Crip News v.70
Testing an editorial technique, museums & access, AI & "Disability Justice," and lots of amazing events.
intensity management trial #1
trying something new today: news that might be difficult or upsetting will be at the bottom of this issue.
the way intensities spring up can be unpredictable. we may not even be able to identify a tender point before it’s activated. and this is not to distinguish “political” news from artistry with any real certainty.
but i’ve been thinking about how to use care as an editorial framework. i’m deeply grateful to those who share with me how the newsletters land. when care feels so disposable elsewhere, we gotta try. i’d love to know what you think (reply here, leave a comment, any other channel).
thanks for being here.
-kevin
NEWS
New Works
a long winter crip survival guide for pandemic year 4/forever by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha and Tina “constant tt” Zavitsanos is a major new text. It’s written in a plain and conversational language. It names why crips need to stay in outdoor public spaces in the “forever winter” of COVID and explains many hacks for doing that: heaters, batteries, furs, blankets, firepits, canopies, lighting, purifiers, and more. And you can add to it by emailing longwintersurvival@gmail.com.
RAW: Race & Disability Zine Anthology, curated by Self_Saboteur, features 12 BIPOC artists from around the world exploring their stories through music, art and writing in print and digital formats.
The Architecture of Disability Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access by disabled designer and historian of architecture David Gissen is out from the University of Minnesota Press. On a recent segment for NY1, Gissen stressed the need “to really imagine how disabled people can be leaders in how cities are designed.”
In the Broad Street Review, Danie Ocean published an excerpt from their book-in-progress about equanimity as rebellion, the “ethno-dysmorphia” of anti-interdependence, and Black, queer, disabled self-love.
UK-based artist Jason Wilsher-Mills brings sculpture and mixed media work, partly designed with learning-disabled communities the artist engaged from across the country, to the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. Open through April 22.
Francisco echo Eraso was recently named a SHIFT Resident Artist at EFA Project Space in New York.
This spring, Deaf Rave will offer a DJ workshop for d/Deaf, HoH or Disabled people ages 17 - 24.
The British Council recently organized the disability arts festival "Unlimited Forum" in Istanbul.
When Museums Say “Access”
The Storm King Art Center in New York’s Hudson Valley is undertaking a $45 million capital campaign to increase access and biodiversity on its campus. The Center brings sculpture and landscape together in ways that might - or might not - model museums’ commitment to disability and environmental justice.
Projects like this focus a number of questions about what museums mean by “access” in their high-profile fundraising and publicity work. Does access mean being transparent about how design consultations conceptualize and foreground disability expertise? Does it include web access, like alt-text on all renderings like the one above? (The answer to both of these questions, for Storm King, is no.)
Or does “access” feature as something important and urgent but also conveniently vague enough to sustain an ableist status quo?
“Disability Justice”
Every so often, I report on some of the corners of the internet where I notice this term is appearing. For example, you can buy a 550-word college paper for $8.64 on EssayZoo.com that includes a definition of Disability Justice, how it differs from Disability Rights, and how, with trans liberation, it contributes to an abolitionist future. From the teachers’ side, Nicole Homerin recently published a list of resources for teaching disability history.
How is AI explaining Disability Justice? I recently asked ChatGPT to “Explain the principles of Disability Justice and where they come from.” The response dangerously elides the history of organizing by queer and trans disabled people of color.
I’ll leave the answer in full, flagging one egregiously incorrect sentence in brackets:
Disability justice is a framework that seeks to center the experiences and leadership of disabled people in the struggle for social justice. It recognizes that disability is not just a medical condition or an individual problem but rather a social and political identity that is shaped by systemic barriers, discrimination, and ableism.
The principles of disability justice come from the work of disability rights activists and scholars [THIS IS INCORRECT] who have challenged traditional disability rights movements that often focus on legal rights and accommodation. Disability justice emphasizes the need to address the root causes of ableism and to center the most marginalized disabled people, including people of color, queer and trans disabled people, and those living in poverty.
Some key principles of disability justice include:
Interconnectedness: Disability is not just an individual problem but rather a part of larger systems of oppression and discrimination. Disability justice recognizes the interconnectedness of various forms of oppression and seeks to build solidarity with other social justice movements.
Leadership of disabled people: Disability justice prioritizes the leadership and experiences of disabled people in organizing and decision-making processes.
Anti-ableism: Disability justice challenges the social and cultural norms that prioritize able-bodiedness and sees disability as a valuable and integral part of human diversity.
Access and accommodation: Disability justice demands full and equal access to all aspects of society, including physical spaces, education, employment, and technology.
Collective liberation: Disability justice recognizes that the liberation of disabled people is intertwined with the liberation of all marginalized people and seeks to build coalitions and alliances across social justice movements.
Overall, the principles of disability justice challenge us to think beyond the limitations of legal rights and accommodation and to embrace a more holistic and intersectional approach to social justice.
JOBS
#MEAction is seeking Board Members and is hiring a remote Activist and Volunteer Coordinator.
MoMA is seeking Teaching Artists for its Access Programs and Initiatives.
Attitude is Everything is hiring a London-based Audience Development Manager.
Paraorchestra is hiring a Bristol/South West-based Senior Producer (Projects), Marketing Coordinator, and Music and Artist Development Coordinator.
Invertigo Dance Theatre is hiring a part-time hybrid Dancing Through Parkinson’s Program Manager.
The Edinburgh International Festival is hiring anEdinburgh-based Access Manager.
EVENTS
Alice Sheppard: Moving Architecture: Architecting Movement
Tuesday, Feb. 21st, 6 – 7:30pm ET, on Zoom
In this talk, disabled dancer and choreographer Alice Sheppard considers the dynamic relationships of movement, architecture, and public space. Sheppard learned her craft partly in a dance studio, and partly on the street interacting with people and the built environment. She quickly learned that architecture and movement fed each other in challenging ways, especially when it came to her lived experience as a Black disabled queer woman. Carving through the walls of so-called accessible buildings and contouring around the movements of well-established dance forms, Sheppard surfaces her joy in disabled movement and pleasure in the unexpected architectures of body, building, and space.
The Disability Justice Torah
Tuesday, Feb. 21st, 7 - 8:30pm ET, on Zoom
Led by Rabbi Elliot Kukla. This session will explore key Jewish concepts like B’zelem Elohim (creation in the image of God), communal responsibility, and love, along with texts from contemporary Disability Justice thinkers from BIPOC led movements. We will discuss what Judaism has to say about accessibility and how we can integrate these ideas into our spiritual lives.
Access / Intimacy
Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 14:00 - 15:30 CET, in-person at the Fedlev auditorium (Fred. Roeskestraat 96, Amsterdam)
With Staci Bu Shea & Mira Thompson and Jeanette Chedda.
Access / Intimacy approaches accessibility not as a protocol, rule or law, but as a potential to create and host intimate spaces. Singer and disability activist Mira Thompson and curator and death companion Staci Bu Shea sext/fantasize about entering the Rietveld Academie together. In A lifetime of inaccessibility and the violent effects on bonding and intimacy, model and accessibility activist Jeanette Chedda shares how daily architectures obstruct her from experiencing intimacy and touch.
You Alright, Fam? A Community Conversation about Black Mental Health
Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 5:30 - 6:30pm CT, on Zoom
This program is a collaboration among Disability Lead, Planned Parenthood Illinois Action, UIC's Disability Cultural Center, and the Disabled People of Color Coalition. Hear our panelists discuss common topics centered around mental health. Is it possible to receive trauma-informed, culturally relevant care? How does grief shape our lives and mental health? Is postpartum depression/anxiety/psychosis common, and what are ways to cope while experiencing it? These questions are all discussed by our panelists, who represent professionals, academics, and persons with lived experience in mental health.
Arts and Disability Forum: Disability as Identity
Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 6 - 7pm CT, on Zoom
The Metropolitan Regional Arts Council (Twin Cities, MN) invites you to join MRAC staff and three local artists, Atlas O. Phoenix, Jamie Kalakaru-Mava, and Taja Will for a virtual discussion exploring how being disabled informs their art, spaces, community, and care.
Goodbye Tiger, Hello Rabbit: Disabled Asian Youth in Conversation
Wednesday, Feb. 22nd, 5 - 6pm PT, on Zoom
With Melissa Shang, Shruti Rajkumar, and Shaina Kaur Ghuraya (moderator). Part of a series of community conversations with writers and creatives to celebrate Alice Wong’s new memoir, Year of the Tiger.
Book Talk: The Architecture of Disability
Thursday, Feb. 23rd, 6 - 7:30pm ET, in-person at the Center for Architecture in Manhattan and on Zoom
Speakers: David Gissen & Ignacio G. Galán. By re-contextualizing the history of architecture through the discourse of disability, David Gissen's recent book The Architecture of Disability Buildings, Cities, and Landscapes beyond Access (University of Minnesota Press, 2022) presents a unique challenge to current modes of architectural practice, theory, and education. Envisioning architecture that fully integrates disabled persons into its production, it advocates for looking beyond traditional notions of accessibility and shows how certain incapacities can help to positively reimagine the roots of architecture.
The New Disability Media
Friday, Feb. 24th, 1pm ET, on Zoom
Film Quarterly explores new directions in disability film and media in a two-part webinar discussing its special dossier "The New Disability Media" (Winter 2022) co-presented with NYU’s Center for Disability Studies and Center for Media, Culture & History. Dossier co-editors B. Ruby Rich (Film Quarterly), Faye Ginsburg (NYU) and Lawrence Carter-Long (DisArt) will moderate conversations with the dossier's scholars and filmmakers on exciting developments in disability film and media: Jenny Chamarette (University of Reading), Arseli Dokumaci (Concordia University), Slava Greenberg (University of Southern California), Salome Chasnoff (filmmaker, Code of the Freaks), Carrie Sandahl (filmmaker, Code of the Freaks), Rodney Evans (filmmaker, Vision Portraits)
ART, GENDER, AND DISABILITY: AESTHETICS OF ACCESS
Feb. 24th on Zoom.
TFAP@CAA Day of Panels brings together exceptional groups of artists, art historians, curators, and critics for a free and open to the public day of dialogue during the annual College Art Association (CAA) Conferences. This is the second and final suite of talks, which have featured Jesse Darling (Keynote), Shannon Finnegan, Bojana Coklyat, Jordan Lord, Krishna Washburn, Kayla Hamilton, Jerron Herman, Christopher “Unpezverde” Núñez, Panteha Abareshi, Jillian Crochet, Berenice Olmedo, Feminist Health Care Research Group (FHCRG), Sickness Affinity Group (SAG), Power Makes Us Sick (PMS), and DON’T MISS a REMOTE Access Party from 7-9pm ET.
After the Toronto Short Film Festival refused to provide captioning or ASL interpretation for films on its program, Chella Man has withdrawn “Why Do People Want To Be Remembered,” a piece that highlights how the Deaf artist holds conversations.
New U.S. federal legislation introduced by Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Deb Fischer aims to increase transparency around disability-related complaints submitted by air travel passengers.
Irish Ombudsman Ger Deering published a report denouncing personal transport supports for disabled people as inadequate, unfair, and inequitable. People “need action rather than committees,” he wrote.
Lawmakers in Alabama are considering a new bill to provide more opportunities for defendants to present evidence of their intellectual disabilities and make the determination process fairer and more accurate.
The Tennessee State Legislature may be about to reject $1.8 billion in federal funding for education access that supports disabled students, English learners, and low-income students.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott has finally backed down on his plan to subject Social Security and Medicare from 5-year congressional reviews that would destabilize an already under-supported federal safety net system.
I like the intensity management trial, thank you.