Arts & Entertainment
TECHNICIAN
PAGE 10 • MONDAY, APRIL 16, 2018
LGBT event provides second chance at prom Elanor Davis Correspondent
The GLBT Community Alliance (GLBTCA) hosted the Second Chance Prom in Witherspoon Ballroom on Saturday to promote inclusion in high school proms and dances. The event has come back after a one-year hiatus, and GLBTCA hopes to make the prom an annual event. Brandon Coates, a fourth-year studying psychology and member of GLBTCA, spoke on the details and message of this event. “The GLBT Community Alliance has been doing it for a number of years now, and basically the real purpose for this event [is focused on] any queer kids or queer people who didn’t get to have a prom that was something for them,” Coates said. “So they could be them-
selves or bring the partner they wanted to bring or just expressed themselves the way they wanted to, so we decided to create an event that would fill that role and be able to be a prom event that someone could present, dress and bring whoever they want to bring without fear of being judged or anything like that.” The prom had an outer space theme decided by a vote within the GLBTCA. Witherspoon was filled with spacethemed decor. The food included fun items like savory star- and moon-shaped sandwiches while the drinks presented an even wider selection of funky, astronautlike beverages. The drinks, food and festivities all took a backseat to the feeling of inclusion and happiness felt by the promgoers as they danced and talked freely. Melana Sachpatzidis, a second-year
studying communication, talked before the event about how the Second Chance Prom resonated with her. “I’m hoping to see a lot of people showing up with the partner that they want, do what they want, dressed how they want, to be more diversified then the original prom,” Sachpatzidis said. “I want everyone to feel included. It’s a safe place for everyone.” Sachpatzidis said the event gave her opportunities her high school prom never did. “I grew up as a lesbian in a really heteronormative setting and no one told me ‘okay you have the choice to wear a suit,’” Sachpatzidis said. “So all three years of prom I was wearing a dress, but now it’s like this Second Chance Prom told me ‘hey, I can dress how I want, bring whichever partner I want and you know you can
do anything. If you want to be traditional you can, and if you don’t then don’t.’ This is what this [event] is for. I feel like that’s really nice that, in fact, I’m going to come up in a suit for the first time ever. It’s like remaking the memory the way I want it to be remade.” Adrian Chamberlin, a first-year studying fisheries, wildlife and conservation biology, volunteered at the event. Chamberlin said she approved of the idea that Second Chance Prom should be a place to not worry about labels. “It should be able to be a fun event that everyone should be able to come to and just have fun,” Chamberlin said. “Prom is for everyone. That prom shouldn’t be something that you have to put on appearances for [or that] you have to put a part of yourself away for. Prom is for everyone.”
Graduate linguistics students talk sign language, deaf culture Aaron Sanchez Guerra Staff Writer
The world of nonverba l language matches the complexities of its verbal counterpart. The linguistic variances that spice and diversify all speakers of verbal language also exist in the users of sign language. Facilitating a discussion on this topic were the Linguistic Diversity Ambassadors of the linguistics department of NC State, who held an event titled “American Sign Language: Dialects and Deaf Culture” on Thursday in Winston Hall. The dialogue connecting this to American Sign Language was led and explained by Alison Eggerth, a graduate student studying linguistics. She explained the struggles faced historically by users of sign language. “There was a method invented by Alexander Graham Bell called oralism,” Eggerth said. “It said that if you signed, you won’t be able to learn English as well. It called for deaf people to sit on their hands and be forced to read people’s lips.” Prior to ASL, oralism was a method used in deaf education that forced oral language comprehension and produc-
tion. “ASL wasn’t even recognized as an official language in the United States until the 1960s, so it creates a dichotomy between the people who were raised in the oralist method who said ASL was bad and didn’t use it, versus now, now we have TV shows and movies that celebrates ASL and deaf culture.” The event covered the benefits, basic facts and myths surrounding ASL. Important topics like that ASL is a linguistically complete language with its own grammar and that not all deaf people can read lips were covered. Eggerth explained the details of ASL further, moving her hands with her words expressively as she demonstrated the different signs of the alphabet. “ASL grammar would ask the question, ‘Where is my car?’ like ‘My car where,’” Eggerth said. “The tone that people communicate in signing is determined through non-manual signing, like facial expressions and movements.” Deaf culture was explained in the event by graduate linguistics student Katie Conner, who explained the practices of deaf individuals in different situations. She outlined how rude it would be to break eye contact while communicating
EMMA DIMIG/TECHNICIAN
KellyNoel Waldorf, a graduate student studying English and a language diversity ambassador, explains that there is variation within American Sign Language during a panel called “American Sign Language: Dialects and Deaf Culture.” The panel took place on Thursday in Winston Hall.
through signing, and how it was important for hearing people to explain and contextualize noises to deaf people instead of expecting them to react to them. “You can’t always rely on lip reading,” Conner said. “That’s not necessarily a
quality every deaf person is innate with.” A comic strip was shown of a boy explaining that he was leaving a party with his deaf father, which meant an extra 45
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