
DATE: Sunday, September 14, 1997            TAG: 9709140094

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY ERIKA REIF, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: HAMPTON                           LENGTH:  151 lines

MISS DEAF VIRGINIA THE BEAUTY IN SILENCE AS CONTESTANTS COMPETE, THEIR PRIDE SPEAKS VOLUMES.

The girls are jittery, dressed in sportswear, waiting behind black drapes in the hotel conference room. Judges are seated facing the raised platform. Pageant officials nod. Everything is set.

It's showtime.

Turn on a lamp in the audience's front row. Chat freely with your neighbors in the semi-circular audience arrangement. And pay no mind to laughter coming from contestants backstage.

It's the Miss Deaf Virginia Pageant. And in this deaf world, Friday night's event at Holiday Inn-Coliseum was done their way. To accommodate their visual language. And to revel in the company of people in their distinct community.

Only three girls entered statewide - because of a shortage of sponsorship and interest, some said. None are local - although the event held every two years was sponsored this time by the Hampton Roads Chapter of the Virginia Association of the Deaf.

But all three contestants assured the judges and approximately 125 people watching - during the familiar Q&A portion - that they wouldn't be caught dead entering a Miss America contest in the hearing world.

This, here, tonight is our culture, all three insisted. The hearing world doesn't understand us. We'd rather be role models within our own community.

And that community is alive, vibrant - and loud. During a talent show rehearsal Thursday, two contestants polished their skits and a third her poetry reading. No distinct words were voiced.

But to a hearing person, the animated ``silence'' is full of noise: hands clap, and smack wrists and thighs; ``ahs'' and gasps punctuate breaths that speed up and slow down in the very physical conversation. There are giggling, throaty and whispery utterings, and spitting, lip-smacking and kissing sounds.

And as rapidly as their hands and arms sign the language, the faces of the girls mime corresponding feelings and flash innuendos.

Who could blame the deaf for joking, as a comedian at the pageant did, about the stony, deadpan faces of hearing people? In that community - about 96,000 deaf and hard-of-hearing in Hampton Roads - jokes that play on the senses are always hot.

At a luncheon during the four-day VAD convention that hosted the pageant, one inadvertent, cultural slip-up was good fodder. A waiter clearing banquet plates set a large, stacked tray directly in front of where an organizer was introducing those seated at the head table.

The waiter didn't realize the tray blocked the line of vision to the organizer's hand signs, interrupting communication to the deaf in the audience. After the luncheon, some deaf attendees joked that the organizer should have signed into the microphone so the audience could understand.

It's deaf humor, in a culture not completely foreign to hearing people but noticeably different. Like the big, full-body hugs that the deaf often use to greet each other, says Deborah Mandigo, a volunteer translator at the weekend convention. Stiff hugs with light taps on the back don't convey enough.

There is the automatic positioning when the deaf form a group, into arcs and horseshoe shapes that allow them to see each other's hand signs. And the everyday adjustments. While dining out, they move centerpieces and condiments out of the way. They might collect candles from other tables to light up their hands and faces.

There is also a bluntness in their conversation, Mandigo said. They might call a large, elderly person ``big, fat and wrinkled,'' with corresponding hand and facial expressions, she said.

As an audience, they applaud by quivering their hands overhead. It's also acceptable to sign to each other during performances, Mandigo said. To get someone's attention, they wave a hand in the air, nudge or even blow into someone's hair. To speak to someone across the room, they might start a chain of tapping and pointing that directs the subject to the original person.

``This place right now is a deaf cultural thing,'' Mandigo says while walking through halls bustling with deaf people signing.

It's time spent with people who don't consider themselves handicapped, but more of a language-based minority. As at the Silent Suppers, Silent Weekends and other regular gatherings where strictly sign language is used. Whether it's Signed Exact English (SEE), a direct translation from spoken sentences. Or American Sign Language (ASL), considered the natural language of the deaf. Or some form of Pidgin Signed English (PSE) in between.

Mandigo, a substitute interpreter for the Norfolk school system, has been studying sign language for two years. She is not certified and worries that some of the interpreting she did at the convention might be imperfect. As in spoken language, each signer has a unique style with regional or family-learned modifications, she said.

At one point, Mandigo introduced a deaf VAD board member to a hearing person by saying: ``This is Bennie Lacks, and I've just met him. And I'm sorry, but he's real hard to understand.''

Mandigo signs, ``I'm sorry,'' to Lacks, the meaning apparent in her face and in the apologetic tilt to her shoulders and head. Lacks smiles and slows his signing, altering it enough for Mandigo to comprehend.

``In the deaf world, we're not deaf,'' he signs with Mandigo interpreting. ``It's really the hearing people that are deaf. They need the interpreter.''

Teacher Jay Shopshire from Hampton's Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind brought 22 deaf students to the convention Friday to experience the deaf world. Many had never mingled in a group of deaf adults, Shopshire signed with Mandigo interpreting.

It's sad, but many don't communicate much with their own families, he signed. Others use makeshift ``homesigns'' and don't learn standard sign language for many years.

The kids were most impressed by a display of the futuristic video relay systems, Shopshire signed. Unlike the commonly used TDD or TTY telephone systems where the deaf communicate in writing, the video systems would allow them to telecommunicate through signing.

Another display that left its mark was one by deaf members of the animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Shopshire signed. The booth had a soundless video showing stumbling kittens that had been used in brain experiments intended to cure deafness.

But many deaf say they don't need to be ``cured.'' They are not disabled. They are not ill.

They are proud. And three pageant contestants either felt or knew that when answering the question: Would you rather be a contestant in the Miss American pageant this weekend? Their denials drew plenty of hand-waving approvals from the audience.

Second runner-up Cindy Ann Millard, 27, of Falls Church said that the deaf pageant was preferable because there was no swimsuit category. She won the talent competition with her comic skit, ``Searching for Mr. Right.''

First runner-up Heather Ann McClure, 18, of Vinton signed and acted out a poem she wrote, ``Excuses, Excuses.'' She placed first in the evening gown contest.

The winner, Marie Silva Shook, 20, of Franconia, acted out a skit, ``Dolls,'' where she played a girl who wondered if any of her multi-ethnic dolls were deaf. Shook later signed that she believed her strongest category was the private interview.

All of them won ``Miss Congeniality,'' a tie created by their voting for one another.

``Congratulations, girls,'' signed the emcee. ``You need to be supportive.''

A sparkling crown. White sash. Roses. Parents and elderly admirers crowding the winner, cooing (in sign), ``Your face looks so pretty. . . . Absolutely gorgeous dress. . . . You smile so nicely.''

For a moment, the lines between the worlds are blurred. ILLUSTRATION: TAMARA VONINSKI color photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Marie Silva Shook, the new Miss Deaf Virginia, basks in the cheers

of waving hands in the audience and from the runners-up for the

title, behind her. Shook credited a strong interview for her

victory.

Jennifer Yost, left, helps Heather Ann McClure get ready for the

pageant's evening gown segment.

TAMARA VONINSKI photos/The Virginian-Pilot

Heather Ann McClure, a contestant in the Miss Deaf Virginia Pageant

Friday evening in Hampton, signs during the interview segment.

McClure, 18 , of Vinton acted out a skit and was the second

runner-up.