Thursday, July 25, 2013

The challenge of Signing Hip Hop

Holly Maniatty
We shared with you the video that made Holly Maniatty a viral video star for her interpreting at this year's Bonnaroo festival. You can see her terping for Wu Tang Clan here. She sat down with NPR for an interview and addressed some controversial issues. Maniatty says:
Some people made some comments or, I guess, threw some heat my way about signing the N-word during that concert, and it's interesting that all those people that said that that wasn't appropriate - none of them were users of ASL and/or interpreters. And as an interpreter, we're ethically bound not to change the message that we're given. I feel that I have to give the opportunity to the deaf patron to either be down with it or offended. And it's not my role to, A, take away that opportunity, or B, censor somebody who - this is their art form and their livelihood.
Read or listen to the full interview here.