, flies buzzing
    PLANTS
    years
    years
    years
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    ferns, seeded trees
    oxygen
    years
    years
    years
    archosaurs
    multiply, multiply
    BOOM explosion
    death
    ROAR!
    Dinosaurs
    years
    years
    years
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    squid zipping, floating
    birds chirping, flying
    shrews waiting, hiding
    BOOM explosion
    years
    years
    years
    lemurs swinging
    multiply, multiply, multiply
    apes
    years, multiply
    neanderthals
    and after many more years, conflict, death,
    the human came to be.

    They say what differentiates us from our ancestors,
    Brothers, sisters
    Is the human brain
    Computing
    Combining ideas
    Mental symbols
    Abstract thinking
    It is from this organ, this product of evolution
    That so many borders emerged
    Defining
    Time
    Nations
    Cultures
    Languages
    Sexualities
    All dualities

    What is a human but an animal?
    Seeing, breathing, flowing, feeding, zipping, swinging
    Hungry
    Just because we can think to think,
    Create and differentiate
    Categorize
    Label
    We are still animals
    A mere branch in the tree of life
    So many borders existing as a result of an organ
    Struggling to exist just like every other being
    We suppose our brains separate us
    make us superior
    But in fact this border
    these border
    Only exists within
    So, to seek unity once again,
    We must look within.

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