Crip News v.78

Some personal news and lots of fab events. Thanks for being here.

Apr 17, 2023

sometimes your girl makes news! in addition to the announcement below, i wanted to let y’all know that i’m moving to the ancestral homelands of the Mohican people, so-called Hudson, NY. and when a cozy-loving taurus moves home…phew, it’s a whole process. thanks for bearing with me if i’m moving a bit slower in this space the next few weeks.

-kevin

NEWS

Lincoln Center’s 2023 Summer for the City Festival

In large black letters, Cultivating Access Ecologies. (2023 is sideways, hiding underneath.) The image has a lot of vibrant neon colors, including blocks of bright green. There are 4 features that represent 4 sacred elements: a liquid surface mid-splash right after a droplet lands (water), a chunk of a concrete curb displaced by activists with sledgehammers in Denver 1978 (earth), a glitchy power on/off symbol (fire), and, in the background of the image, HEPA filters (air). The water and the concrete images became brushes, creating streaking patterns that paint the canvas. — Design by Kevin Gotkin.

I am delighted to announce a series of events I am organizing for Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City Festival. Here’s an excerpt from my curatorial statement:

“Access ecology” is a term that brings forward the relational and situational dynamics of accessibility. Whereas “accessibility” is often treated as something specific to be retrofitted on at the end of a design process, “access ecology” insists that there’s nothing outside of accessibility. And there is never no ecology.
Our access ecologies involve everything that is connected to what we need: the air we’re breathing, its temperature and humidity, the surfaces that support our bodies, the water we should be drinking or can’t, the speed and reliability of our internet connectivity, the last time we had a meal, the language we’re using with others, the coziness of our favorite places.
When we think of access in ecological terms, we grasp the fullness and complexity of what it means to be with others.

Two interactive workshops will focus on late-breaking and emergent access tools, with contributions from Una Osato, Rebecca Cokley, and Pato Hebert. Two Silent Disco parties on the large dance floor on Josie Robertson Plaza will feature access features for celebration, experimentation, and joy, including vibro-tactile suits for vibrational musical experience, poetic captions, and ASL song-signing, featuring performances by DJ Nico DiMarco, Jerron Herman, DJ Crip Time (Crip Rave), and JJJJJerome Ellis.

All events will also occur in a virtual world that is being built for remote access to this series by Bianca Carague.

SAVE THE DATES:

Friday, June 16th, 5:30 - 7pm ET: Access Worlding: An Inventory Workshop

Saturday, July 1st, 7 - 9pm ET: An Evening of Access Magic

Thursday, July 6th, 5:30 - 7pm ET: Access Ecologies Design Conference

Thursday, July 27th, 7 - 9pm ET: Closing Party

The full festival lineup is stunning, including the NYC premiere of a “congregational” opera of Parable of the Sower (July 14), a tribute to Sylvester (June 15), and so much more.

An enormous thank you to Miranda Hoffner, Lincoln Center’s Associate Director of Accessibility & Guest Services, for her access excellence, trust, and collaboration she is offering to us in this work.

New Works

A screenshot of four scenes showing actors putting on a Zoom play; the backgrounds and their expressions vary. — Richard Nelson’s “**What Do We Need to Talk About?**” was streamed live in 2020. Sara Krulwich/The New York Times.

Neelam Bohra and Wendy Lu report on remote access to the arts for The New York Times.
The newest episode of the Off-Kilter Podcast with Rebecca Vallas features lessons from COVID long-haulers on rest and radical pacing.
The film experience of “ROLL WITH IT!,” a play by by Katie R. Banister & Michelle Zielinski, based on the memoir Katie R. Banister, Jo Lena Johnson, and Andrew Szanton, is available through April 30th.
Natalie Choi’s recent show What is Queer Crip Love? at the NYU Gallatin Galleries continues as a digital exhibition.

CALLS

Take #MEAction’s survey on ME/CFS, Long COVID, POTS, hEDS, and MCAS “to gather the richest dataset on complex chronic disease ever created.“ More here.
Kinetic Light is hiring a Co-Producer for LAB: an online creative community for disabled artists, offering monthly gatherings on Zoom. More here.

The CripCab graphic, featuring a faded pastel pink and purple background with a Y2K computer feel. In the top left corner, there is a geometric rainbow shape with the words “The Disability Collective” layered on top of it in thin black text inside of a white box. In the centre of the graphic is a large white box made to look like a computer browser. The top of the box reads “Pride Made Accessible” in black font in a red box intended to look like the address bar. The centre of the box reads “CripCab” in bold black font with a pastel purple shadow. Layered on top of the box in the bottom right corner is another box layered with yellow and red squares, made to look like an additional browser tab that reads “A Queer and Disability-Led Cabaret” in black font. Below in the centre is a white oval with a green shadow that reads “Call for Submissions” in red font. The bottom of the graphic reads “thedisabilitycollective.com” in black font.

The Disability Collective is seeking submissions from queer and disabled performing artists for CripCab, a new variety show celebrating queer and disabled performers at a Pride 2023 event in June in Toronto. More here.
ARC Poetry invites artists who live with disability/chronic illness/mental illness and other forms of existence that are impacted by ableism to send poems, prose, essays, and reviews exploring what it means to be in the world, or your topic of choice for the Fall 2023 issue, guest edited by Therese Estacion. More here.
Deaf Talent’s Creative Lab is offering summer retreats for adults and kids. More here.
The 2023 D-30 Disability Impact List is accepting nominations through May 15th. More here.

EVENTS

Wasserman Forum 2023: Altered Access

Friday, April 21st - Saturday, April 22nd, in-person at MIT and online

Altered Access, presented by the MIT List Center, brings together artists, educators, and curators to discuss current disability discourse within the arts and museum practices. The forum will center voices in the arts and disability practice in three panels to consider aspects of digital access and spatial design, and how museums can serve as places of healing. Featuring: Park McArthur, Noëmi Lakmaier, Carmen Papalia, Finnegan Shannon, Sara Hendren, Panteha Abareshi, Christopher Jones and Liza Sylvestre, Yo-Yo Lin, Kevin Gotkin, Owólabi Aboyade, Cannach MacBride, Taraneh Fazeli, and Emily Barker.

A tree filled image with a close up of two trees and their large textured bark. Between the two trees a hand from the forearm down and palm forward spreads its fingers. It looks like a ghost hand that is filled with the surrounding forest life. The entire background image is heavily saturated with almost neon reds, pinks, yellows, blues, greens and purples. On top of the glowing forest is white text saying: Eco Somatic readings and conversations: disability ecologies of pain and joy with the environment. Stephanie Heit, Petra Kuppers, Christopher “Unpezverde" Núñez, moira williams. Online April 26th 6-8pm EST/5-7pm CT/3-5pm PST. Access Menu: Access Doula, Participation Guide, AI Captioning, ASL.

Eco Somatic readings, conversations and movement centering disability and LGBTIQA+ ecologies of pain and joy with the environment

Thursday, April 13th, 3 - 4pm ET, online

Featuring Stephanie Heit, Petra Kuppers, Christopher “Unpezverde" Núñez, and moira williams.

C/Krip Art Chats: Rest with Jerron Herman (waiting list only)

Thursday, April 20th, 6 - 8pm ET, online

C/Krip Art Chats: Rest, co-facilitated by special guest Jerron Herman with Annie Leist, will explore themes of rest, time, and self-care. Discussion will begin with and expand upon Black Power Naps, a project by artists Navild Acosta and Sosa, who claim power in rest, inviting us to imagine a world in which leisure, downtime, and quality sleep are available to all.

Banner is a surreal digital image of a giant spoon and silver balloons that read “Dis/Rep” in a strange field with magenta flowers. Planets above.

Dis/Rep Workshop 2023

Starting April 23rd, online with asynchronous options

What is cross-Disability solidarity? And how do we make accessible culture and gathering spaces? Join us in a 6-week relaxed virtual space with asynchronous options to discuss ways cross-Disability communities collaboratively hold accessible gathering and cultural spaces.

A Year of Collective Progress for Disability Economic Justice

Tuesday, April 18th, 2 - 3pm ET, online

The Century Foundation celebrates the one-year anniversary of the Disability Economic Justice Collaborative—a first-of-its-kind initiative that brings together more than forty leading disability rights and justice organizations, think tanks, and top research and policy organizations committed to finally achieving economic security and justice for people with disabilities in the United States.

Write Us In: The Intersection of Disability and Queerness in Literature

Thursday, April 20th, 8pm ET, online

The Disability Collective is hosting a virtual reading and Q&A with disabled and queer writers Allison Blevins and Travis Chi Wing Lau, moderated by Dustin Brookshire.

Kinetic Light LAB Hangout

Friday, April 21st, 2 - 3pm ET, on zoom.

A Hangout is a social space where disabled artists can spend casual time together chatting online and meeting each other. You’re welcome to bring topics of conversation, questions, or a bit of art that inspires you. LAB Producer, morgaine de leonardis will hold the space and offer topics and questions as needed.