Fourth Annual Deaf Expressive Arts Festival online

American Sign Language students from Casper College, Kelly Walsh High School, and Dean Morgan Middle School, as well as local deaf community members, will be showcasing a variety of ASL literary forms as well as De’Via art online as a YouTube Premiere Event Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 6 p.m.

Now in its fourth year, The *D*eaf *E*xpressive *A*rts *F*estival — or *D.E.A.F.* — is a collaborative effort of American Sign Language classes from Casper College, Kelly Walsh High School, and Dean Morgan Middle School. During the event, students will share their love of ASL with the community.

“Several of our local deaf community members and students will perform traditional ASL ABC, number and classifier stories, percussion signing, and folklore stories,” said Gail Schenfisch, Casper College’s American Sign Language instructor. “This intergenerational presentation and sharing of ASL and its culture help build and establish an appreciation of the deaf community and the importance of being global citizens learning diversity through world languages. This first-ever ‘COVID-style’ online event can be viewed by people from a variety of communities just by logging in to watch,” Schenfisch noted.

In addition to Schenfisch at Casper College, other ASL instructors collaborating on the event include Maria Paris at KWHS and Joan Mahnen at DMMS.

All of the poetry and stories will be interpreted for any nonsigning viewers during the festival, which will begin at 6 p.m. here.

For more information about the festival or the American Sign Language Studies degree program at Casper College, contact Schenfisch at 307-268-2588.