NEWS
New Works
Bianca I Laureano interviewed Patty Berne for the Ford Foundations’s Creative Futures series.
9 artists have been honored with the 2023 Midwest Award for Artists with Disabilities: Matthew Bodett (Chicago, Illinois), Larissa Danielle (Bloomington, Indiana), Lauren Bonney (Decorah, Iowa), Maggie Laycock (Sterling Heights, Michigan), Madison Rubenstein (Bloomington, Minnesota), Bonnie Lee (Fargo, North Dakota), Andrea Sosa Fontaine (Cleveland Heights, Ohio), Mary Payton Zajicek (Sioux Falls, South Dakota), and Sarah Muehlbauer (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
DYSPLA, “a Neurodivergent-led, award-winning arts studio producing and developing the work of Neurodivergent storymakers,” published a summer roundup of events and opportunities from ND communities.
The family of Judy Heumann will continue her newsletter in quarterly installments.
Sandra Gail Lambert’s recent Substack post is about the exhausting cycles of applications for writing residencies:
In the American University Law Review, Ruth Colker explores “disability misappropriation,” which she describes as “the tendency of the political right to assert a false concern for disability issues in service of a political agenda that actually harms the disability community.”
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Perspectives series, Bryan Martin looks at the role disability played in Horace Pippin’s painting.
PBS News Hour recently ran “A Brief But Spectacular take on blending the worlds of art, ASL and accessibility,” featuring Brandon Kazen-Maddow and the Up Until Now Collective.
Session recordings from Accessibility Summer Camp 2023, an annual program for access professionals, educators, and students, are available now - and free.
Jerron Herman’s short essay “The Athleticism of Rest” was published in a glossary feature in Art Papers.
Alistair Baldwin’s play Telethon Kid recently closed at the Beckett Theatre in Victoria, Australia.
Disability and Philanthropy Forum’s Gail Fuller recently published “Black Disabled Creatives and Funding Disability Rights and Justice” in the Grantmakers in the Arts Reader.
In Other News…
The 2023 San Francisco Drag King of the Year is the disabled and “chronically illUSTRIOUS” artist Lotus Boy.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia star Rob McElhenney, 46, recently announced he has been diagnosed with “a host of neurodevelopmental disorders and learning disabilities.”
Hugh Grant will play an Oompa-Loompa in the upcoming film Wonka, taking the role from much more qualified dwarf actors.
Saudi brother-sister duo Abdullah and Najd Alsahli have opened Art Without Limits, a virtual studio for disabled artists.
Laura Weiss reports for Prism on the 100 day mark for the Writers Guild of America’s strike, mentioning Nielsen data that shows that “the majority of disabled writers rely on family support (52%) or public support like unemployment (72%) to survive.”
Sen. Bob Casey has introduced the ABLE MATCH Act, which would create a federal dollar-for-dollar match of up to $2,000 for new and existing ABLE accounts for individuals who earn $28,000 or less per year.
LOL, Zoom
The company whose software proved that nondisabled people could make remote access happen overnight is now requiring its workers to be in the office. And that’s not Zoom’s most public problem right now: language added to its terms of service asks users to agree to share data to train AI.
CALLS
The Center for Cultural Power, in partnership with the California Arts Council, is presenting a $15,000 award opportunity for 30 California-based culture bearers, especially for work that “advances public health awareness messages to stop the spread of COVID-19.” More here.
Caring Across Generations and Fair Play are seeking nominations of “care influencers” for the 2023 Care Catalyst Award. More here.
The San Francisco Arts Commission is encouraging applications from Deaf and disabled artists for its 2024 Cultural Ambassador Program.
Autonomous Press is accepting submissions for the ninth volume of Spoon Knife, an annual “genre-bending lit anthology.”
The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed new regulations about the accessibility of web and mobile apps. Check out this fact sheet and submit public comments by Oct. 3rd.
Activating Change is seeking survey respondents to inform its Ending Criminalization and Incarceration program. More here.
Activating Change is also hiring a Senior Program Associate. More here.
Visual AIDS is seeking an Executive Director. More here.
EVENTS
Telephone Film Screening
Tuesday, Aug. 15, 7pm ET, in-person at Theater for the New City (Manhattan)
Telephone Film is a disability arts film project bringing awareness to audio description for dance, an art form that allows blind and visually impaired people to be fully included in the joy of artistic expression. Telephone showcases audio description as an art form in its own right, while also providing an immersive sensory experience for audience members of all sight levels. The screendance documentary is the first of its kind, featuring diverse disabled and non-disabled artists who have come together to prove that: dance is visceral, not merely visual. Join us at Theater for the New City to experience the forty-five minute film, followed by a talkback with the co-directors, Dark Room Ballet Founder Krishna Wasburn (who will join virtually) and choreographer/filmmaker Heather Shaw. Both co-directors will answer your questions and share about the filmmaking process, the future of anti-ableism in the arts, and more!
Thank you, Kevin, for linking to my essay.