The Sign Language Community in Chico: A Guide to ASL Events, Art, and Spaces

Sign Club is one of the pil­lars of Chico’s grow­ing sign­ing com­mu­ni­ty. I teach out of a cozy class­room in Down­town Chico. With curat­ed zines and art to fill the space, this space is open for class­es on week­day evenings, and some­times for craft nights and spe­cial events.

Class­es are held week­ly and for ages 14 and old­er with lev­els rang­ing from 101 – 104, con­ver­sa­tion­al, and advanced class­es. If you are a local and want to start learn­ing, email signclub@​cascadianow.​org for more information.

Some of Sign Club’s spe­cial events, like their ASL Craft Nights and Book Club, are open to sign­ers who aren’t cur­rent­ly in class­es. If you are vis­it­ing Chico, check out the cal­en­dar—there may be some­thing spe­cial hap­pen­ing in the classroom!

Prob­a­bly the heart of ASL events in Chico would be found at the ASL Prac­tice events that occur every sin­gle weekend.

Host­ed by Sign Club, this social event wel­comes sign­ers of all lev­els and ages. From flu­ent sign­ers to peo­ple just start­ing out, every­one is wel­come. The only rule here is that peo­ple must be will­ing to immerse them­selves in the lan­guage — that means no voic­es allowed. Typ­ing and writ­ing are used to sup­port and accom­mo­date the newest signers.

These week­ly events rotate between a few dif­fer­ent loca­tions. The most pop­u­lar space is hands-down (no pun intend­ed) 1078 Gallery/Equi­lat­er­al Cof­fee. The cof­fee, made with spe­cial­ty house­made fla­vors, tastes amaz­ing, and the space itself is Deaf-friend­ly. Rylan, one of Equi­lat­er­al’s own­ers and baris­tas, can take cof­fee orders in sign for any­one who needs com­mu­ni­ca­tion access.

Oth­er prac­tice spaces include Chico Chai, a deli­cious local spot just down the street from 1078 Gallery, and The Com­mons, a self-pour tap­room with the most ASL friend­ly out­door seat­ing (think cir­cles and seat­ing that allows every­one to see and sign with each other).

The pub­lic art in Chico, with so many local famous murals, is ever chang­ing and grow­ing, and fea­tures a wide vari­ety of local artists. While many are worth a vis­it, if you are espe­cial­ly inter­est­ed in ASL and Deaf cul­ture, the ASL murals are a must-see.

The first mur­al, titled ​“Bloom,” can be found in Down­town Chico on 1^st Street, paint­ed behind North Rim Adven­ture Sports. This mur­al depicts the ASL sign for ​“Bloom” show­ing hands open­ing up, while the text next to the signs reads ​“If every­one learned sign lan­guage, we would be happier.”

The sec­ond mur­al, titled ​“Sign Lan­guage is as Nec­es­sary as it is Beau­ti­ful” can be found on Hick­o­ry and 5^th street, paint­ed on the side of Show Love Thrift. This very blue mur­al is a whop­ping 100 feet long and fea­tures sev­er­al signs such as ​“Leaf” and ​“Earth,” shown next to sym­bol­ism for Deaf Pow­er, which pro­motes the lan­guage and cul­ture of Deaf peo­ple all around the world.

Bonus Mur­al: vis­it Mesa Vista School in near­by Oroville to see anoth­er ASL mur­al, fea­tur­ing an impor­tant sign for the Deaf com­mu­ni­ty: ​“Equal­i­ty.”

A local favorite event, Bon­fire Storytelling is a multi­gen­er­a­tional sto­ry­telling expe­ri­ence that is also Deaf-friendly.

Usu­al­ly held the first week every oth­er month, sto­ry­tellers of dif­fer­ent ages, rep­re­sent­ing each decade, tell a 10-minute sto­ry that falls with­in a theme.

Bon­fire cre­ator Bon­nie Pip­kin has worked hard to ensure that there is always one night of the event where ASL inter­preters are offered and Deaf audi­ence mem­bers’ access is pri­or­i­tized. Deaf sto­ry­tellers and sto­ries giv­en in ASL are some­times fea­tured as well.

Note: While each night of events fea­tures the same sto­ries and sto­ry­tellers, only select nights fea­ture an ASL interpreter.

If you plan to vis­it Chico and want to choose a week­end where you will have a stel­lar ASL-filled expe­ri­ence, choose a Bon­fire week­end to start your planning.

Depend­ing on which night Bon­fire is held, an ide­al day may look like a Sat­ur­day morn­ing vis­it to ASL prac­tice, fol­lowed by a tour of the local ASL murals, and wrap­ping up with a fun night of sto­ry­telling at Bon­fire for a day filled with com­mu­ni­ty and connection.