Dancing through life, the final 31 days of 2020.

 Dancing through life, the final 31 days of 2020. If 2020 is a natural phenomenon, it’s been a hurricane to say the least. Everyone has had their own struggles this year. There’s been so many times when I wanted to express myself or share my mind and I didn’t because I had to work average 10-15 hours a day or I was too exhausted from working. For the next 30 days, I’m going to do my own journey of reflection for 2020. It can be happy, it can be sad, it can be whatever I feel that day as long as I am doing it for myself. I invite you to join me by reading my posts, commenting, sharing your thoughts or maybe you’d like to do your own journey of reflection. There’s no rules, no limits, just be you.

Use Hashtag: #2020Selfreflection

ID: [Picture of Zahna wearing a long sleeve black shirt, orange scarf around neck, white tutu, pink tights, pointe shoes, hair down. Front leg croise to the front, back leg in plié, arms in fourth with the right arm in front and the left arm behind and she is bending over. Background is scenic San Francisco with Golden Gate Bridge.]

Please Love not Hate

Posted on Facebook: (August 18, 2017)

I'm tired. I'm tired of people taking the time to hate instead of love, judge instead of understand, defend instead of listen, shut you out because of pride...I'm tired of how some organizations won't support their local artists or local Deaf people but will support people from far away, im tired of how people get angry instead of admitting fault and apologizing, I'm tired of people choosing selective community, support should be universal given to everyone from your backyard to outer space. I'm tired of seeing audism on a daily basis, I'm tired of seeing racism on a daily basis-- I'm tired of how easy it is for me to be considered or respected as the head of an organization as a white person when it is really the African American Deaf Man who is the director or alternatively being talked down to as a blonde woman as if I have no experience or am not smart. I'm tired of people making decisions or assumptions without trying to see from a different perspective. I'm tired of people telling me/you what to do or their opinion instead of asking--how can I help/support? Most of all I'm tired for all minority groups victims of oppression who have to fight everyday. I'm here to support you tirelessly.

#pleaselovenothate #standunited #pleaselistennotjudge #zahnasimon

Strongly feeling the hearing privilege this week...

Strongly feeling the hearing privilege this week...hearing privilege is when you can request/book any appointment of any length of your choice and know you can attend with ease without having to worry about getting access, not having to search for access options/ASL interpreters and cross coordinate with their schedules and either pay out of your own pocket when you are already paying for the appointment itself or approach the organization to pay for interpreters which results in anxiety and lengthy conversations of education and negotiation for simple access.  Hearing privilege is when you can join any kind of meeting and feel fully engaged and included whether it be a video meeting on your phone and you don't have to swipe through the screens to search for the ASL interpreter (if you're lucky enough to have an ASL interpreter either through the organization of out of your own pocket) and wonder who is talking and then miss a lot of what's going on because you are swiping through the screens between interpreter, hearing people and Deaf people or whether it be an audio conference call where you don't need to feel left out because you can hear the different voices to identify who is talking and join the conversation with ease and there will be no mention of "awkward silences." Hearing privilege is also when there's no misunderstandings or mis-interpretations because the ASL interpreter didn't understand you, doesn't know the background of the meeting/organizations etc and/or met you for the first time OR when your phone battery is low and you have to hold your phone up thus signing with 1 hand and the interpreter (who met you for the first time) can't understand you. Hearing privilege is when you can join/watch ANY online group or LIVE streams that are offered by hearing people and do not have to ask if materials have captioning/subtitles to be able to understand the content. Hearing privilege is when people don't treat you differently when trying to communicate with you whether it be an attitude, an audist bias or resistance to writing things down on paper or refusing to read notes from your phone when you took the time to type everything down clearly and precisely so there shouldn't be any questions or miscommunications.  Hearing privilege is when you can go watch ANY movie ANYWHERE and the caption devices don't skip out lines or break down before or during the movie and thus you miss half the movie and have to leave anyway.

#zahnasimon #hearingprivilege

Walking on Eggshells in a "Hearing" World

The title is exactly how it sounds.  Generally Deaf people will share with other Deaf people what we experience and the struggles of discrimination and audism in our society.  In fact many can go unsaid because all over the world we Deaf all experience these same struggles.  We tend to not share with the hearing community or if we do it will be a light share for caution to prevent an outrage from the hearing person/organization or to prevent them from dropping us altogether in terms of business, especially media and interviews.  Now you say we should share and that you want to know--however the issue here is that there is too many reactions from the hearing community.  Often times it will be easier to just put up with feeling left out or outcasted because we do not want to feel like a burden on anyone and we especially don't want to hear this thrown in our face.  "But I paid for your interpreters-- they're expensive!" "Why didn't you remind us?" or "Please let us know in advance"... Do you know how many times Deaf people do not go to events, interviews or auditions because they either just found out about it and worry that it may be too late to request an interpreter?  This is a huge loss of opportunity in so many cases for Deaf people and a big disadvantage.  We become so used to this we prefer to stay in our own world-- The Deaf World.  It is an amazing world, a beautiful culture yet we all run into the same barriers at some point of the hearing world smacked in our faces.

I must stress------This is by no means a complaint...this is expressing facts of what really happens in our world and what we face everyday.  It truly feels like walking on eggshells, treading carefully kindly requesting that our needs and accessibility be met.  Sometimes it has to be done more strongly with a bang to be really heard and then eggshells crack and break and it can either go in two directions.  1)  The hearing individuals/organizations will actually accommodate us or 2) they will block and drop us.  What really gets me is how hearing people will be so QUICK to forget you are Deaf and assume you don't need accommodations just because it seems like the Deaf people is understanding everything.  Let me tell you something -- this is very frustrating for us.  YET we continue to patiently remind


Every hearing organization, every day we have to educate and explain patiently and carefully.  It gets exhausting to explain the same thing over and over again.  worry about th.  This causes natural anxiety.  Even at the airport, I was just telling my friend recently--  I always have to be on the lookout of what's happening and be prepared for anything.  An emergency could happen and no one to let me know because they are panicking, the flight could leave early or be late and I don't know because I can't hear the PA System, there could be problems with the plane and they give warning and caution but I still don't know because no one thinks to inform me.

Izzies Award Ceremony 3/26/18

Izzies Awards Ceremony and San Diego Deaf Dance Festival (stay tuned for more details on this to come later) -- Two historic moments in 3 days, these are the moments we live for (I live for...)  As a Deaf person in a hearing world, you have to fight barriers everyday against stereotypes, inequality, inaccessibility, diaspora to name a few.  These barriers are tripled if you are a person of a color and exponentially quadrupled if you are an artist.  After 7 years of people rejecting his ideas and not offering support, Mr Antoine Hunter despite all barriers set up the first Deaf Dance Festival in 2013 as a place where Deaf artists can come together in a professional and full accessible capacity to present their talents.  It's very easy to give up when life throws you walls to stop you dead in your tracks, Mr Hunter dances around those walls to continue making his visions a reality.  The Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival (and the other Deaf Dance Festivals in San Diego and Turkey) are a special place for Deaf and Hearing performers to come together and leave feeling bonded together as a family and inspired/motivated to elevate Deaf Arts around the world.  Many of these Deaf Artists have grown up feeling alone as the only Deaf dancer of their art form in a hearing world so that when we all come together at the festival, its as if we are finding our long lost family.

It's such an honor that 5 years later, he's presented with a Special Award Honoree of the Isadora Duncan (Izzies) Award, an equivalent to the Grammys for Dance Achievement and Excellence in the Bay Area, California.  Not only am I proud of this well deserved recognition for Mr Hunter, I am honored to have performed a solo during the Awards Ceremony as a tribute to all of Mr Hunter's hard work and a celebration of recognition of Deaf Dance and Arts in the hearing world.  Thank you for this privilege.

To add to the specialness of the evening, Mr Hunter's HS teacher Ms Dawn James gave a heartfelt speech in honor of his award and my HS teacher Miss Elvia Marta was sitting in the audience.  Her encouragement and support pushed me as a dancer during my entire career and I will always honor her, regardless of Deafness or not, she saw a Dancer in me and that's what I've always been.

Thank you to Mr Hunter for staying resilient, never swaying from his vision and providing a platform of opportunities for the Deaf community.  Thank you Izzies for honoring Mr Hunter.  Thank you to everyone who has given their support.

#AntoineHunter #Urbanjazzdancecompany #zahnasimon #TheIzzies #Deaftalent #Deafdancers #BAIDDF #BayAreaInternationalDeafDanceFestival

Content description: Top title: 2018 Isadora Duncan Awards, Get your photos at:funframephoto.com. Picture of 6 Deaf smiling faces from the left, Antoine Hunter, Brian, Zahna, Maim, Joy and Bobby.

Picture of Mr Hunter wearing a blue suit holding the Izzies Award in his right hand out front and left hand up in a pose with the Izzies backdrop

Image Description:  Zahna with hair down, wearing purple shirt, black pants, black shoes and black jacket with performer tag around neck smiling and holding both forearms out to the side.  Backdrop is the Izzies and red carpet.

Picture of Urban Jazz Dance Company, Maim on left wearing green floral long sleeve shirt holding her red jacket, Mr Hunter in the middle in a blue vest, white shirt and blue tie, Zahna on the right hair down, purple shirt and black light jacket with Performer Tag around neck.  Background is of golden prints of historic events unknown to me at Brava Theater.

Content description: Zahna on stage wearing black shorts and sportsbra standing with arms and hands stretched out to the side looking up to her left.  Background screen shows "the izzies, 32nd Annual Dance Awards"

Image description:  Zahna on stage wearing black shorts and sportsbra, right leg in plie, left leg high on the side and arms in rounded second.  Background is Stage with audience and pot of flowers on the left.

Traveling Deaf

True story on traveling Deaf and alone:

On my flight back to the Bay Area from Hawaii, a girl sat next to me.  A young college age girl who is learning some ASL at CSU Hayward.  Happens there’s major turbulence once we were in the air and I immediately had a bad feeling.  I’ve been flying all my life, honestly I love flying and I’ve never been worried one bit until now...my gut feeling told me something was wrong and for the first time I was actually nervous and scared on a plane.  The turbulence died down so I attributed it to a rare temporary incident and hoped it was just a passing.  They went ahead to pass out snacks and water so I figured we were safe by then.  Then some time later the girl next to me tried to tell me something, ended up writing in her phone : “we are going back to Honolulu.”  My first internal response was I hope we make it back to Honolulu...I asked for more details, why?  What else did they say?  Did they say what time we would land?  I wanted to know more and felt so anxious not having full accessibility.  The girl wrote it was mechanical problems with the plane and that's it.  I asked her how she knew, did they announce it over the PA System?  She nodded.

The plane landed back to Honolulu.  The girl informed me that we need to exit the plane.  When we exit the plane go left.  I asked her why go left?  Then she says Gate 31 and there's another flight at 7:45 pm.  I thanked her for her help but knew when I get off the plane I needed to get my own information of what’s going on, I want to know more details and also make sure they know and remember that they have a Deaf passenger.  I proceeded off the plane and to gate 31, everybody grabs their seats in the lobby, runs to outlets to charge their phones (lucky I have a portable battery with me fully charged) and scatters about while there’s not an attendant in sight.  The line was so long at the help desk with no one there to help.  There was one stewardress around and then she left to head to the gate doors which is blocked off by sliding glass doors.  I wrote on my phone “Hi I’m Deaf.  Can someone let me know what’s going on with my flight?” And tapped on the glass door.  The two women looked up at me and I signed “I’m Deaf” so one came to talk to me.  I showed her the note on my phone through the glass so she came around and started verbally telling me what’s going on.  I again gestured that I’m Deaf and to please write it down.  She looks exasperated and heads back to the gate stand talking with the other lady taking a long long time to do anything.  Then I started to write more questions on my phone because I had a feeling she wasn’t going to give me ANY details.  Another different woman walked up near me talking on her phone, she works for the airport but looks like she works in the office and not at the gates.  I gestured to her that I am Deaf and to please help.  I showed her my notes on my phone and she typed on it answering all my questions about what time the flight leaves, what time is boarding time while she’s still talking on the phone and also signing “sorry” to me.  Then finally the other lady from earlier comes up with one sentence on her paper “plane swap, mechanical problems”.  I said thank you to both but really to the lady that treated me like a person and took the time to inform me fully what’s going on.  I also always double check with them where I should stand and wait and where exactly they will be boarding, she said I can wait in the area next the glass doors.  Some time later(15 to 20 minutes later) I saw them talking over the PA system and people were moving around, they were collecting wheelchair users to get ready for preboard.  I caught one of the stewards and told him I’m Deaf so he brought me in line for preboard.  When it came my turn to come up, I walked up holding my mobile boarding pass in my phone and the woman just looked at me.  So I put my phone to be scanned and the same woman said no and something inaudible but there were no facial expressions.  I gathered I should stop and a different woman started talking to me.  I told her I was Deaf and then she gestured to wait and that they’re taking care of the wheelchair users first.  I appreciate her willing to communicate with me and give me actual details.  After waiting for a few minutes the woman from the phone earlier came up to talk to the gate people and they pointed to me. She turned facing me smiling and relieved.  I smiled and told her “thank you” reading between the lines that she was informing them of a Deaf passenger — me.  THEN as the original woman who didn’t want to write anything down for me takes my ticket and smiles at me along with all the other gate stewardesses.

My point is never to complain about these situations because I’ve actually kept quiet about the millions of similar or worse experiences than this one.  I rather educate and express my experiences as a Deaf woman.  Many times it’s frustrating and anxious because we live in a world that doesn’t naturally provide accessibility for Deaf people.

Additional note:  Also adding that the in flight entertainment did not have any captions. (Disappointed face)

Designing for Inclusivity Panel

Part 1 took place on October 5th, 2017 for just the Frogs Designs internally.  It sparked such interest that the request for part 2 came up and successfully happened two months later last night on December 6th, 2017.  Its hard to cover all the needs for accessibility in such a short time and also can spark many triggers for those who have grown up in a world that is not accessible.  I'm so grateful and honored to serve on the panel next to Tiffany Yu, the founder of Diversability & Awesome Foundation Disability Chapter, and Victor Pineda, President and Founder for Pineda Foundation/World Enabled.  They are amazing individuals with the drive to make the world more accessible and a wealth of knowledge.  Please don't hesitate to contact them, they are doing many beautiful things.  Thank you to Frogs Design and Melanie Williams, our panel moderator, for making this possible in a world.  This link has more information on the panelist and the event.  Designing For Inclusivity

FLYER ON PANELIST (SAME AS ON WEBSITE): DESIGNING FOR INCLUSIVITY

Description of Image Text:  Frog

DESIGNING FOR INCLUSIVITY DECEMBER 06

Some very important quotes from the evening:


"How do you deal with the world that isn’t responsive? How might we reimagine the way that we relate to activities and the social construct that one might not fit in?" - Dr. Victor Pineda

"Disability is elastic - it's not a property of an individual but the interaction with the environment, which can be enabling or disabling." - Tiffany Yu

Three panelists and moderator posing for a picture with the poster of "Designing for Inclusivity" #Inclusivedesign by Frogs on the wall in the background.  Background Wall top half is off white, bottom half is old red bricks

 Quotes for thought that strongly resonates with this topic:

 "The biggest adversity in living with a disability or a difference from the majority is not in overcoming the disability itself but rather in overcoming the ableism and any "ism"--others derogatory and ignorant perspective of you and your culture."

"Enablement is not only providing opportunity to others with less access but also empowering those to lead and rise above you as well."


Please don't let this conversation stop and continue to reach out to our diverse communities on how we can build not only products and experiences but a world wide environment that includes people of all different backgrounds and abilities.