NEWS
New Works
Disabled artist Perel will perform Untitled/ DEI Memorial Service, an “assisted solo” show about love and grief, at Mabou Mines (NYC) on Saturday, August 2.
For Calling Up Justice, organizer and producer Jesenia recently reported on How We Move, the 2-week disability dance intensive in NYC created and facilitated by India Harville (Embraced Body) and Kayla Hamilton (Circle O).
The Washington Post’s Shane O’Neill recently profiled several social media influencers with Down syndrome. With their success come complications, like the proliferation of Down-themed AI content that jeopardizes the storytelling autonomy of disabled content creators.
Kelly Mack recently published a series of articles unpacking and addressing “the disability tax” on Rolling With It.
Screen Digest
TONIGHT, July 28 at 8pm, Turner Classic Movies is airing a one-night showcase called Disability in Film, curated by long-time TCM contributor Lawrence Carter-Long. The “mini festival,” co-hosted by TCM’s Eddie Muller, “spotlights not just disability on screen but centers disabled voices in contextualizing what audiences are seeing,” Carter-Long says. The program features…
Compensation (1999) – from Zeinabu irene Davis and Marc Arthur Chery, Michelle A. Banks and John Earl star in a story about Black Deaf love across two eras, newly restored and making its national TV debut with new title cards and dynamic captions.
Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) – Spencer Tracy as a one-armed war vet who quietly but powerfully upends the status quo and toxic masculinity.
Ship of Fools (1965) – Michael Dunn’s Oscar-nominated turn as the wise, witty conscience of the film.
CinemAbility - A groundbreaking documentary by disabled filmmaker Jenni Gold that premiered at ReelAbilities in 2013.
The Ride Ahead, from filmmakers Samuel Habib, Dan Habib, and Erica Lupinacci, is now streaming on POV (PBS) in the US. The documentary follows Sam’s transition into adulthood as he seeks wisdom from disabled public figures including Judy Heumann, Ly Xīnzhèn Zhǎngsūn Brown, Maysoon Zayid, Ali Stroker, Keith Jones, Bob Williams, and Andrew Peterson.
Earlier this month PBS News Hour’s Jeffrey Brown and Simon Epstein reported on the premiere of Sensorium Ex, a multidisciplinary disability and AI-engaged opera.
The Inevitable Foundation recently launched Inevitable Studios, a disability-focused TV and film production company.
In Other News…
The long-awaited physical location of the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center (DCC) recently opened around the corner from the site of the 1977 504 Sit-in. “Our goal is to be the space where people can come for a restorative space,” co-founder Emily Beitiks recently told KQED.
The Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability has separated from San Francisco State University, where it was for 29 years.
University of Atypical recently announced the 21 recipients of the 2025 D/deaf and Disabled Artists Support Fund and Digital Innovation Award.
Mattel has introduced a Barbie doll with type 1 diabetes, featuring a continuous glucose monitor and insulin pump.
CALLS
The online popular education and organizing space PeoplesHub is accepting applications for…
The Fall 2025 Undoing Internalized Ableism Cohort (disabled folks only). Apply by August 9.
The Disaster Survival Fund in partnership with the Crip Survival Network (PH trainers and participants only). Applications are open until the funds run out.
UC Irvine is hiring a Program Director for its Disability Cultural Center.
EVENTS
Disability Culture Cabaret: Pride Edition
Wednesday, July 30, 6 - 9pm ET, in-person at Hook Hall (Washington DC) and live-streamed on YouTube
Join Disability Culture Lab, Crushing Colonialism, and New Disabled South for an accessible night of unbridled Queer Disabled joy and imagination, filled with disabled drag, burlesque, poetry, and art. We'll celebrate Queer Disability community and joy that were never given to us and therefore cannot be taken away. Let's imagine liberation together. This is our Disability Futures Month. This is an 18+ event.Disability Pride Comedy Night
Wednesday, July 30, 7 - 8:30pm ET, in-person at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (Washington DC)
DC Public Library’s 4th annual Disability Pride Comedy Night is sure to be a laugh riot! The lineup features all comedians with disabilities, from the DMV and beyond, with headliner: Brittany Carney (Comedy Central, HBO), Bria Beddoe, Auriel Haack, and Lee Swanson.Living Madly & Beyond: A Mad Pride Support Space
Weekly, on Zoom
Hosted by Solstice House Peer Respite (Madison, WI), this is a weekly online Mad Pride support group—a space for people with lived experience of madness, crisis, distress, extreme/altered states, or psychiatric systems to gather, share, and explore what healing and resistance can look like outside of traditional systems and clinical/medical frameworks. To sign-up or ask questions, email nzeo@soarcms.org or call (608) 886-9735.
504: The Musical
Friday, August 1 & Sunday, August 3, in-person at St. Ann’s Warehouse & Joe’s Pub (NYC)
Epic Players will perform the new work by Abbie Goldberg and Mason McDowell, a fictionalized account of the 1977 San Francisco sit-in that led to civil rights for disabled people. This ensemble concert performance focuses on the relationships between the protesters, who for 26 days fight through stigmatization, bomb threats, internalized ableism, and an unfair media, until they eventually triumph in D.C.—all set to a soulful score inspired by 1970s R&B and Pop.