Every year, a group of both, Deaf and hearing, visual artists and musicians get together at Teachers College, Columbia University to exchange ideas and explore how to innovate education through music. How fascinating is that? Each year we share videos and curriculum resources, we collaborate on ideas and we want everyone to come and create and celebrate with us.
In the presence of Teachers College’s Dean Mr. Thomas James, this year we celebrated the Feel The Music Concert and Conference 2019. During the concert, the audience was able to explore sound and vibration with SUBPAC —including the Dean!— it was good vibes all the way.
The conference opened with a powerful and inspirational message by DR Julia Silvestri remembering us all to advocate for inclusion. Then, a truly unforgettable workshop by JW Guido from the New York Deaf Theater about American Sign Language Poetry, followed by an unique workshop taught by composer Jay Alan Zimmerman on visual music technology.
On behalf of the Dominican Republic, the Maria Batlle Foundation and SUBPAC, I was honored to share the work that we have been doing exploring music, technology and Sign Language.
“We are using SUBPACs to explore multimodal phonological awareness skills—through ASL poetry, music composition, and harmonized signing. At Teachers College, we will be developing studies to explore the relationship between tactile/kinesthetic stimulation of phonological patterns and development of phonological awareness skills in ASL and written English” explained Julia Silvestri, Ph.D. and Adjunct Assistant Professor of the Deaf Education Program at the Department of Health and Behavioral Studies of Teachers College, Columbia University.
Truth is, SUBPAC is a great tool to have in schools and universities: it makes you feel like a child, it wakes up your curiosity and you want to re-feel, re-live, everything with it, and that’s what we are doing now.
More to come soon, make sure you follow @SUBPAC and stay tuned.
Make sure to follow Maria’s inspiring journey with SUBPAC: @maria.batlle