Crip News v.156

Election reflection, new works, calls, and events.

Nov 11, 2024

U.S. ELECTION REFLECTION

The people in this world
Are getting organized
You’re bound to lose
You fascists bound to lose
— Woody Guthrie (1944)

“What time is it on the clock of world?” This question is among the beautiful things left to us by movement ancestors James and Grace Lee Boggs. And I’ve been wondering: What time is it on my clock, a crip clock, the clock of this newsletter?

It’s time for plain language in organizing spaces (more on that soon). It’s time to put down some things we want to keep carrying, like the thrill of punishing the people you know will feel it. It’s time to share stories of energizing hope.

Near my polling site last Tuesday, I met organizers with signs that said “CARE CAN’T WAIT,” a campaign I’ve covered since the very first issue of this newsletter. They called me into a debrief call with Care Majority Rising the next evening.

There, I was reminded that in emergencies, we take a deep breath and count to ten.

I met disabled writer Larissa Martin, who had just published an article on the important of aide care organizing. I got the download on the fight for New York’s Consumer Directed Personal Assistance Program. We celebrated care advocate John Mannion’s red to blue House election win. We listened to Woody Guthrie on the way out.

It reminded me that when I look at the clock, it’s always time for brilliantly-facilitated direct action organizing.

NEWS

New Works

image of Stacey Park Milbern, mixed Korean/ white short haired femme with glasses, surrounded by pink and white flowers — Illustration by **Jen White-Johnson**.

Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha recently announced that the pilot of the Stacey Park Milbern Liberation Residency will launch in May 2025 at Tidal River Residency in Mik’maki.
The U.S. National Endowment for the Arts’ Beth Bienvenu and Katharine Hayward published “Voices from the Field: What We Learned from a Disability Arts Listening Session.”

A white man on stage is presenting a big reveal on an easel. The canvas has a line drawing of a person and on top, it says DEAF NOT STUPID! — Photo by **Jorge Lizade**.

The week, Deaf artist Jonny Cotsen’s touring one-man show Louder Is Not Always Clearer will come to the Théâtre National de Bretagne in France.

The two advocates smile at the camera, wearing blue and white T-shirts reading "SICK: Society for the Inclusion of Chronic Knowledge" — Photo by **Sam Pearce**.

For The Sick Times, Sam Pearce writes about her work with Mlindeni Gabela to launch a new kind of protest in South Africa: Society for the Inclusion of Chronic Knowledge (SICK) Pride.

A room with a cozy setup including two orange couches and a table covered in a blue cyanotype cloth and heating pads on top. In the background, colorful prints and textiles hang on the wall, while visitors sit on the couches. — Photo by **Argenis Apolinario**.

Towards a Warm Embrace at Print Center New York is a collaborative installation by New York-based artists Ezra Benus and Finnegan Shannon presented to celebrate their new benefit edition heating pad made in collaboration with Du-Good Press and Emily T Berthollet.

A rich illustration, like a storybook, shows two white disabled artists in a calm woods. A femme is holding a violin with a small winged creature sitting on it. A masculine person is smiling widely with an cricket that looks like a leprechaun. Text above them says INVISIBLE FENCES. A MUSICAL FABLE IN TWO ACTS. — Artwork by **Open Eye Theater**.

Invisible Fences, a “musical fable” by singer-songwriter Gaelynn Lea and storyteller-playwright Kevin Kling, is running at Zeitgeist Theater in Duluth, MN through Nov. 23.

A cover of a book. There is a set of shapes that look like a house with a red roof at first. But then they also look like the inside of a house with no roof, an optical illusion about structure.

Living Disability: Building Accessible Futures for Everybody, edited by Emily Macrae, is out now from AK Press.
The November 2024 issue of the Viscardi Center’s Able News, edited by Emily Ladau, is out.

CALLS

Black and white graphic with intervowen strands, reads: Shared Open Call for Art, A group exhibition by Massachusetts disabled artists, Open Door Gallery at Worcester Art Museum, Deadline to apply November 26

Disabled artists who are based in or from Massachusetts are invited to submit work to an open call for an exhibition called SAHRED that will take place at the Open Door Gallery at the Worcester Art Museum curated by Samantha Cataldo, Jeff Kasper, Dominic Quagliozzi, and Gordon Sasaki. Submit by Nov. 26. More here.

Clothes are hanging to dry outside. There is a person wearing a shirt with a photo of more clothes drying.

Artist Mahlia Amatina is seeking submissions for their access-oriented project Around the World in 80 Washing Lines. More here.
The Sick Times is raising funds to sustain Long Covid journalism, with matching donations up to $1000 through the NewsMatch program. Donate here.
A researcher in the U.K. is seeking disabled musicians for paid interviews. More here.
JRG Society For the Arts is seeking a Producer for its fourth annual Disability Arts Atlantic Symposium (March 21 - 23, 2025, in Halifax, NS and online). Apply by Nov. 27. More here.
Open Style Lab is hiring a part-time Social Media Manager. Apply ASAP. More here.

EVENTS

Disability in Indigenous Communities

Thursday, Nov. 14, 1 - 2pm ET, on Zoom

Three in ten Indigenous people are living with a disability in the United States. However, funding for disability rights and justice represented only one cent of every $10 in foundation grants awarded in 2019, and only 0.46% of grant dollars awarded by U.S. foundations in 2016 explicitly benefited Native Americans. Philanthropy must take action to consistently and significantly fund inclusion, rights, and justice led by disabled Indigenous communities. In this webinar, disabled Indigenous leaders will share their knowledge and lived experiences at the intersection of disability justice and Indigenous self-determination. Learn how philanthropy can follow the leadership of disabled Indigenous people in order to support justice for Indigenous communities, people with disabilities, and everyone who exists at the intersection.

Anti-Exploitation Academy

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2 - 4pm GMT & Thursday Nov. 21, 11am - 1pm GMT, online

A two-hour online session looking at practical ways you can spot exploitation within your organisation and change what you do. Led by Unlimited’s Director Jo Verrent. 

Activists with Speech Disabilities Speak Out

Thursday, Nov. 15, 1 - 2pm PT, to register and request accommodations
email: jlesner@ilrc-trico.org

Join Independent Living Resource Center (Santa Barbara, CA) to hear from a panel of people with speech disabilities talk about how it feels to live with their impairments in a society that often overlooks their contributions!

Saving up tiny joys: Finding openings for joy in a chronic creative life

Friday, Nov. 15, 11am - 1pm GMT

This informal discussion based event will be an opportunity for us all to reunite again in one safe space, specific to those of us working (or not) in the arts with a chronic illness. The event will include a creative session led by a chronically ill artist, Polly Atkin, exploring how we can all stay connected to our creativity when chronically ill. This will be followed up by time for networking with each other and a space to share what feels important right now for chronically ill artists, producers and arts professionals.

The Ride Ahead (NYC Premiere)

Friday, Nov. 14, 6pm ET in-person at Marlene Meyerson JCC (NYC) & Sat. Nov. 16, online

Film screening presented in collaboration with ReelAbilities at the Marlene Meyerson JCC. A heartwarming, enlightening journey about Gen Z life with a disability. Samuel Habib, whom we first met in the 2022 Emmy-winning New York Times Op-Doc short My Disability Roadmap, is now ready for life as a twentysomething and the typical milestones of those years. With a rare neurodevelopmental disorder challenging his speech and movement, Samuel seeks out mentors in the disability community for advice, asking profound questions about how they’ve navigated their adult lives . Samuel’s joyous thirst for knowledge and fearlessness in facing challenges – both in life and in making this film – are authentically galvanizing. – Jaie Laplante

Martin O'Brien Lecture

TODAY: Monday, Nov. 11, 6 - 7:30pm CT, in-person at SAIC (Chicago)

Martin O’Brien is an artist and zombie. He works across performance, writing, and video art. O’Brien has cystic fibrosis and all of his work and writing draws upon this experience. His work uses long durational actions, short speculative texts, critical rants, and performance processes in order to explore death and dying, what it means to be born with a life-shortening disease, and the philosophical implications of living longer than expected.

Disability Justice for Artists

TODAY: Monday, Nov. 11, 7 - 9pm ET, on Zoom

This workshop is a unique opportunity for artists with disabilities to come together, share experiences, and explore the intersection of art and disability. All types of artists are welcome! Our facilitator Wendy Elliott-Vandivier is a graduate of Tyler School of Art, Temple University. She creates art that explores issues of family, memory, and her experiences as a disabled woman. Her work includes autobiographical cartoons that focus on attitudinal barriers and stereotypes regarding disabilities, as well as photography of micro-scale monuments in nature.

Constance Van Rolleghem Open Studio

Sunday, Nov. 17, 12pm ET with a Q&A at 2pm ET, in-person in Fort Greene, Brooklyn (NYC) - DM for location

Constance Van Rolleghem is a Belgian-American artist living in Brooklyn. She created 'Scriptograms', a poetic choreography of gestural writings, to liberate herself from her writing struggle and allow her neurodiversity to use uncontrolled cacography and ambidextrous gestures to create an entirely new writing experience. This poetic artistry aims to liberate us from our automatic recognition of language, to question the word's meaning and the impact they have on us and in society. In the last few years, Constance's work has been strengthened by merging her disability advocacy work and her artistry.

How Will the Election Impact Americans’ Health Care?

Tuesday, Nov. 12, 2 - 3pm ET, online

The outcome of the 2024 presidential election will present both opportunities and challenges for health care policy in America. What is the future of the Affordable Care Act, women’s health, and prescription drug pricing? Which health care concerns should—or must—the new administration prioritize? What are the policy actions that the new president could take to improve health care for all Americans? Join The Century Foundation and NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service for a conversation focused on these questions along with findings from our brand new poll on the health care concerns of Americans. Featuring: Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO, National Women’s Law Center; Jeanne Lambrew, director of health care reform and senior fellow, The Century Foundation; Dr. Mark McClellan, director and Robert J. Margolis, M.D., Professor of Business, Medicine and Policy at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, Duke University. Moderator: Jonathan Cohn, senior national correspondent, HuffPost. Remarks: Sherry Glied, dean, NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Mark Zuckerman, president, The Century Foundation.