After visiting Guyana, Tamyka Bullen wrote a poem, Fly Higher, describing a taxi ride that opened a window into the politics of a place. The taxi route became the vehicle to illustrate oppressive systems that affects all of us – socially, economically, and politically – and explain the discrimination against Deaf people that stems from policies that favor elites such as hearing folks. Fly Higher (2022) was translated it into a choreographed movement performance for AGB’s How to Read a Vessel. Tamyka explains her process,
“I started producing poetry videos in 2018 in my native language of American Sign Language. Art Gallery Burlington reached me and asked me to share the Fly Higher video for their exhibition. We talked about modes of communication, how people from different cultures communicate with each other when they do not speak each other’s native languages. I don’t speak and am not fluent in lipreading. Realistically, a fluently lipreader can only catch about 30% of English words, and Deaf people who trained how to speak most of their childhood still have the Deaf accent that many hearing people do not understand. Hearing people are in my life daily. Of course, We Deaf people use notepads and pens, or notepads from our cell phones to communicate with hearing people. However, writing or texting back and forth is limited for two reasons, English may not be our first language, or it is difficult to convey a lot of information in writing format. There is a lack of emotional connection in writing when we need to break eye contact and can’t read emotions in between words or in between sentences. So, if I want to tell a story to a hearing person who doesn’t know sign language; I gesture and act. Unfortunately, about 70% of hearing people with Deaf children aren’t interested in learning sign language. Therefore, we become creative with communication. We communicate with our hearing parents by gesturing, acting, pointing at objects, drawing pictures, or making homemade signs.
In the video, the first part is an English-formatted poem of Fly Higher. I promise you that I stretched the time, so you have more time to read every line. The second part is the description of the interior of the minivan. The third part is the story of what happens on the minivan. The story is based on my experience in Guyana where my parents were born. I had my culture shock moment but fell in love with the land and the weather. Guyana is greener and very hot. I used their public transportations they called it a route taxi. I thought using the route taxi to tell a story about oppression is perfect. The story will tell you why I decided to tell a story on the route taxi and hopefully you could see the connection between the oppressive society and the route taxi.
Enjoy watching my video, Cheers. I use hands to wave in the air since we do not hear the applause. Wink” – Tamyka Bullen
Tamyka Bullen has been involved in social services for women, immigrants, youths, and the LGBTQA community for many years. In 2015 she became involved in the theatrical world as an ASL poetry performer. In 2018, she debuted as an actress for the Sound Off Festival production Deaf That! and Judith Thompson’s play After the Blackout. She teaches ASL lessons and loves to craft and mingle stories, arts, poems, acting, and dance on stage, and to voice her feelings and thoughts through her hands, body language, and facial expressions. Her motto: Embrace Yourself, Show Yourself!
Fly Higher is part of Su-Ying Lee’s The Hero as a Bottle: A Stringent Re-evaluation curatorial program for AGB’s How to Read a Vessel exhibition (September 2021 – January 2022)
The AGB and the artist would like to thank Thurga Kanagasekarampillai and Marcia Adolphe Martins. The AGB would like to acknowledge the generous contribution of the Halton Region Investment Fund in support of the AGB Digital programming.
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