The way a catchy beat or peppy melody worms its way into our minds and compels us to shake a leg – most unfamiliar with deaf culture would think that this is an experience that people with hearing disabilities cannot have. But this is far from the truth, as co-founder of The Inclusion Movement, Vishnu Soman, explains, “Many deaf people love dancing and they do it through feeling the rhythms either through tapping or through lights, or by just one person conveying the beat to them. With B’luru attracting people in the deaf community for work, there’s a need for more third places.”
DeafCon, organised alongside BLR Groove Co, will take place at Forum South Bengaluru and aims to be that space, making rap music accessible to the deaf community through visual vernacular, a form of sign language born from this culture of enjoying music and dance. “It organically evolved when a story had to be told, or when there was a need for something more animated – people started using sign language in a more flowy form. Especially with social media and video culture picking up, deaf people started expressing themselves more, and more of the emotion started blending into the story or poem to become visual vernacular,” says Soman. While internationally, Soman notes that musicians are increasingly employing sign language interpreters at concerts, in India, it is still a rarity with only some artistes like Vasu Dixit and rapper Gubbi having done so in the city.
Alongside live interpretation as rappers like Sharlaine, Kata and EMC Truth perform on stage, the event has a sign language workshop and ‘deaf games’ planned as well, with the intention of simultaneously raising awareness among hearing people ahead of the International Day of Sign Languages on September 23. “These games will simulate not being able to hear, for example, with earphones blasting loud music, and then have people communicate through sign language to solve crosswords and other activities,” says Soman, concluding, “Everyone is welcome – we want people of all ages to experience music together with deaf people!”