“And the Walls Will Fall…” was a social and educational project intended to draw the attention of young people and educators in Bolesławiec to deaf people. It was co-financed by the Ministry of Culture, National Heritage and Sport under the Culture Accessible programme for 2020.
There is no doubt that, because of their hearing impairment, deaf people encounter numerous difficulties in everyday life, primarily in social contacts. These barriers include a lack of awareness among hearing people regarding deafness and the widespread belief that hearing people understand the problems faced by deaf people. The functioning of deaf people is most restricted by the language barrier.
The project carried out by the Municipal Library – Centrum Wiedzy was intended to help break down stereotypes among young people, teach them how to communicate with deaf people, change their way of thinking and encourage them to act for a shared future. The project was designed to be implemented in the following series:
Meetings with signed poetry aimed at bringing young people and deaf people closer together. The invited signing poets were:
- Arkadiusz Bazak – a hard-of-hearing film and theatre actor from Wrocław. The workshops took place on 16–17–18 September 2020 at the Format Gallery of MBP-CW. Nine secondary-school classes from schools in Bolesławiec took part in the workshops, totalling more than 250 people.
- Adam Stoyanov – a deaf actor from Warsaw, a multiple award-winning master of signed poetry and winner of the Signed Poetry Festival, the Festival of Artistic Forms for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing People, and the National Sign Language and Signed Language Olympiads in Szczecin. The workshops were held online on 8–9–10 December 2020 on the internet platforms of secondary schools.
A1-level sign language courses for secondary-school students and educators. Led by Katarzyna Matysik from the Migaj Sercem Association in Legnica. The courses ran from 21 September to 25 November in two groups. The meetings were held via the ZOOM communicator. Seventeen people took part in the course. In addition to learning the basic signs of sign language, the course plan included introducing young people to the cultural differences of deaf people and establishing contact with them by overcoming language barriers.
During the course, the young people learned how to greet a deaf person, communicate with them, learn about their interests, family and hobbies, and, at the same time, discover linguistic and cultural differences. Having completed the sign language courses, young people will be able to attend cultural events such as theatre performances and festivals organised by deaf people.
Katarzyna Matysik of the Migaj Sercem Association in Legnica is a teacher of deaf and hard-of-hearing students and holds a master’s degree in pedagogy. She completed postgraduate studies in “Polish Sign Language” at the University of Warsaw, earning a PJM interpreter certificate. She is a board member of the Migaj Sercem Association in Legnica, which she founded with deaf friends in May 2012.
“The Story of the Deaf Little Red Riding Hood”
The performance took place online and was posted on the library’s Facebook page in Bolesławiec. It was interactive: viewers could decide how the next part would begin and how the entire performance would end. The actors performing in the play were deaf people who form the amateur “Cisza na Scenie” theatre at the Polish Association of the Deaf in Warsaw. The performance can be viewed below.
The performance was not only entertaining but also taught the signs of Polish Sign Language, the language used by deaf people. A voice-over was added to the performance so that everyone could take part. The first part was viewed more than 6,900 times, the second more than 2,000 times and the third more than 1,500 times, exceeding the project author’s wildest expectations.
