6 Months of Crip News (v.27)
well, wow. it’s really been half of a whole damn year of the crip news weekly flow. if i have ever taken weeks to respond to an email you’ve sent me, you’ll know: i often ride a just-in-time temporality. but it is the way this space grounds me, teaches me, and connects me to you (all 890 readers, now!) that keeps it going and shockingly on time. thank you for being here.
tbh, it’s sometimes a bit of a lonely flow. i kinda knew but kinda didn’t know how much loss and mourning would be involved in these issues. and when i’m working on sunday night to find the best way to describe something for an issue, i sometimes look out the window next to my desk and get lost in contemplation.
i’m processing the heinous ableism of the world that these issues show us (and i’ve just reached to trauma stewardship by laura van dernoot lipsky with connie burk to find a good frame for this process). i’m processing what i know are incomplete and inadequate ways that my words are handling such profoundly violent issues. i’m thinking about you, but i can’t find you here, you know?
i think what we’re doing in the messiness of the remote space of this newsletter is tracing some of the traffic between politics and aesthetics. some things in the issues are pretty direct in their relationship to disability. other things kind of float just to the side of it and i try to let the imprecise organization be enchanting and curious. the deeper i’ve gone in finding a weekly practice for these issues, the less sure i feel about the title “crip news.” more on that when i’ve stared out the window a bit longer.
i guess i just want to tell you how grateful i am to have you all reading this. it’s really pretty miraculous to me. sometimes my spoons are low, but i take the space in your inbox seriously. i want to radicalize this practice, deepen it with care, and continue to find it a sustainable process.
thank you,
kevin ❤️🔥
NEWS
New Works
Carolyn Lazard talks with Edna Bonhomme about illness, intimacy, and access aesthetics in Frieze.
Robert Andy Coombs is profiled by the Miami New Times about his photographic work on disability, queerness, and sex.
Lorenza Böttner: Requiem for the Norm opens this week at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art in New York.
A photograph of Johanna Hedva in a red dress. They are lying on a white bed, but the image is upside down so it looks as though they are flying through the air, with the bed as sky above them. Their mouth is black.
Topical Cream has published Johanna Hedva’s “Why It’s Taking So Long” alongside a revision of “Sick Woman Theory.”
Megan Bent interviews Kevin Quiles Bonilla about photography and disability in Lens/cratch
Julian Gray’s comic art exhibition Stories For Us is open at the Lowry Gallery in Salford, U.K.
Disabled writers Chloé Cooper Jones and Greg Marshall discuss beauty, disability, and writing in Literary Hub.
Deaf DJs Troi Lee, KIKAZARU, and Robbie Wilde are profiled by Becky Buckle in Mix Mag.
Disabled Serbian artist Dalibor Šandor describes his journey to becoming a member of Per.Art, part of a series by Europe Beyond Access.
Disabled writer Meghan O’Rourke talks to CNN about long COVID, clinical care, and chronic illness.
The new Equality and Access Standards Initiative (EASI) aims to ensure equality and access to the arts for the d/Deaf, disabled and neurodiverse communities in Northern Ireland.
Disabled actor Jenna Bainbridge has originated the role of a wheelchair user in The Public Theatre’s debut of Suffs, which tells the history of the American women’s suffrage movement.
Sallie Culy is the first artist with an intellectual disability to exhibit in Wellington’s (New Zealand) public art Lightbox programme.
The seal of the Department of Health and Human Services flanks the top and bottom of white text on a blue background: “In a news story you probably missed, a team of epidemiologists, nurses, physicians, and biologists have come together to call for a “People’s CDC,” citing the official agency’s loyalty to corporate interests as a disastrous failure for public health.”
The group’s open letter was published in The Guardian.
On Screens
Disabled actor Liz Carr won the best supporting actress prize for her role in A Normal Heart at the 2022 Olivier Awards.
The BBC2 drama Then Barbara Met Alan tells the story of how Barbara Lisicki and Alan Holdsworth became the force behind the Direct Action Network (DAN) in the U.K.
Keely Cat-Wells interviews Lachi about the Grammy’s and access in Forbes.
Jared Leto performs disability on the set of the new Marvel move, Morbius, and calls it “method.”
Last night, The Simpsons featured Deaf voice actor John Autry II, ASL and a cochlear implant.
CALLS
The Disability Collective is seeking submissions from disabled artists of all art forms for No Body Left Behind, an online campaign centered around the disabled community’s concerns regarding the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, including mask and vaccine mandates. More here.
VocalEye's Crowd-Sourced Description Project aims to provide multiple descriptions of the same images of murals in Vancouver to members of the blind community. Submit here.
Dark Room Ballet has announced the launch of Dark Room Adorned, an online shop to benefit Telephone Dance and Audio Description Film project.
EVENTS
“Disability and the War in Ukraine: Organized Support,” featuring Stanislav Turina, Tanya Herasymova, and Raisa Kravchenko, organized by Svetlana Borodina of Columbia University’s Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, will take place on Friday, April 15th at 12pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
Purdue University presents “Future of Disability Justice” panel featuring Alice Wong, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, and Mia Mingus on Wednesday, April 13th at 7pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
The Whitney Museum presents “Ideology, Ableism, and Capitalism: A Talk by Emily Barker” on Wednesday, April 13th at 7pm ET in-person and online. Register here.
The Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network presents “Radically Revealing Truth: Accountable Disability Journalism” featuring Cara Reedy, Finn Gardiner, Alaina Leary, and s.e. smith, moderated by Lydia X.Z. Brown on Wednesday, April 13th from 7-8pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
The Disability Studies Program at CUNY presents “Systems Change Through Court-Ordered Reform, Willowbrook: A Retrospective on Systems Change,” by Clarence J. Sundram, JD on Tuesday, April 12th from 6-7pm ET on Zoom. Register here.
Today, April 11th, in person at The Strand in NYC, Mickey Rowe and Emily Ladau will be in conversation at 7pm ET. Tickets here. Also, later this week on Saturday, Mickey Rowe will be in conversation with Lincoln Center’s Miranda Hoffner at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Bruno Walter Auditorium. Tickets here.
“The Art of Madness: Catastrophe, Memory, Desire” featuring Mimi Khúc, Jess X. Snow, and Bazeed, moderated by Vani Natarajan will conclude the Barnard Center for Research on Women’s 47th annual Scholar and Feminist Conference, "Living in Madness: Decolonization, Creation, Healing" tomorrow, April 12th, from 6:30-8pm ET on Zoom. Tickets here.
Kinetic Light is hosting gatherings of disabled artists based in Chicago in advance of the company’s premiere of Wired at the Museum of Contemporary Art, May 5-8. Please reply here if you are interesting in learning more.
The Center for Plain Language presents “Strategies for Instituting a Culture of Plain Language” on Thursday, April 14th from 4-5:15pm ET on Zoom for public organizations and government agencies. $50/$75. Register here.