PRINTLife unscripted
One writer's rocky journey
Aaron Rosenblatt
Sabina dances to punk rock music with her friends at No Coast on the Business Loop. Growing up, her differences from her peers attracted her to punk. “Punk rock culture showed me it’s OK to be angry and different,” she says. Her family doesn’t approve of this interest. “My parents weren’t happy with it,” she says. “My mom says I need to grow up, but I don’t need to grow up because this is who I am.”
January 11, 2007 | 12:00 a.m. CST
Sabina Alam’s name on her e-mail address says it all — “Sabina, Deaf Muslim Playwright.” The 24-year-old MU graduate has felt marginalized for the greater part of her life. Yet, her hearing disability hasn’t had a negative impact on her creative vision or writing ability; if anything, it has made it stronger.
As a playwright, she covers socially divisive issues, such as racism and sexual orientation. “My plays also cover weird, tacky subjects like zombies, serial killers, rapists, incestuous lovers, murderers and drag queens,” she says. Sabina also mentions her work has been acclaimed by John Guare, author of the play, “Six Degrees of Separation.” He compared it to that of Nobel Prize-winning writer, Jean-Paul Sartre, she says.
Playwrighting allows Sabina to express her thoughts and feelings. “When I write a play, I ...
David Lieber, Eric Mattingly, and Leigh Jacobson lead Sabina outside at closing time at Club ...
Sabina wears a hearing aid on her right ear. When she was 2, her parents ...
Although Sabina has many creative outlets, playwrighting gives her the most joy. “That was the ...
Liz Cairns, a University of Missouri English education major, recites lines during a tryout for ...
Before her biology class, Sabina has a cigarette. During her childhood, she says, a lot ...
At the age of 2, her parents learned she could not hear. Not long thereafter, her family moved from Liverpool, England, to America, enabling Sabina to take advantage of a specialized education.
Now she’s planning on furthering that education again and has applied to graduate programs at The Julliard School, Carnegie Mellon University, Northwestern University and Yale University.
Twitter
Facebook
I'm a close friend of Sabina's and I feel this article is misrepresentative. The intriguing thing about my friend is that she writes about bizarre subjects just because she wants to, doesn't give a damn what anybody thinks, and gets away with it due to her sheer talent at doing so -- not because she's trying to be 'edgy'. It's also bs to refer to all of the praise from Mr. Guare as "Sabina says". You could ask the room full of MU Theatre students present when Mr. Guare praised Sabina's work. Quoting her about HIS compliments of her makes her sound pretentious, and she's not at all.
I don't think it's fair or accurate to say that "her hearing disability hasn’t had a negative impact on her creative vision or writing ability; if anything, it has made it stronger." A statement like this is dangerously ignoring the reality of Sabina's situation. It is often tremendously difficult for her to communicate with others, even using sign language. She and I have trouble communicating all the time, and so is the same with those whom she tries to share her writing, and it is a barrier that she is all the more resilient for having overcome.
Sabina also attended a deaf school IN England, not just when she got to the United States.
Spending just one evening with Sabina is enough to see the social taboos that still permeate our society, and this article doesn't get anywhere near mentioning that, and I think it's the most valuable thing about knowing her. Spending time with her, you see how difficult it is for her, the looks she gets not just for her style of dress, but for her speech - and begin to understand the social barriers that block so many people in the world from being as successful as the deserve to be. Sabina is that successful, anyway.
Posted by john orcutt on Jan 12, 2007 at 4:45 p.m. (Report Comment)
Wow... I know Sabina, and this is NOT her. You have twisted and added to things she has said to make her something the public would be interested in. I am very disapointed in this article.
Posted by holly kant on Jan 12, 2007 at 9:27 p.m. (Report Comment)