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Wednesday, July 12, 1995

Scene


Anne Clark - Bringing music to a silent world

by Ann Katzenbach - Leader Arts Editor
Anne Clark had never seen sign interpreters at a concert before she went to the Vancouver Folk Music Festival eight years ago. She was fascinated by the idea of making music available to a group who would otherwise not decipher lyrics. Clark noticed. "As a musician, I could see the interpreters weren't really into music. They weren't conveying the emotion and rhythm of what they could hear." This experience and a previous encounter with a deaf child at a concert where she was a performing musician, inspired Clark to buy a signing book and in two weeks she had learned 500 signs.
She did research in the library and found a summer camp for deaf children near her home in Northern California. "The first thing they taught me, of course, was how to swear," says Clark, laughing at the memory. Today, Anne Clark is known to many people in Port Townsend for the wonderful interpretation she does at Centrum concerts. With an extensive wardrobe of visually delightful clothes, Clark is an interpreter not just to the deaf and hearing impaired community she serves, but to the entire audience. Her hands fly, her face expresses a range of emotions from joy to sorrow, bewilderment to amusement. And with her sign language comes the special gitt of a musician - the rhythm of the music is there to see. Clark's movement, her sinuous rendering of what is at the heart of the music, is made visible. It is the dimension that she felt was missing when she first saw sign interpreters at the Vancouver festival. She has also discovered that sign language has a special poetry. "I'm always working on improving my skills," notes Clark. "I spend a lot of time with deaf people. I try to enlarge my vocabulary and move toward poetry. Deaf people have their own kind of poetry."

Anne Clark signing at Centrum's Fiddle Tunes concert last weekend. - Photo by Ann Katzenbach

Anne Clark signing at Centrum's Fiddle Tunes concert last weekend. -Photo by Ann Katzenbach

The festival in Vancouver evidently thinks Clark has something special. She'll be there next week, interpreting the lyrics and rhythm of folk music in front of 30,000 people. Vancouver and Centrum are not the only festival organizers to discover Clark. She signs at the Folk Alliance Conference in Portland, Oregon, and was at Wintergrass in Tacoma. She's also received inquiries from some eastern festivals. In addition to musical work, Clark does interpreting for hearing impaired people in the community. Ten percent of the population has some problem with hearing and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) has helped to open new worlds for deaf people, providing interpreters in many situations. Interpreting jobs are part of Clark's weeMy work as is teaching at Peninsula College. One of Clark's favorite teaching experiences took place during Centrum's Blues Workshop a few weeks ago when she taught a group of children how to sign some of the gospel songs that Ethel Caffle-Austin performed with a student choir. Although she has less time for music, Clark Is pleased with the balance she has achieved. "I work with individuals and I do con- certs," she says. "Its kind of a dream that I had. It's amazing. I have a job that helps people and makes other people happy. I give a deaf person some of the pleasure of the music that I feel."