HANDS! Festival 2021 on African Sign Languages and Deaf Studies

HANDS! Festival poster

Click on the video above to view the announcement of HANDS! Festival in International Sign.

HANDS! Festival 2021 takes place on 12 June 2021 via Zoom.

On 12 June 2021, Leiden University presents the HANDS! Festival to showcase the beauty of sign languages in Africa and the Netherlands. The HANDS! Festival features performances of the winning contributions of a sign language literature competition in various African countries, pop up talks by sign language researchers, and performances of deaf artists in the Netherlands.

Registration is free for everyone. To register please go to the festival registration page on Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.nl/e/hands-festival-registration-139664784129.

[Text content of the HANDS! Festival 2021 poster:]

Winners of Deaf African Visual Vernacular Competition:

– Carlos Alves (Guinea-Bissau)
– Fitsum Taffese (Ehtiopia)
– Susan Njeyiyana (South Africa)
– Willy Kamugisha (Burundi)
– Frederick Yoyoway (Ghana)

Festival programme:

(via Zoom)

– Visual Vernacular (VV) and Sign Language Poems Show
– African Deaf Dance from Ghana
– Deaf Artists Handicrafts
– Interviews

Time:

15h-17h CET (The Netherlands)
14h-16h GMT (Guinea-Bissau/Ghana)
16h-18h CAT (Burundi/South Africa)
17h-19h EAT (Kenya/Ethiopia)

Presenters:
– Evans Burichani (Kenya)
– Janet Fasakin (Nigeria)
– Marco Nyarko (Ghana)

VV Professional:
– Erwan Cifra (France)
The winners will have a workshop with deaf Visual Vernacular professional Erwan Cifra.

The festival is sponsored by AFRICA 2020 and Leids Universiteits Fonds.

 

Downloadable poster of the HANDS! Festival (PDF):

Left: A man is standing in front the camera with his arm raised and his body curved backward. Right: A woman is looking through the camera (camera's placed on a tripod) at the man. A few people are standing next to her. The setting is in a courtyard surrounded by white buildings with orange pitched roof and there is vegetation, including a palm tree.