Michelle banks deaf performers

  • How did michelle banks became deaf

    • Michelle A. Banks

    Michelle A. Banks, a native of Washington, DC, is an award-winning actress, writer, director, producer, motivational speaker, and teacher.  She has taught deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing children K for over 30 years in performing arts and American Sign Language (ASL). Former Artistic Director of Onyx Theatre Company for over 11 years in NYC. Her other achievements include the recipient of DC Area Black Deaf Advocates Award for Outstanding Achievements; the recipient of Gallaudet University’s Laurent Clerc Award; the recipient of the Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship; an Individual Achievement Award from the National Council on Communicative Disorders; a featured article in the February issue of Essence magazine.

    Her acting appearances include Sole(T.V. Pilot), The C.A. Lyons Project(Alliance Theatre),Soul Food(Showtime Series),Strong Medicine(Lifetime),Girlfriends(UPN), Compensation (Independent Film), for colored girls who have considered suicide/ when the rainbow is enuf(NY & LA), andBig River(Mark Taper Forum & Ford Theater).  To name a few, Michelle’s directing credits include A Raisin in the Sun (VOCA), Trash (JACK Theater/IRT Theater), ISM & ISM II (VOCA), Camellia for Camille (Deaf Spotlight’s Short Play Festival),Silent Scream (Anacostia Arts Center), and What It’s Like? (One Man Show).  Director of Artistic Sign Language (DASL) credits: Olney Theatre Center&#;s The Music Man and Broadway&#;s For Colored Girls.Currently, Michelle Banks is the Artistic Director of Visionaries of the Creative Arts (VOCA) –

    MICHELLE A. BANKS

     

    An award-winning actress, writer, director, producer, choreographer, motivational speaker, and teacher from Washington, DC.  Her television appearances include a YAHOO! Commercial, the ABC’s , the Showtime Series SOUL FOOD, GIRLFRIENDS (UPN), Lifetime’s STRONG MEDICINE, and a T.V. pilot, SOLE. She has also starred in the movie COMPENSATION, directed by Zeinabu Davis. It has received rave reviews at film festivals worldwide, including Sundance, Burkina Faso’s FESPACO, and the Toronto International Film Festival. The film ran on BET-Black Starz and Sundance cable channels as well. She also had a cameo appearance in Hilari Scarl’s documentary about the Deaf Entertainers, SEE WHAT I’M SAYING. Michelle credits Jadolphus CW Fraser, an independent filmmaker, to introduce her to filmmaking and co-directed his feature debut, ALWAYS CHASING LOVE.

     

    Michelle participated as one of 13 actors for NYC’s ABC Diversity Talent Showcase. Her theatrical appearances include THE C.A. LYONS PROJECT at Alliance Theatre in Atlanta, GA; STORY THEATRE with Open Circle Theatre; BIG RIVER at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, CA, and Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC. She also performed in FOR COLORED GIRLS WHO HAVE CONSIDERED SUICIDE WHEN THE RAINBOW IS ENUF at the Henry Street Settlement Playhouse (New York City) and the Globe Playhouse (Los Angeles). Her FOR COLORED GIRLS ensemble in Los Angeles won the NAACP Theatre award for “Best Ensemble”. Michelle was one of the first two Deaf African-American actresses to interpret for the Broadway play, HAVING OUR SAY by Emily Mann.  

     

    As a writer, she co-wrote plays such as THERE’S BUTTER, BUT NO BREAD, an adaption of WAITING FOR GODOT, and BLACK WOMEN STORIES: ONE DEAF EXPERIENCE for Onyx Theatre Company. She wrote her original one-woman show, REFLECTIONS OF A BLACK DEAF WOMAN, and received The Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship in to produce it in Los Angeles, CA. Her one-woman show ha

  • Was michelle banks born deaf

    • Michelle Banks

     

    is an African American performer who was deafened by spinal meningitis at a young age.  She was educated on the campus starting at the age of three attending the , for the Deaf, and .    later transferred to State University of New York at Purchase to complete her degree in performing arts.  While at State University of New York at Purchase, started “Onyx,” a theatre company catering to deaf performers of color.  

    has performed in several different television shows as well as movies.  Furthermore, she has written and starred in her one women show Reflections of a Black Deaf Women.  In addition, her theatre company presented The Two of Us in conjunction with the New York Deaf Theatre. 

    is an active member of the Nation Black Deaf Advocates serving in many capacities for the Los Angles chapter. 

    Internet Movie Database (). Filmography. Retrieved from,

    Graziano, (). NBDA Member Takes on . , from

    Kurlychek, (). Interview with . World Around You. Retrieved .

     

    Banks, Michelle

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    Actress

    As one of a very few deaf actors working in the United States, still fewer of whom are African American, Michelle Banks has been a true pioneer. For some years, Banks has created roles for herself as founder and artistic director of Onyx Theater Company, the first deaf theater in the United States oriented toward people of color. In the early s, Banks expanded beyond audiences for deaf theater productions with several key film and television roles. Banks has taken a condition that would form a serious obstacle for most performers and turned it into an opportunity. "I never felt I missed out on things. If anything," she told Essence, her deafness "has made me more resilient against the dual discrimination deaf people of color face."

    A native of Washington, D.C., Michelle Banks was born around She had one older brother. Born with normal hearing, Banks went deaf at age one after a bout with spinal meningitis. Her parents quickly realized what was happening and enrolled in classes in American Sign Language so that they would be able to communicate with their daughter and remain involved in her education. Banks was fortunate to be living in Washington, D.C., for the city's Gallaudet University—a nationally prominent institute of higher education for the deaf—operated elementary and secondary schools on its campus. Banks attended the Kendall Demonstration Elementary School at Gallaudet.

    When Banks was seven, she and her family saw the film Sounder, starring Cicely Tyson. "I told my mother I wanted to be just like that woman," Banks told Essence. "She was like, 'Well, she is an actress. I was like, 'Okay, that's what I'll be, then.'" At Gallaudet's Model Secondary School for the Deaf, school director Tim McCarthy encouraged her to pursue her interest in theater. Banks enrolled at Gallaudet itself and also took classes from the National Theatre of the Deaf, but in she transferred to the State University of New York (SUNY) at P

      Michelle banks deaf performers

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