You can cut all the flowers but you cannot keep Spring from coming

-Pablo Neruda

April 2022

Directors Note:

My name is Aseel Abulhab, and I'm the Assistant Director of the DC. Welcome to Williams Signs!

Each newsletter, I will share something related to sign language and/or D/deaf culture. Happy signing!

I hope you all had a rejuvenating and nourishing Spring Break! I have written extensively about the film "CODA" over the past few newsletters, and I'd like to take this month's Williams Signs section to share the awesome news that the film won Best Picture at The Oscars. In addition, one of the actors in the film, Troy Kotsur, became the first Deaf man to win an acting Oscar when he took home the award for Best Supporting Actor. Check out his amazing acceptance speech here! 

This news represents an important moment for the D/deaf community and for the visibility of American Sign Language. The timing of these awards is even more exciting as Williams prepares to offer ASL for credit this fall through the Self-Instructional Languages Program (formerly known as the Critical Languages Program). The course will be capped at eight students. If you are interested, make sure to apply here. Deadline is April 22nd.

Greetings, Ephs! I’m Aly, the Associate Director of the Davis Center. Each month I write a little about issues of identity and power in U.S. musical culture.

It’s entertainment award season right now, and while I’m not particularly interested in weighing in on the most recent controversies, I want to bring us back to the Country Music Awards in 2016. That was the year that Beyoncé and The Chicks collaborated to perform “Daddy Lessons,” Beyoncé’s Country/Americana hit from Beyoncé’s Lemonade. It’s a great performance and one that should remind us of the Black roots of what’s called country music today. Both Beyoncé and The Chicks came under fire for the collaboration—most significantly due to misogynoir, that toxic blend of anti-blackness and misogyny that Black women so frequently have to contend with. But check out this performance, and give yourselves a few minutes to inhabit the joy of making and listening to music that crosses boundaries of race, class, and region and makes your body want to move.

I grew up in a place with very mild winters and oppressively hot summers--the springs were sweet, brief little moments of comfortable temperatures and flowers blooming everywhere. To be honest: I did not appreciate the ephemeral nature of spring whilst growing up--the dogwoods and azaleas were certainly charming and the brief respite from heat and humidity was definitely appreciated. I also grew up in one of those places that ah....celebrated its 'antebellum heritage' with an annual "Azalea Dogwood Trail," which involved local girls dressing up like Scarlet O'hara and waving from the well-manicured lawns of houses built in the twentieth century pretending to have been from the nineteenth. It did not dawn on me to do something like consciously LOVE SPRING, though--it ushered in a long, hot summer.

Twenty fives years in New England and I tell you what: I love spring! The first shoots of a plant to pop out of the cold ground--the plumping up and ruddying of the red maples--the random days where one feels the heat of the sun but is not hot: my oh my, wonderful spring: harbinger of all that is to come, I love you so. Spring is a time where hope is seen wherever you look--it's hard to see hope in the winter, and fall is downright depressing in the 'hope' department. But in spring, it's EVERYWHERE. Don't believe me? Well, get out and find it--it's there, just waiting for you to see it. When you do see it, think about how that bit of hope survived a long, cold, windy, icy, relentless winter...and yet came back for more: because the goodness of life far outweighs the difficult and harrowing moments. We all have to endure winter--it's up to us to enjoy spring! Get out and watch the magic.

We experience frustrations on a daily basis but lately it’s been a lot more than frustrating…it’s been downright hard. The other day, as I was driving to work ruminating on all that is *not* well, and the perfect song came on: Sunflower from the ‘Spiderman: Into the Universe Soundtrack’.  The lyrics don’t really resonate with me personally, but the melody reminds me of swaying to the music with my son, just chillin’ out together. I quickly realized that I didn’t have to just listen, I could let the music take me out of the negative state and wallow in chill mode instead. As I did so my mood elevated and I was better able to get through a day of back-to-back meetings. So, this week, I ask you too to seize the moment. Look for moments throughout your day where you can be happy or calm instead of frustrated or down, and choose that more optimal state  on purpose. 

Want to go deeper? Try to find this time every day and journal how it impacted the rest of your day.

Want to learn more? Read this brief enough article about the benefits of seizing the moment.

Want to talk about it?  I’d be happy to talk! Here’s the office hour calendar for The DC Team! Also consider creating your own self-care check in group.

From the filmmaker: "Come Hell or High Water: The Battle for Turkey Creek follows the painful but inspiring journey of Derrick Evans, a Boston teacher who moves home to coastal Mississippi when the graves of his ancestors are bulldozed to make way for the sprawling city of Gulfport. Over the course of a decade, Derrick and his neighbors stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice."

Join us at Images on Tuesday, April 5th, at 7:30 for a screening of the film Come Hell or High Water: the Battle for Turkey Creek, with a post-film conversation on environmental justice. This event commemorates Martin Luther King Jr’s final speech on April 3, 1968, “I’ve been to the Mountaintop," about local organizing efforts against racial and labor injustice, and encourages us to reflect on how we might contribute to his legacy following his assassination on April 4, 1968. MLK's imagination of the “mountaintop” is a Black socioecological vision that reverberates throughout connected struggles within Black environmental genealogy that take up the compounded questions, realities, entities and futurities of land, repossession and environmental justice. The film follows Derrick Evans and his neighbors on the Gulf Coast as they stand up to powerful corporate interests and politicians and face Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster in their struggle for self-determination and environmental justice.

Presented in partnership with the Davis Center, the Zilkha Center, Images Cinema, and Dr. Allison Guess’s course “Race, Land, Dis/Re-Possession: Critical Topics in Environmental Justice and Subaltern Geographies.”

Disabled Hikers

April 20th at 5pm

Disabled Hikers is an organization that focuses on making the great outdoors accessible to anyone and everyone, particularly those with mobility limitations. This event is centered around creating informative trail guides and understanding how that creates accessibility. Syren has also created a spoon ranking system based on spoon theory to help hikers decide whether a trial is right for them.

If you have any accessibility needs while utilizing an online platform, please email the Office of Accessible Education at [email protected]

Sustainability Trivia Night

April 21st, 7pm at The Log

Two rounds of sustainability themed trivia during the night’s trivia! 

Earth Week Fair

April 23rd, 11:30-1:30pm, Paresky Lawn

In pursuit of a sustainable future, this Earth Week the Zilkha Center for Environmental Initiatives will be hosting an Earth Week Fair! The intention is to invite community members/partners to pair up with student organizations on campus to talk about sustainability while also providing a fun, physical space to build community and foster some genuine connections. On a level beyond sustainability, the purpose of the event is to make the College feel more welcoming and accessible.

Watch CODA at Images Cinema!

Friday 04-08-2022 and Saturday 04-09-2022

CODA took home three awards at the 2022 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor for Troy Kotsur, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

All shows will be presented with open captions.

An uplifting story that shines a light on the little seen dynamics and struggles of culturally deaf families. CODA (child of deaf adults) follows Ruby (Emilia Jones), the only hearing member of a culturally deaf family, as she discovers the joy of singing thanks to her tough-love choirmaster. She begins to explore the possibility of a life outside of her sleepy fishing town, but she is torn between familial obligations and realizing her dream.

Virtual Info Session with Current Williams-Mystic Students

Wednesday, April 6 

8:00pm 

Zoom link

• Join Williams-Mystic staff and current students to learn about the Williams-Mystic experience! We'll provide a general overview of the program while also discussing how our student experience differs from your typical college semester, especially in regards to residential life amid our tight-knit community.

Williams-Mystic Visits Williamstown

Tuesday, April 12

11:00am - 1:00pm

• Stop by the Williams-Mystic info table in Paresky to learn about our program, ask any questions, and pick-up some Williams-Mystic info and memorabilia! We look forward to meeting you. 

Can't make it to our upcoming events? Interested in connecting individually? Email [email protected] or fill out this form. We look forward to talking with you!

The Davis Center at Williams College

Bascom House

33 Stetson Court

Williamstown, MA 01267

diversity.williams.edu/davis-center/