NEFA's Creative City Announces DeafBlind Salsa Dancing

The New England Foundation for the Arts' Creative City program announces Movements to Move the Marginalized from the Margins, a community arts project led by dancer and DeafBlind activist Kerry Thompson. Over the summer, her non-profit organization Silent Rythms has joined with MetaMovements, at their summer Salsa In the Park series. Weekly, during each Salsa night, Thompson invites folks from the DeafBlind community as well as those of all abilities, to learn to Salsa dance. The final event of the summer is August 27, 2018, 6pm, and is free and open to the public, for all ages and abilities.

"I wanted to share my own love of dancing with people around me," Thompson explains. "Many friends who were Deaf, Hard of Hearing, or DeafBlind would lament to me about how they wished they could learn to dance. Yes, learning how to dance when you are Deaf/DeafBlind is much more challenging due to communication barriers and not being able to hear the music. However, it is possible to learn--often the way one teaches dance would need to be modified. The classes became so popular and people from other disability groups reached out to me about joining my dance class; that's how Silent Rhythms, Inc. was born - as a way to promote inclusion to the arts, including dance, for all people with disabilities."

Thompson continues, "in the last year, I've focused on a special project under Silent Rhythms, called Movements to Move the Marginalized from the Margins. I wanted to work with my own disability group - those who are DeafBlind- and tailor a dance class that adapts to our unique communication needs while understanding the other barriers that people who are DeafBlind have in accessing any cultural activities. While my intention was to bring DeafBlind people together to learn dance and to meet volunteers from the Dance community as part of bridging communities, what I learned was that there are so few opportunities for members of the Deafblind community to come together so it was really empowering to watch members of this community come together and do more than dance. They shared their stories and struggles with each other and they also shared resources, tools, advice and technology that helps them in their day-to-day life."

"I have been teaching both the Deaf and Deafblind community how to dance and there has been numerous benefits. First, is the amazing feeling anyone gets when learning something new and then learn how to do it well. The second is discovering that access to the arts is not some bonus prize for them, it is their right as enshrined by the Americans with Disabilities Act to have access to the arts. The best part of learning to dance is the people you meet and the friendships that form--whether you are hearing or Deaf or DeafBlind."

"Further, I have learned both the depth of human kindness as well as inhumane treatment of people with disabilities. It has been important to focus on those acts of kindness and support rather than the discrimination and hatred. It helps drive my work even more to find ways to educate society about the existence of people who are DeafBlind and the importance of including us."

About Kerry Thompson

Kerry M. Thompson is the Executive Director for Silent Rhythms, Inc., a nonprofit organization she founded dedicated to achieving inclusion in the arts for people of all abilities. She is a renowned dance instructor and has performed worldwide including in Paris and Havana. In addition, she is a global human rights activist driven by her own struggles as a person with Deafblindness. She co-created Text4Deaf, a communication tool to bridge the communication gap between the Deaf and Hearing communities in healthcare. Since 2008, she has worked to advance human rights in developing countries as part of her work with the Disability Rights Fund. She is the co-author for Human Rights and Adolescence (2014. University of Pennsylvania Press) and has written several blogs. She currently serves as the Vice Chair on the Massachusetts Statewide Advisory Council, the Board of Directors for DEAF, Inc. She is a Board Liaison for the DeafBlind Community Access Network Advisory Council.

In 2014, she was awarded the German Marshall Fund for the United States' Marshall Memorial Fellowship becoming the first woman with a disability to be awarded this fellowship. In 2016, she became a White House Fellowship National Finalist. In 2017, she was awarded the Women in Latin Dance (WILD) Award. She completed a Master's degree in Human Development and Psychology from Harvard University with a focus on international law and human rights.

About Community Partner DEAF Inc.

DEAF, Inc. was founded in 1977 by Deaf leaders from the National Association of the Deaf and the Massachusetts State Association of the Deaf. It is one of the first multi-service community-based agencies run by and for people who are Deaf, DeafBlind, Hard of Hearing, or Late-Deafened. We provide Deaf and Hard of Hearing Independent Living, health literacy and support, community access for DeafBlind adults, and related services. All our staff are community members proficient in various communication methods, so they can communicate directly with people to assess their needs and to work with them to set up services to meet their needs.

http://www.deafinconline.org/

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