Deaf American Poetry: An Anthology

E. Lynn Jacobowitz (1953– )

183  E. Lynn Jacobowitz (1953– ) Asserting, as many American Sign Language (ASL) poets do, that her poem “cannot be translated,” E. Lynn Jacobowitz advises her readers to “please use [their] imagination and sign along in a slow, rhythmic form.” Yet her notes for the signs and facial expressions used in “In Memoriam: Stephen Michael Ryan” go a long way in evoking in text some of the poem’s power. Imagination is needed to appreciate any translation, but since the gloss stops short of translation, some knowledge of ASL is required for a fair appreciation . Jacobowitz uses the signing community’s most popular formal storytelling scheme, narrating only with the handshapes representing the English alphabet and in its order. As some of these handshapes are rarely used beyond fingerspelling English words, it is a remarkable accomplishment to use them—only onethird of the total handshapes available in ASL—smoothly, without any awkwardness. The signing reader will find Jacobowitz’s selections for signs in this poem especially fine, but the nonsigning reader will still get a sense of the poem’s poignant frankness mixed with tenderness. E. Lynn Jacobowitz was born in Brooklyn, New York. At eight months, she became deaf after contracting spinal meningitis. Before entering Gallaudet College in 1971, she attended the Lexington School for the Deaf and New Utrecht High School without graduating. Jacobowitz received a bachelor’s degree in psychology and creative learning from Gallaudet and later earned her master’s degree in education communication from the University of Maryland in 1981. After teaching two years at Delgado Junior College in New Orleans, she began her long career in 1979 as professor in the Department of Sign Communication (now the Department of American Sign Language and Deaf Studies) at Gallaudet. E. Lynn Jacobowitz 184 Jacobowitz has been active in many organizations, including the powerful American Sign Language Teachers Association, where she has served as vice president and president, and currently is the chair of two committees. In 2001, she earned a doctorate in administration and supervision in higher education from Gallaudet. She is also involved with the Maryland School for the Deaf, where she coaches soccer and basketball, which both of her daughters play. ...