[gentle orchestral fanfare]

♪

[resonant strings lead
building orchestration]

(male narrator)
Welcome to Our State ,

a production of UNC-TV

in association
with Our State magazine--

for over 80 years,

bringing readers
the wonders of North Carolina.

On this edition,

a deaf college president
finds her place at Guilford,

where silence is valued...

and the unique and fading
dialect of Ocracoke Island.

(man)
People says we have an accent.

Whether we do or not,
I don't know,

but I do talk a little bit
different--heh, heh...heh!

[rich, calm orchestration]

♪

[gentle piano melody]

(male announcer)
Since 1872,

BB&T has been supporting

the people and communities
of North Carolina.

From our small-town roots

to the banking network
you see today,

we've always been here
for all our clients,

stretching from Manteo...

to Murphy.

We're proud of our heritage

as the oldest bank
in North Carolina,

and we're very proud
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for Our State .

♪

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[piano leads rich,
calm orchestration]

♪

(narrator)
You are about to see and hear

an extraordinary story,

one that begins with images
from an autumn ritual

on the gridiron,
where players are introduced

and busy conversation
on the sidelines

soon gives way
to the rush of excitement

as one side kicks off,
the other receives,

and play begins.

[driving marching band
drumming]

What would it be like

if you couldn't hear
any of this, only see it?

Would it be as exciting
without the sound of the crowd

rising to its feet
during a long touchdown run?

Would the cheerleading
be quite the same?

[silence]

This is how a football game
sounds to Jane Fernandes,

the ninth president

of Greensboro's
Guilford College

and, at the time
she assumed the position

on July 1st, 2014,
the only deaf president

of an American college
or university.

(Fernandes)
I was born deaf,

and my mother
also had been born deaf,

and one of my brothers
was born hard of hearing.

So in my family,
because my mother

had learned how to speak
and speech-read, uh,

she taught me the same way
that she had learned.

And, um, primarily,
that was a lot of immersion

in phonics, phonetics,
and the mechanics of, um,

making words
that are intelligible.

For example,
I can say that, um,

I probably still
have them at home,

lots of children's books,
um, poetry,

where my mother
had written, um,

phonics, um,
above the words.

And then I practiced those
again and again and again.

It's a lot of repetition.

I do remember,
I had one great discovery

that probably
was the key for me

in understanding
what I was doing, was, um,

I understood the difference
between b, m, and p

when I had
to speech-read people.

So, ball, Paul, mall --

well, Paul,
that's a name, or pall,

or maul as in maul, an attack,
or shopping mall.

Bawl-- cry, bawl-- cry,
or ball-- play with a ball--

all those words, um,
look the same,

but, uh, one time, I was, um,
trying to understand someone,

and I didn't know
what they had said,

and in my mind,
I went, well, if it was b,

it would be air coming out,

and if it was m,
it would be lips closed.

I analyzed what I'd learned,
and then I figured it out.

You know, it was--

[gasping]
it's ball!

And then all the sudden,

I knew
what I was doing and why.

And then after that,

I was more motivated
to keep going.

It was really
a tremendous amount of work

and a tremendous dedication
on the part of my mother

and father and my family
to see it through.

(narrator)
Jane was off and running
in the early stages of a life

that came to be filled
with the love of languages,

love of learning
and never-ending curiosity--

even a season competing
on her college fencing team.

The fact that she did not
go to deaf school

led her down
a path that made Jane--

at least till
her early 20s--

somewhat unusual.

I'm--well, I'm an outlier
in the deaf culture.

I learned sign language
when I was getting

a master's degree
in comparative literature

at the University of Iowa.

And it should have been
my language

from the time I was born,

but I didn't have
the opportunity to learn.

(narrator)
While studying in Iowa,

Jane met members
of the deaf community,

and she learned sign language
for the first time.

(Fernandes)
And that was
a tremendous benefit to me.

So I will say that, um...

I learned more about myself
from the Iowa deaf community

than I had ever
learned before.

They taught me most about me
as a deaf person.

I gained, um,
astronomically in confidence

and an understanding
of myself.

And I would not be the Guilford
College president today

if I hadn't met
the deaf people in Iowa

and if they hadn't embraced me
and taught me so much

about American Sign Language
and deaf culture.

(narrator)
So what we have here

are two different
intertwined stories:

the story of Jane Fernandes,

who overcame
a natural adversity

in building a successful
and rewarding life

on the way to becoming

the Guilford
College president,

and then there's the story
of Guilford College itself,

which was founded in 1837
by the Society of Friends,

an offshoot
of the Church of England

that arrived
in the American colonies

during the 17th century

after splitting
from mainstream Protestantism.

They were marked by a desire
for communion with Christ

without benefit
of ordained clergy

and their consideration
of men and women

as spiritual equals

in a time when that was
decidedly not the case.

They were derided
as quakers

because of their willingness
to "tremble before the Lord."

These days,
Quakers have embraced the name

and are known
for their peaceful ways,

dedication
to community service,

and silence.

Guilford College is no longer
run by the Quakers,

although it continues
to be shaped by Quaker values:

community, diversity,
equality, excellence,

integrity, justice,
and stewardship.

[piano leads
placid arrangement]

The college began
as New Garden Boarding School,

established
to serve Quaker students

in the Guilford County area.

They came here,
and they called it New Garden

because of the lushness

and the rolling hills
that they found here.

(narrator)
The boarding school site

was the homeplace
of a leading abolitionist.

There, a 300-year-old
tulip poplar still stands,

which in the years
leading up to the Civil War

became a landmark
for enslaved people

trying to find their way
to freedom in the North.

(man)
And it was well known

that if you were
escaping for freedom,

that you could find
the Quaker family,

and this community
would be protective

and not only
give you a map

to the next
safe house

but also provide you
with food,

provide you with medical, uh,
assistance, uh,

as you move
toward freedom.

(woman)
Good morning, everybody.

(group)
Good morning.

(woman)
Happy Thursday, um.

We have lots
of great work to do,

have lots of great work
behind us,

but to get us
off to a great start,

let's just have
a moment of silence.

[sustained, quiet chords]

(narrator)
So it was with no little irony

that thoughtful
Jane Fernandes,

who lives
enshrouded by silence,

should end up here
in this Quaker community

that begins each gathering
with a moment of silence.

In most of my experience, um,

the silence in which I live
is not viewed positively, um.

I was taught all my life
to, um, work against that,

be as hearing as possible.

And then, when I came here,
I found people

who were eager to move
to a state of silence.

So that had
a deep resonance with me.

And we, uh--
I enjoy very much, uh--

not just enjoy but I respect

and deeply appreciate
the silence

that we often have here
at Guilford College,

where we attempt
to center down

and listen
to our deep inner--

inner selves and get to, um,

know what the truth is
as a community.

I appreciate that
very much, yes.

And I was doing homework
outside the library, and--

and one of the trustees
was showing Jane the campus,

and she came up to me
and said,

"This is Jane Fernandes,
and she's applying

to be our next president,"
and so we started talking,

and we started to comment
how her last name

was similar to my middle name,
which is Fernando,

and her last name
is Fernandes.

I think it was
an exciting moment

for both of us.

She was about to become
the first woman president

of Guilford College,
and I was about to become

the first Latino
student body president.

I think I could see
that she belonged here.

(narrator)
José is one among
many diverse students

attracted to Guilford
College's inclusive setting

and variety of opportunities,

the son
of a Guatemalan immigrant

who worked
in the textile industry.

But single mom Josie Williams

discovered her opportunity
right here close to home.

(Williams)
There was a point in my life

I didn't have anywhere to stay,

and going through that
and having that experience,

I learned a lot.

It was very challenging,

but I wouldn't change it
for the world.

And when I came out
of that experience,

I just promised myself

that if I was able
to help anyone

in that type of environment,
that I would.

And having that realization,

I knew I had to get some
educational background

'cause it's just not--

it was a little bit
deeper than that.

And so I started
looking for schools

that had some kind
of social justice foundation,

came across Guilford College,

and I knew that was the school
I was gonna go to.

(narrator)
Josie graduated
in June of 2016

and now works

for the Greensboro
Housing Authority.

She perfectly encapsulates
the combination

of experience and opportunity

offered through
a Guilford College education.

And right in the middle
of it all is Jane Fernandes,

a hands-on leader
with a commitment

to student achievement
wherever she finds it,

such as this display
of student research

and academic excellence
on display in Hege Library.

[piano leads rich,
calm orchestration]

(woman)
Jane, although she may
not hear, um, physically,

very clearly yearns to be able
to hear students,

and it's provided us
with a means

of creative communication

and expressing our voices

in ways that are accessible
to all communities.

(narrator)
During his interview with us,

José talked of people

willing to make a change
in the world,

those willing to
"see the light in everybody,

something good,"
he said,

"that can bring
a group of people together

to achieve a common goal."

That light, that treasure,
that common purpose

that so pervades
Guilford College,

is demonstrated throughout

this Quaker-founded
community...

in scenes
of academic achievement

and around
the Fernandes family table,

where periods
of quiet pleasure

are bracketed
by loving laughter

and the joy
of simply being together.

In a place
like Guilford College,

new beginnings
often spring to life unbidden

as if ascending
from the quiet,

simple gifts from the school's
Quaker forebearers.

And the community...
the world...

is somehow changed
for the better.

♪ Morning has broken ♪

(narrator)
There's a new song in the air,

which became evident

during the planning
for Jane's inauguration.

(Fernandes)
Someone had asked me,

what song do you want
or what's your favorite song?

And I don't really have one,
but for some reason,

"Morning Has Broken"
came to mind...

♪

and it seemed to fit
Guilford College.

So two students worked
on a arrangement of the song,

and when they were singing
and playing, I looked--

I was onstage--
I looked in the audience,

and everybody
was mesmerized--

the whole place.

So even though
I couldn't hear anything--

I don't know,
I can't hear--

I was--
I felt moved by that,

that they had the power
to hold the whole auditorium

under a spell,
and they did that.

♪ Fall ♪

♪ Sunlit from ♪

It's hoi toide
on the saind soide.

Last night, the water far
like moon shine; no feesh.

What'dya suppose the matter
is, Uncle Woods?

Ha, ha, ha!

clap

Probably need somethin'
to talk about, eh?

Heh, heh...heh!

[overlapping talking]

(man)
When I got an opportunity
to come to North Carolina,

it was sort of like dying
and coming to dialect heaven.

(woman)
And these Northerners
come down here,

and we take 'em in.

I mean,
there's no state richer

in terms of dialect diversity
in the United States,

really, because
of the topography.

Hoi tide?
What is it?

It's high--
it's hoi toide!

[Appalachian accent]
The only thing I knowd
about the mountains

was what I read in Foxfire,

I'd think we's all jelly-makin'
dulcimer pluckers up here.

(Walt)
So there's a lot
of regional diversity

from the historical
in-migration.

There's a lot
of ethnic diversity

with American Indian...

[speaking American
Indian language]

(Walt)
...with, uh, Latino,
with African American.

(man)
Yeah, it's like,
"Oh, hi, how you doin', man?"

Until I get that vibe
that you loose,

then it's,
"yeah, what's up?"

(Walt)
Then there are cases
of isolation.

(mountain man)
He'd get out
on a wooden box he made

and pick
an old banjer and sing.

He was one of the first
tourist attractions

there was around here.

(Walt)
There are just a lot
of ecological things,

social things,
migratory aspects,

and the language
is this sort of primary,

surface manifestation of that.

You never had
a squirrel?

You ain't never eat
high on the hog, son,

'less you do that.

(woman)
What about turtles?

(Walt)
This is our linguistics lab

with students who are working
on various projects.

These are
our wonderful producers,

Neal and Danica,
who do the video productions.

If you go into an area
and people talk differently,

it's gonna be
a topic of commentary.

[chiming piano leads
droning resonance]

And our job is
to help people understand,

why is it important
to your culture?

Why is it important
for a small community

to hang onto a language
as an index of that identity?

[bright acoustic guitar leads]

With an island like Ocracoke,
one of the things

that it's always been
associated with is the speech.

I went there years ago.

We visit as friends.

We also reinterview people

to see how the language
changes in their lives.

(man)
Lo

ok, this ain't no free ride.

If you gonna roll,
you gonna work!

(Walt)
For example, I met Rex O'Neal.

What accent is that?

A lotta people
will look.

Is that a Irish,
English accent?

(Walt)
He's a funny guy, and we
just kind of hit it off.

I told 'bout the time
I lost me cap in Barney's Gap.

Whar do you think I found it?

Teach's Hole,
God bless me soul,

but me brim
was tore from around it.

ha, ha...ha

(Walt)
Chester is
from a longtime family

that goes back to Portsmouth.

So they've been there
several hundred years,

so he's invaluable
in terms of reconstructing

what Ocracoke was like.

(Chester)
Four pewter plates,
they dated in 1709.

Couple people
want to buy them.

I said
this is Ocracoke's history.

You don't
sell that.

I ain't sellin'
Ocracoke's history, uh-uh.

(Walt)
James Barrie Gaskill
and his son Morty...

[coastal accent]
And then we'll pull
the top out...

(Walt)
...represent the old-time
fishing community.

...and shake
the crabs in there.

People says
we have an accent.

Now, wh'er we do or not,
I don't know, but, uh,

I do talk a little bit
different--heh, heh...heh!

(Walt)
People like James Barrie
and Chester and Rex

really represent
the authentic dialect.

(Rex)
Some people say we talk funny.

Well, you do too;
I have a car.

You got a cah,
so what's the--

[chuckling]
you know!?

See, we were isolated,

and everybody
talked that same--

you oughta hear
my grandmother.

Heh, heh...heh!

(Walt)
One of the things
about Ocracoke--

because you can't get on there
simply by driving,

the way of life
is slightly different.

They became pretty dependent
on the ways of the water.

As one person said,

"Yeah, we had fish
for breakfast,

fish for lunch,
and fish for dinner."

(Chester)
In those days,
everybody fished

or had somethin' to do
with fishing,

had somethin' to do
with the water.

Everybody had a boat
if not three or four.

(Rex)
My daddy was a fisherman
and a carpenter.

He would go fishing
in the morning,

do carpentry all day,
and then come home

in the evening
and clean the fish

and sell 'em
to the restaurants.

(Chester)
There was a net strung
in the yard all the time.

Granddaddy would tell us,
says, "Listen here.

You got to mend some holes
in those nets."

(James)
See, we--when we grew up,
they had ponies.

[plucked guitar arrangement]

We used to ride 'em,

and they still
had cattle on the island.

Probably a hundred
or 200 sheep

used to, uh, roam the island.

(Chester)
Before the ferries,
there was a mail boat,

a freight boat
comin' to the village.

That was basically all,
and my grandfather

owned the mail boat,
him and another guy.

We'd leave
around 6 in the morning

and come back around
4 o'clock in the evening.

It carried mail and passengers
back and forth to Atlantic--

only transportation
to and from the village

other than the freight boat.

(James)
There's--Frazier Peele
was the guy

that started
the Hatteras ferry,

and it was a wooden ferry,

and it only took
about four cars.

[chiming piano
leads droning resonance]

♪

(Walt)
What is very strong
in the community,

especially with the inundation
of outsiders is,

who is a native?

Can you date your lineage
back to the 1700s, 1800s?

Because you're not authentic
unless you can do that.

(Chester)
It don't even matter
if you're born on Ocracoke.

If you ain't got Ocracoke
descendants in your family,

you'll not be an O'coker.

Proud to be a native?

Well, I'm
not even native

because I was born in
Beaufort, North Carolina,

but I was brought back.

I was brought back
two or three days later.

Ha, ha...ha!

♪

(Walt)
What often happens
in small island communities

like Ocracoke
or Harkers Island is,

because there's such
a tight community...

What this here grass is,
is cutting sage.

(Walt)
...they developed words...

We call--
the local term for it,

it's called bulrushes.

(Walt)
...and various terms.

Cuttin' sage
is what it is.

(Walt)
And so that builds into
the profile of the dialect.

(James)
When the weather is,

uh, beautiful calm,

not windy like today,
it's slick cam.

That's what it was
this morning, slick cam.

It was slick cam this morning
with a breath of ayre.

You'd be building a boat,
and if you didn't keep

everything level
on the bottom,

another guy would walk up
and say, "Look here now.

You got that thing
cattywampus."

Not level--
I'm thinking of cattywampus,

where something's
just not right.

I mean,
she was womperjawed,

or, uh, womperjaw.

[chuckling]
Yeah.

"Across the beach,"

you're goin' right
o'er to the ocean.

You go "up the beach,"

you're goin' all
the way to Manteo.

Yeah.

Catch the ferry,
you go, uh, "up the beach."

And, uh, goin' to
Beaufort is "down sound."

(Walt)
Dingbats are those people

from outside who have
no sense at all,

so that then
became dingbatters.

That's what we call 'em,
dingbatters-- heh, heh...heh!

(Morty)
I use dingbatter a lot

while I'm stuck
behind a golf cart

during the summer
tryin' to get somewhere.

(Walt)
There's sort of
a love/hate relationship

with outsiders.

They love the fact
there's a tourist season.

They serve outsiders.

That's how they make
their money.

But they hate the fact

that they take over
the island.

They can't walk on the streets
they usually walk on.

People are always
asking them weird questions

like, where's the lighthouse?

You know, where's the ocean?

I've had people
from Ocracoke often say,

"Uhh, when are we
gonna get a hurricane

so we can get rid
of all these dingbatters?"

[woodwinds lead moody score]

So it's considered
to be a sign of weakness

if a native leaves the island
during a hurricane.

(Rex)
When everybody wants to leave,
that's when we want to stay.

We got to batten the hatches,
and five or six families

get together in one house
and just ride the storm out.

(Chester)
And just sit there
and listen to that ocean roar.

It roars loud, real loud.

(James)
Every house then
was low to the ground.

If the house was gonna float
off the blocks, you know,

you could feel it liftin'.

You had a hatchet
in the house,

and you chopped a hole in--

to flood it
to keep it on its pilings.

(Rex)
Course, you had the storms
that would wash your pots

and your trap
all the way toward the inlet,

and you hadda go
chase 'em down after a storm.

Sometimes you'd lose
a bunch of them.

Take a big loss.

[placid guitar and piano tune]

(Walt)
You know,
I've been out fishing

with some of these guys,

and I am amazed
at their knowledge.

I--I--
I'm actually in awe.

(James)
We had a--
a good life on the water.

Springtime,
set 265, 300 crab pots out--

flounder fishing

with pound nets
and stuff in the fall.

I enjoyed that.

(Rex)
When you went
and pulled them pots up,

you had 25 or 30 crabs
in there,

comes up outta that clear--
crystal clear water.

It just--just give you
tingles all over your body.

(Walt)
This strand of person

is a sort of
disappearing family,

a disappearing persona.

So when you get a young person
who's been to college

who comes back and decides,
I wanna fish for a living,

that's really, today,
quite unusual.

(Morty)
Yeah, I, uh,
think I had my first boat

when I was, like, ten.

I've had
my commercial fishing license

since I was nine.

I've been going with him
probably since I could walk.

(Walt)
As a matter of fact,
one of the reasons that Morty,

who was going
to study marine biology,

[chuckling]
left marine biology
is because his professors

didn't know as much
about the water as he did,

and so he went into history
rather than marine biology.

[warm piano melody]

So it's noteworthy
how dedicated and committed

some people are
to sort of doing

what they've done in the past
and continuing that tradition.

♪

It is a very distinct
culture still,

and one of the questions is,

has it lost

some of its uniqueness

if the young kids don't speak
the dialect anymore?

[resonating chord
concludes piece]

For the last 24 years,

I've spent my spring break
on Ocracoke.

[offscreen]
If you could speak
another language,

what language would it be?

[voice-over]
We developed a curriculum
in which we teach the kids

about their
dialect heritage...

[offscreen]
Good-looking guy, huh?

[voice-over]
...about the dialects
of North Carolina.

(woman)
Would you say that the brogue

is a point of pride
here on Ocracoke?

(girl)
I think so, yeah.

(Walt, voice-over)
So we have kids
who are now in their 30s,

and for 24 years,
every kid in the school

has gotten educated
about their local dialect.

(woman)
So it's the same group
of people.

Some came to Ocracoke,

and some went
to the Appalachian Mountains,

and they have changed a lot
over time to be so different.

So why do you think
that might be?

[resonant droning]

[chiming piano leads]

[acoustic guitar enters]

(Walt)
So I just learned a new word.

Do you know what
a "gospel bird" is, students?

(man)
Fried chicken every Sunday.

It's fried chicken
every Sunday.

For all of the students,
for all these wonderful people

who tolerated my ignorance--
the best friends I have!

Thanks, guys!

(man)
Right back at you.

(Walt)
Don't forget to, uh,
order gospel bird.

[Walt and group laughing]

♪

(Walt)
Even today, a young person

who speaks the Ocracoke brogue
is an oddity.

It's not the norm,
and so when you see that,

then you can predict
that probably

in another generation,
it will be gone.

♪

But we hope
that they'll always

embrace this unique dialect

that was a part
of their heritage.

That's the way life is.

Things change,
and that's OK, uh,

but it's nice
also to reflect on the things

that made us unique.

♪

(James)
Time, uh, we get, uh,

too many more years,
it'll be gone.

And may--maybe you'll
have to find somewheres else.

Ha, ha...ha!

[group laughing]

[guitar and piano chords fade]

[chiming piano
leads resonant droning]

♪

♪

♪

Caption Editor
Will Halman

Caption Perfect, Inc.
CaptionPerfect.com

(announcer)
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ourstate.com or call...

[strings support
gentle piano melody]

From the time BB&T
opened its doors in 1872

in the town of Wilson,

we've supported
the people and communities

of North Carolina

from the Outer Banks
to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We've been in business
for 136 years,

making us the oldest bank
in North Carolina.

We're proud
of this distinction,

and we're also very proud

to provide funding
for Our State .

♪

Quality public television
is made possible

through the financial
contributions

of viewers like you,

who invite you to join them
in supporting UNC-TV.