Since 2005
ASL SLAM
ASL SLAM began with monthly ASL shows in New York City and celebrated its 20th year in 2025. It now runs across the United States and abroad, giving sign language performers and audiences a stage.
aslslam.org →Home / About
Poetry you watch
Slam Row Film Festival is a film festival for sign language artistry: poems told with hands, face and body, made by Deaf artists and the people who sign with them.
Where it comes from
From the stage to the screen
SRFF grew out of ASL SLAM. It started in 2005 as ASLian Poetry & Storytelling Night at the Bowery Poetry Club, and it now runs monthly shows in New York City and shows in Orlando.
The festival puts that work on screen, so a poem made anywhere can reach a room in New York.
To preserve, nurture, showcase, and promote American Sign Language and the Deaf/signing community through performance media.The ASL SLAM mission
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Placeholder footage until the festival's own films arrive.
The forms
Three kinds of poem
Every film at SRFF is one of these, or a mix of them.
01
Sign language poetry
A poem made in a signed language, where rhythm, space and movement do what rhyme does on paper.
02
Visual Vernacular
Storytelling from Deaf culture that uses the body like a camera: close-ups, wide shots, slow motion.
03
Handshape poetry
Poems built from a chosen handshape, or a set run of them, like ABC and number stories.
Made Deaf-first
See every word
SRFF is built for a signing audience first. Hearing guests are welcome.
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The people
Two organizers, one festival
Since 2020
Front Row Films
Front Row Films makes the visual arts accessible to Deaf and hard of hearing communities worldwide, through education, programming and wider access.
frontrowfilms.org →2005ASL SLAM starts in New York City
2020Front Row Films is founded
2025The first Slam Row Film Festival, April 24 to 26, for ASL SLAM's 20th year
2027The second festival, April 15 to 18, New York City
The board
- Michael KauferCo-Chair
- Douglas RidloffCo-Chair
- Patty Gregory-KeinathBoard member
- Philip JacobBoard member
Portraits and short bios to be added
Volunteers
- Adam Stone
- Jordan Fenlon
- Karan Danani
- Mara Stephens
- Zavier Sabio
- Matthew Davis
- Kristen Williams
- Eric Epstein