Crip News v.147

New works, a book giveaway, calls, and events.

Sep 16, 2024

New Works

Alice Wong in her wheelchair wearing cow print pants. — Photo by **María del Río**.

Author and organizer Alice Wong has published “Disability, pleasure and ageing: The pleasure principle,” in Archer Magazine, what she says is “most revealing, personal & vulnerable essays I have ever written about my body, desire & pain.”

Collage showing a crate of rapid at-home COVID-19 tests, a map of mask bloc locations, a box of 3M N95 respirators, and a flyer from a mask bloc in Nassau County and Queens, New York introducing how mask blocs distribute free high-quality masks in their communities — Image by **Miles Griffis** / *The Sick Times*.

Journalist and editor Britta Shoot has published the first of a 3-part oral history of U.S. mask blocs in The Sick Times. Full interview transcripts and audio will be posted at MaskBlocHistory.org.

Pie chart titled "Speaking fees". 18.8% of respondents reported charging between $0 and $99 per gig. 12.5% of respondents reported charging between $100 and $149 per gig, 20.8% of respondents reported charging between $150 and $249 per gig, 27.1% of respondents reported charging between $250 and $500 per gig, 12.5% of respondents reported charging between $500 and $999 per gig, 4.2% of respondents reported charging $1000 and $2000 per gig. And 4.2% of respondents reported charging between $2500 and $7500 per gig.

The Pay Rate for Access Workers Now (PRAWN) project, organized by Alison Kopit & Madison Zalopany, has released a report on pay transparency with survey data from a mostly disabled cohort of 59 access workers. The report offers some overall findings about the nature of access work (such as institutional threats to solidarity and sustainability) and pay data from specific kinds of work (with speaking engagements as the highest-paid type).

A digital drawing with a green background and text that reads “did you make it to the studio today?” Smaller text snakes in a squiggly line across the entire image, containing words and phrases like “no, yes, leai (no in Samoan), kao (no in Maori), I tried, I really did, tired, tomorrow, maybe, are you going.” Tiny colorful shapes overlap the text, including dots, rectangles, v shapes, and semi circles. — **Pelenakeke Brown**, *did you make it to the studio today?* (2024)

to hold a we, curated by Maria McCarthy and danilo machado, opens this week at BRIC (NYC) with an opening reception on Wednesday, Sept. 18 from 7 - 9pm ET (in-person). The exhibition features “newly commissioned and recent work by fourteen emerging and early-career disabled artists and collectives from the BRIClab residency program”: A. Sef, Alex Dolores Salerno, Brothers Sick (Ezra and Noah Benus), Chinese Artists and Organizers (CAO) Collective 离离草, Cinthya Santos Briones, Dominic Bradley, Finnegan Shannon, Isabella Vargas, Linda Ryan, OlaRonke Akinmowo, Pelenakeke Brown, Steven Anthony Johnson II, and Yasi Ghanbari. Up through Dec. 22.

Image 1 of The Relativity of Living Well by Ashna Ali — Cover art & design by **Katia Engell**.

Ashna Ali’s debut book of poems, The Relativity of Living Well, is out now from Bone Bouquet.

A spacious and tall gallery space has a lot going on. A huge banner with the title of the exhibition in yellow and red and blue. A squiggly Christian cross in glowing neon purple. Portraits on a wall, images on the floor. — Photo by **Andy Barker**.

For e-flux, artist Kenny Fries reviews Crip Arte Spazio: The Disability Arts Movement in Venice, on view at CREA Cantieri del Contemporaneo in Venice through Nov. 24.

Two rooms of a white walled gallery with bright overhead track lighting and a grey concrete floor have artworks painted on found Art History reproductions and colonial-era classroom maps.

Artist and educator Katherine Sherwood’s exhibition Hortus Conclusus, on view at the Walter Maciel Gallery (LA) through Oct. 26, features work from her Pandemic Madonnas and ongoing Brain Flowers series.

Behind the DJ booth at a large party, a white wheelchair-using man is momentarily turning away from the DJ equipment. He’s in between two walls of big speakers and subwoofers. Beyond him, there is a dark dance floor with lighted signs throughout.

Mixmag ANZ recently profiled disabled DJ & producer Mike Bkyth, aka Hasvat Informant about nightlife and dance music access.

Organizer Lawrence Carter-Long discusses “inspiration porn” on a recent episode of the Secret Lives of the Disabled podcast, hosted by artist Sally Greenhouse.

Book Giveaway: Disability Works

NOTE: Responses came in super fast, so the copies are now gone.

NYU Press is giving away 5 copies of Patrick McKelvey’s Disability Works: Performance After Rehabilitation to readers of Crip News. Reply directly to this email (to cripnews@substack.com) with your mailing address.

The cover of an academic book has an image of Park McArthur’s exhibition at Essex Street with a floor full of borrowed ramps. Many are makeshift, looking pretty rough. A few are sleek metal stopgap fold-out ones. On the white wall of the gallery is the title and author of the book.

Disability Works offers an original cultural history of disability and performance in modern America, exploring rehabilitation’s competing legacies. The book highlights an unexpected alliance of rehabilitation professionals, deaf teachers, policy makers, disability activists, queer artists, and religious leaders who championed performance’s rehabilitative potential. At the same time, some disabled artists imagined a different political itinerary for theatrical practice. Rather than acquiescing to the terms of productive citizenship, these artists recuperated rehabilitation as a creative resource for imagining and building a world beyond work. Using previously unexplored archives, Disability Works portrays the history of disabled Americans’ performance labor as both a national aspiration and a national problem. The book reveals how disabled artists and activists ingeniously used rehabilitative resources to fuel their performance practices, breaking free from the grasp of rehabilitation and fostering more just institutions.

CALLS

The London-based “radical mental health hub, sober rave, grief healing space and outdoor education programme” misery is hiring for several positions: operations, finance & fundraising, and access support worker. Apply by Sept. 23. More here.
Disability Arts Online, in partnership with Creative Scotland and The Skinny, is seeking applications for its 2024 Diverse Critics bursary for aspiring or early-career arts writer/journalists based in Scotland who are disabled and/or Black people/People of Colour. Apply by Oct. 7. More here.
The Borchard Foundation Center on Law & Aging is seeking applications for its $20,000 Academic Research Grant Program. Apply by Oct. 15. More here.

EVENTS

Natures of Illness with SICK Magazine

Saturday, Sept. 21, 1pm ET, in-person at the Brooklyn Art Book Fair

A reading of poetry and prose from SICK contributors Ashna Ali, Leora Fridman, Maria Gray, & Theo LeGro.

Disability Activist Panel Discussion

Saturday, Sept. 21, 1 - 4pm ET, Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library (NYC)

The Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library invites you to a panel discussion with disability advocates in the community. Disability rights are civil and human rights, yet people with disabilities continue to encounter systemic barriers that hinder their economic prospects, well-being, and right to fair civic engagement. Winning these rights is more than just working within the scope of ADA or other disability rights laws, it also requires the advocacy and organizing of disability rights activists, whose influence, action, and organization is crucial to expanding disability awareness, rights, and justice. Join Kathleen Collins, Rebecca Williford, Mbacke Thiam, Robert White, and Kevin Beauchamp for a discussion on community activism, the work involved, how to effectively engage with your representatives, and how the work gets done with everyone on board.

Kinetic Light’s LAB Hangout

Friday, Sept. 20, 2 - 3:30pm ET on Zoom

Hangouts are hosted as an open-structured virtual social space for disabled artists to connect and get to know one another. Hangouts offer space to talk about disability, art making, creative practices, life hacks and tips, dreams, desires, disability wisdom, and more. You’re welcome to bring ideas for conversation or a bit of art that inspires you. LAB Producers, morgaine and Camisha, will loosely guide the gathering, offering topics and questions as needed. Come meet and be with us!

dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams: a crip ritual dream workbook launch with alexa dexa

Sunday, Sept. 22, 12 - 1pm ET online or in person at the Brooklyn Art Book Fair

come celebrate the launch of dreaming our futures + embodying our dreams: a crip ritual dream workbook, created by crip xXgrandmacoreXx sound witch alexa dexa and risograph-printed by the endlessly lovely folks at Endless Editions, with a hybrid online and in-person dream ritual at the Brooklyn Art Book Fair (BKABF).