Hate Out of Winston is advocating for at least one American Sign Language interpreter at the National Black Theatre Festival in August after receiving a request for support from a Winston-Salem parent.
Amatullah Saleem, an activist and a founder of Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble in Winston-Salem, said her daughter, Opal Gordon, who is deaf, plans to visit her from New York and would like to attend the NBTF this year.
Otesha Creative Arts Ensemble is a group of dancers and drummers that has performed at major Black cultural events, including the National Black Theatre Festival. Saleem founded the group with Ron Dortch, an actor, and Gilbert Young, a painter, in the early 1970s. When Saleem moved to New York in 1989, Hashim Saleh became the leader of the group. Saleh died in November 2019 after a sudden illness.
For the 2022 National Black Theatre Festival, Saleem is suggesting that an ASL interpreter be offered at a “production with emphasis on music and dance because a deaf audience is able to see the movement and feel the vibrations from the music.”
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She said she would be happy if there was just one production “where we have one interpreter one evening and put the publicity out so that the deaf community in and around Winston-Salem will know about it and come.”
Saleem recently emailed the NBTF inquiring about interpreters at the festival and received an email dated May 29 from India Mack, arts administrator for the N.C. Black Repertory Company, which produces the festival, stating, “Thank you for passing along the information about Deaf Services Unlimited. The 2022 festival does not include interpretation or deaf services. NBTF will assess the need to provide such services for …….