After her father lost his hearing, this N.L. singer added ASL interpreters to her shows
CBC
Inspired by her father, who is hard of hearing, St. John's singer Carolina East is making sure as many people as possible are able to experience her music.
East's father had been losing his hearing for some time, she says, but the famil didn't know until earlier this year, by which point he had lost 70 per cent of hearing in one ear and 80 per cent in the other.
"There were frequencies in my music he couldn't hear, he couldn't hear the lyrics, he never got the feel of music. Basically he could just hear the bass and some jumbled up form of lyrics," East said Wednesday, adding he explained it was like listening to music with a pillow over his ears.
A hearing-care specialist introduced her father to hearing aids. Once they were set up, East said, she'll never forget what happened.
"The first thing that he ever fully heard once his hearing aids were in was one of my songs. And the moment that I pressed play in the clinic there.… My father was just overwhelmed with emotion. He became very emotional, and so did everyone in the room," she said.
"It was one of the most beautiful moments of my life."
With her father's hearing loss in mind, East says she wants to make sure everyone can connect with her music by including American Sign Language interpretation in her performances.
Denika Philpott, an ASL interpreter who works with Triangular Communications in St. John's, says interpreting music is much different from interpreting speech. It's a taxing, full body experience that is often done with two interpreters.
"It's on my face. It's on my body. It's in the way you sway. It's everything," Philpott said.
"We don't do it verbatim. It's not simultaneous, we extract meaning from it.… They don't need to hear the music, because they can see it. The accessibility there, it's huge."
Philpott says having that accessible option available is key as it provides a conduit for communication and entertainment.
People can also often feel embarrassed about admitting they are dealing with hearing loss, she said, so having options widely available may help people embrace being deaf or hard of hearing.
East has seen the magic of ASL connections herself on stage, highlighting a recent festival performance with Philpott. She also featured an interpreter in a show on George Street earlier this week, and is challenging other musicians in Newfoundland and Labrador to do the same in their shows.
"There was a gentleman that I'll never forget. I'll never forget his face as long as I live.… He was smiling from ear to ear, and you could tell he was fully involved in that show," East said.
Shopping local may be the desire, but affordability might decide where shoppers spend their money this Christmas season.
As classes across New Brunswick pause for the holidays, it’s not yet clear which schools are making a dent in chronic absenteeism — a stubborn post-pandemic trend that mostly afflicts the high school cohort, especially in the Anglophone West school district.
CBC Quebec has launched its Make the Season Kind campaign. It's our annual campaign that focuses on food insecurity, while also celebrating kindness, generosity and community spirit around the province.
Premier Wab Kinew says Manitoba will hold a public inquiry as soon as 2026 into the former Progressive Conservative government’s post-election efforts to approve an environmental licence for sand-mining company Sio Silica.
Premier Scott Moe has led the Saskatchewan Party through two straight elections, winning majority governments each time.
Eight weeks after adding a GM BrightDrop van to the fleet of his plumbing and heating business, Marty Salliss has no complaints, only praise.
Nearly half of Alberta’s Grade 6 students failed the provincewide math test in 2024, three years after the province started rolling out its new elementary school curriculum.
Toronto could get new cars on the road whose drivers will never get frustrated by gridlock — because the cars would be driving themselves.
Amidst a cost-of-living crisis, some London-area organizations say they have noticed a decline in donations this holiday season.
Prominent northern leaders have been touting the Arctic economic and security corridor as a "nation-building" project that will bring economic benefits to the two territories it straddles, but others are split on how much good will come out of it.
When the federal government tabled its 2025 budget last month, it included a proposal that tax fraud experts say is long overdue — if also a belated acknowledgement that the Canada Revenue Agency has been repeatedly duped into paying out untold millions in bogus tax refunds to scammers.
Talking with an AI chatbot can successfully convince people to change their votes and could affect the outcome of future elections, according to a new study.
While some are writing wishlists for Santa Claus, a group of Newfoundland and Labrador youth are writing their wishlist for the provincial government.