John Lee Clark (born 1978) is an American deafblind poet, writer, and activist from

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

. He is the author of ''Suddenly Slow'' (2008) and ''Where I Stand: On the Signing Community and My DeafBlind Experience'' (2014), and the editor of anthologies ''Deaf American Poetry'' (2009) and ''Deaf Lit Extravaganza'' (2013). Clark was the recipient of a 2020

National Magazine Award The National Magazine Awards, also known as the Ellie Awards, honor print and digital publications that consistently demonstrate superior execution of editorial objectives, innovative techniques, noteworthy enterprise and imaginative design. Or ...

. He is a prominent activist in the Protactile movement.

Early life and education

Clark was born into a Deaf and signing family and became blind later in life. His native language is

American Sign Language American Sign Language (ASL) is a natural language that serves as the predominant sign language of Deaf communities in the United States of America and most of Anglophone Canadians, Anglophone Canada. ASL is a complete and organized visual lang ...

, and he did not learn to read English until he was twelve years old. He started to become blind as an adolescent. He is a second-generation DeafBlind person. Clark graduated from the

Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf The Minnesota State Academy for the Deaf (MSAD) is a public residential school serving deaf children in Minnesota, United States. It is one of two Minnesota State Academies in Faribault and operated by the state for particular student popula ...

and attended

Gallaudet University Gallaudet University ( ) is a private federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C. for the education of the deaf and hard of hearing. It was founded in 1864 as a grammar school for both deaf and blind children. It was the first sc ...

Career

Clark is a

Braille Braille (Pronounced: ) is a tactile writing system used by people who are visually impaired, including people who are Blindness, blind, Deafblindness, deafblind or who have low vision. It can be read either on Paper embossing, embossed paper ...

and ProTactile instructor in Minnesota.

Works

Clark is the author of two books of poems, ''Suddenly Slow'' (2008) and ''How to Communicate'' (2022), and a collection of essays, ''Where I Stand: On the Signing Community and My DeafBlind Experience'' (Handtype Press, 2014). He is the editor of anthologies ''Deaf American Poetry'' (Gallaudet University Press, 2009) and ''Deaf Lit Extravaganza'' (Handtype Press, 2013). His work is included in the anthologies ''Beauty Is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability'', ''Deaf American Prose'', ''St. Paul Almanac'', and ''The Nodin Anthology of Poetry.'' Clark gave a performative demonstration of protactile poetry at the April 2019 festival ''I wanna be with you everywhere'' at

Performance Space New York Performance Space New York, formerly known as Performance Space 122 or P.S. 122, is a non-profitable arts organization founded in 1980 in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan in an abandoned public school building. Origin The former eleme ...

. Using protactile language, he delivered poetry on stage alongside fellow DeafBlind poets Rhonda Voight-Campbell and Hayley Broadway. Clark is a frequent contributor to ''Poetry'' magazine and maintains a blog on his website, where he frequently writes short essays on DeafBlind subjects.

Activism and views

Clark has expressed frustrations with the limited range of literature available in Braille. He advocates for shorter

copyright term The copyright term is the length of time copyright subsists in a work before it passes into the public domain. In most of the world, this length of time is the life of the author plus either 50 or 70 years. Length of copyright Copyright subsists f ...

s after authors' deaths in order for texts to be accessible in more formats. Clark says reading mostly older literature, due to that being the main thing he has been able to access, has influenced his writing and style. Clark wrote an article for ''

The Chronicle of Higher Education ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' is a newspaper and website that presents news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty and student affairs professionals (staff members and administrators). A subscription is required to rea ...

'' in 2010 critical of the failure of colleges to accommodate blind and DeafBlind students. Clark is an activist for the advancement of ProTactile, a fully kinesthetic language.

Recognition and awards

Clark has won grants and fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, VSA Minnesota, the Laurent Clerc Cultural Fund, Intermedia Arts Center, and

The Loft Literary Center The Loft Literary Center is a non-profit literary organization located in Minneapolis, Minnesota incorporated in 1975. The Loft is a large and comprehensive independent literary center, and offers a variety of writing classes, conferences, grants ...

. He was a featured writer at the Deaf Way II International Cultural Arts Festival, and was a finalist for the 2016

Split This Rock {{Short description, American national nonprofit organization of poets, artists, and activists Split This Rock is a national nonprofit organization of poets, artists, and activists based in Washington, D.C. The organization's stated goals are: To ...

Freedom Plow Award for Poetry and Activism. Clark's essay "Tactile Art" appeared in ''

Poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...

'' magazine in October 2019 and won the 2020

for Essays and Criticism.

Personal life

Clark has

Usher syndrome Usher syndrome, also known as Hallgren syndrome, Usher–Hallgren syndrome, retinitis pigmentosa–dysacusis syndrome or dystrophia retinae dysacusis syndrome, is a rare genetic disorder caused by a mutation in any one of at least 11 genes result ...

. He is married to the artist Adrean Clark and they have three sons.

References

External links

Clark's blogClark performing the poem "The Rebuttal"

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, John Lee 1978 births Living people Poets from Minnesota Gallaudet University alumni American disability rights activists American deafblind people Blind poets Deaf poets 21st-century American poets American male poets 21st-century American male writers Activists from Minnesota Blind activists Deaf activists American activists with disabilities American writers with disabilities