FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 15, 2007 - PaH! In American Sign Language stands for “Success….FINALLY”

What is this thing called “PaH!” ?

Deaf Arts&Culture ready to turn Philly into a Deaf Wecome City! – PaH!

Philadelphia, PA – The City is preparing for a huge celebration of Disability Arts&Culture in the Fall, but it will be Creative Access’s Deaf ARts&Culture PaH! aspect of that four week celebration that informs patrons (Deaf and Hearing) of the amazing talent of professional actors, dancers, poets, writers, comedians, ensembles, film makers and artists who present, perform, exhibit and screen their work through the perspective of a SEEING minority culture, the Deaf culture, and who do so using the beauty of American Sign Language as an art form.

A Sampling of what PaH! Events you can *expect between October 18 and November 22, 2007:

• PaH! - FIRST PHILADELPHIA INTERNATIONAL DEAF FILMS & FILM-MAKERS FEST
  (plus screening of captioned American films; those that include Deaf characters played by Deaf actors…historically not always the case).
• PaH! - DEAF CIRQUE (Circus) CARNIVALE!
  (the best and the brightest Deaf magicians, mimes, clowns ‘n more from around the globe: E.g. the fabulous Yosef Schneiderman!
• PaH! – DEAF ARTISTS EXHIBITION
• PHOTOGRAPHIC RETROSPECTIVE: Fifteen years of photographs taken by Harvey Finkle and Rodney Atienza of Deaf performers and audiences in the Philadelphia area since 1992.
• PaH! - DEAF PERFORMANCE EXTRAUDINAIRE: BERNARD BRAGG IN CONCERT!
• PaH! - FACE THE MUS(sign)IC AND DANCE
  - The blow-your-mind only Deaf band in the world….Bethoven’s Nightmare coming from L.A.
  - The amazing Sign Dance Collective (from U.K.)
  - The critically acclaimed WILD ZAPPERS (from Washington)
• PaH! - DEAF CABERET NIGHTS ‘N COMEDY CENTRAL
  - The Living Cartoon: the incomparable CJ JONES’ “What are you…DEAF?
  - Robert DeMayo & Mike Canfield “ASL HIV/AIDS Show n Tell”
• PaH! – DEAF AUTHOR’S & POETRY JAM!
  - Prolific young Philadelphia author, Mark Drolsbaugh will be the first Deaf author to appear at the Free Library of Philadlephia’s popular Authors Series, presenting his book, “DEAF AGAIN”
  - The brilliant poet Peter S. Cook’s “Flying Words Project”

Carol Finkle is the Founder and Director of Creative Access, the organization which for fifteen years has held the Philadelphia arts’ community’s collective feet to the proverbial fire to bring the Deaf minority or patrons and artists to top-of-mind status instead of ‘afterthought’ at best. That is why Finkle says that Deaf Arts&Culture PaH! Is her personal last hurrah as well as her personal PaH! - with the advent of curating this aspect of the big Festival that will have GPTMC’s light shining all over Deaf artists and keepers & tellers of their slowly fading culture. “We will even have one of the great hidden jewels of the nation here with us for a full week; the multi talented Dr. Simon Carmel; Master Magician AND the world’s primary presenter of the least known chapters of the Holocaust: The Deaf Holocaust Testimonials, a 90 minute power point presentation of images and stories never barely known and rarely told.

“That is why we need PaH! – to bring the Deaf culture out of the shadows and into the mainstream – as audience and artist – for all the world to delight in and kvel (a Yidish word for “bursting with one’s personal pride”) and have the world, in turn, the richer for it.”

Contact:
cfinkle@creativeaccess.org
Cell: 215-205-0408

©copyright 2007 Creative Access. All rights reserved.