I asked Ellie Kidder if I could reprint her answer to the forum, in case others were interested as I was about the deaf community. She said yes, so here it is.
Mary Baker East Side --------------------------
Wow. My gracious... where do I start? You have ask all the right questions and I'm delighted to answer it.
Deaf club is locate at Fairview and Marshall Ave in St.Paul. It was created by window of a wealthy Deaf husband whose family ran First Bank. In his memory, she had a Deaf architect designed the building. It was built in 1916, I think.It is owned and run by and for Deaf community. There is no paid membership except they will be a bit confuse if you come in wandering around and not know any sign Lange. You do need to be at least Deaf and to able to communicate in ASL.Because that is pretty much it.
There is no official count of Deaf population across Twin Cities. The best estimate I can come up with after talking with Deaf folks in past couple of decades, about 20,000 Deaf people live in Twin Cities. I can t really say much exactly for St.Paul except majority of Deaf population live in East Side St. Paul ( just ask any long time police officers working in that area, they'll agree with you ). The reason they chose that area because of couple of reasons. Affordable housing. Main employer for Deaf community is Post Office and most of them locate at downtown St Paul. Nearly all Deaf service locate at downtown St.Paul.
There is much controversy on Deaf school. Some Deaf say it wouldn't really much where they go... usually young adults who grew up in mainstream school. Personally for me, I think State school is extremely important because A deaf student would not be able to participated in cheer leading or be a leader in some school club. Are not really accepted by hearing students. There are limited opportunities in some area. Whereas Deaf students in State school would be able to be treat equal and have a lot of chance to develop leadership skills. And better self esteem. If you were to ask EVERY Deaf student in mainstream, they will tell you they have everything they wanted and asked for except it does feel pretty lonely to be a Deaf student and that is enough a hardship anyone.
We do have a Deaf school from kindergarten to high school at St. Paul just the other side of Mississippi River from downtown. I think this school is the greatest because it have many Deaf teachers, wonderful role model for Deaf students. The State school is not so hot because most of teachers are hearing and even a few doesn t sign. Why they are placed there, I don't have an answer. That really baffled me.
My dream someday is to have them come out publicly and share their beautiful culture with general population like art show for diversity of cultures. But they never really care much to come out at all except some articles written in newspaper or other media. I would like to see them do storytelling, dance, art in ASL, song in ASL. They do have a lot of art culture inside Deaf community related to ASL. But generally not accepted Deaf visual artists. I dont know why.. except they didn't have much exposure to art due to lack of access to art community. I would think this is a great way to share their culture with public population.
Hope this help
Ellie Kidder Stanish Minnepolis [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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