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Rest in Power
Writer, producer, vocal arranger, and wheelchair philosopher Simon Illa was beloved by many collaborators in the worlds of music and audio. Two years ago, he reflected on New Years resolutions and turned “inspiration porn” into “aspiration porn.”
News
COVID-19
Rochelle Walensky’s comments on Good Morning America reveal that her agency’s problems go far beyond poor collaborations in messaging. The CDC’s cavalier attitude toward the reality of eugenics in the U.S. hastens the deaths of disabled people. And still, immunocompromised people are fighting back with quiet and virtuous civil disobedience.
The Care Crisis
In New York state alone, at least 57 group homes have been closed due to workforce shortages. News cycles have dropped already-underreported coverage of funding for home and community-based services in the Build Back Better Bill. And we are sorely lacking an anti-ableist analysis of the care crisis.
Pharma Ethics
CVS’s “investment” of $11.6 million in a new group home in Austin, TX is a good example of how the industry atomizes the care crisis and obscures its true breadth. Meanwhile, Pfizer, Roche, AstraZeneca,and J&J are being sued for using local agents to deliver cash bribes to the Jaysh al-Mahdi militia in Iraq between 2005 and 2011.
Incremental Victories
California’s Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, has significantly increased the value of property you can own and still be eligible for support, from $2,000 to $130,000. The asset test will be gone entirely by 2024. And there is marginal movement on the federal level, too: the IRS has increased the annual contribution to ABLE accounts, a disability-specific savings program, from $15,000 to $16,000. Still no movement on the SSI Restoration Act.
Archive Fever
The new NYC Trans Oral History Archive site allows us to explore access in form and content.
Art!
Crip*, a group show curated by Liza Sylvestre, opens at Gallery 400 in Chicago on January 14th. It features work by Liz Barr, Shannon Finnegan, Emilie Gossiaux, Max Guy, Christopher Robert Jones, Carly Mandel, Darrin Martin, Alison O’Daniel, Berenice Olmedo, Carmen Papalia and Heather Kai Smith, and Brontez Purnell. The show was previously up at the Krannert Art Museum from September to December 2021.
“Berenice Olmedo—Radical Alterity and the Crip/Disabled Subject” by Christopher Robert Jones is now up on Artpapers.org.
Amie M. Marie’s play Scrounge is a realist study of the failures of the U.K.’s Department of Work and Pensions.
Kay Ulanday Barrett’s essay “To Hold the Grief & the Growth: On Crip Ecologies” is in the January 2022 issue of Poetry Magazine.
Luke Williams explores “The Necessary Art of Leisure” on the occasion of Sadie Barnette’s exhibition Inheritance (just closed at Jessica Silverman).
€80,000 in funding will go towards the establishment of a permanent Creative Ability Training Academy at the Blanchardstown Library in Dublin.
See For Me from IFC Midnight flips some elements of the generally upsetting genre of blindness thrillers. In select theaters and VOD now.
And honestly? It’s embarrassing the way nondisabled artists continue to have no shame about trying to make stairs cool.
Super Hot Sex
A. Andrews offers a detailed guide to sex and accessibility.
A photo at an in-person IDHA class with three faculty members with the overlaid text: Re-Thinking mental Health: History of the Mad Movement & Alternatives to Biomedical Approaches. The IDHA logo is at the top, and at the bottom small text reads: “IDHA Online Course Series.”
CALLS
There is a blue background on the top right “Revival Disability Project” is written on a yellow background. Below “Disabled Ways of Coping” is written and below that swipe is written and there is a pair of socks and shoes in yellow and orange. On the left there is a jar pink and purple that says anti depressants. Below theme for January ‘22 open call is written in a box. Below that there is a text bubble saying where the fuck are our coping mechanisms, Freud.
Last call for the Anderson Center’s Deaf Artists Residency. Applications are due Jan. 15th at 11:59pm CT.
Care In Action is hiring an Executive Director.
EVENTS
Kinetic Light’s Artist Support Programs
I am hosting some pilot programming to support and connect artists in the field of disability arts as part of my work as Organizer with Kinetic Light. Follow the registration links below for more information. ASL, CART, access doula-ing, and other forms of care through collaborative strategy. No cost.
Grant Writing for Disability Artistry
Wednesday, Jan. 12th
Settling in 3:30-4pm ET
Program 4-5pm ET
DETAILS & REGISTRATIONGrant Management for Disability Artistry
Wednesday, Jan. 19th
Settling in 4:30-5pm ET
Program 5-6pm ET
DETAILS & REGISTRATION
Sneak Peek: Jerron Herman’s Vitruvian
A Vitruvian Kickback
Hosted by Candace l Feldman and Jerron Herman
Saturday, Jan. 15th, 7-8:30pm ET
At Gibney Dance (NYC) + Online
Healing/Arts Workshop: Darian Goldin Stahl
A session on the expressive power of handmade books to illuminate lived experiences of illness.
Thursday, Jan. 13 at 4pm ET via Zoom
Access features by request
