Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works Articles 1983 Cultural arts among deaf people Robert Panara Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.rit.edu/article Recommended Citation Panara, R. (1983). Cultual arts among deaf people. Gallaudet Today, 13(3), 12-16. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by RIT Scholar Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Articles by an authorized administrator of RIT Scholar Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. -- --- cultural Arts Among Deaf people by Robert F. Panara he publicationof that remarkable novel, Roots, by TAlex Haley,and its .dramatizationon nationaltelevision has probably created more awareness of "the Black . experience" in America than any other single work since 1852,when Harriet Beecher Stowe published Unde Tom~ Cabin. It is also important to note that Roots, unlike Unde Tom~ Cabin, was the work of a Blackauthor an~ that Black . persons played the leading roles on Tv. This "cultural breakthrough" has great significance when we consider the state of the cultural arts among deaf people. To begin with, there is.the outstanding achievement of the National Theatre of the Deaf which has helped awaken the public to "Deaf Awareness." Since its establishment in 1967, NTDhas influenced millions of hearing people, in the theatre and on TV.. In their han~s, the sign language of the so-called "deaf and dumb~' has '- "The Camel Driver" is a dry-point etching by Cadwallader Washbum. Mr. Washbum, who graduated from Gallaudet In 1890, was not only an artist of International note, but also a journalist, oologlst, entomologist, world traveler, and explorer.