Crip News v.222
The Winter Paralympics, new works, calls, and events.
NEWS
50 Years of the Winter Paralympics
The Milan-Cortina Paralympic Winter Games began last Friday, March 6. A record 665 athletes are competing in 79 medal events across 6 sports. This year marks half a century since the first Winter Paralympics in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden, in 1976.
Like past Games, the Opening Ceremony featured large-scale, dazzling disability artistry that challenges the spectacle’s general incitement to global ‘supercrip’ discourses. In one stunning sequence, Italian disabled performer, choreographer, and activist Chiara Bersani, summoned a white-hot blade of light that pierced the icy blue stage to open a fiery portal.
In another sequence, 3 disabled dancers push against large inaccessible set pieces, perhaps illustrating what feminist scholar Sara Ahmed calls “wall stories.” Before long, other performers help discover that the shapes fold open. Hypnotic black-and-white painting on several surfaces pays tribute to quadratura, a style of Baroque illusionistic mural painting often used to bring draw the sky down to Earth. As the dancers investigate new ways of using each set piece, the optical illusions suggest lines of flight intrinsic to seemingly rigid forms.
But a ritual designed for connection was boycotted by 7 national delegations following the late-breaking news that the International Paralympic Committee would allow Russia and Belarus to enter under that flags. As sports journalist Laura Howard described, “The heartbeat projection that illuminated the Arena di Verona to symbolise humanity, felt awkwardly antithetical” to the IPC’s decision.
The Games conclude this Sunday, March 15 with a ceremony at the Stadio Olimpico del Ghiaccio in Cortina.
New Works
Ericka Ayodele Dixon, Senior National Organizer at The Disability Project at the Transgender Law Center recently paid tribute to Black Disabled ancestors who paved the way for “the fullness of the legacy that is Disability Justice and Black liberation” on the 100th anniversary of Black History Month.
NYC–based events and media company Positive Deviance published an essay last month by multidisciplinary British-Sudanese artist UMNIA called “COVID Consciousness as a Subculture,” among other works about creating in the “Pandemicine.”
Illustration by Caitlin Blunni. Disability Culture Lab has launched Disability Culture Currents, “a new online opinion and personal essay publication,” exploring “the currents of disability culture and identity.” The first issue features works by Dr. Conchita Hernández Legorreta, Jhonelle Bean, mav vega, Meier Galblum Haigh, and Robin E. Larisch, and Caitlin Blunnie.
Able Zine recently published an interview with Founder Claudia Walder and disabled, interdisciplinary artist and access worker Cielo Saucedo on LA, anti-surveillance, virtuality, glitch theory, getting dressed, and “tying to make more emo work.”
The DisOrdinary Architecture Project, in collaboration with Critical Design Lab, launched a new podcast miniseries called “Disability Meets Architecture.” The first episode features architect and accessibility specialist Karen Braitmayer and “international Equalities Designer” Natasha Trotman unpacking Stacey Park Milbern’s concept of “access washing.”
American Association of People with Disabilities published a Q&A with Black disabled artist Lindsay Adams about her exhibit Ceremony, which recently closed at the Johns Hopkins University Irene and Richard Frary Gallery (Washington DC). The show, Adams said, “represents a conversation between my painting and drawing practice and these archival documents, exploring themes of belonging, community, and what it means to gather.”
Last week, Amsterdam-based artists Mira Thompson and Carly Everaert screened 2 “open-source video lessons” - On access intimacy and On pain worth sharing - as part of ENCORE at Kaaistudios (Brussels).
New York City Council Member Julie Won launched a new weekly video series, “A Lifetime of Care” to highlight stories on “care policies.” The first episode features Mia Ives-Rublee, a disability rights activist, ADA policy expert, social worker, and the founder of the disability caucus of the Women’s March.
The 19th’s disability and aging reporter Sara Luterman published a historical take on the disability advocates’ relationships with LGBTQ+ communities in the US.
London-based multidisciplinary artist and facilitator Molly Bonnell launched a new zine called A Room with Enough Room for Us: Art and Writing on Care, Disability, and Resistance, with design by Oriol Arnedo Casas. Featuring works by Andrea Mindel, Anuka Ramischwili-Schäfer, bog heartsease, Chris Pavlakis, E L West, Jay Astraeus, Lisa Harbron, Lo Cleary, Molly Gill, Nat(alie) Brady, Poppy Nash, Raheem Muotto, Stef May, Suri Jiang, Tahiris Adames, The PA, and Yasmin R.
CALLS
Connected Minds, an initiative focusing on the intersections of so-called "intelligent technologies" and society, is seeking applications for Postdoctoral Fellows. Dr. Aimi Hamraie (York University) is interested in working with scholars applying critical disability perspectives to discuss the framing and harms of these technologies. Applications due March 27.
Applicants to the Parsons School of Design can also apply to the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program. Applications are due March 16.
EVENTS
The Sensational Museum: Hannah Thompson in Conversation with Georgina Kleege on Arts Access
Wednesday, March 11, 12 - 1:30pm ET, on Zoom
NYU’s Grey Art Museum and Center for Disability Studies invite you to a presentation by Prof. Hannah Thompson (Royal Halloway, University of London) about her project The Sensational Museum, which, as she writes, means “using what we know about disability to change museums for everyone.” Prof. Thompson will be in conversation with Prof. Emeritus Georgina Kleege (UC Berkeley) and Dr. Kevin Gotkin (Assistant Director, Center for Disability Studies, NYU).Being an Immigrant and Disabled in the U.S.: Defending Civil Rights Under Escalating Federal Enforcement
Wednesday, March 11, 2 – 3:30pm ET, on Zoom
Please join Access Living, Disability Rights California, and The Arc Minnesota for a community webinar featuring Mia Ives-Rublee, Senior Director, Disability Justice Initiative, Center for American Progress; Michelle Garcia, Manager of Organizing and Community Development, Access Living of Metropolitan Chicago/ Co-founder, Disability Immigration Taskforce of IL; Richard Diaz, Senior Attorney, Investigation Unit, Disability Rights California; Mai Thor, Chief Program Officer, The Arc Minnesota; Paula Sandoval, Supervising Investigator, Disability Rights California; Moderated by Claudia Castillo Ayala, PhD student in Disability Studies, University of Illinois Chicago.ILL-Abilities: No Excuses, No Limits
Through March 15, in-person at New Victory Theater (NYC)
Get ready for a dance party! The b-boys of ILL-Abilities are flying in from four continents to bust expectations with moves so sick your head will spin. After wowing the world at the Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, nothing can stop this international all-star crew! Upending stereotypes and flipping disability into pure power, their boisterous blend of breaking and autobiographical storytelling centers self-determination and proves that there are No Excuses, No Limits to what they are capable of.Gaelynn Lea: It Wasn’t Meant to Be Perfect Book Release
Saturday, April 18, 7pm ET, in-person at Joe’s Pub (NYC)
Gaelynn Lea—folk musician, Broadway composer, and disability advocate—will be at Joe’s Pub for a musical performance and a discussion of her new memoir, IT WASN’T MEANT TO BE PERFECT. She will be joined in conversation by the author Chloé Cooper Jones and the disability advocate Xian Horn.