Crip News v.193

The ADA turns 35, new works, calls, and events.

The ADA Turns 35

This Saturday, July 26, is the 35th birthday of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This year, the vibe is direct action protest.

In NYC, a coalition called ADA35: The Future is Disabled is organizing a rally and march from Washington Square Park to Union Square to demand the protection and enforcement of the ADA.

On Wednesday, July 23, Caring Across Generations and partner organizations are holding a 60-hour vigil on the National Mall (Washington DC) to activate a broad coalition of care advocates in response to the recent cuts to Medicaid.

This week is also a precious chance to gather, celebrate, and simply be in disability communities, including…

• Disability Pride Cookout
  Friday, July 25, 4 - 7pm ET, in-person at the LOVE Building (Detroit, MI)
  Detroit Disability Power is celebrating Disability Pride with a community cookout! This is your space to eat good food, connect with other disabled folks, and recharge together in a low-spoons environment.

• How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic: A Disability Pride Panel
  Tuesday July 22, 6 - 7:30pm ET, on Zoom
  Essayists Aiyuba Thomas, Chancey Fleet, and Harris Kornstein, all featured in a new book, How to Be Disabled in a Pandemic (NYU Press), discuss their experiences with disability in New York City during the Covid-19 lockdown. This program is presented as a collaboration between the New York Public Library and the NYU Center for Disability Studies.

• Disability Pride Month Art-Making
  Thursday, July 24, 6 - 7pm ET, in-person at the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens
  Join “Disability Pride, Disability Joy, Exist,” an art-making program that celebrates disability as an integral part of human diversity. Led by Annie Nishwani Lachhman, a disabled artist, and Lakshmee Lachhman-Persad, an educator on disability inclusion and accessibility, the workshop invites participants of all ages and backgrounds to learn about the progressive Disability Pride flags, explore various aspects of disability, and create their own art, fostering inclusivity, understanding, and empowerment.

• Open Mic with Access Central Coast
  Friday, July 25, 1 - 2:30pm PT, on Zoom
  In celebration of the anniversary of the 35th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act, Access Central Coast is hosting an open mic, featuring dancers, singers, poets, comics, and other artists. The first 30 people who sign up to perform will receive a $30 DoorDash gift card. If you are interested in attending and/or performing, email Jacob Lesner-Buxton at jlesner@accesscentralcoast.org.

If you have other Disability Pride/ADA anniversary events you’d like to share, please drop them in a comment on this post.

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NEWS

New Works

Photo by Shabnam Shiwan.

• The world premiere of Siblings, “a multi-layered theatre piece” directed by Pelenakeke Brown and Associate Director Barnie Duncan, will take place this week at Te Pou Theatre in Tāmaki Makaurau, Aotearoa (Auckland, New Zealand). The work features 4 tāngata whaikaha/disabled performers - Dazz Whippey, Kiriana Sheree, Roka Bunyan, Jordan Kareroa, and Hannah Josephson - exploring sibling relationships, disability, agency, and care through talanoa, games, and access as a creative prompt.

• Panteha Abareshi recently published “Of Cripple Pleasures,” a contribution to MMK Frankfurt’s CRIP TIME catalog.

From Jerron Herman’s April 2024 performance, “Temporary Body,” at the Cooper Hewitt Museum (NYC). Photo by Liz Ligon.

• Lauren Wingenroth explores appropriative and “authentic” disability representation in contemporary dance in an article published earlier this month in Dance Magazine.

• State Change by disabled composer and performer Molly Joyce is out from FatCat Records’ 130701 imprint. The album features 7 “electro-acoustic tone poems” marking “surgical milestones in a somatic chronology of injury, adaptation, and reinvention.”

“Introduction to BLACK Deaf Studies” from FORMAL COMPLAINT by Saleem Hue Penny..

• The Mellon Foundation and United States Artists recently published “Lessons in Creativity” from Disability Futures Fellows Saleem Hue Penny and Nancy Rourke.

• Alice Wong’s Disability Visibility Project has several new guest blog posts, including…

  • Joe Stramondo on immigrant and disability rights

  • Leah Harris and Liat Ben-Moshe on the “Racial-Criminal Pathologization of Dissent,” and

  • Frances Ryan on the importance of joyful narratives around disability.

Untitled by Jude A.

• Illuminating the Invisible: The Beauty Behind the Pain is on view at the Vancouver Community Library (Vancouver, WA) through August 31.

• Patient-Led Research Collaborative has launched a new project: A user-friendly registry platform, designed by patients for patients, to connect people with clinical trials and research studies in Long COVID and associated conditions (LCAC).

• Sinners is streaming on HBO Max with Black ASL interpretation by Nakia Smith.

  

  Reconstructed Presence (2024) by Kendrell Daniels.

• Catalyst, an exhibition featuring artwork by 15 young disabled artists from across the US, closes this week at The Kennedy Center (Washington, DC).

• Access/VSA at The Kennedy Center has also launched a 15-module asynchronous online course on “The Theory and Practice of Anti-Ableist Arts Education.”

• This week, Ghost Rooster Collective launches a national tour of Dreamscapes, a “genre-blurring experimental film that explores mental health, alternate realities, and the complex journey of healing,” at Tangled Art + Disability (Toronto).

• This Friday, Wheelchair Sports Camp and a cast of contributing creatives will take over the Denver Art Museum for “A Real Spectacle: Fit in with the Freaks.”

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CALLS

• A call to action to New Yorkers from Larissa Martin:

  Caring Majority Rising is seeking video and/or written testimony for a hearing on the Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program (CDPAP) on August 21. This is an opportunity to tell the NY State Senate how Public Partnership, LLC (PPL) has harmed you and your family—mentally, physically, and financially. Email Larissamartin25@gmail.com & paula@caringmajorityrising.org for instructions. It's time to give PPL hell, just like they have given so many of us CDPAP consumers and PAs.

• Applications are open for FUTURES, a 3-month cohort-based experience for young Canadian disabled or “equity-deserving” artists. Apply by July 31.

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EVENTS

• SqueakyFest 2025
  Friday, July 25 - Monday, July 28, in Chicago, NYC, Washington DC, and online
  Introducing SqueakyFest, the First National Disability Comedy Festival. Laughter is the best medicine, and it’s also the only medicine when you can’t afford real medicine, so please enjoy some desperately needed laughs with in-person and virtual comedy shows across the U.S.

• Vocal Care for Liberation Workshop
  Thursday, July 24, 7 - 8:30pm ET, on Zoom
  In this workshop benefitting a 26-year-old disabled man in Gaza, you’ll learn basic vocal care skills to keep your voice strong, prevent fatigue, manage strain, and get practical tips for long days of speaking, chanting, or performing, especially in high-stress settings.

• DisabiliTease Festival
  Saturday, July 26, 1:15pm & 3pm CT, on Zoom
  The DisabiliTease Festival celebrates disabled bodies and the art they create through burlesque, drag, cirque, and cabaret performances. The final day of the festival will feature workshops on microaggressions and navigating burlesque festivals with Bea Lissima.

• Collective Access: Disability, Gender, and Design
  Thursday, July 24, 1 - 2pm ET, online
  In connection with the exhibition Fantasizing Design: Phyllis Birkby Builds Lesbian Feminist Architecture, this online panel discussion invites historians of design and disability to share a story—historical or contemporary—where disability and feminist frameworks come together to shape the making of a building, space, or mode of architectural representation. Featuring Aimi Hamraie, May Khalife, David Serlin, moderated by Stephen Vider and M.C. Overholt.

• Our Right to Thrive: Webinar with Dolly Sen
  Tuesday, July 22, 14.00 - 15.00 BST, online
  Our Right to Thrive is a unique poetry/written word project for disabled writers led by disabled artist/ musician and poet Ivan Riches. In this webinar renowned disabled artist and activist Dolly Sen will give disabled poets/ writers who are interested in learning more about the lived experience of being a mental health survivor with a focus on the development of survivors' political movements. It will focus on the lived experience of discrimination and disabling barriers discussing the recognition of mental health system survivors as having equal rights to other NHS patients.

• [UPDATED with discount code]
  Life After by Reid Davenport is playing at Film Forum (NYC) until Thursday, July 24. Use code “MULTITUDE” at checkout for a discounted ticket, with an option to pay forward the cost of a ticket for someone else.