ASL Rose Newsletter
Vol 1. No. 2
February 2007
Wow—February already!! What’s up?? We hope you enjoyed the holidays and you’ve recovered from all the merrymaking. Now the days are slowly getting longer and the evening light is becoming brighter. At the same time, our hearts are getting lighter… guess it must be love in the air?
Whether you want to be with your sweetheart or just use e-mail, IM, or VP and tell your friends how much they mean to you, February is all about affairs of the heart. Technology is amazing—once upon a time all of us had to get on our hats, gloves, and mittens and head out to meet with our friends and loved ones. We had to go out to movies, clubs, and other places. Now we can use computers and pagers for instant contact! We can stay at home on a comfy couch with hot chocolate, a heart-shaped box of candy, and watch a DVD.
Our friend the mouse definitely has love on his mind! He is giving his beloved flower a Valentine’s Day present: ASL Rose’s Have You Ever Seen…? An American Sign Language (ASL) Handshape DVD/Book. He’s already got Rosa Lee Gallimore in the background, ready for an evening of ASLized romance! He went all out to impress his lady love, with wallpaper, special curtains, and hearts in the sky with assistance from Tamara Davidson. He even has a framed piece of art, ASL Love, by Uzi Bugalo above his TV! What a guy!
Love isn’t just limited to animals and flowers. There’s romantic love for our special spouses and partners; there’s platonic love for our close friends; there’s familial love for our parents, siblings, and children; and there’s the love we share with the community. Oh, don’t forget to love yourself too! This is part of what Deafhood is about—loving and accepting yourself. It’s also about loving and accepting your community, and respecting the different kinds of deaf people we know or meet. Together we have a common heritage and history, regardless of where we went to school or how we communicate. Respect for others is something we all share, and love is a universal language.
This month our thoughts turn to the love we have for ASL, a language that we love to share! Sentimental, feelings, touch-heart, contact, and technology… what do they all have in common? Why, Handshape Modified 8, of course! You can use all these signs and words on www.aslrose.com, by sharing your sentimental feelings, touching and sharing hearts, by using technology to contact your loved ones through our e-cards! You can choose our standard e-cards, or our special Valentine’s Day e-cards. Share the love!
Oh… guess what?? Clarion Reviews is also sharing the love! We have exciting news to share. ForeWord Magazine is a bi-monthly trade journal (for librarians and publishing companies) that covers books published by independent presses, and Clarion Reviews is affiliated with ForeWord Magazine. In a recent review, Clarion gave Have You Ever Seen…? An ASL Handshape DVD/Book, a five star review! The reviewer said, in part, “This ‘DVD/Book’ is dedicated to K-12 students, but the content and degree of difficulty of the text… that accompanies each handshape lesson make this package most suitable for learners in upper grade levels.” You can see the full review at http://www.forewordmagazine.com/clarion/viewreviews.aspx?reviewID=194.
Now, we’d like to turn the tables: we have a question or two for YOU! ASL Rose isn’t just a company to sell you DVDs and books. We want to work with YOU to help improve and strengthen knowledge and use of ASL and English together! What would you like to see in this newsletter? ASL facts and history? Ways to best use ASL Rose materials, such as Have You Ever Seen…? An ASL Handshape DVD/Book? Teaching tips and tools?
Don’t be shy. Your comments don’t only have to be limited to the newsletter. What kind of future resources or materials would you like to see from ASL Rose? Contact us and let us know!
One final note: We appreciate and support Deaf artists. Our materials feature the work of different artists, and we want to do the same here at our newsletter and website. Our longtime webpage artist Tami Davidson, contributed to our December newsletter, and created this month’s lovefest extravaganza. But Tami isn’t the only artist out there (there’s Uzi Bugalo too)! We hope to start showcasing Deaf people’s art work every month. We would love to start showcasing different artists! If you are a Deaf artist or know one, please contact us! We’d love to have you illustrate our newsletter and/or website!
