NEWS
Naming Abled Supremacy
A new essay by Mia Mingus is a powerful call to action addressed to ableds who have “missed opportunity after opportunity to challenge abled supremacy and act in solidarity with disabled people and communities.” “How to put into words,” she asks, “the demoralization of needing people who do not need you?”
Litigation Over Insurance Payouts
The first lawsuit in a coming wave of federal litigation seeks continued disability benefits from an insurance company that terminated support after claiming medical evidence showed no reason the worker couldn’t return to her job. It’s yet another example of the way institutions are enforcing the invisibility of long COVID. The logic being used is a private sector complement to the discrimination by U.K.’s Department of Work and Pensions against tens of thousands of disabled people receiving no support in the transition to universal credit, ruled illegal by a court for the fourth time last week.
Limiting Conservatorships
A coalition of disability rights groups have helped introduce a bill that would write supported decision-making into California law with grants, training, and technical support. It would also mandate periodic review of probate conservatorships, including asking conservatees directly if they want to limit or end them.
What To Do With Your Used Wheelchair
An Instagram post from @NewMobilityMag shows a line drawing of a manual wheelchair. “What To Do With Your Used Wheelchair.”
ART!
Disability Culture Leadership Initiative
The Chicago-based nonprofit 3Arts added 4 artists to its online platform that “elevates the work of Deaf and disabled artists and encourages the arts and culture sector to prioritize Disability Culture in programming and organizational efforts”: Brian Balcom (theater director), Tsehaye Geralyn Hébert (playwright), Willyum LaBeija (dancer), and Robby Lee Williams (dancer). The expansion adds to an archive of conversations with many other artists and research in collaboration with UIC’s Bodies of Work.
Creative Economy Hearing
The U.S. House Committee on Small Business convened a hearing last week called “The Power, Peril, and Promise of the Creative Economy.” The testimony is expected to influence the future of the Creative Economy Revitalization Act of 2021 that would authorize the Dept. of Labor and the National Endowment for the Arts to award $300 million in grants to individual artists and organizations in the coming years.
Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities
RAMPD formed in July 2021 and celebrated with a launch party last week. Led by musicians including Lachi and Gaelynn Lea, the new organization will soon build a membership database of disabled professional artists.
Deaf DJ Workshop
A woman is learning to DJ in an Instagram post by @DeafRave (Troi “DJ Chinaman” Lee). In London, Deaf nightlife organizers held a DJ workshop for Deaf women at Grooveschool, sponsored by vibration backpack company Woojer.
The Kennedy Center’s Next 50
The Center announced a cohort of “50 leaders and organizations that, through sustained excellence of artistic, educational, athletic, or multi-disciplinary work, are lighting the way forward.” Several disabled artists and activists are in the group: Adrian Anantawan, Kinetic Light, José André Montaño, and Gregg Mozgala. And disability advocacy features in the work of several others, like adrienne maree brown and Roger Ideishi.
New Works & Shows
The new issue of Wordgathering: A Journal of Disability Poetry and Literature is packed with disability artistry in the forms of essays, poetry, interviews, and more. It features the second group of works in “Disability Futures in the Arts,” a project curated by Kenny Fries. You’ll find work by Pelenakeke Brown, Syrus Marcus Ware, Meg Day, Laurie Clements Lambeth, Chanika Svetvilas & Jennifer Cabral, and many more. Submissions for the Spring 2022 issue close on Feb. 15th.
As part of The Great Northern Festival, Molly Joyce’s Perspectives opens at Second Shift Studio Space in Saint Paul on Jan. 28. The project is an “ongoing multimedia project featuring words and stories of disabled interviewees set within a complementary soundscape.”
In the first episode of Crip Crap: The Podcast, Justin Cooper & Kennedy Healey set the scene for more to come.
In Canada, The New Brunswick Disability Art Collective its first showcase at the Fredericton Playhouse through Feb. 28th.
DWOSKINO at LUX:
An exhibition presented by The Spirit of Huntington Art Center called “ArtABILITY: an Inclusive Exhibition Celebrating Artists with Special Needs” just closed at Agora Gallery in Chelsea. The show is missing image descriptions of the works - and a critical analysis of which “needs” are “special” for disabled artists. But the works in the show are stunning and eclectic.
Tomorrow is a New Day, featuring works by Cambodian artist Morn Chear, is up until May 1, 2022 at the McNichols Civic Center in Denver.
The Envision Arts Gallery & Community Engagement Center has opened in Wichita, Kansas.
Disability in TV & Film
RespectAbility has a run-down of disability representation at Sundance 2022. Collider has a round-up of disabled superheroines from 2021. And Walking Dead star Lennie James has called for more conversation about authentic casting for gay and disabled roles on television.
Professional Development in Australia
12 participants have been announced for Front & Centre, “a career coaching and professional development program for women and non-binary people with disability working in the arts, creative and cultural sectors across NSW, the ACT and Victoria.”
CALLS
The Health Justice Commons is hiring a Social Media & Community Engagement Coordinator.
The Shed is accepting applications for its 2023 Open Call until Feb. 21st. There are several upcoming info sessions that will have live closed captioning, ASL interpretation, and audio description.
The New School’s Vera List Center for Art & Politics is accepting applications for its 2022-2024 Fellowships with a focus theme of “Correction*.” Apply by March 13th.
Senior and Disability Action has opened a survey on becoming disabled or chronically ill during the pandemic to inform a coming training program for newly disabled and chronically ill people.
In an Instagram post from @WendysSubway, black block-print letters SPK Turn Illness into a Weapon, agitation prefaced by Jean Paul Sartre, a book cover of a towering Brutalist building foregrounded by a protest sign on a bright orange background. Caption announcing an open call for Talking Book readers.
Ground Works is raising funds to document the work of 6 disabled artists in Leonardo/ISAST’s CripTech Incubator.
@AbleARTSWork calls for a color show about red. Submissions due March 7th for April 1 opening at EXPO Art Center in Long Beach, CA.
Events
Kinetic Light/Disability Dance Works’s LAB Hangout
LAB is a monthly series of informal virtual gatherings for disabled artists to hang out, virtually lounge together, connect, and straight up chill. Let's talk about art, let’s talk about life, let's be in community.
TONIGHT Monday, Jan. 24th
5-7pm ET on Zoom
CART by SignNexus, ASL by Veronica Staehle and Gloria Vargas, and community AD
No cost
For more information, access coordination, or to be added to LAB’s mailing list, contact associate producer morgaine de leonardis at morgaine@kineticlight.org
PeoplesHub Workshop: Resilience and Restoration in 2022
Thursday, Jan. 27th
7-9pm ET on Zoom
Access features by request
Choose what to pay starting at $20; true cost: $50
DEEM Forum: Envisioning Equity
SESSION 02_ NEURODIVERSITY with Jezz Chung and Jen White-Johnson, and moderated by Dr. Yewande Pearse.
Thursday, Jan. 27th
12-1pm ET
No cost
Accessibility Biases in Immersive Media Education
Yours truly in conversation with Ezra Benus as part of programming for Eyebeam’s member-supported community of artists and technologists.
Thursday, Jan. 27th
12-1pm ET
Access features by request
Cost + more info: Fold membership
Dance and Democracy: A Symposium for Social Movement
Featuring Petra Kuppers on Crip/Mad Archive Dances.
Monday, Jan. 31st
10am-5pm
No cost, optional donation
Thanks as always for this incredible resource; so much to share with students and others!