05.05.01 - Meeting Siepee
50th clip. Title: Meeting Siepee. 3:21 minutes long. Total: 4:38:55 hours.
Since this is the 50th clip, let it be a time to pause for a little celebration and reflection. It has been a year ago last summer when the story-epic-myth began its next manifestation in the form of a blog - video, art, and words weaved into a “web-book” in ASL on the internet. Sometimes far in a corner of my mind, I ask if the myth itself is waiting for the internet to arrive?
NEW CHANGES: The post titling changes - chapter title will be abbreviated like SM here and the clip title moves up to become the post title. Pictures of the Cadenhead and Unane-Bortin scrolls will be added. They can be viewed in the youtube myth compilation video (link). Certain images from these two scrolls will be used (I’ll try) to flow with the text, like blog artists do in the a ‘ la ronda oceanic ways.
I was about to post 05.05 last month when I found out that this clip is the 50th so I held back and waited until I finish signing the 2nd half of the saga in one stretch. I am done “for now”. Only chapter 11 is not yet signed as it’ll have over 20 clips. The Deaf Child becomes the Deaf Adult only in one chapter of the whole story/history. Check toc (table of contents) at the top of the page. It is an important chapter covering the “maturation” and empowerment of the deaf community.
The recent 6 days signing straight stretch process to finish signing the 2nd half found me exhilarated and others. I flitted from one part of deaf history to an aspect of my/our deaf life today, zigzagging back and forth, in weaving information into ASL art in a certain clip. I was struck agape once again that it was actually a mythmaking process. (also considered as novel-making). Let me type here Joseph Campbell’s words that satisfied me deeply.
Mythology is an organization of images metaphoric of experience, action, and fulfillment of the human spirit in the field of a given culture at a given time.
It is what I was and still am doing. Head swaying here again.
This story/epic yet remains to become a/the certified mythology of the deaf community. To reach the same level of symbiosis between sacred literature (myths/religions) and their people all over the world, the deaf community, for a long time, never had that symbiosis until lately. The deaf community DO have sacred literature in the form of raw history and legends, but not yet transformed into a simple sacred archetypal story. And it boggles my mind to continue in this stream of thought . . .
. . . now I take a deep breath, look around, and be appreciative. Celebrate that I can and did reach the 50th. I go day by day, with the sun up and down, focusing on posting each clip slowly after time and finish probably next summer. For you, viewers, readers, and especially the sweet commenters, thank you for staying with and supporting me. Onward to 75th, 100th, then the 125th clip!
Now here to the 05.05 clip -
The 50th clip of the Deaf Child mythology is posted with saluting hands and our heads bent in thanks to our earliest “superintendent” of deaf schools in the past. The Deaf Child finally meets Abbe Siepee. We, in our minds - bow/bent, and “think” - that we thank those historical personage behind the archetype of Siepee for being instrumental in shaping the turn of events in deaf history. Epee’s and Sicard’s work in Paris as the first and second director of the “first” signing school for the deaf.
Enjoy the meeting between the deaf child and the director of the monastery, Abbe Siepee. Click away . . .
Click here for YouTube or click here for DVTV if above undownloadable, too slow, or preferring full screen.
05.05 Images: New Feature - I have about 12 scrolls made by students in my former five deaf studies/history classes. The best few of these were scanned. For now, I will put the images here, later weaved a’ la ronda. Some will be cropped to a certain image, like the Cadenhead pastel art, or a wide shot like the Bortin collage art.
From the Cadenhead Scroll -
From the Unane-Bortin Scroll -
Myth Commentary: In the journey of the Deaf Child, meeting Siepee was somehow similar for almost every deaf person meeting the “principal” of the signing (and oral) deaf school. Meeting your “teacher in authority” is experienced by most, if not all, deaf people.
The Deaf Child is all deaf/hh people collectively “speaking”. What the deaf child experienced at the castle and/or the monastery reflect most of the deaf/hh people’s education, except for those in the public schools in the last 30 years. That comes in the Leather Book chapter.
After the Castle, the Deaf Child now feels peace and serenity in the Monastery. The pressure of the castle and the natural feel at the monastery - the dichotomy between them, to speak or to sign, is the deaf experience from the past into the present.
Deaf History Commentary: Deaf history behind this clip involves stories of Massieu meeting Sicard in Bordeaux, Clerc meeting Sicard/Massieu, and Berthier meeting Sicard/Clerc/Massieu and more deaf teachers. Clerc was the one many American students who met and some of them went on to be teachers/administrators at other schools. And it goes on and on until when I first met Richard Brill, my superintendent in CSDRiverside, in 1965. The cycle continues to me and my current and future deaf students . . .
Deaf history commentary on this clip will focus on Epee and Sicard, both an abbe. The writing and signing I envision including video in ASL requires time and work. So for now, here are just two paragraphs in English.
Charles Michel de l’Epee (1712 - 1789) continues to be honored and cherished by culturally deaf people today. His place in deaf history is in the beginning - in the genesis of deaf history. Deaf communities and standardized sign languages seriously became permanent on earth due to the establishment of deaf signing schools. That is also why we need to continue to honor (and revere) Epee. He was the first director. He started the deaf school later in his life. He did not invent sign language but used what was already out there among deaf people in the streets of Paris. He tried to mold the signing to reflect French written language - which is known as methodological signed French. The earliest deaf sacred spaces arrived with a merely simple act of starting a school which still links to us all today.
Roch Ambroise Cucurron Sicard (1742 - 1822) is a more interesting tale to tell. Epee’s successor was not a humble aesetic-type of a monk like himself. Sicard was more flamboyant one. He loved to give speeches, explained “his” miracle how the deaf could be educated, raised money, and intermingled into the French government with the King and the court. During his time, many French intellectuals, thinkers, royalty, and the common people flocked to his demonstrations with sign language and deaf education. His flamboyant ways critically helped the school in many ways but it almost killed him. The story of Sicard during the French Revolution needs to be told. So many deaf people do not know this story. (Here is where the future link to ck narrating this story in ASL). Sicard had to flee France to England and there, met Gallaudet who probably was enroute to Paris. And I could go on and on.
Deafhood Questions: Do you remember meeting your first principal at a deaf school or program? Do you still have memories of the first time you met a signing educational “superior” of the school you are about to attend? Have you ever experience the longing to go to a state residential school but couldn’t for various reasons, and having to stay at local public schools/programs? What was it like for you to finally meet the deaf and hearing administrators? More questions can be added here.
“Honor Thy Deaf History”