NEWS
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Some stuff happening in the worlds of funding:
The Canada Council for the Arts has published an “Environmental Scan of Access Practices in Arts Funding” by scholar Sabine Fernandes. The report offers a “a broad overview and analysis of access practices in granting processes in arts funding organizations in Canada,” especially application assistance and access supports for Deaf and disabled artists.
The Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council has launched the Disabled Artists Creative Cohort, “a pioneering initiative to promote equity and accessibility in the arts for disabled artists.”
Disability Rights U.K. recently published “Changing the Funding Landscape for Disability Justice: Disability Rights UK’s call to Funding Organisations.” “This is a passionate call to action for funding organisations,” the report says, “urging them to prioritise the support and funding of Disabled people-led work.”
In a new article in Global Mental Health, researcher Claudia Sartor calls for equal pay for equal work for those with lived experience who help influence policy and processes in global mental health care.
New Works
Jo Verrant, Director of the U.K.’s Unlimited, recently penned some advice for those who are disabled and just starting out in the worlds of disability arts.
Disabled painter Athena Cooper has won the the inaugural Won Lee Prize, awarded to a disabled Canadian artist.
Market Place London, a street food restaurant and bar brand has partnered with learning disability arts organization Bubble Club’s DJ Factory, to offer neurodivergent DJs the space to perform and hone their skills. Launched in 2005 in East London, Bubble Club’s DJ Factory provides accessible night club experiences and DJ training programmes for artists with learning disabilities or neurodivergent conditions.
Fire Through Dry Grass, made by the disabled artists known as Reality Poets document the devastation they experienced at Coler Specialty Hospital on NYC’s Roosevelt Island during the coronavirus pandemic, is now available to watch in the U.S. via POV on PBS.
Disabled artist Molly Joyce has released a new video work, created as part of an evening-length collaboration with dancer Jerron Herman from 2019.
The Cut recently profiled disabled entrepreneur and advocate Keely Cat-Wells.
AXIS Dance was recently featured in a segment on NBC’s California Live.
Disability Rights advocate and policy researcher Valerie Novack was recently featured on the Black Earth Podcast hosted by Marion Atieno Osieyo, discussing Disability Justice and Earth care.
Johanna Hedva’s If You’re Reading This, I’m Already Dead is on view at JOAN in Los Angeles through Feb. 3, 2024.
Disability Studies at U.C. Berkeley is celebrating 20 years this year. Alexander Rhony recaps the history.
In Other News…
New Disabled South has launched a Plain Language Policy Center, using AI to make legislation across 6 categories in 14 Southern states more accessible. The organization’s leadership recently spoke with Mother Jones about the project.
Kayleigh Williams is among the first women with Down Syndrome to complete a marathon, having finished the NYC Marathon last weekend.
Beginning in early 2024, United Airlines is introducing a new online filter for ticketing that will show which aircraft can accommodate different sizes of wheelchairs.
Claire Perlman, the disabled editor for accessibility and aging in place at Wirecutter, recently wrote about attempts by NYC landlords to make disabled people pay for access-related housing costs.
The U.S. Access Board has published its design recommendations for accessible electric vehicle charging stations.
CALLS
The Critical Design Lab at Vanderbilt University, directed by Dr. Aimi Hamraie, is seeking two Community Fellows to work on a collaborative project, Labs for Liberation. Compensation is $50,000 for a period between June 2024-August 2025. Apply by Dec. 1st. More here.
Dance/USA invites self-identifying early-career dance leaders to apply for the Dance/USA 2024 Institute for Leadership Training (DILT), a mentee-driven national dance mentorship and leadership development program. Apply by Dec. 1st. More here.
Getty Images, Verizon, and the National Disability Leadership Alliance seek applications for “Joyful Bodies: Celebrating Diversity and Resilience,” a program that will award a total of $20,000 to image-makers who are breaking out of the “entrenched societal norms and misconceptions surrounding disability.” Applications due Nov. 20th. More here.
EVENTS
Touch in the Time of Corona: Reflections on Love, Care, and Vulnerability
Monday, Nov. 20, 5 - 7pm ET, in-person at The New School (Manhattan)
Join us for a discussion and moment of reflection with Henriette Steiner, co-author of Time of Corona - Reflections on Love, Care, and Vulnerability in the Pandemic. In this event, Henriette Steiner takes as a starting point Touch in the Time of Corona - Reflections on Love, Care, and Vulnerability in the Pandemic, a book “co-written apart” with Kristin Veel in the months following the first hard lock-down and published in 2021. The book looks at the particular ways in which the possibilities for touch, touching and being touched, both physically and affectively, were reconfigured by the pandemic: How did love, care, and humanity’s complex relationships with technology and nature play out in the interval between abandoned city centers and digitally mediated gatherings? And how did this allow us to imagine the world beyond the pandemic—both utopian and dystopian?
No Diagram Anatomy with Dark Room Ballet
Saturdays, Nov. 18, Dec. 9, Dec. 16, 4 - 6pm ET, on Zoom
Announcing a new series of three no-diagram anatomy workshops open to all (with priority given to blind and visually impaired students), no prior experience required.
Speculative Crip Ecologies + Rituals in the Age of Multispecies Disability
Starting Sunday, Nov. 19, 4:30 - 6pm PT, on Zoom
Speculative Crip Ecologies + Rituals in the Age of Multispecies Disability is a disability centered reading and discussion series organized by disabled Indigenous artist moira williams. This series is for disabled communities across race, gender and class as it addresses Disability Justice and Eco Justice, words that are rarely paired together, yet are in constant conversation and closely woven together in our world. We will be reading and discussing a collection of poems, essays, performances and chapters as a group. With Naomi Ortiz at the first gathering, we will discuss selected readings from their Rituals for Climate Change: A Crip Struggle for Ecojustice.
Open Circle Hive with the NEA’s Beth Bienvenu
Wednesday, Nov. 15, 7pm ET, online
Artists and aspiring artists with disabilities are invited to a discussion with Beth Bienvenu, Director of Accessibility at the NEA, about the new version of the Careers in the Arts Toolkit.
I thank you for this excellent newsletter and would like to connect you with informed sources if you are interested regarding the shortages of medications, including controlled medications that are being unnecessarily imposed in a misguided attempt to reduce addiction and overdose, two severe problems that are also not receiving adequate attention and care, as overdoses skyrocket. The contribution of prescription medication to patients for whom it was prescribed has always been low. The news talks about fentanyl without mentioning the fentanyl that kills is 100s to 1000s of times stronger than the prescription variety-it is animal tranquilizer. We have a growing number of severely injured and aging, progressive, autoimmune and/or genetic disease patients who rely on these medications to be able to have any life or activities yet prescribing has fallen 60%, disproportionately among the patients needing long term care, and their physicians are also being targeted. The disabled community is being targeted by non-FDA approved AI programs that prevent their care.
There is zero publicity. Many suicides have occurred. Every year despite shortages the DEA announces more cutbacks, and patients can’t find a physician even to care for non-pain related issues because they are seen as a liability. Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Hey, thanks so much for the shoutout! I learned that you featured the video I did from someone who told me about Crip News on my Instagram account, so I sought you out and subscribed just now. 😊
If you're interested, I also have a Substack where I've been writing about my journey as a disabled artist and the work that I'm doing for my 2024 exhibit. https://athenacreative.substack.com/