HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

⬐ 082349872349872

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If we ever need someone to dance about architecture, I think Awti def makes the short list!

⬐ sethjgore

know asl myself - though what do you mean by this?

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⬐ sethjgore

know what, never mind. you meant the sign of architecture right?

⬐ 082349872349872

Sorry, those were supposed to be two pronated hands, twice, which the internet tells me signs "excellent".

https://i.giphy.com/paRJJnkjPyKxHyTCAg.gif

⬐ AndrewOMartin

Dancing is about architecture. ;)

⬐ ksaj

When I was a kid, my similarly-aged neighbour was deaf. So I learned ASL (versus Signed English, which is related but not the same) and grew proficient enough to have deaf people assume I was also deaf. It's been years now, so I'm horribly rough at it.

Anyway, we used to do a type of poetry that I haven't ever found online, and completely different in character to the more "common" style of poetry in this video. It basically took the spelling of a word, and "mimed" it out into an action or a story.

A super-simple example to learn from: Hold the letter Y in the air above the letter O. Now mimic the motions of playing with a YOYO.

A less-simple example that tells more of a story: With the letters for the word FLOWER you mime out: F - planting a row of seeds, with the other hand extended flat to represent the ground. L - watering the seeds with a watering can. Now put O underneath the "ground" as you will be miming the seed growing. As the O pushes up through the ground and your arm becomes a stem, now open the O into the W to represent the flower. Now turn it into an E, which represents the flower bud swelling with new seeds, then do the letter R and point it downward in the way that flowers prepare to deliver new seeds to the ground.

We had quite a few of these "poems" (for lack of a better word, because I don't really know how to classify them). I think it's a really interesting way to teach finger spelling to both hearing and deaf children.

⬐ chris_st

Is this related to the visual puns in ASL? For example, holding "O" in one hand, and "L" in the other; have the "L" pass from behind the "O" to in front to sign "El Paso".

⬐ uranium

Another I learned from an ASL class years ago:

Do the sign for "milk" with you hand moving across your face. It's "past your eyes" milk.

⬐ ksaj

I hadn't heard of either of these. Very clever. The closest one I know is the word WOW, which when done in front of your eyes with both hands (actually spelling WOWOW fairly quickly and then holding the final W for the best effect), looks like astonished blinking.

⬐ CobrastanJorji

That second example is called an acrostic (which is also its name in written English poetry).

⬐ ksaj

That's pretty close. It's a bit different since the letter is part of a visual instead of as an initial, but it is surely a type of acrostic. Thanks!

EDIT: You're totally right. Here's another one for STAR, which is along the exact same lines: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RDqwB6GMaGo They do refer to it as an acrostic poem.

Finally I know what they are. Double Thanks!