Thank you to everyone who responded to last week’s reader survey! I am grateful for your ideas. You can expect new stuff in these issues soon. ❤️🔥
Our Creative Maladjustment
As people across Turtle Island celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. today, let’s remember that the root of racism is ableism and the root of ableism is anti-Blackness. Let’s imagine ourselves as members of the International Association for the Advancement of Creative Maladjustment, an organization MLK repeatedly called for in the years before his death. How will we commit to being maladjusted to systems that maintain the racist status quo?
Art Stuff First Today
Creative Capital Awards
The awards include funding for Brandon Kazen-Maddox’s American Sign Language Dance Theatre Project and JJJJJerome Ellis’s ANTIPHONARY. Disability aesthetics run through many other projects, like Mikaal Sulaiman’s Project Black Plague and Pioneer Winter’s DJ Apollo. Reviewers this year included several artists working in the field of disability arts, including Ezra Benus, Amanda Cachia, Kenny Fries, and danilo machado.
Sick Out
An Instagram slid deck shows Art Workers Inquiry’s call for a sick out among the art world workforce.
Rebirth’s Queercrip Aesthetics
Perfectly timed for the reopening of Rebirth Garments’ Etsy shop, Zoë Ligon interviews Sky Cubacub about inclusive fashion design.
Look Deeper
A computer cursor and a pink folder is seen (which says Cripple x LookDeeper), which are against a blue background. There is a screen effect on the video, to make it seem as if you are viewing this on a computer screen.
“Only the Vulnerable” is the second issue of the zine by disabled creatives and features several collaborations with Cripple Media.
El Deafo
Apple TV+’s new animated series features a character named Cece as she loses her hearing, based on the graphic novel by Cece Bell. In other TV news, John Gluck and Lili Mirojnick guest star in an episode of Ordinary Joe.
Spotify’s Disabled Musicians Playlist
It’s always a good time to check out this collection of songs:
Other News
COVID-19
An Instagram post shows a linoleum block print of black and white sunflowers with yellow petals growing on either side of the words “Disabled people deserve to live” in dark green lettering.
Nearly 150 disability-focused organizations signed a letter to CDC Director Rachel Walensky ahead of a meeting with a coalition of activists led by the American Association of People with Disabilities to address Walensky’s hurtful comments on Good Morning America on Jan. 7th. The letter outlines 3 key requests:
Commit to regular ongoing meetings and consultation with disability stakeholders and CDC Leadership;
Base isolation guidance in public health evidence and data with an understanding of the impacts on those most at risk; and
Center people with disabilities–and other communities disproportionately impacted by COVID-19–by ensuring that all CDC COVID-19 guidance is inclusive of the needs of people with disabilities.
During the meeting, Walensky apologized and committed to regular meetings.
Alice Wong published a collection of disabled wisdom about the pandemic in “High-Risk Pandemic Stories: A Syllabus” last week on the Disability Visibility Project.
As Ed Yong notes, widespread reporting about “incidental” hospitalizations - those hospitalized with COVID instead of for COVID - is inaccurate for leaving out patients with chronic illnesses who don’t fit neatly into either category. And as JD Davids notes, the idea that the Omicron variant is “mild” ignores its serious effects on disabled people.
In Connecticut, disability rights groups are lobbying Gov. Ned Lamont to prioritize people with high risk of severe disease in distribution of tests and masks.
A post from the Chicago Teachers Union says “Teachers were, in the end, able to secure a 5 day quarantine to precent further infections. What they did likely saved lives in the long run. The teachers absolutely flattened the curve to prevent the health care collapse in the city of Chicago. And the teachers did it unpaid at the risk of their own financial health. The economy will never be more important than the lives of teachers, healthcare workers, students and their families. We won’t forget what the teachers did to save us during a pandemic.”
Assistive Device Library
Organizers of the Disability Justice Network of Ontario are opening a mutual aid library for items like power wheelchairs, crutches, canes and ankle braces.
The Crocodile Tears of Jamie Lynn Spears
The Teen Choice Award nominee’s stunt on Good Morning America to promote a book based on the evasion of her complicity in the conservatorship abuse of her 150x Platinum selling sister followed news months ago that the mental health nonprofit This Is My Brave would not accept donations from the book’s sales.
CALLS
UCLA’s Dancing Disability Lab, which will convene artists from June 25th-July 3rd, has issued a call for expressions of interest.
The American Association for State and Local History has issued a call for papers for an upcoming book called An Accessible Past: Making Historic Sites Accessible.
EVENTS
Practicing the Social: Entanglements of Art and Justice
Re•Vision: The Centre for Art and Social Justice at the University of Guelph is hosting a virtual world gathering packed with disability artistry, including work from Tangled Art + Disability, Cyrus Marcus Ware, Lauren Munro & Ciann Wilson, Allison Taylor, Jen Sebring, Christine Kelly, & Michael Orsini, Petra Kuppers, Karen Yoshida, Fady Shanouda, Alex Bulmer, Jeff Thomas, Sean Lee, & nancy viva davis halifax, Nadine Changfoot, Carla Rice, Eliza Chandler, & Susan Dion, Hannah Thompson, Estée Klar & Adam Wolfond, and more!
The conference will also feature a tour of Crip Ritual presented by The Critical Design Lab, in collaboration with Tangled Art+Disability and the Doris McCarthy Gallery.
And! I’m delighted to be DJing and emceeing a REMOTE ACCESS Party on Friday, Jan. 21st from 8-9:30pm ET!
Jan. 20th-22nd
See the access guide for info about access features
Dark Room Ballet’s Introductory Class
Hosted by Movement Research, Dark Room Ballet is designed specifically for the educational needs of blind and visually impaired people.
Saturdays, Jan. 22nd-March 12th
4-5:30pm ET
To register, email: info@darkroomballet.com
On Crip*
Pink drawing that says, "Interdependence is central to the radical restructuring of power." Above it, there is black text that says, "On Crip*: Liza Sylvestre in Conversation with Denny Mwuara." There is a yellow box behind and underneath the pink drawing with white boxes on it. In the boxes, in black text, it reads, "Thursday, January 27th. Virtual via Zoom. 5:00-6:30pm CST." REGISTER HERE.
Building Capacity for Mutual Aid Groups
The fourth event in Dean Spade’s workshop series, hosted by the Barnard Center for Research on Women, focused on bringing new people in.
Thursday, Jan. 20th
7-8:30pm ET
Live transcription and ASL interpretation
$5 suggested
People’s Hub Community Care Clinic for Disabled and Chronically Ill Movement Folks
Tuesday, Jan. 18th from 4-5:30pm PT/ 6-7:30pm CT/ 7-8:30pm ET
Monday, Jan. 31st from 12-1:30pm PT/ 2-3:30pm CT/ 3-4:30pm ET
Tuesday, Feb. 8th from 4-5:30pm PT/ 6-7:30pm CT/ 7-8:30pm ET
Monday, Feb. 21st from 12-1:30pm PT/ 2-3:30pm CT/ 3-4:30pm ETAccess features by request and through collective design
Free or pay what you can
Righting the Wrongs: Tackling Health Inequities
Jan. 19th & 20th
On Zoom
Free
Small correction — Dark Room Ballet intro level classes for blind and visually impaired students start again on January 22 (Not Jan. 2) Thanks! 🙂