ASL Slam

Join us for ASL Slam, a platform that offers the stage to performers and audience members to come up and rap, rhapsodize, and rehash in American Sign Language (ASL). For this special edition of ASL Slam in conjunction with the exhibition Christine Sun Kim: Time Owes Me Rest Again (March 13, 2022 – January 31, 2023) at Queens Museum, performers will creatively respond to the piece by Kim, as well as works on view by artists Xaviera Simmons and Charisse Pearlina Weston. We’re thrilled to welcome ASL Slam Executive Director Douglas Ridloff as MC and performer, alongside artists, performers, and poets Kaylyn Aaron-Lozano, Joey Antonio, James Caverly, Traz Freeman, Amelia Hensley, Andrew Morrill, and Gabriel Silva.

ASL Slam brings together established Deaf poets and performers to share their material with a wider community, and also offers the stage to audience members. Slam is a safe space for the Deaf community to play, experiment and share in their native American Sign Language. Building off the momentum and community engagement of ASL Slam’s monthly shows, we seek to expand the reach and potential of ASL Slam as a catalyst for new artistic production in American Sign Language. Recognizing the need for more opportunities for Deaf creatives, as well as the lack of educational resources for Deaf children, ASL Slam seeks to expand its scope through four main project initiatives: Educational Programs, Artist Residences, Digital Archives, and an expansion of ASL Slam’s monthly events.

Under the leadership of Douglas Ridloff, ASL Slam has collaborated on projects, workshops and events with the Whitney Museum, the Jewish Museum, Bowery Poetry Club, the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, The Center for the Humanities at CUNY Graduate Center and many more. ASL Slam continues to maintain its monthly event in New York City, now hosted at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and the Bowery Poetry Club. ASL Slam will resume in Orlando.

Image by Jon Savage