The existence of a distinct Black Deaf culture has often gone unnoticed in the predominately white Deaf community. Ritchie Bryant, a native ASL user and interpreter, discusses the many artistic and linguistic contributions of Black Deaf people to the wider society. 

Presented by the ASL Program in Penn's Department of Linguistics. Cosponsored by the Wolf Humanities Center.

Ritchie R. Bryant is a dynamic, native American Sign Language (ASL) user and a culturally Deaf Texan. He is currently working as ASL faculty at National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID). For the past two years, he has been working as a freelance interpreter at Gallaudet University. Ritchie has been presenting ASL/Deaf-related workshops for the past twenty years. Trained as an ASL mentor and ASLPI/SLPI evaluator, he used to train Deaf people to become ASL mentors for signers in the Rochester community under the Community Interpreter Grant. Ritchie obtained a bachelor’s degree in ASL degree from Gallaudet University and a master’s degree in Deaf education from McDaniel College. He is also a certified Deaf interpreter who has been interpreting in the Deaf community since 2000. His interests include developing African-American storytelling within the Deaf community, and video editing on his computer.