Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller

27/06/2024

14/04/2024

I published this for my supporters today. I never thought I’d have to debunk a conspiracy theory about Helen Keller’s existence, but here we are. 🤷‍♂️

21/02/2024

In Tuscumbia, Alabama, Helen Keller's hometown.

Do you have a fun, unique activity that you’d like to set up at the Helen Keller Festival? Join us June 28-30, 2024 down in Spring Park.

We are looking for vendors with bounce houses, carnival rides, petting zoos, etc. Message us today to learn more! You can reach us through our social media, or by email at helenkellerfest@gmail dot.com.

23/01/2024

An actor with vision loss plays Helen Keller in "touch, An Opera about the Life of Helen Keller."

Visit Birmingham Speaks for information on the October 19 preview event, as well as pre- and post-show panel discussions featuring the opera's creators, cast, guest speakers well-versed in the life and work of Helen Keller, and representatives from organizations committed to serving the low-vision/l...

24/12/2023

In this photo taken in 1940, Helen Keller listens to the Christmas carol "Silent Night" by Bing Crosby through the vibrations of a record player. Crosby generously donated royalties from this recording to the American Foundation for the Blind.

01/07/2023

We’ve used the story of her life as a kind of shorthand for the disabled experience, as if there were just one. But we are here and we are many.

27/06/2023

Today marks the 143rd birthday of DeafBlind icon Helen Keller, who fought for equal rights for disabled people, women, the Black community, and people who lived in poverty.

She wrote this when helping to raise money for the defense of Nelson Mandela, when he was on trial in 1959 in South Africa for fighting apartheid: “Freedom-loving, law abiding men and women should unite throughout the world to uphold those who are denied their rights to advancement and education and shall never cease until all lands are purged from the poison of racism and oppression.”

Read more about her activism here:

Long before ‘intersectionality’ became a catchphrase in academia, Keller offered a wide-ranging critique around race, gender, class and ability

02/06/2023

Helen Keller Day is June 27. Described videos for kids:

-Helen Keller for Kids, Grades: 4-8: https://dcmp.org/media/18762-helen-keller-for-kids

-Helen's Big World: The Life of Helen Keller, Grades: 4-6: https://dcmp.org/media/9678-helen-s-big-world-the-life-of-helen-keller

-She Persisted: 13 Women Who Changed the World, Grades: K-3: https://dcmp.org/media/11735-she-persisted-13-women-who-changed-the-world

Viewers celebrate thirteen American women who helped shape the country through their tenacity, bravery, and persistence. This title features: Harriet Tubman, Helen Keller, Clara Lemlich, Nellie Bly, Virginia Apgar, Maria Tallchief, Claudette Colvin, Ruby Bridges, Margaret Chase Smith, Sally Ride, Fl...

23/05/2022

We expect that histories of famous figures will prune their lives, sand down rough edges, rewrite and revise awkward and inconvenient facts. What we may not expect – at least in the U.S. – is that decades of a famous person’s life will be redacted from the record.

13/05/2022

Protactile began as a movement for autonomy and a system of tactile communication. Now, some linguists argue, it is becoming a language of its own.

30/04/2022

The poem "Helen Keller" by Langston Hughes (Hughes and Keller were friends.)

She,
In the dark,
Found light
Brighter than many ever see.
She,
Within herself,
Found loveliness,
Through the soul's own mastery.
And now the world receives
From her dower:
The message of the strength
Of inner power.

Helen Keller poem by Langston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes (February 1, 1901– May 22, 1967) was an American writer, social lobbyist, author, and dramat...

15/03/2022

Keller was an activist who was under FBI surveillance for most of her life.

14/03/2022

"B. F. Keith's Theatre News" about vaudeville attractions featured a cover photograph of Helen Keller and an article on her performance with Anne Sullivan, May 24, 1920.

https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK01-04-B095-F09-021.1.1&e=-------en-20--1--txt--we+have+given+up+vaudeville------------------------0-1

14/03/2022

Did Helen Keller fly a plane across the Mediterranean Sea in 1946? Plane & Pilot looked into the story. See what we found!

11/03/2022

Fantasy writer Elsa Sjunneson has been haunted by Helen Keller for nearly her entire life. Like Helen, Elsa is Deafblind, and growing up she was constantly compared to her. But for a million different reasons she hated that, because she felt different from her in a million different ways. Then, a year ago, an online conspiracy theory claiming Helen was a fraud exploded on TikTok, and suddenly Elsa found herself drawing her sword and jumping to Helen’s defense, setting off a chain of events that would bring her closer to the disability icon than she ever dreamt. For over a year, Elsa, Lulu and the Radiolab team dug through primary sources, talked to experts, even visited Helen’s birthplace Ivy Green, and discovered the real story of Helen Keller is far more complicated, mysterious and confounding than the simple myth of a young Deafblind girl rescued by her teacher Annie Sullivan. It’s a story of ghosts, surprises, a few tears, a bit of romance, some hard conversations, and a possibly psychic dog.

This episode was reported by Elsa Sjunneson and Lulu Miller. It was produced by Sindhu Gnanasambandan and Rachel Cusick, with help from Sarah Qari, Tanya Chawla, and Carolyn McClusker. Mixing help from Arianne Wack. Jeremy Bloom contributed music and sound design. Additional Mixing by Arianne Wack.

Elsa Sjunneson, a fantasy writer and Deafblind woman, was haunted by Hellen Keller. Then, a TikTok conspiracy brought her closer to the disability icon than she ever dreamt.

21/02/2022

Opera Birmingham announces the creation of a new opera based on the life of Helen Keller. "Touch" will have its world premiere in Birmingham, Alabama, in January 2024 www.operabirmingham.org/touch

Image description: Drawing of a young Helen Keller with her hand on her teacher Anne Sullivan's face. Sullivan has a book open in her lap. Text reads "touch" with an image of the braille for the word touch above it. "An opera about the life of Helen Keller." composer/librettist, Carla Lucero, co-librettist Marianna Mott Newirth.

08/02/2022

Community Film Screening and Q&A on "Becoming Helen Keller"

Sunday, February 13
Film Screening @9 am PST, 11 am CST, noon EST
Q&A @11 am PST, 1 pm CST, 2 pm EST
Via Zoom, Passcode here: https://cal.sdsu.edu/centers-and-institutes/ethics/news-and-events

Join us for a film screening of the documentary film Becoming Helen Keller, followed by a discussion with Dr. Beth Haller, author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (2015) and Professor Emerita at Towson University.

Joseph Stramondo will moderate a panel with disability
media experts, Beth Haller and Tari Hartman Squire.

The film is the newest PBS American Masters production and highlights the under-examined aspects of Helen Keller's life, documenting her commitment to social justice, disability rights, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights, disabled veterans, support for NAACP and the ACLU, and many other progressive causes.

Part of San Diego's Ohr Shalom Synagogue's celebration of Disability Awareness, Acceptance, and Inclusion Month.

Free and open to the public.

Image description of a screen grab of part of the flyer:

Jewish Disability Awareness, Acceptance and Inclusion Month at Ohr Shalom Synagogue

Sunday, February 13
9:00am Film followed by Expert Panel 11:00am PST

"Becoming HELEN KELLER"

"Becoming Helen Keller," the newest PBS American Masters production, unlocks little-known and multifaceted aspects of the life of Helen Keller, showing us a woman whose achievements went well beyond the view of her we all know from the film The Miracle Worker. This new film documents her commitment to social justice, disability rights, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights, disabled veterans, support for NAACP and the ACLU, and many other progressive causes. After the film, Joseph Stramondo will moderate a panel with disability media experts, Beth Haller and Tari Hartman Squire.

*Note that the film will also be streamed on:
Sunday, February 6 at 7:00pm &
Saturday, February 12 at 8:00pm
Please feel free to watch the film at any of these times
(if you are a PBS Passport Member watch on PBS)

Beth Haller, Ph.D., is the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (2015) and co-founder and co-director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (GADIM), which promotes the inclusion of people with disabilities in mass media worldwide. Haller teaches
Media and Disability courses at Towson University in Maryland, the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Disability Studies programs and the University of Texas-Arlington’s minor in Disability Studies.

Tari Hartman Squire is the founder and CEO of EIN SOF Communications, an award-winning disability-inclusive marketing firm specializing in diversity production, employment-consultation, and strategic marketing. EIN SOF’s Lights! Camera! Access! initiative/ADA Lead On Productions creates internships, career exploration incubators, a talent database and production opportunities for aspiring professionals with disabilities, both in front of and behind the camera or keyboard.

Joseph Stramondo, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of philosophy and Director of the Institute for Ethics and Public Affairs at San Diego State University. He holds advanced degrees in both philosophy (Ph.D., 2015, Michigan State University) and public policy studies (MA, 2007, Trinity College, Hartford). His teaching and research interests focus primarily on the intersection of philosophy of disability and bioethics.

12/01/2022

This is some ableist bullsh*t.

17/12/2021

06/20/2018 Helen Keller at the Union of the War Blind in Paris, 1946. She is with French veterans blinded during World War II, one of whom is playing the piano. In June 2018, more than a century after she was born, an enormous amount of Helen Keller's archive is available to everyone all over the wo...

01/12/2021

Patty Duke’s Oscar nominated performance in 1962’s “The Miracle Worker” wasn’t the first movie about a disabled person I saw, but it was the most ubiquitous.

30/11/2021

The first time I heard the name “Helen Keller” – the first time I understood who that was and had any kind of sense of all that the name could represent – I couldn’t have been more than 10 or 12 years old. Possibly younger. I was born with cerebral palsy and, by all accounts, […]

29/11/2021

Today - American Masters: "Becoming Helen Keller" Screening/Q&A

As we ramp up to the December 3rd International Day of Persons with Disabilities, this screening/Q&A hosted by the World Institute on Disability (WID) and Lights! Camera! Access! will focus on Helen Keller as international Goodwill Ambassador traveling to over 36 countries, including her 1948 visit....

13/11/2021

11/15 | Higher Education and Disability Studies
Society for Disability Studies (SDS) and Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA) Career Exploration/Incubator Initiative host Co-Presidents Karen Nakamura and Joseph Stramondo; Professor Beth Haller, Dept. of Mass Communication and Applied Adult Disability Studies minor at Towson University. Q&A will be emceed by comedian, professional speaker, and author Nina G.

11/17 | Veterans with Disabilities
In collaboration with LCA, meet veterans with disabilities working in media with comments by Billy W. Wright, National Employment Coordinator; Department of Veterans Affairs/Central Office; Veteran Readiness and Employment Services.

11/18 | National Disability Mentoring Coalition (NDMC) / Partners for Youth with Disabilities
This event is open to anyone interested in learning more about disability history, social justice, and Helen Keller’s contributions to disability rights advocacy. The NDMC will also be distributing a discussion guide for mentors and mentees as a part of this event.

11/20 | Accessible Media
American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and LCA co-host Thomas Reid, audio describer and Producer of Reid My Mind; and AFB President/CEO, Kirk Adams. AFB oversees the Helen Keller Archive, world’s largest repository of materials about and by Helen Keller, including correspondences, speeches, press clippings, scrapbooks, photographs, photograph albums, architectural drawings, audio recordings, audio-visual materials, and artifacts.

11/29 | International Disability Issues (link coming)
As we ramp up to the December 3rd International Day of Persons with Disabilities, this screening/Q&A hosted by the World Institute on Disability (WID) and LCA will focus on Helen Keller as international Goodwill Ambassador, including her 1948 visit to Nagasaki and other cities and countries. For information contact: [email protected]

11/30 | Los Angeles Department on Disability/ReelAbilities Film Festival Los Angeles (RAFFLA) (link coming)
Owning the disability narrative is critical if we are to shatter negative media myths that preclude full participation in the workplace, marketplace and communities across the nation and around the world. Join LA Department on Disability, RAFFLA and LCA for this important discussion. For information contact: [email protected]

We welcome you on this rare cinematic journey with American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller.

Celebrating American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller While most coverage of Helen Keller freezes her as the “eternal child” in that “aha” moment at the water pump with teacher Anne Sullivan (immortalized in The Miracle Worker), this new documentary American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller shat...

11/11/2021

Monday Nov. 15, 7-10 pm EST:

Join Lights! Camera! Access! and the Society for Disability Studies for a virtual screening and Q&A discussion of the new PBS documentary, "American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller.” We will be joined by SDS Co-Presidents Karen Nakamura and Joseph Stramondo; Professor Beth Haller, Dept. of Mass Communication and the Applied Adult Disability Studies minor at Towson University. The Q&A will be emceed by comedian, professional speaker, and author Nina G.

This event is open to all. We encourage Disability Studies faculty, students, and allies, along with disabled students on college and university campuses.

While most coverage of Helen Keller fixates on her as the “eternal child” around that “aha” moment at the water pump with her teacher Anne Sullivan, immortalized in play and movie "The Miracle Worker," this new documentary "Becoming Helen Keller" shatters that disability myth, transcends that image, takes back the narrative, and unlocks little-known and multi-faceted aspects of her life and commitment to social justice, disability rights, women’s rights, voting rights, civil rights, disabled veterans, support of the NAACP and ACLU, setting up State Commissions for the Blind and “talking books,” to name a few.

This dynamic documentary features little-known aspects of Keller's social justice activism and includes captions, audio description, extended audio description, ASL interpreters, and descriptive transcript so that DeafBlind audiences can experience this film independently. The Q&A will have captions and ASL interpreter.

You can find out more at http://pbs.org/americanmasters.

To RSVP and request accessibility accommodations for this event, please email your request with Becoming Helen Keller - Disability Studies in the subject line to [email protected]

Virtual screening and Q&A discussion of the new PBS documentary, "American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller.” - Disability Studies

08/11/2021

American Masters: "Becoming Helen Keller" is FREE for streaming through November 30 - to coincide with the 46th Anniversary of IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

American Masters: Becoming Helen Keller examines one of the 20th century’s human rights pioneers in honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The new documentary rediscovers the complex life and legacy of author and activist Helen Keller (1880-1968), who was deaf and blind since chi...

05/11/2021

"From Generation to Generation: The Changing Language of Disability," Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. on Zoom

From Generation to Generation: The Changing Language of Disability Wednesday, Nov. 10 at 7 p.m. on Zoom Free and open to the public Register “Becoming

04/11/2021

“More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand, my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.” ~Helen Keller (Image of a young adult Helen Keller sitting in a sunlit library reading a book in Braille.)

If you missing watching "Becoming Helen Keller" on American Masters on TV, you can watch it on the show's website: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/becoming-helen-keller-full-episode-with-extra-accessibility-features/18856/?gclid=CjwKCAjwiY6MBhBqEiwARFSCPoOoLZgS4e1nTiHx1_0UwOcuCgcLgnannmb52ymGZSlMYN7ctB5-YRoCjNgQAvD_BwE

30/10/2021

I’ve been legally blind since birth. Ever since I can remember, Helen Keller has been etched in my brain. Like many disabled people, I’ve lived under the shadow of Helen Keller. With the exception of Franklin Delano Roosevelt who had polio, she’s the most famous disabled person in the world. F...

30/10/2021

Helen Keller is a name that resonates with everyone. Being blind and deaf did not stop her from being a world-famous influential author, political activist, and lecturer. In 1952, Helen Keller went on a three-month trip to visit a few countries in the Middle East, namely Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and J...

29/10/2021

Helen Keller's essay "We Meet a King" is about her meeting with King Alexander I of Yugoslavia in 1931.

"I AM sure no woman ever dressed so quickly to visit a king. There were three of us—my teacher, Anne Sullivan Macy, my secretary, Polly Thomson, and myself. We had exactly ten minutes to make ourselves presentable for a private audience with His Majesty King Alexander I of Jugo-Slavia, who was to receive us in the summer palace at Belgrade!"

https://www.afb.org/HelenKellerArchive?a=d&d=A-HK02-B232-F03-010.1.8&e=-------en-20--1--txt--------3-7-6-5-3--------------0-1