National Deaf LGBTQ Awareness Week kicks off with Dyer Arts Center exhibit

 It is now the National Deaf LGBTQ Awareness Week.

The Deaf Queer Resource Center (DQRC) kicked off the week on Saturday with a video with more than 20 members of the LGBTQ Deaf community saying “Happy National Deaf LGBTQ Awareness Week!”

The Dyer Arts Center at RIT/NTID has a special exhibit called “Deaf Queer Art.” The exhibit was a collaboration between the Dyer Arts Center and the DQRC.

Drago Renteria, a Deaf transman from San Francisco and the DQRC founder, told “The Daily Moth” that the exhibition was supposed to be open to the public but was cancelled due to coronavirus, but the Dyer Arts Center decided to make it a virtual exhibit.

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On Sunday night there was an opening celebration and reception on Zoom with over 150 participants, including some of the artists who shared what inspired their art.

The artwork is available to view online. Over 40 Deaf Queer artists contributed to the collection.
The gallery explains that “Deaf Queer artists experience a minimum of two different forms of oppression: audism and heterosexism” and that the exhibition is a “bold assertion of Deaf Queer artists’ lived experiences.”

The artwork includes paintings, videos, sculpture, photography, poetry, and digital artwork.

The links to DQRC’s Facebook page and to the virtual art exhibit are below in the transcript.

https://www.facebook.com/deafqueer/

https://dyerartscenter.omeka.net/.../show/deafqueerart/intro
https://bit.ly/2xHXoSc