Deaf Community's Support of the Black Lives Matter Movement

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hey everyone, welcome to the show. You know, I start every show since this year is the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Hello, Yoshiko Dart. Hello, hello. I wonder if you noticed that last evening that the former First Lady Michelle Obama said, "Vote as if your life depends upon it," while Justin Dart, your husband, your late husband, that's who I thought of. Uh, we love you, Yoshiko. Keep fighting the fight. Also, To my two friends, Richard Roberts and Gangyong Cho, in respectively Okinawa and Seoul, South Korea. They are two international disability rights fighters with the State Department. I love them and keep fighting that fight. And guess what? In September, We are going to have a show from South Korea. How about that? Is that awesome? Also, hey, all of you listeners around the world, thank you so much. And number one is China. How about that? China, all of the countries, we think about you and this coronavirus and the people listening to the show. Stay safe. You know what I always say, you know, I'm living with epilepsy and I always say, a seizure here is a seizure anywhere in the world. So you are our brothers and sisters and thank you so much for your support, which would not happen without our 4-year lead sponsor, Highmark. Wow, thank you so much. And this year, in addition, People's Natural Gas, Wells Fargo, um, and Employment Options all are sponsors. And you know what? That's what helps me help all of you. So thank you so very much. Well, We are going to have an absolute great show today because we have a celebrity, Ime Elakueva, and you know our all-time star, Danielle Philip, who has been on before and who we all love. She is the Vice President of Operations for Sign Language Interpreters Professionals. You may have seen her many times on in Allegheny County, the interpreter for the county executive Rich Fitzgerald, and Ime Alaquiva, the CEO of Yaman's House Incorporated. But hey, that's just like minor, minor stuff. Minor. He is a celebrity. He's a celebrity, you know what I mean? Like an Emmy winner. He is a celebrity. And wow, my honor to have him on. I mean, I want all of you to know, look him up, you'll see what I mean. He is a celebrity, and we'll talk a little bit more about that. So, Ime, since I brought it up, absolutely, let's talk about your background But you had an incredible rise to success all the way to an Emmy. So I know you grew up homeless. At some point in your life, you were homeless.

Mm-hmm. Yes.

How, how did you grow up in the situation that would take you to be homeless? And yet, what gave you the courage to overcome this, which— wow, amazing. How about if you share?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, thank you so much for that, uh, Joyce Bender. I am because of so many great people around me. Um, I, I can't take the credit. Um, I'm just a goofy guy in the circle. I'm surrounded by, you know, some, some great individuals that believed in me. Uh, but yeah, I was, uh, homeless. Um, around '99 to about 2001. You know, sometimes life gets in the way of living and we fail to realize the blessings that are right in front of us or right under our nose. And you know, some— a few things got in the way of living and it rendered me homeless on the streets of Pittsburgh, you know, sleeping on benches. You know, going to soup kitchens and things of that nature. Because it was a cross between, you know, sometimes, you know, society puts on men that, you know, we're supposed to be so strong and tough and He-Man and Superman that sometimes we let pride get in the way of our mission. And that pride got in the way of my mission of being the best that I could be in my early 20s. And, you know, going, you know, through this for a year and a half, one day I was sitting on the gray wall across from the Originals Hot Dog Shop and I was sleeping there and two individuals came, you know, with fries as they would, you know. But as they began to eat their fries, I think they were unaware that I was there. And one of them turned around and spit on me. And that was very traumatic for me. And, you know, I thought to myself, you know, am I going to render myself someone who, you know, just sort of lays there and gets spit on, or am I going to dig deep in with myself to recognize my potential? And that's when I went to a pay phone And I called my mom and, you know, finally told her that I was, you know, been out on the streets and homeless, you know, and I put my pride down and said, hey, listen, I want to change my life. And, you know, my mother's response was, why did it take you so long? So I slept on my mother's couch and I, you know, went out for a job at the post office because she worked at the post office. She got me a a job as a temporary mailman, and that's when my whole life changed to sort of put the pillars, the right pillars in my life to build a foundation to, you know, go to the next level and to recognize my potential. And I promised God at that point that if he helped me get back on my feet, I'll spend the rest of my life helping others get on theirs.

That is an amazing story. You know, when I hear that story—

I've been working with you here for a couple of months and I hadn't heard your story before. You just gave me chills.

Thank you. Thank you.

You know what, I hear that story and I say, what is wrong with people? How could you go to such a low level that you would spit on a human being who is homeless. I mean, that is evil. That's terrible. But I want to tell you, I gave you— I give you credit that you got up and you said, I'm going to do something about this. I give you so much credit for that. Um, yeah, and boy, you know what it's like for people that live in poverty.

Yeah, absolutely. That, that's why, you know, um, you know, a lot of individuals, they say, hey, you know, how can I help the homeless if I don't have any money? Da da da. Sometimes a conversation, just literally walking up to them and, and asking their name and just trying to find some type of common ground, could really revolutionize someone's spirit and could really change the trajectory of their soul if we just had a conversation. I've been called any and everything in the book while I was homeless, but, you know, it broke me, but it also, you know, sometimes when you're broken, we have to reach within ourselves to find those very pieces to put back together to build our foundation. So every piece that was broken inside of me, I literally found the glue in God to put that together to, to be my new foundation.

Well, that's what I was going to ask you. Why— what turned— like, something, although you made this great decision, something had to give you the courage and the strength to move forward. What was that?

So yes, so that was recognizing and finding out that if we go through life thinking that we can do everything by ourselves, we will end up by ourselves. What we have to do internally and in our heart and in our soul is find who is a part of your ecosystem of your mission. We can't do everything by ourselves. And that's what I thought a year and a half of being homeless. I thought I could do everything by myself. I thought I was big and bad. You know, when I would see people, you know, who would see me on the streets, "Hey, Emei, how you doing?" "Oh, I'm doing great. I'm doing fine." When really I wasn't fine. I wasn't great. So I literally had to put that aside to say, I am not okay. But I'm okay with not being okay because I know that I could do better. And the way that we could do better as individuals is to find solidarity in others to wrap around you and to orbit around whatever that you're going through. And being in your early 20s, that's not the end of the world. That's just the end of the world that you thought was there. But you can create a totally different world. So that's what triggered in me. And every day that I would deliver mail, as I would put mail into a slot as a casual temporary postman, I would dream of what it would be like to own a home, what it would be like to be married, what it would be like to be a father. And I would just have those dreams with this mail And I totally came up with a whole strategy on, hey, listen, if I make this move and I make that move, maybe this will happen. And I created a Plan A. I didn't focus on Plan B. I didn't focus on Plan C. Because sometimes when you put equity into investing in Plan B and C, you take away from the time you need to put in A. So I focused and built A. Opened a recording studio out of 300 square feet of space. I slept in it for 6 months. Got a job at Wham-O as the production director. Then from the production director, I opened a recording studio, opened a nonprofit arts education program, hired my first employee in 2005 who's still with us 15 years later, and just really built a something from other great individuals. And now we sit on a conglomerate of 3 entities. That's all because of great people and not just me.

Wow, that is some story. I have to ask you one last question. You know, when you're saying you did these things, was there a person that helped you cross that bridge? You know, when you were having that dream about the recording studio, was there a person?

Absolutely.

Yes, absolutely.

There are several. Yeah, there are several individuals. Um, and I look at my life as, um, sometimes like I like to do a lot of things in metaphorical senses and constructs. So when I look at my life, I like to look at the individuals around me as a board of directors. So the— my board chair is my mother, who was the Harriet Tubman of my life. If she wouldn't have picked up the phone and said, you know what, why did it take you so long, you can sleep on the couch until you get yourself together, I would not be where I am today. So I owe it to my mother for being my rock and my foundation. So she's the board one of my directors. Then you have Chris Moore, who, you know, took on that fatherly role and that mentor role to help me recognize the potential of my gift. And once you develop your gift, what good is a gift if you do not share it? I learned that from Chris Moore, who's been, you know, on run PBS for close to 40 years and works at KDKA and also WPXI. Then you have individuals like Justin Strong, who was the owner and operator of the Shadow Lounge. Justin Strong gave me my first job after being homeless sweeping the floors and cleaning the bathrooms at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty. So he gave me that sense of pride, like, hey, listen, you can do something. Regardless if you're cleaning the bathrooms or sweeping the cigarette butts outside, if you do your job with the passion and love, I don't care what it is that you do, you will find beauty in that movement. So I found a beauty in that movement, and I found purpose in cleaning those bathrooms. And it turned in to what I needed to know and what I needed to appreciate in order to know the potential of my future. So those are just 3 individuals that really helped me be the man that I am today, and I'm grateful.

Well, you are just an incredible— you're a movie, you know that? You're a movie in the making.

Um, we all are. We all are. Yeah.

Yeah, I'm going to skip over to Danielle for a minute. So Danielle, how did you meet Amey and become so involved, uh, actually promoting him to other people?

Yeah, absolutely. So Amy Crawford, uh, one of the other co-producers on the project here, Unspeakable, uh, she and Amey have a connection. And so Amy reached out to me when she heard about the work that Ame was doing on Unspeakable. And knowing its mission and knowing my perspective and feelings around how I could be a part of the Black Lives Matter movement, she said, Danielle, you need to be involved here. So we had a Zoom call late one afternoon. And I tell you, the rest of that week pulling everything together was a whirlwind. I just mentioned that I had never heard Emme's story. You know, he and I have not really, unfortunately, had time to connect on a personal level. And as you just said, Joyce, I'm thinking, wow, he's a movie in and of himself. But definitely a person that I am grateful to have in my life now, and is doing such awesome work for the deaf community that I needed to make sure that others knew about him and the work that he's doing, and I'm so glad that you took the time to have us on here today.

Well, Danielle, since there are people across the country, not just in Pennsylvania, but around the world for that matter, as I introduced you, they may not understand your role or your company what you do. Would you mind explaining that to everyone?

Sure, of course.

So, I'm Danielle Phillip, as Joyce Bender said. I'm Vice President of Operations for Sign Language Interpreting Professionals. It is a family business. It was founded by my mother in 2003, and SLIP, as we call it, provides reliable, consistent, and professional sign language interpreters to the deaf community, focusing on the Pittsburgh area, but we serve all of Western eastern Pennsylvania. And given COVID-19 and now providing remote services on a much larger scale than we ever did in the past, we are able to service the needs of deaf professionals across the nation.

Wow. And let me just tell everyone, she is phenomenal. The best of the best. I love her. And you know what? So talented. I would recommend her. To everyone. Moving back, you mentioned Unspeakable. Ime, let us hear what Unspeakable is and also what caused you to create it.

Absolutely. So Unspeakable is just, you know, just a little bit of backstory. To sort of moonwalk. 2 years ago, when my daughter was 6, as a father, I wanted to find and discover an activity that knocked down the superiority/inferiority complex that's often associated with parenting. I wanted to do an activity where we were on the same even playing field. And we discovered ASL. And when we discovered ASL, I knew of Amy from just being around the city of Pittsburgh. But we picked up the phone and called Amy Crawford to say, hey, listen, we would like to have ASL lessons. And she said, "Sure, no problem." So we started ASL lessons and it was transformative. It improved my patience as a father. It improved on our love relationship and just having something that belonged to us. And it was just amazing how Mikayla gravitated toward Amy Crawford just as a mentor and just discovering something. And it was great for both of us. And fast forward, I was covering the protests and, you know, kind of a lot of the things that were going on with the Black Lives Matter movement, with the unfortunate demise of George Floyd. And when I would come home with this photography and the cinematography, she began to notice. She said, "Hey Dad, you know, I love this photography in a sense, but you know, there's no one doing ASL in any of the photos or the video, protest videos." And I was just like, "Wow, you are absolutely right." And here she is, 8 years old, and recognizing that there's— something's missing. So, you know, that night, you know, I couldn't sleep. So around 2 in the morning, I just literally grabbed my iPhone and started writing the script for, then, <i>Unspoken</i>, which later became <i>Unspeakable</i> with the great script consulting from Danielle, Amy, and Greg. And when I began to write, I wanted to use those metaphoric phrases and those key phrases like "unspeakable time" or "scream the words" or "not be muted" or "speak truth to power" or "forge ahead with our voice to breathe." And all these little nuances that were in the language that if it wasn't for Amy, Danielle, and Greg to really say, hey, listen, how about we move a few things here, or how about we do this, and the script just came to life because of our collaboration.

So Unspeakable, though— this is Danielle here, Joyce.

Yes.

So Unspeakable, though, is a public service announcement charged with bringing awareness to the voices of the deaf community and their in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. And as Aimée was just describing there, he created the script and asked for the assistance in making his script written in English translated over into ASL, and then recruiting the actors for the work. So Greg Pollock is the Greg that he mentions, and Greg Pollock and Aimée Crawford and I worked together seek out diverse deaf individuals from the Pittsburgh community to be involved and to be the actors in this public service announcement. It was an honor to reach out to these people and say, "Hey, would you like to be featured?" So far the reach has been wonderful.

Mm-hmm. Yes, the reach has been super duper wonderful. As a matter of fact, When we released on July 15th, we got close to 30,000 hits within 24 hours of releasing the PSA, and it just grew and grew and grew, and the impressions are now well into the millions with deaf organizations from all over the country reaching out and Finding partnerships and print, television, magazine. It's just been really, really amazing to really amplify voices.

And I did see it, and it is excellent. I mean, excellent. And I would encourage everyone to see this. Where do they go, Ime, to see the video? Just to YouTube?

Um, actually, yes. Um, uh, Danielle and me and the team, we created a website called unspeakableblm.org where we have a landing site where individuals could learn about lots of resources relating to deaf, hard of hearing, and those with disabilities, and they can watch the video there. They could also watch on YouTube. We are— it's on Instagram, it's on all social media platforms as well, and also if you were to Google Black Deaf Lives Matter, Unspeakable is the very first, very first to come up, which was pretty cool.

Wow, Unspeakable, E-L-M, is it .com? Did you say .com or .org? Pardon me, what did you say?

Unspeakableblm.org.

Okay, dot org. Yeah, BLM, Black Lives Matter. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right, well, everyone go see that. It is outstanding. But right now it's time for our news break with our great newscaster, Perry Jude Radesik. The CEO of Disability Rights of Pennsylvania, who for the past several years, every day on the half hour, brings news to the whole disability community at large in the country and does a phenomenal job. And Perry Jude, welcome.

Joyce, thanks for having me. And boy, it's, uh, it's a time to pay attention to politics. It's the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. So, for the next 2 weeks, our attention turns to the National Conventions. And these party conventions happen every 4 years in advance of our presidential election. Here it comes. It's November. Very soon. So the conventions are a time to rally support for the parties, the presidential and vice presidential nominee, at least in the case of the Democratic Party. It rallies support for down-ballot candidates, and by that we mean the senators, the representatives, the state party candidates. We also get a chance to look at the rising stars in the Democratic and Republican parties. And we get a chance to see the differences between the vision and the policies between the Democratic and Republican parties. Where do they want to lead the country? Where are they on the issues related to disability, Black Lives Matter, and other civil rights issues. So, for those of us who have acted to advance civil rights right now, and in the past, it really is a chance for us to monitor the progress of civil rights as we watch the conventions. How were we included? How are they talking about Black Lives Matter? Are they including the LGBT community people with disabilities in their images and in their messaging. So who's up first? Well, it's the Democratic Convention, and it's happening right now. It's happening this week, and in fact, right now until 4 o'clock, there is a Disability Caucus of the Democratic Party, and right after you're done listening to Disability Matters, you can hop on over to the— to www.democrats.org www.demconvention.com, go find the link and you can watch the rest of the Disability Caucus until 4 o'clock this afternoon. And of course, if you go to disabilityrightspa.org, we have all of the links for you. So these events are virtual and they're open to the public. Because of COVID-19, no one could go to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and participate. Participate together in the convention because of COVID So everything is virtual. It's online. And the great thing is it's accessible to all of us. So you can, again, go to the convention site for the Democratic Party, sign up to be a part of the caucuses and other events throughout the week. So let's talk about next week. The Republicans were supposed to meet in Charlotte. They're still going to have activities going on in Charlotte, North Carolina. So at this time, the Republican Convention has not made public any virtual links. But I still have a link for you to go to. It's the Republican website for the convention so that we can all stay up to date on all of the RNC activities taking place. So it's It's important that we hear from the GOP and the convention and see what the activities are going to be like next week. Advocacy matters. It's important, number one, we all make a plan to vote and implement that plan. And number two, it's important that we make a plan to stay informed and learn about the candidates who are on the ballot for us. As voters. So that's advocacy matters for today, Joyce Bender.

You know what, and I just want to say, you know, November 3rd is the presidential election and you've got to get registered now if you're doing a mail-in vote and not let time pass, especially what's going on, uh, with the mailing. But you know, last night, uh, Michelle Obama said Vote as if your life depends upon it. And as I said earlier in the show, Justin Dart said that all the time. Vote as if your life depends upon it because it probably does. So you've gotta vote. You've gotta get out and vote. You've gotta vote. You've gotta vote. November 3rd is the presidential election. And thank you so much, Perry. We will look forward to talking to you next week.

Absolutely, Joyce.

Take care.

I just wanted to go back for a minute. Amey, I forgot to ask you this, but why don't you tell our listeners why you became so involved in the deaf community and about your daughter.

Yes. So my daughter, sort of picking up from where I left off, my daughter realized that there was a sector of individuals that were missing out of my work. So as I wrote the script, I called— the next morning I called Amy Crawford, who then called Danielle and Greg, and we went out to Black Lives Matter rallies And we shot for 4 days with some amazing individuals. They were just absolutely incredible. And we made sure it was very diverse. So we had representation, you know, Brazilian, Asian, Indian, African American, biracial, you name it, we had that representation in there. And, you know, as I began to edit, I was going to keep things in color, but I said, no, how about we just, you know, have a glaze of, you know, make sure it's in black and white. And then I made a phone call to two musicians. Bianca Blush Atteberry is a writer for Disney right now. And then the producer of the music, the composer of the music, Butta Anderson, does all the music for Raven's Home. He did all the music for Proud Family. He's produced for Dr. Dre. He's a multi-platinum producer out of North Carolina. And when I sent him the first cut, we went back and forth maybe about 3 or 4 times because I wanted to make sure that the feeling and the music was right. Because at first, initially, I was not going to have any music in it at all because I wanted people to sort of feel that. But what we heard from a deaf person is that there are dancers that feel the rhythm of music in order to dance and express themselves. So they said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. "Put music in it." So that's when we said, "Okay, cool. So we're on the right track there." And when Butter Anderson and Bianca, you know, put the singing and the music together, it was just— it gave me goosebumps as I was editing this piece. And it really underscores how when individuals like Danielle, Greg, Amy, Sidney Cooper, Jack Orman, Butter Anderson, Bianca Atterbury, and so many other individuals. We are good individually, but we are always better together. And that's what Unspeakable is about. It's about creating the web that works when the silk connects. And I just want to be able to focus on being better silk for other people.

No, how awesome. You know, in DC there was a peaceful march, and I am all about civil protest, you know, the Martin Luther King Jr. type of protest, because that's our right. That's what makes America great. And this was a group of disabled people with signs saying Black Disabled Lives Matter, and it was so powerful, you know, seeing them march. Now, your daughter is deaf, correct?

So my daughter is not deaf, she's of hearing. We just took ASL classes in order to improve on our relationship as a father and daughter.

Wow, so your daughter is not deaf.

No, my daughter is not deaf.

Um, well, that makes this even more powerful.

Yeah, because as mentioned, you know, we wanted to create something where, you know, some people might choose painting, some people may choose, uh, you know, uh, sports or bike riding. Uh, ASL allowed us to be on the same level at the same time so that I wasn't you know, the big bad dad and, you know, she wasn't sort of like, you know, the kid. So we learned together. So when we learned what our name was, it was amazing that we took this journey together on the same level. And that's what it was all about. So that's why ASL is so important to Mikayla. And that's why it was important for Mikayla to mention that there's no one doing ASL at these protests. So that's really what put the fire under this oven in order to cook up something like Unspeakable.

Oh, that is amazing. That is really amazing. What a great little girl she is.

Wow.

She's amazing.

That is something. Yeah, she's amazing.

So Danielle, when you met them and you heard about all of this, what did you think?

Well, I think it's absolutely fantastic to have a person who— you know, my grandparents are deaf, right? So I was born into the deaf community. I was born into sign language. I don't ever remember learning the language. And so for me, it's part of who I am. And of course I advocate for the deaf community any chance I get. You know that, Joyce Bender. But when I met Imei and heard how this all came to be and how he learned sign language with his daughter, to me I was like, wow, this is fantastic. This is why I do what I do and why I tell people about the basic right of communication access every day, so that if it sticks with one person, that maybe they can help to spread the word. I love the analogy that Amey just used about being the web, and if he can be the silk to bring people together, that analogy to me was beautiful. And so knowing that somebody from outside the community gets it, I wanted him to be part of my web. And Ameh, I hope you don't mind that I might start using that analogy here.

Please, please. Webs work when the silk connects. I mean, it's just what it is.

Yeah.

It is what it is. Yes, indeed. That is an absolutely— I mean, I am just so impressed. This is such a great story. If you're listening right now, You have got to tell everyone you know about this podcast. All you have to do is go to Apple or Spotify and subscribe to Disability Matters with Joyce Bender, and you'll be able to hear this show. So please share this with everyone because, uh, this story is just so awesome. Now, Ime, you have done so much, like, I don't know where to start. Um, but, but I'll start with, uh, Yo Mama, Yo Mom's House, and move on to Hip Hop on Lock. So let's start with the first.

So yes, so Yo Mom's House, um, uh, when I was a, uh, um, you know, younger growing up as a teenager, my mother who worked 2 jobs, 2 and 3 jobs in order to make ends me. We really didn't have enough for her to buy equipment for me, so what I started to do is go out and cut grass in the summer, and I would shovel snow in the winter, and I saved a bunch of money to get equipment for my room in my bedroom. And when the community started to find out, oh, Imei has, you know, some equipment. Maybe we can create music. People started to come over my house and it became like almost like a safe haven for a lot of the kids in the neighborhood. And, you know, people would make this running joke like, hey, you know, this was the era of landlines, like, hey, I'm trying to come to your mom's house. I'm trying to come to your mom's house and create.— you know, it became sort of this joke that turned into actually this real thing. Like, hey listen, people feel safe at my mom's house. And then going through my life's lessons and the navigation of life's difficulties and adversity, I manufactured that adversity to say, hey listen, I want to do a studio one day because music was very much a part of my life. So while working at the Shadow Lounge, one day Justin Strong said, hey, Imay, can— this mail has been delivered to us and it's supposed to go upstairs. Could you take this upstairs? I said, sure, Justin, where's the mail? Here's the mail. I took that mail up 28 flights of steps to the second floor, and there was a door that I looked at in which some of the pieces of mail should go in. And it looked like a mail, uh, a door from the old Welcome Back, Carter television show. I'm showing my age. So as I opened the mail slot to put this mail in, I seen an empty room. And something came over me when I opened that mail slot and saw the room. It was almost— I literally, with my head furnished the whole entire room and it was empty. So when I put the mail in, I said, hmm, what if I were to put some music equipment in this room that was only about 300 square feet? So I called the realtor and said, hey, listen, you know, I've been down on my luck, boom boom, I'd love to get upstairs. They gave me a chance. Um, get, uh, I started to build a bunch of equipment there to create Ya Momma's House and for others in the community to be able to come create. So Ya Mom's House officially started October 2001. I began to sort of take, take, take from the community without putting back into the community. So I said, what could I do and what could I create? So I co-founded Hip Hop on Lock. L-O-C-K stands for leadership development, organizational skills, cooperative economics, and knowledge of the music business. It is a full-blown media arts education program that employs hip-hop as a tool to educate and empower kids kindergarten to 12th grade. And when I started Hip Hop Unlocked in 2007, we started with 16 students to now over 5,000 students throughout—

oh my god, wow—

in 11 schools districts and over 48 partnerships through Western Pennsylvania.

Joyce, I'm thinking of a connection for your Leadership Academy here, Bender Leadership Academy and Hip Hop Unlocked. Think about all of the stuff that could be done to reduce bullying in the schools. The opportunity is there. Absolutely.

Yes, I have a not-for-profit, the Bender Leadership Academy. I did volunteer work for 20 years teaching high school students with disabilities about the world of work and how to fight bullying. And kids with disabilities are bullied more than any other group. So yeah, we'll have to connect about this. I just want to tell you, I'm so impressed with what you've done.

Thank you. I mean, I could only do this with, uh, with great people, um, around me. And, um,— you know, recognizing that we all need each other. You know, we're always better together. That's what I keep telling myself.

Yeah. Well, you know, as we're talking about this, how about the Emmy? How about that?

I just look at the Emmy as some extra added furniture. You know, it's great. To be recognized, you know, amongst your peers and in the work that it is that you do. But, you know, what matters is the impact. I won my first Emmy for some work that I did with Chris Moore and Olga George, who was at WQED and PBS at the time. We did— I did the— composed the music for a documentary, a film on the Tuskegee Airmen of Western Pennsylvania. And that was produced by Olga George. It was absolutely amazing to be able to work on that particular project. I remember when Olga first approached me about it and said, "Hey, listen." 'You know, do you think you could put together some music for this film I got coming up?' And here I am terrified, you know, not knowing if I could do it or not. Me sitting there, you know, telling her, 'Oh yeah, sure, no problem. Yeah, absolutely. We'll be able to do this.' Meanwhile, I'm terrified on the other side. But I really went within myself and connected with some great individuals like Sean Jones, Koltun Dr. Harper, Howie Alexander, Bianca Attebery, who's on Unspeakable. That's the first project that I worked with her on back in 2008. And to learn we won an Emmy for that work and that film just proved to be just— it was amazing. And this year we're nominated for 3 Emmys., this year for some work that we've done with Boys and Girls Club nationally, uh, a film, um, I directed for, uh, Joe Negri, who was the guitarist on, um, yeah, uh, Mr. Rogers.

I remember.

And, uh, yeah, yeah. And, um, we also, um, worked on some work with Jay-Z and Roc Nation, um, so We're just really blessed to have the team that we have. If it wasn't for Sidney Cooper, if it wasn't for Jack Orman, Matt Metrovich, and the rest of our team, we would not be where we are today. And we're eternally grateful for that and look forward to going into the future.

Well, you know what? You are a very humble person. That's what makes you so special. Like, I think it's pretty impressive to win Emmys. What do you think, Danielle?

Absolutely.

I mean, that is pretty impressive. Hey, Danielle, I wanted to ask you, as we are coming close to the end of the show, I'm going to ask both of you this. I'm going to ask you first, Danielle, how do you see Black Lives Matter connected with the deaf community?

So when you say Black Lives Matter connected with the deaf community, I think initially my gut goes to the fact that police and their use of force right here, that's the root of the problem. That we need to make sure our police are educated and understand the diversity of the communities that they are working with. That they— all of all of the people that they're out there keeping safe are not the same, and that we need to make sure that they understand the diversity. I think the work that I've been able to be involved with, with Emmae on Unspeakable, this PSA is going to help bring awareness to the rights of the deaf community. And if police forces can have sensitivity trainings and be more aware of individuals, I've heard stories of of deaf people who have been pulled over for simple traffic stops and not heard the command to have their hands on the steering wheel and have unfortunately been pulled from their vehicles using force simply because they were deaf, because they couldn't hear. I think that Black Lives Matter is— and the unfortunate loss of life that has brought about this movement is really something that is going to help all minority communities who are experiencing these situations where power is being used unnecessarily and force is being used unnecessarily. I'm very hopeful that I can continue to be involved here locally. I've done some presentations for different precincts of Office policers wanting to learn American Sign Language, and I would love to do more to help give them introductions to the community so they can be more aware.

Yeah, I agree with you completely on what you've just said, because people who are deaf, you know, a policeman can say something. Now, let's add being Black. This is like double jeopardy. So you know, you could go up to someone, they're not responding, and the reason is because they're deaf. What about you, Ime? How have you been involved in Black Lives Matter?

Yes, absolutely. Paul Robeson said it best, artists are the gatekeepers of truth. If it wasn't for the inclusion of the arts to be able to crystallize and foster these movements, you know, where would we be? And, you know, being of African descent, we understand that all lives matter. We get that. But if all lives matter, then Black lives have to matter too. And when we talk about being— knowing the difference between, you know, allyship We have to understand that if we have the ability to amplify the voice of those who are next to us, who are, you know, overlooked often, why can't I take my influence to say, "Hey, listen, don't forget about my friend. Do not forget about my neighbor." And that's why we took our allyship to say, "Hey, listen, there's no one in my family that's deaf. My daughter's not deaf. I'm not deaf. But that doesn't mean that we can't manufacture our influence to make sure that we amplify the voices of others." And when you think of Black Deaf Lives Matter as well, they do. And if you think about, I'll use my wife as an example. My wife has bipolar disorder, which is a disability. And I used photography on how to deal with what she was going through with her bipolar disorder. And if I could do that for her and see how she could go from level 0 to level 10, in a matter of 2 years, and this is from failed suicide attempts and things of that nature, if that made me better and made her better, then I need to spend, like I mentioned before, the rest of my life making sure that others get on their feet. And relating to what Danielle said, it's an estimate that 1/3 to 1/2 of those who are killed by police have disabilities. Eric Garner, Freddie Gray, Sandra Bland, they all had disabilities. And if we could restructure what it looks like to show someone a different language that could really help to break down that systematic structure of what policing is, I think we could really change our communities for the better. And My last point is that ever since we released Unspeakable, I've been on the phone almost daily with philanthropic organizations, corporations alike, who are starting to change the way they do business and the way they change their culture because of Unspeakable. There are corporations that are changing their websites to become 508 compliant. Changing what they do in their meetings to make sure that there's an interpreter that's there, and changing the way we look at those who are deaf, hard of hearing, or those with disabilities. Just because they have a disability doesn't mean that they don't have the ability to change the world.

Ah, that is so true. Before we end, which we're going to end in a few minutes, a few, like, one minute. Uh, Ime, I want to have you and Daniel back on next year. Danielle, you know why? I know you will do something spectacular by then. You're just like an amazing person. So we're gonna have him back. Listen, everyone, remember what I said. Subscribe to the show Disability Matters. Joyce Bender on voiceamerica.com, and share the podcast. Tell everyone about this show. It is and has been so phenomenal. So we end every show with a quote, and oh my goodness, this is perfect for our discussion today, because a new friend of mine, Reverend Dr. William Barber, the head of the Poor People's Wells campaign, said, "Oh, there is a power when those who have known rejection come together." This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. Join us next week when we talk to Sarah Oliver Carter, from Duquesne Light about Black Lives Matter. Talk to you then.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk Voice America.com.