Amber Galloway Gallego has found a way to help people see music through American Sign Language.
She will be the first celebrity American Sign Language interpreter to perform songs during Deaf Awareness Week from March 19 and run until March 23.
Nathanael Herbert, a 34-year-old hard of hearing advocate, has worked with local organizations, like the Florida Association of the Deaf, to organize the week to advocate for deaf and hard of hearing resources since 2011.
Galloway Gallego will perform on the final day at Santa Fe College. The week’s events, which will take place throughout Gainesville, include a story time for deaf children and American Sign Language lessons.
Herbert expects 300 to 400 people to come throughout the week.
Herbert and Galloway Gallego, 42, from Houston, are longtime friends, he said. She is known for her style of signing musical rythmns and lyrics and has performed with musicians such as Chance the Rapper and Wiz Khalifa.
Although she is not hard of hearing herself, she said she has always been involved in the community.
Galloway Gallego hopes to see more people working on their own interpretations.
“I’m asked to interpret songs all the time because deaf people want access, and they want it in sign language,” she said.
Amber Galloway Gallego will be interpreting popular music on the final day of Deaf Awareness Week.
