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In their own words | APP.com | Asbury Park Press
To many people, storytelling means fairy tales, fables and make-believe, and the audiences are usually children.
During performances at Ocean County College's recent Deaf Awareness Day, the storytellers seemed more like stand-up comics, sharing true accounts of growing up deaf and living and working in a hearing world.
Their listeners were all ages and deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing.
Twenty-year-old deaf storyteller Noah Buchholz, a native of Kansas and now a college student in Wheaton, Ill., demonstrated in American Sign Language — punctuated by gestures and exaggerated body movements — how, he said, "the hearing and deaf worlds collide."
For the past two years, Buchholz has been delivering poignant and comedic stories to conferences, schools and deaf- awareness events from California to Pennsylvania.
His routines are drawn from experience.
"I grew up in both worlds (as the only deaf student in school), so I have a huge repertoire of funny stories," he said. "Everyone in my family was either deaf or hard-of-hearing, except my dad. He was hearing; we called him a handicapped person."
New Jersey storyteller John Munn, of Hamilton Square, was joined by his sister Lesley Munn, South Hampton, and their nephew Tony Munn, Pemberton, in the younger family member's debut performance.
The trio is related to Kathy Basilotto, ASL instructor in the college's Interpreter Training Program and organizer of the event. Basilotto was one of four hearing children; John and Lesley were among her six deaf siblings in the large Munn household.
"It was a wonderful family. We were blessed with lots of laughter," Basilotto said. "John was always the comedian."
"My favorite thing growing up was to act," said John Munn. He enjoys deaf storytelling, he said, because "deaf and hearing people need to know how to share communication better, without a breakdown."
Students in the college's Interpreter Training Program provided voice interpretations for hearing members of the audience during the sessions. They also interpreted for deaf people visiting hearing vendors' tables, as well as for hearing visitors to deaf vendors. The vendors offered services and products for deaf and hearing consumers, such as jewelry, cosmetics, crafts, real estate, investments and house alarms.
Pam Coverdale, an ASL interpreter and one of the visitors to the event, stopped by, she said, to shop for T-shirts and greeting cards with deaf-awareness logos for her 32-year-old daughter, now living in Las Vegas.
"I'm here for the goodies," the Stafford resident said.
One first-time exhibitor — the Lacey-based Academy of Sign Language — has been in operation for less than a year, providing tutoring and mentoring for interpreter students, sign-language classes for children and adults and ASL workshops. The academy's staffers are certified interpreters Michelle Barsch, education director, and Natalie Callis, who also interprets in Ocean County schools. Both are graduates of OCC's Interpreter Training Program.
"We're seeing a need in this area for sign-language instruction," Callis said. "We get calls from schools, individuals and families where a child is newly diagnosed.
"Years ago, deafness was not discovered until later in life, between age 3 or 4, by a parent or grandparent banging pots and pans together. A lot of language development was lost in that time," she said. "Now that infants are tested immediately, it gives us a head start to help them learn to communicate."
To many people, storytelling means fairy tales, fables and make-believe, and the audiences are usually children.
During performances at Ocean County College's recent Deaf Awareness Day, the storytellers seemed more like stand-up comics, sharing true accounts of growing up deaf and living and working in a hearing world.
Their listeners were all ages and deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing.
Twenty-year-old deaf storyteller Noah Buchholz, a native of Kansas and now a college student in Wheaton, Ill., demonstrated in American Sign Language — punctuated by gestures and exaggerated body movements — how, he said, "the hearing and deaf worlds collide."
For the past two years, Buchholz has been delivering poignant and comedic stories to conferences, schools and deaf- awareness events from California to Pennsylvania.
His routines are drawn from experience.
"I grew up in both worlds (as the only deaf student in school), so I have a huge repertoire of funny stories," he said. "Everyone in my family was either deaf or hard-of-hearing, except my dad. He was hearing; we called him a handicapped person."
New Jersey storyteller John Munn, of Hamilton Square, was joined by his sister Lesley Munn, South Hampton, and their nephew Tony Munn, Pemberton, in the younger family member's debut performance.
The trio is related to Kathy Basilotto, ASL instructor in the college's Interpreter Training Program and organizer of the event. Basilotto was one of four hearing children; John and Lesley were among her six deaf siblings in the large Munn household.
"It was a wonderful family. We were blessed with lots of laughter," Basilotto said. "John was always the comedian."
"My favorite thing growing up was to act," said John Munn. He enjoys deaf storytelling, he said, because "deaf and hearing people need to know how to share communication better, without a breakdown."
Students in the college's Interpreter Training Program provided voice interpretations for hearing members of the audience during the sessions. They also interpreted for deaf people visiting hearing vendors' tables, as well as for hearing visitors to deaf vendors. The vendors offered services and products for deaf and hearing consumers, such as jewelry, cosmetics, crafts, real estate, investments and house alarms.
Pam Coverdale, an ASL interpreter and one of the visitors to the event, stopped by, she said, to shop for T-shirts and greeting cards with deaf-awareness logos for her 32-year-old daughter, now living in Las Vegas.
"I'm here for the goodies," the Stafford resident said.
One first-time exhibitor — the Lacey-based Academy of Sign Language — has been in operation for less than a year, providing tutoring and mentoring for interpreter students, sign-language classes for children and adults and ASL workshops. The academy's staffers are certified interpreters Michelle Barsch, education director, and Natalie Callis, who also interprets in Ocean County schools. Both are graduates of OCC's Interpreter Training Program.
"We're seeing a need in this area for sign-language instruction," Callis said. "We get calls from schools, individuals and families where a child is newly diagnosed.
"Years ago, deafness was not discovered until later in life, between age 3 or 4, by a parent or grandparent banging pots and pans together. A lot of language development was lost in that time," she said. "Now that infants are tested immediately, it gives us a head start to help them learn to communicate."