Amber Galloway is a sign language interpreter specializing in the interpretation of concerts and music festivals, especially rap/hip-hop, into American Sign Language. She has been described as "..the most recognizable sign language interpreter in the ."
Biography
Early life
Galloway was born in San Antonio, Texas, and currently lives in Houston, Texas. She identifies as a lesbian. While Galloway is not deaf herself, she is hard of hearing and has been surrounded by members of the deaf community since the age of five. Among her deaf and hard of hearing acquaintances in early childhood were her father's girlfriend's son and the two children of her babysitter. In high school, she was friends with a deaf football player, and she continued to interact with the deaf community during her studies at St. Phillips Community College. As a child, Galloway wanted to become a rapper, and as a young adult she wanted to become a physical therapist, but a deaf guidance counselor at SAC pushed her to pursue sign language interpretation. While initially skeptical, after attending one semester at the school's ASL interpretation degree program, she committed to it and graduated from SAC with an AA in interpreting for the deaf in 2000. In 2008 she graduated with her bachelors in psychology and then went on to earn a master's degree in ASL/English Interpretation. She interpreted her first live concertin 2001. In 2005, she moved to Houston.
A handheld video from the crowd of Galloway interpreting A$AP Rocky's “Fuckin’ Problems” at Lollapalooza in 2013 became a viral video hit when uploaded to YouTube. Although she had been interpreting at concerts for over a decade prior, the video brought the issue of the accessibility of music to mainstream attention. After the video became popular, Galloway made an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Wiz Khalifa. She has since interpreted on stage for over 400 artists such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Snoop Dogg.
Post-viral video
Galloway's hearing loss is progressive, and she expects to go completely deaf in the future, which is one motivation for her work. Currently, she uses hearing aids and lipreading along with ASL to aid in communication. When not interpreting, she teaches sign language at Houston Community College. She also owns a company, Amber G Productions, which provides interpreters for concerts and other venues. Her interpretations have been described as being in high demand among concert organizers and artists.
Personal life
In 2011 she married a professor of psychology and her name then became Amber Galloway-Gallego. Galloway has her own where she has over 48k subscribers. On March 4, 2018, Galloway's son Elijah Goertz passed away at the age of 23. A was posted by Galloway to her YouTube channel titled "Elijah's Memorial Video".
Style
Galloway's interpretation style incorporates non-manual markers, thorough research into the meaning of the song and the intentions of the artist, and dance. Because ASL is a distinct language from English with its own grammar and syntax, Galloway first must translate each song into ASL, a process which can take hours. As such, her interpretations are not word-for-word versions of the interpreted song's lyrics. For some particularly fast-paced songs, such as Eminem's "Rap God", Galloway will sign more rapidly and use shorthand. When she is hired to interpret at a music festival, she has to memorize the lyrics of one hundred fifty songs or more at a time. While an untrained eye might mistake her interpretations for pantomime, Galloway's performances are all grammatically correct ASL. She was partly inspired to interpret music for the deaf after hosting gatherings at her house attended by many of her deaf friends who watched her interpret music and encouraged her to do so professionally. In an interview with the Houston Chronicle, Galloway noted that all of her interpretations are uncensored, and she does not feel uncomfortable signing "raunchy" lyrics as they are not her words. In an interview with MTV, she described her style and motivations thus:
"Music is more than words, and the problem is that the interpreters, for a long time, have just focused on the words -- and not thought about all the other layers that come with it to actually make it equivalent. I show all the instruments, because need to be able to see the riffs. So, it's kind of like using onomatopoeia in sign language."
The Week has described Galloway's style as "language, poetry, and performance all coming through at the same time."
Activism
Besides watching interpretations, completely deaf people can also feel the vibrations that sound makes, and Galloway is a proponent of music for people of all levels of hearing ability as she views it as a key part of cognitive development. Galloway has criticized concert venues who only provide closed captioning or opt to hire the lowest salary sign language interpreters who may not be properly certified or who only sign the lyrics of the song to meet the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
