National Technical Institute for the Deaf

In addition to his teaching duties at NTID, Kenny Lerner, who is hearing, also creates ASL poetry with a deaf collaborator and RIT alum, Peter Cook under the name “Flying Words Project.” Together the two have created a rich and vital form of performance art combining ASL signing, mime, movement and spoken word, and have performed across the United States.
 
Flying Words caught the eye of professors from the Linguistics and Sign Language Studies Departments at the University of Venice (Universita Ca' Foscari Venezia) when the pair performed at an international sign language linguistics conference in Indianapolis two years ago. The result was a trip to Venice fall 2011 where Kenny and Peter conducted two workshops and gave a performance of their ASL poetry.
 
Kenny and Peter had interpreters translate their discussion of ASL poetry into Italian Sign Language called Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS). The workshop provided an opportunity to discuss ASL poetry techniques as well as provide the 60 participants with hands-on exercises that allowed them to play with LIS in a poetic manner. “This was a fascinating process that gave me a smattering of Italian sign and quite a few laughs,” says Kenny.
 
The week culminated in a performance in a beautiful theater where Flying Words gave an hour-long performance of their work. Italian written translations projected on a screen allowed the audience to understand the signs and spoken words that Peter and Kenny presented. The discussion that evolved after the show was enlightening. “Italian, English, ASL, LIS and gestures were flying all over the room,” says Kenny. “At one point, I was totally surrounded by Italians so I became completely lost. A young lady with poor spoken English skills interpreted the conversation in half ASL and half LIS to me, so I could follow what was going on. Sometimes Peter translated Italian sign into ASL for me, sometimes I was interpreting English into ASL for Peter, and sometimes I don't know how anybody understood anybody else, but we did!
 
“After only five days, I came back to the United States with an unparalleled linguistic and cultural experience. It was a great time, a fun workshop and an experience I will never forget!”
 
More information on the Flying Words Project can be found at http://web.mac.com/peterscook1/Site/Flying_Words_Project.html