Video Transcript

Eric Harris:
Hey, everyone, this is Eric Harris with The Game Plan at Disability Rights California. We're super excited. Our guest this episode is Antoine Hunter. Antoine is a person who does so many different amazing things. Antoine is a dancer. Antoine is a performer. Runs a dance studio. Is a deaf advocate. And really in tune with deaf culture. And then also, is a DRC board member. So, really hope you all enjoy this episode. Antoine talks a lot about, inspiration, where Antoine got inspired to get involved in performing and art and dance, and how that connects with, the way that Antoine does, Antoine's advocacy. So super excited, to, be able to, have this conversation with Antoine. And I think you all will really enjoy it. So, hope you all, hope you all enjoy.

Eric:
So welcome, everyone. My name is Eric Harris, and I am the host of The Game Plan podcast with Disability Rights California. And today we have, a fantastic guest, Antoine Hunter, who is a member of the board at Disability Rights California, among a whole bunch of other amazing things that Antoine does. So we're so grateful to have you, Antoine.

Antoine Hunter:
And thank you for allowing me to be here today.

Eric:
Absolutely, so just to get started. Antoine, can you tell our folks a little bit about your journey as a disabled person?

Antoine:
My journey as a disabled person. I mean, first of all, I want to let people know that, I'm a two-spirit, Deaf, disabled. My visual description dark milk chocolate skin, came from my mother, okay. I have ebony locks pulled back. Yeah, a little smokey bear now as I'm getting older. Have a sweatshirt, jacket with the Urban Jazz Dance Company logo, with stripes on the jacket as well. And in my background, I have these beautiful different shades of brown, with African, simple. I just will say that you know, I was born deaf, born disabled, in the city of Oakland, California, the home of the Black Panther Party. We value community, people. They raised me who I am today. But I will fast forward for being raised in Oakland, California, and going to one of the coolest art schools called Skyline High School and where you may see Tom Hanks graduated from there. Director of Urban Jazz Dance Company, the founder of the Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. But I have so many different types of skills, I need your help to direct me to where you want to hear more of this or that. Because my life has just been, there's so many chapter or turning point, so it's a long story for each thing.

Eric:
I love it, I love it. Well, it's fantastic, to hear that, you know, journey and kind of, where you where you got started. The Bay Area, of course, is, is a center piece, kind of a capital of expression, politics, passion, advocacy. So it's a wonderful place to get get started in your journey. How did you get started dancing? I know that dance is such a major part of who you are. And, and if you want to talk a little bit about that.

Antoine:
Yeah, thank you, yeah. Really it just started when I was being bullied. You know, I think being deaf, being the type of, just being different from my own identity. And people look at me and they couldn't describe what I was doing or being so they just bully you, you know, when you're different. And it made me feel that I had no place in the world. So it feels like I'm not supposed to be part of this world. It got to the point where I wanted to take myself out from this world. So I was trying to find ideas, to not be a part of this world at the same time keep moving in this world. So I was in high school where I felt even more segregated from this world. But it wasn't until my high school dance teacher said that everyone needed to create a dance together in their teams. Nobody wanted to work with me. Nobody. So my teacher said, go here and create your own solo. See, I had a strong feeling, I'm not going to force it. So I did a dance solo by Whitney Houston, Whitney Houston "I will always love you."

Eric:
Yeah.

Antoine:
Yeah so, something happened during the instrumental break point. I felt like the lightning was coming in. The water was just shifting me and the the wind. The earth was shaking, and I was just moving my body. I forgot there were people in the room. And when the music stopped, my classmates where just pausing and I felt something really was wrong. And my teacher had that expression of just like, "See?" you know, she asked, everybody "What did you feel from his dance?" I saw them say, "It looked like someone was cold, alone, trying to connect, looking for love." And I was like, "Wow, that's right. That's exactly what I was trying to express." And I learned there dance was another way to communicate. Another way to connect with people. You know, sometimes when you can't express yourself, you feel like really go crazy, you know. So you need the opportunity to express it though, So it gave me some power, means to learn. I could use art to help me build a place for myself, to connect with people.

Eric:
Fantastic. Who, do you have you know, artists or performers that you draw inspiration from? Either current day, performers or throughout history, when it comes to your dance and expression?

Antoine:
When I grew up, I didn't really have anyone to look up as Deaf or black, or as a dancer, no. I really enjoyed, like, Bill T Jones one of the main black choreographers, dancer. There were Arthur Mitchell. There were many, Katherine Dunham, many beautiful black leaders in the community. But one of the top, So that would always be my mom she knows how to work it. [Eric laughs] You know, it's the thing about watching black women lead. So, there's nothing more amazing, more inspiring than seeing that. A single mom raising us to make sure we have the right education. Wouldn't put us in a cage for the deaf and the disabled. No. Get out there in the world. My mother would say to people when they say, "How do you feel about your children being deaf?" My mom would, "Well, when I take off my glasses I can't see. When I put it back on oh, I can see I'm still moving around in this world." You know, I'm gonna do what I need to do. That's really. Wow. Inspiring. Because other people, sometimes we will see them, say "That's so sad that they're deaf." We don't need to be sad. We just need to understand that this is our family and we need to uplift, you know, keep moving forward and learning how to move as a new family.

Eric:
Yes. Yeah. Yeah, and it's interesting. I mean, I think that, you know, we all have inspiration. Sometimes it's folks within our own family, sometimes it's people who are famous, sometimes it's just somebody you run into, through your life's journey. It's wonderful that you have such a deep connection with folks that you've come in contact with, especially, your mother. I think that being inspired by parents, is is a blessing. And it's a wonderful thing. So. So that's fantastic. As a dancer, you've performed all over the place. You've performed all over the world, and you've done some incredible things. Any particular story or any particular, performance or location that really just stands out to you?

Antoine:
You know, I think I'm fascinated to think, it's just dancing around the world, but something came to me, literally this week. I won't name myself this, it's just a lot of people talking. And I had to absorb it, just talking about visionary. Visionary. Talking to you about, did I pronounce it right? Nicki Schedler: Visionary.

Eric:
Oh yeah. Yeah.

Antoine:
It's that, I'm just trying to live and breathe and support each other you know, again, go back to being in my home with 11 women in the house and just one bathroom. And so to support my mom, we help each other. We have to work together. You know, outside my home. We have to work together. We have to learn how to respect each other differently. Provide a space for each other. So when I go around the world, it's that ongoing, work that we try to educate people who ask us. And there's not always 100% accessible space. No way. You know, there's so, but the joy, when people apply it at the end and that they learn something. Those are the best experiences and I have many of those. But I think I will pinpoint, Bay Area International Deaf Dance Festival. The first time I have that festival 14 years ago, different people from all over the world come to San Francisco signing in their own language. And yet we're still dancing together. Really, really amazing. I was trying to tell people to go home, and we was there for four hours. The show was three hour and they wanted an extra hour, it was like no I can't pay for the space, the longer we stayed, the more I got to pay it. Go home. Come back tomorrow. [Eric and Antoine laugh]

Eric:
That's right.

Antoine:
Well, you don't have to go home. Just have to leave the theater. [Eric and Antoine laugh]

Eric:
That's right.

Antoine:
Yeah.

Eric:
Fantastic, fantastic. Well, I know, and I know that the Urban Jazz Dance Company means so much to you. Can you let folks know a little bit about the Urban Jazz Dance Company? How, you know, it got started? How, you know, your involvement in it?

Antoine:
Well as the director and founder of it, but it's more of a advocacy organization so we don't just dance and do jazz hands. No, we get out there, try to make a shift in our community, help educate people or bring people together. Sometimes there's a conversation that may be dark for people to talk about, but we art and dance to bring light to that conversation, to start the conversation, to ice break, you know, so it's really been wow, very powerful. We talk about deaf people or disabled people who were, who were thrown in prison or people who are refugees or houseless. It seems like sometimes when you're listening or reading people are more intimidated or just want to get back. But then when they see dance or art, it helps people embrace that conversation. Yeah. So it could be very political. It could be very, empowering, healing, so many ways you can use art, so that's the way I use the Urban Jazz Dance Company. People in India, Australia, Africa I just can't believe that next year will be 20 years of the dance company.

Eric:
Wow.

Antoine:
So many. Yeah. And some people have been with me for ten years, eleven years. And I'm like, "You're still here? Wow." Because it's not easy, you know? And it's actually a business, not a hobby

Eric:
Right

Antoine:
it's a business

Eric:
Right

Antoine:
So I'm very honored for people who believe in the things because this organization believes in them.

Eric:
That's fantastic. For those who who might not know much about capital D Deaf culture, can you share what Deaf culture means to you?

Antoine:
Thank you for asking. And what does the capital D Deaf mean, small d, deaf mean? Well, capital D is that this is our cultural identity and this is who we are. We're talking about culture. That's a capital D. Some people believe that when you talk about small d it means maybe you identify as a thing, or something like, broken or need to be fixed, or sound. So. Oh, I couldn't hear that was really deaf. That's not really how we talk about Deaf culture. To talk about no sound, you know. "It sounds deaf to me," it's not about people, we told you to write it down as a small d. But if you're talking about a person stating Antoine Hunter, Purple Fire Crow which is me. My indigenous name. This guy's deaf capital D.

Eric:
Yeah. Yeah. And how would you say deaf culture informs the way you dance? Like, you know, how how how does it kind of impact, the way you view dance and the way that you perform?

Antoine:
I'm grateful for the 19 years, the dance company, and the over 30 years of experience in dance work. The meaning of dance. And everyone experiences dance differently, and life differently, and so it applies to deaf people too. We experience dance, music, art, life different. What does it mean for us? Different journey. It's not always like some people say, "Oh, because they feel the vibration." You know, some deaf people can't really feel the vibration they're they're not that sensitive. And so they're building their learning experience how to move with vibration, and that and that, so many different kind of deaf persons. You have deaf, deaf blind, deaf disabled that's dealing with shit, deaf disabled in many different ways. to bathroom, you know, and then you got the people who like classical music and then some who like jazz, some don't like opera. I like opera, you know, but I don't always know what to say. And so in the journey of dance and how we move, we find a way to, like, just be human and dance. You know, for me, as the choreographer, the director. What do I want to dance about? First I go to what the community wants to talk about, that, that's that's my space, you know? I mean, I'm just now always dancing, making some dance for entertainment. Recently I did Michael Jackson, I wanted to talk about how people are disrupting our world, how we need to come together. Michael Jackson. That's the, I actually performed that at the Disability Rights gala.

Eric:
That's right, that's right.

Antoine:
I was asked to performed there. I felt like people were really moved by that, the reminder that we need to take care of our earth and people and stop the war and things like that. So, that's what I like to do, yeah.

Eric:
Fantastic. Have you noticed, so you've been an advocate, a dancer, and you've lived with your disability. Have you noticed changes like have you noticed, more, ASL interpreters, have you noticed more captioning like over time, over the years, have have you seen it get better?

Antoine:
Yeah. Thank you for that. in this world, is there really improvement? Technology is improving yes. And, awareness for people to see deaf people because of platform and social media. Yeah, I think so yeah. It's getting out there and when you're at a restaurant and and somebody says thank you in sign language. That was really nice. I go to the airport recently. We were 50/50 you know. There was like, one person who was like. I don't know what to do their expression was completely lost. Like, they had never met a human that can't hear and then another one a few minutes after that was like, oh, we could write things down, you know? So, access is always being learned. There's always trying to find anyway to work for different individuals. Yeah, like I said, there's so many different kinds of deaf people and well, all of our access needs are different. So I, but I want people to stop looking for a shortcut.

Eric:
Yeah, yeah.

Antoine:
We could part in that moment. Why would people try to microwave access. It's not cooked in the middle. You know, it's all radiation. I, you know, it's a real soul food. If you talk about soul food, we talk about black eyed peas, baked and fried okra requires time to make the food. And then if you do it right, and slow the process they're still left with nutrition in that food.

Eric:
Yeah.

Antoine:
But if you're trying to do it quick and microwave it, that radiation destroys the nutrition we need for storing in our bodies. It's not soul food, it's microwave food. You know.

Eric:
That's that's powerful. And that's an important message. You know, I was going to ask you if you could be in front of decision makers like the governor or the mayors of cities throughout the country, you know, what message would you send them? And I think that message of you can't microwave accessibility is a powerful one. You have to cook it all the way through. It has to mean something to you. And you have to do it for the right reasons to make sure that everybody has equal access. So I really love that powerful message.

Antoine:
Word. Word. You know, some of the food need to be stored over night. So, you know, I remember when my mother would have, like, I think black eyed peas, and you soak it overnight with baking soda. So you the cook it for the next day. So that it doesn't bother your stomach. You know, and that requires time.

Eric:
That's right, that's right.

Antoine:
So I was hoping all the leaders out there don't be afraid to have our deaf disabled time, some people say crip time. Some people, say we have, when you go to Jamaica, they say, "Yo, man, it's not we don't tell time like that. We have, Jamaica times, you know, and that's when we really get it all together man. So you got do it like that, you know?" And so, it's it's like we need to respect the culture of ours, we can't shift. Be colonized and move it that way. We need to stay in the core. And, then they if they in the core of our chakra, you know, staying in the core of our trees, the the you know, that line to our ancestor, you know, I mean, to keep going down and, so if we drift from, like, for example, like we're apple tree now we're trying to become like a banana tree. That, just drop our DNA? That doesn't make any sense. So I really like if we're allowed to move in our bodies, it's coming from our ancestors.

Eric:
Yeah.

Antoine:
We don't need to learn that. [Eric laughs] Whether you have to right feet or left feet, you're still moving. I'm doing the cabbage patch y'all, hell yeah I'm doing the cabbage patch. So you can't see me, I'm moving my arms. I'm doing the cabbage patch. And that's part of my African movements. Yeah, nobody taught me that. Yeah.

Eric:
That's right. That's right. Well, you're now on the board at Disability Rights California. How do you see your work on the board? Furthering disability advocacy, deaf advocacy, expression? Kind of, what are your goals on, while you're on the board at DRC? While I look at DRC, how they supported and working with the community that's aligned with what I do in my life or growing up. I want to be on the best basketball team that's doing that. You know,

Eric:
Yeah.

Antoine:
Or any sport that you do, I want to be on that team that's doing it. When I look at the team, you know, it's like people don't realize that, even if you're on the basketball team, it's not just the 3 or 4 or the people who are the best defense, but who's helping make sure the team are fed, you know what I mean. Who helps with the transportation, that's part of, of the leadership that we need, because the players need to rest while they're on the bus. If they're not on a good bus they can't play well, right? You know, so I want to support the business that can help the player do the best thing for our community. When I get on that board, I'm trying to evaluate, the best input that I can give to make this champion team along get 10 rings, 15 rings, 20 rings, to being champion, you know, to beat the system. You know, I mean really to beat the system. Who are we playing against? The system that's trying to oppress us. And so that's what I look at. Just really amazing leadership. Constantly learning the people so. Oh my gosh I, I could stay up all night to try to tell you, how amazing DRC is. How its aligned to the mission I do for my life? I'm just grateful that, it's it's just really hard to find the right word because it's more about action.

Eric:
That's right. And how like, you know, you've, you've been in California, you run a business in the Bay Area. How do we collectively make sure that people know about Disability Rights California, that people know what we do, who we are, how to get connected to us. Do you have any ideas about, you know, how to how to kind of make sure that that people know who we are?

Antoine:
Also, trying our best to go to different spaces. So people can learn who we are and then bring them to our space, definitely. I do remember growing up some time that people don't feel like they are part of disability community, because that's just not there for their people. So my role, I really want to make sure deaf and disabled are there, connecting. We need to fight together, and work together. I'm always trying to say fight together, but work together, you know, walk together, move together better. Better to say move together, you know. I'm feeling that sometimes, there's not enough patience to learn how to move together. So I'm hoping it's a long term relationship with DRC and our community. We're deaf, disabled, keep going, keep going, learning how to move together. Then we'll learn how to. Who's the best three forward? Give that ball to them. You know, who can do three? Who can best provide water? Because water's important when you're playing the game.

Eric:
That's right, and that's right. And it's funny.

Antoine:
Yeah.

Eric:
I think, that

Antoine:
Do you remember, like, when BLM protested. Then some people were thinking about the protest. But you know, I wasn't marching around. I was actually providing some sandwiches and water and people we're like, "Thank you, thank you." Just standing in one place? Providing that. I think that world is really important. You know, as a board member, what can we provide for the team to keep going and running? So,

Eric:
That's right. And it goes back to what you were talking about earlier. When you prioritize people and access and, health and, when you prioritize their lives, all these things, you're going to spend the extra time, you're going to do the extra things to make sure that they have what they need. So whether it's giving sandwiches, water, transportation, access, all of these things show that you prioritized them. So I think that's that's a fantastic kind of circle that all of this is connected.

Antoine:
You get me. Thank you. [Eric and Antoine laugh]

Eric:
That's right, that's right. So we're going to kind of come up on our last couple of questions now. Hopefully they're kind of fun. Is there a piece of pop culture that you're enjoying right now, whether it's a book, store, like a TV show, a movie, a documentary, anything that you think people should maybe check out or something that you're checking out that you really are enjoying.

Antoine:
That's. Thank you. I'm glad you said, I'm actually reading a good book. This is,

Eric:
Oh that's right.

Antoine:
It's, White Supremacy Is All Around, it's by, or you could pronounce it better form me. Yeah, it's Doctor... ASL Interpreter: It's Doctor Akilah Cadet.

Antoine:
It's about dismantling white supremacy. The person is also well, a person of color, disabled, you know, they're doing it with fashion, though. It's a beautiful cane. Yeah.

Eric:
Wow.

Antoine:
Everything. It's just really talking about the life journey it's really really inspiring, sometimes you don't have your family support. You doing something, in a community like, that's really awesome. No matter how high you go, just people trying to pull it down. We need to educate. That we need to decolonize. a space. Even decolonize ourself.

Eric:
That's right.

Antoine:
I really like this book. Almost, almost did finish it.

Eric:
That's fantastic. We will definitely put a link to that book, in the whenever we post it on our social media. So, that's that's a fantastic, recommendation. And then final question for you, Antoine. What is your game plan for the rest of the year? We're we're halfway through the year. Do you have a game plan, something that you want to accomplish, a goal that you have in mind? Anything that you want to, to kind of send us off with as your game plan?

Antoine:
My plan for the rest of the year is to keep on serving DRC you know, and keep serving. I look at myself as a servant for the community, and people look at hero, but you know, I'm not going that way. I will be just trying different ways to provide services. Black Deaf Advocates is hosting a Western Conference for deaf people. I'm in the Bay Area. People will be flying in for that. That will be in September. I have the Bay Area, you know, National Deaf Dance Festival will be in August. Deaf people from internationally will be flying in to San Francisco. They're coming from India, South America, Canada it will be beautiful. Oh people from Canada will say, "We're part of Canada." "Don't just say Canada. What part of Canada?" We hear you. I will be hosting the first time ever. Deaf and Disabled World Dance Film Festival. So there's opportunity for disabled and deaf people to show their dance film. Most of the time, it's been rejected by many film or festival space. Also, I will be learning how to drink more water. [Eric laughs]

Eric:
That's right.

Antoine:
That's my my game plan. Try to be healthy, stay strong while I serve the community. And I'm hoping, me and you talk more, you know what I mean? Yeah.

Eric:
That's right.

Antoine:
That's all I can think of this moment.

Eric:
Fantastic. Well, we really appreciate having you, Antoine. You've been wonderful. It's been great to get to know you over the last six months, year. It's been wonderful. And then, hope to see you in person soon. I think, hopefully that that should be happening. But really grateful that you joined, The Game Plan podcast and, hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Antoine:
Yeah. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it, it's an honor.

Eric:
Thank you. [Antoine laughs]