{"id":101895,"date":"2024-09-22T21:03:10","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T01:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/09\/22\/rock-in-rios-sign-language-pumps-up-brazils-deaf-audience\/"},"modified":"2024-09-22T21:03:10","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T01:03:10","slug":"rock-in-rios-sign-language-pumps-up-brazils-deaf-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/2024\/09\/22\/rock-in-rios-sign-language-pumps-up-brazils-deaf-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock in Rio\u2019s Sign Language Pumps Up Brazil\u2019s Deaf\u00a0Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n\tTens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro\u2019s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday (Sept. 20), with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry<\/a>. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners \u2014 a sign language interpreter.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tRelated\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Katy<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tKaty Perry Is Ready to Spread the Love With \u2018143\u2019: Stream It\u00a0Now\t\t<\/p>\n<\/h3><\/div>\n

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\n\tThe red-haired woman \u2014 with a chunky chain belt and a gem between her eyebrows \u2014 snapped her fingers and swayed, then pumped her arms as the beat gathered force.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIt seems like I\u2019m on stage with her, in front of everyone,\u201d the interpreter, La\u00edsa Martins, told the Associated Press<\/em> afterward. And as Katy Perry belted out her first verse, Martins started signing.<\/p>\n

\n\tRock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It\u2019s one of Latin America\u2019s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day over seven days, and Sunday is its last day.<\/p>\n

\n\tInside a container backstage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, with their images appearing above the stage to ensure deaf people across the thronging crowd can follow. Organizers also invite dozens of deaf people and their companions into a VIP area, right by the stage and close enough to speakers to feel the music pulsing through their bodies.<\/p>\n

\n\t\tHow a 2015 law helped Brazil start championing accessibility\t<\/h4>\n

\n\tInterpreters have started popping up at festivals and concerts across Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil\u2019s ambitious 2015 inclusion law that sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events while guaranteeing organizers provide means of doing so.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome interpreters have drawn the spotlight themselves with their flair and flashy dress, gaining\u00a0thousands of social media followers.\u00a0Demand for them is surging so much that many start working before even finishing their education, said Lenildo Souza, president of the nationwide federation of sign language interpreters\u2019 associations.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn Brazil, 2.3 million people are partially or completely deaf, according to the national statistics institute. But fewer than two-thirds of those who are completely deaf know how to use Brazilian sign language, and far less among those with some hearing. That\u2019s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only lip-reading, or go deaf later in life, said Souza.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs such, subtitles could be more effective at transmitting lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G<\/a> sang so quickly at times Friday night that some words were lost on Amorim, who isn\u2019t fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said interpreters convey more than just lyrics of songs, which they study intensively ahead of the show. They dance to the rhythm and pull faces to transmit the music\u2019s energy and emotion \u2014 be it euphoria, rage, mystery or sensuality. That pumps up the crowd, deaf and hearing people alike.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe express the whole idea of the song with our expressions, with our body. We want to express the entire musical context and use literally our entire body,\u201d said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. \u201cOur feet are cut off there [on the screen], but during samba songs, we\u2019re dancing samba. It\u2019s just like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\tPutting deaf people up front\t<\/h4>\n

\n\tRock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, coordenador de pluralidade (diversity coordinator). Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include vibrating platforms or a product similar to the vibrating vests they tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for those with limited vision.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba \u2014 his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and pandeiro, a handheld frame drum \u2014 and he was always around it growing up. But Martins can hear little from his right ear and nothing from his left, so could never fully connect or participate.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast year, he went to his first-ever concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band \u2014 even before its single whose\u00a0official video features people signing<\/a>. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in S\u00e3o Paulo. And last week he traveled from S\u00e3o Paulo to party with his parents at Rock in Rio.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe was most hyped to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and waited to enter the special section by the stage. Iza started playing, just off to his left, but he faced the opposite direction, watching her on the screen with an interpreter in its corner. He danced and signed along with the interpreter, often in synchrony.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI can follow the interpreter and I\u2019m very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,\u201d Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. \u201cFor deaf people, it\u2019s very important. We can\u2019t be outside this here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, together with everyone participating in everything. I\u2019m very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRock in Rio\u2019s camera scanning the crowd found Martins vibing and locked in. For a few seconds, he was up on the big screen for everyone to see, smiling wide with his head thrown back and shaking both hands in the air \u2014 the\u00a0sign for applause<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Aller \u00e0 la source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro\u2019s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday (Sept. 20), with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners \u2014 a sign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-101895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musique","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101895\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cyberlego.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}