Connor Gifford, a 28-year-old man from Nantucket, was born with some extra chromosomes. Sometimes that little bit extra can be a burden; other times, a boon. But it will always mean that Mr. Gifford has Down syndrome.
Roughly one out of 1,000 people are born with Down syndrome. They share specific and easily-recognizable aspects of appearance and behavior, similarities in facial features, body type and difficulties with speech and cognition.
One spring morning in 1972, while riding his motorcycle across a bridge in New Jersey on his way to class at Fairleigh Dickinson University, William Marks glanced over the side to the river below and saw dead fish. Lots of dead fish.
Less than 10 years ago, a high school photography class involved loading cameras, fussing with myriad settings and working with chemicals in the darkroom. Today photography has been democratized by technology, and most students already carry a camera around with them all day, whether it’s on their cellphone or iPod. And without having to be concerned with the cost of film, taking pictures has never been easier, cheaper or more accessible.
At this year’s Massachusetts High School Drama Guild Festival the students in Kate Murray’s Theatre II class presented a new work, the brainchild of a creative collaboration between teacher and students. And this weekend, they are bringing it home, with several productions for the Vineyard audiences slated at the high school’s performing arts center.
Throughout their lives, they have been labeled with various syndromes and conditions. They experience the world in a way that is different from the bulk of society and from each other. But this Saturday, March 20, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Vineyard Haven Baptist Church parish house, they will all share one label: they are artists.
A battered and idling Island workforce may get some relief in the coming weeks: the 2010 U.S. Census has begun aggressively recruiting census workers for the decennial inventory of the American people. Census officials expect to hire hundreds of Islanders for the house-by-house head count here.
