Crip News v.213
Bob Kafka, Nnena Kalu, new works, calls, and events.
Thanks, y’all.
50 issues. 1,287 new subscribers. Over 241,000 total views. Thank you for a wonderful year of Crip News. I can’t wait to show you what’s in the works for 2026.
-kevin
NEWS
Rest in Power, Bob Kafka
The longtime ADAPT organizer, co-founder of the Register, Educate, Vote, Use your Power! (REV UP) campaign, and host of the Barrier Free Futures radio show joined the ancestors on Dec. 26, 2025.
“Bob Kafka was a fearless, charismatic, and intelligent leader of the disability rights movement for over fifty years,” said retired Senator Tom Harkin in a statement sent to Crip News by the Harkin Institute. The American Association of People with Disabilities described Bob as firecely “driven by the conviction that disabled people deserve freedom, choice, dignity, and power.”
Longtime friend and activist Mark Johnson described to NPR the many ways Bob showed up for his disabled comrades: “Maybe it was helping somebody tie their shoes, and the next moment, maybe it was helping feed them, or maybe it was raising money through the fun run, or maybe it was negotiating with federal officials.”
Bob believed in the power of disability community media, something I was honored to talk about as a guest on his radio show in Oct. 2024. He signed his emails to me with a short gesture to all the coming possibilities that his fellow organizers will now pursue in his honor: “Onward to…”
Nnena Kalu Wins the 2025 Turner Prize
One of the world’s most pretigious visual arts awards has gone to neurodivergent artist Nnena Kalu. She accepted the award at a ceremony in Bradford, UK wearing a ribbon that said “Idol, legend, winner, whatever.”
A resident artist at ActionSpace in London since 1999, Kalu creates hanging sculptures and large-scale drawings commended by the Turner jury as “bold and compelling” through “distinct practice and finesse of scale, composition and colour.”
Kalu’s work, along with the 3 other shortlisted artists, is installed at the Turner Prize exhibition at Cartwright Hall Art Gallery (Bradford) through Feb. 22.
New Works
generative somatics, the organization behind a movement-focused methodology for embodied leadership and trauma healing, has published a zine called “we are complete” to mark its organizational sunset.
Disabled Journalists Association team member Ariana Martinez recently published a rundown of some values, access processes, and tools they use in their work.
Ink in Milk, an exhibition exploring aesthetics like “the contradictory realities of motherhood, the shame of mental breakdown, the sensory divergences stemming from disability, or the sight of a body marked and exhausted by medical intervention,” is up at Trafó Gallery in Budapest through Jan. 11, 2026.
In a debut personal essay for SPOON ZINE called “Freaks, and Ableism, and Dissonance, Oh My!,” wren brooks writes against “representation” as an adequate measure of anti-ableist progress. “What is representation,” they ask, “when The Representation is quietly facing ableism every day?”
Freewheelers, U.K.-based disability theatre group, is recreating 19th century medical casebook portrait techniques “to provoke public conversations about discrimination and how disability is understood” in a project called Us and Them.
For Disability Belongs, Hokulani R. recently published “How Environmental Justice Can Be More Inclusive of People with Disabilities.”
An exhibition featuring disabled craft artists producing “intangible cultural heritage” was recently shown at the Sensory Experience Gallery in the Palace Museum in Beijing.
A new issue of Disability Studies Quarterly edited by Efrat Gold and Michael Rembis explores “Mad Methods.”
CALLS
The Critical Design Lab is hiring a Research Assistant based in the Greater Toronto area. Apply by Jan. 5.
Amsterdam-based No Limits! Art Castle has an open call for neurodivergent or crip performance artists who are ready to shape a solo piece in the Spotlight on You fast track production program. Apply by Jan. 5.
The UC Berkeley Disability Cultural Community Center is seeking artistry from Black disabled student artists to be featuted during the 2026 Blackness and Disability Stigma Summit in late February 2026.
The U.S. National Dance Education Association is seeking presenters for its 2026 Virtual Summit “Creativity in These Times: Dance & Disability” taking place on March 21, 2026. Submit by Jan. 5.
UNLOCK, “a 12-session online training and mentoring programme for Artist-Leaders” led by Katie Charlton, is seeking applications from artists based in the North West of England who are “neurodivergent, disabled, LGBTQIA+, and working in community or participatory arts.” Apply by Jan. 14.
Disability Belongs is accepting nominations for its Disability Impact Awards. Submit by Jan. 20.
The Disability Culture Lab has new swag! Check out their apparel and goods to help support the Lab’s mission to shift the narrative on disability from fear and pity to solidarity and liberation.
EVENTS
Outer Listening: End-of-Year Dance Party and Fundraiser for A.I.R. NYC
Tuesday, Dec. 30, 7 - 9pm ET, in-person at Recess Gallery (Brooklyn)
Hosted in collaboration with Sick (Music) Center. DJ sets from Queer Shoulders and Sapphic Faggot. Raising funds for A.I.R. NYC.