Douglas Ridloff is the founder and executive director of ASL Slam, a nonprofit organization that creates safe spaces for the Deaf community to thrive in the many modalities of their native language. By hosting a monthly event at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe in New York City and then bringing ASL Slam and his unique style of visual vernacular poetry to Australia, Cuba, France, Germany, Israel, Jamaica, Russia, the United Kingdom, and beyond, Ridloff has fostered engagement and enthusiasm for sign languages worldwide.

Via workshops, performances, and showcases, Ridloff has presented at numerous museums—including the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, the Jewish Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the 9/11 Memorial & Museum—and at TEDxUniGeneva and TEDxVienna. He co-organized “An Explosion of Language: Publishing American Sign Language Poetry” at the Center for the Humanities. Ridloff has been featured on Circa, CNN’s Great Big Story, NBC News, and VICE News.

For more about him and his work, see www.aslslam.com and www.douglasridloff.com.