Tag: deaf
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Ludwig van Beethoven: music and medicine
Michael Yafi Chaden Yafi Houston, Texas, United States Beethoven home and surrounding area. Photos by Michael Yafi. December 2020 marked the 250th anniversary of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. The causes of the composer’s deafness and his death at the age of fifty-six have remained unknown, even after an autopsy carried out soon…
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“Moonlight” and silence
Anne Jacobson Oak Park, Illinois, United States Woman at the Piano. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875/76. Art Institute of Chicago. At seventeen, I knew little about the limitations or losses that might cause a person to second-guess a vocation, deeply held belief, or identity. Perhaps those questions about the unknowable future inhabit the soul of a…
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Sign Gene: The first deaf superhero film
Paul Dakin North London, United Kingdom Sign Gene, the world’s first deaf superhero film. Written and directed by Emilio Insolera. Image published with permission. If the superhero genre really is “about transformation, about identity, about difference,”1 then the description can readily be applied to Sign Gene, the world’s first deaf superhero film. Written and…
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“Super” heroes: Special powers in deaf characters
Paul DakinLondon, United Kingdom In 2012 Marvel Comics produced a cover featuring New Hampshire Senator Lou D’Allesandro’s four-year-old grandson Anthony as Blue Ear, a superhero wearing a hearing aid. Anthony refused the prosthetic because superheroes did not wear them. His mother contacted the company hoping to find an inspirational example and received the specially-created artwork…
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New life
Hannah Joyner Takoma Park, Maryland, United States Photography by dierk schaefer At first I thought I had a sinus infection, expecting to come home with a course of antibiotics. The doctor initially agreed, but when he heard my account of facial numbness spreading around my left eye, he referred me immediately to a neurologist,…
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Dr. Arrieta and Francisco Goya
Self Portrait with Dr. Arrieta Francisco de Goya, 1820 William Stringer Los Angeles, California, United States Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was a deaf Spanish painter who almost died of a severe, unknown illness in 1819.1 He painted this self-portrait in 1820 to illustrate the kind and attentive care provided by Dr. Arrieta.2 In Goya’s…