By Christina Blizzard, Queen's Park Columnist
TORONTO - Nikita Austin plays piano, flute and steel pan.
She can make complex music with a special iPad app.
Those would be big achievements for any teen. What makes it so remarkable is that Nikita is deaf. She can’t hear the music — she feels it with her body.
“I don’t hear music with my ears, I hear it by vibration,” she explained.
Music is everything to her - a refuge, a place where she can shine. Where she can be herself. At the Regent Park School of Music (RPSM), she’s found teachers who’ve helped her excel and the kind of acceptance that isn’t always out there in other parts of her life.
“When I was small, people used to laugh at me,” she said.
“My mom told me not to let the anything get in the way of what I want to do in life.”
read more
Replies