Carol, a Philadelphian since 1961, on finding hope in unlikely places.
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A lifelong Philadelphian and deaf rights campaigner explains what communication accessibility actually means, why she signs while she speaks even when nobody has asked her to, and where she finds a reason to get up in the morning.
Carol moved into the centre of Philadelphia in 1961. “Been here literally forever.” She left for Manhattan and came back deliberately: “I came back to Philadelphia to change the world as I knew it. I wanted to bring what I learned and experienced back to my city.”
What she came back to change was the visibility of her own children. “My passion and my fight for civil and human rights is focused on deaf rights, and the language and cultural rights.”
She is signing throughout, and stops to explain why. “I’m not a professional interpreter, anything close to it. But I want to make sure that people who watch me and see me and listen to me know that I’m conscious of the need for full accessibility, beyond ramps and wheelchairs. Communication accessibility is everything. That’s my passion, my fight, my struggle, my cause, and it never ends.”
On the present moment she is unsparing: “We’re watching a devolution of civil rights, and the deaf issues, it’s unmatched. So that’s what gives me reason to wake up every morning.”
And on why she is at a pizza party at all, talking about hope: “It’s frightening for me to keep the goal. There’s still hope, as I listen and watch to some new horror that’s presented to us all.”
She describes what she found in this room as the combination that matters: “It’s that combination of where your head is and where your heart is.”
Filmed in Philadelphia by Maceo, under his Pizza DAO name, Pepperoni Lupin.
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