See you at Allies 2025 Deaf-Centered Interpreting
See you at Allies 2025 Deaf-Centered Interpreting
There is not a simple answer to this question. Each participant might give you a different answer about the impact the Allies Conference has had over the years on the community and individual participants. The Allies Conference is an opportunity for open and honest dialogue about cultural and linguistic oppression present at interpreted events – sometimes manifested by hearing individual(s) and sometimes by interpreter(s). In years past, participants have explored the positive and negative behaviors exhibited by interpreters in their ethical and social response to such oppression before, during, and after interpreting assignments. The concept of cultural and linguistic oppression is a multi-faceted awareness that may be common to many and also may be unique to a few. The overarching question remains: what, if anything, needs to be done to reclaim a cultural perspective, design of intersectionality, and steadfast multi-cultural leadership and action within our collective communities? In other words, how can we continue to coexist? Although we will be briefly looking back to previous Allies conversations, the 2024 program is designed to take us into a future that includes participants composing a future based on an inclusive panoramic model that supports community members in actual projects that will move the conversation forward resulting in visible and sustainable outcomes for our collective communities.
The 1994 RID Region 1 Conference came on the heels of the 1992 RID Region I Conference in Philadelphia, later called "Stop the Music", where members of the Deaf Community took a stand that future Region I conferences be an ASL-only environment and committed to Deaf community/hearing interpreter collaboration. The 1994 RID Region I Conference, co-hosted by Maine RID and NHRID at the same DoubleTree Nashua hotel, began addressing the concept of allyship where a historically large number of Deaf participants and interpreters gathered in Nashua, NH.
It was clear after the 1994 conference that there was a need for further conversation and the Allies Conference was born, funded in part by profits from Region I ’94. As the conferences continued throughout the 1990’s, there was both turmoil and celebration woven throughout those weekends of important and meaningful conversations. Difficult and fruitful discussions occurred that had not often been seen in public spaces.
In the early years, there were 4 conferences in NH and one in Connecticut. After a number of years of hibernation, the Allies conference started hosting events again in 2019 and 2022.
Deaf and Deaf-Blind people, Codas, People of Color, and Deaf/Hearing interpreters — all who are interested in rolling up their sleeves, participating in challenging conversations, laughing and struggling together to create personal commitments to allyship. The planning committee expects this to be a memorable weekend that we will look back on as on as a milestone event in our history.If you don't like challenge, conflict and personal growth, perhaps this not the right conference for you. If you are interested in a simple interpreter training opportunity to earn CEUs, again maybe not the right weekend for you. But if you embrace reflective growth and want to discover your role in community collaboration by possibly confronting your own belief and attitudinal systems, this is the conference for you! There is nothing you need to know to come except to have accepted the foundational idea that oppression exists in the interpreting field and you want to be part of creating a way to ameliorate it. We plan to dig deep into the presentation and ramifications of oppression from both the personal and from the community perspective. We know the topics may be difficult for some to fully process and we will offer a support network of mentors to work with anyone who feels overwhelmed or confronted by one of the topics being discussed and explored.
We invite experienced Allies and those who are just starting their work in the Deaf Community. We are excited about you taking your place in the conversation with the best and the brightest people in our community.
We want to discover ways to create a real and life-long alliance between those who use interpreter services and those who provide interpreting services. The alliance is grounded in recognizing the place interpreters have within the Deaf Community and acting on the expectations of proper cultural behaviors and responsibilities before, during, and after an interpreted event. And then to find a way to replicate what happens at this weekend, throughout the Deaf and interpreter communities across the country.
There is not a simple answer to this question. Each participant might give you a different answer about the impact the Allies Conference has had over the years on the community and individual participants. The Allies Conference is an opportunity for open and honest dialogue about cultural and linguistic oppression present at interpreted events – sometimes manifested by hearing individual(s) and sometimes by interpreter(s). In years past, participants have explored the positive and negative behaviors exhibited by interpreters in their ethical and social response to such oppression before, during, and after interpreting assignments. The concept of cultural and linguistic oppression is a multi-faceted awareness that may be common to many and also may be unique to a few. The overarching question remains: what, if anything, needs to be done to reclaim a cultural perspective, design of intersectionality, and steadfast multi-cultural leadership and action within our collective communities? In other words, how can we continue to coexist? Although we will be briefly looking back to previous Allies conversations, the 2023 program is designed to take us into a future that includes participants composing a future based on an inclusive panoramic model that supports community members in actual projects that will move the conversation forward resulting in visible and sustainable outcomes for our collective communities.
The 1994 RID Region 1 Conference came on the heels of the 1992 RID Region I Conference in Philadelphia, later called "Stop the Music", where members of the Deaf Community took a stand that future Region I conferences be an ASL-only environment and committed to Deaf community/hearing interpreter collaboration. The 1994 RID Region I Conference, co-hosted by Maine RID and NHRID at the same DoubleTree Nashua hotel, began addressing the concept of allyship where a historically large number of Deaf participants and interpreters gathered in Nashua, NH.
It was clear after the 1994 conference that there was a need for further conversation and the Allies Conference was born, funded in part by profits from Region I ’94. As the conferences continued throughout the 1990’s, there was both turmoil and celebration woven throughout those weekends of important and meaningful conversations. Difficult and fruitful discussions occurred that had not often been seen in public spaces.
In the early years, there were 4 conferences in NH and one in Connecticut. After a number of years of hibernation, the Allies conference started hosting events again in 2019 and 2022.
Deaf and Deaf-Blind people, Codas, People of Color, and Deaf/Hearing interpreters — all who are interested in rolling up their sleeves, participating in challenging conversations, laughing and struggling together to create personal commitments to allyship. The planning committee expects this to be a memorable weekend that we will look back on as on as a milestone event in our history.If you don't like challenge, conflict and personal growth, perhaps this not the right conference for you. If you are interested in a simple interpreter training opportunity to earn CEUs, again maybe not the right weekend for you. But if you embrace reflective growth and want to discover your role in community collaboration by possibly confronting your own belief and attitudinal systems, this is the conference for you! There is nothing you need to know to come except to have accepted the foundational idea that oppression exists in the interpreting field and you want to be part of creating a way to ameliorate it. We plan to dig deep into the presentation and ramifications of oppression from both the personal and from the community perspective. We know the topics may be difficult for some to fully process and we will offer a support network of mentors to work with anyone who feels overwhelmed or confronted by one of the topics being discussed and explored.
We invite experienced Allies and those who are just starting their work in the Deaf Community. We are excited about you taking your place in the conversation with the best and the brightest people in our community.
We want to discover ways to create a real and life-long alliance between those who use interpreter services and those who provide interpreting services. The alliance is grounded in recognizing the place interpreters have within the Deaf Community and acting on the expectations of proper cultural behaviors and responsibilities before, during, and after an interpreted event. And then to find a way to replicate what happens at this weekend, throughout the Deaf and interpreter communities across the country.
Email us at AlliesPlanningTeam@gmail.com We will be happy to answer your questions.
As the conference approaches, if there is a need for COVID testing before the weekend, we will send you a message.