Crip News v.157

New works, other news, some recommendations by Larissa Martin, calls, and events.

Nov 18, 2024

New Works

A still from a television news report with text. People with disabilities represent a small fraction of people employed in the arts, including 4 percent of actors, 5 percent of writers and 6 percent of dancers and choreographers.

PBS News recently profiled Vinfen's Gateway Arts in Brookline, MA on the occasion of its 50th anniversary of employing disabled artist-workers.
In the latest issue of Reframing Disability, Priti Salian interviews Áine Kelly-Costello about how journalists should cover the intersection of climate crisis and disability justice.
H. Cruzado, “Seize the Hospitals!” Palante, December 11, 1970. Available from the Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives in the NYU Special Collections.
Last week, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College highlighted the 54th anniversary of the takeover of the Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx (NYC). In 1970, The Health Revolutionary Movement and the South Bronx Drug Coalition of the Young Lord Party sealed off an unused room the 6th floor of the hospital to implement a community-run drug program to to serve and educate over 40,000 community members struggling with addiction who were being failed by the institution.

A photo showing a close, bird’s eye view of Sarah’s hands wearing blue medical gloves, resting on a clean white tabletop holding an IV infusion tube needle. The infusion tube is filled with black sumi ink, and Sarah is drawing with the IV needle and the ink on a sheet of paper. Sitting beside the drawing is a stainless-steel kidney shaped surgical dish, splattered with black ink.

Sarah Mihara Creagen’s exhibition Toxic Bodies, an ongoing project of thinking through bioremediation and experiences of chronic illness and the artist’s interactive public performance The Drawing Clinic close this week at Neutral Ground in Regina, Saskatchewan (Canada).
In the latest issue of The Accessibility Apprentice, Kristian Mikhel surveys the access possibilities for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies.
In On Common Ground, a publication of the National Association of Realtors, Steve Wright writes about Universal Design as an “essential tool for intergenerational communities” and offers a portrait of how the real estate industry is co-opting access.
For AAMCNews, a publication of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Bridget Balch reports on a recent conference panel about the barriers to accessible medical education.

In Other News…

The U.S. Census Bureau will not change how it counts people with disabilities in the American Community Survey through 2026. Hundreds of advocates have been working to reverse the Bureau’s plans for major changes that would reduce the number of disabled people in the U.S. by an estimated 40%.
In Australia, a property firm announced $100 million in funding for accessible housing for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants.
Researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health, the University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are leading a $2.9 million study “to help the nation discuss, and better address, the concept of structural ableism and where it may result in healthcare disparities” with historical research, policy analysis, and interviews to develop individual and community-level “measures of structural ableism.”

WHAT’S GOOD from LARISSA MARTIN

We’re trying a new thing today: some recommendations on good stuff from disabled organizers and artists. Beyond the newsy items in this newsletter, what are people plugging into?

A light-skinned black disabled woman with short hair is wearing black glasses and smiling at the camera from inside a car. It is a sunny day through a window with the green leaves on trees whizzing by.

The first list comes from Larissa Martin, a New York-based nonfiction writer. Larissa published her first book Dear Anxiety: Letters from a Girl Who Cares in 2016 and her short-form writing has appeared in The Mighty, Unwritten Magazine, Thought Catalog, and more.

As a person with multiple disabilities, I love movies and TV shows that portray disability accurately, honestly, and authentically. We deserve to be represented on the big and small screen. I am excited to share just a few of my favorite shows and moves that portray disability the right way.

First up: Crip Camp from 2020, streaming on Netflix. This is a must-watch if you want a history lesson about our disability rights movement.
Patrice: The Movie from 2024, streaming on Hulu. If you want to see what disability is like in 2024 and today’s fight for marriage equity, I can't recommend this enough.
Fire through Dry Grass from 2023, streaming on PBS. This documentary is an authentic, raw, and honest look at what brown and black people with disabilities had to go through during COVID-19 in a nursing home. Grab your tissues. This one is a tearjerker but also empowering.
Born This Way from 2015, streaming on A&E or Amazon Prime Video. This reality show from follows friends navigating life and its challenges as people with Down Syndrome.
“Disabled But Not Really” from 2018, streaming on Netflix. This is the second episode from the from Season 4 reboot of of Queer Eye. The episode sees the Fab Five help Wesly, who acquired his disability later in life, unpack the trauma from the incident that left him disabled.
Special from 2019, streaming on Netflix. This TV series tells the story of Ryan, who has CP and who is also gay. We watch him deal with accepting his disability while also navigating the world around him.

I craved disability representation growing up but never saw it. I love that I am seeing it now, especially when I think of the impact such representation will have on future generations of kids and people with disabilities. They will know no limits to what is possible. These shows and movies open the door to starting conversations in regards to disability.

CALLS

Text says Healing Histories Project. Remembering histories, transforming futures. The background is blue and yellow-ish brown and looks like a root system or a map of waterways.

The Healing Histories Project, whose projects include Stories of Care and Control: A Timeline of the Medical Industrial Complex, is raising funds “to support more relationship building between abolitionist healers & health practitioners to seed, dream and imagine new opportunities to take care of each other as a liberatory practice.” Donate here.
A low-income, queer, disabled first-gen mestize grad student graduate student needs support to pay for medical care, pay off debt, and pay for groceries this Fall. Donate here.
Interstellar Flight Press is seeking poets who are both queer/trans and disabled for a special collaborative series in 2025, to be edited by Toby MacNutt. Submit by Dec. 1. More here.
The Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University is seeking applications from disabled activists, artists, cultural producers, filmmakers, and academics for its 5-week Summer 2025 Emerge program. More here.
The Kennedy Center's Office of Accessibility is seeking proposals for the 2025 Leadership Exchange in Art and Disability Conference to be held in Cleveland, OH from August 18 - 22, 2025. More here.

EVENTS

mad studies symposium

Sunday, December 8, 12 - 6pm ET, online and recorded

Join the Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA) as they celebrate the launch of the Mad Studies Reader and the increasing solidarity and excitement around mad studies and allied fields. This celebration is organized to bring artists, scholars, clinicians, and activists together. We will start with an opening discussion of the term “mad studies” followed by panel presentations from each of these areas. Before each panel we will have presentations from the artists in the book. After each section we will have discussions in large and small group settings. We look forward to having you learn and journey with us as we come together to explore mad studies as a field of inquiry, a framework for transformation, and a movement for social change!

Ignite: Artist Development Workshops

Monday, Nov. 25, 2 - 3:30pm GMT, online

DaDa welcomes Chronically ill Artist Network to share their expertise on using creative access within artistic practice.

Disability Culture & Technology

Thursday, November 21, 6 - 8pm ET, on Zoom

As contemporary technology's intersection with disability is reshaping the landscape of accessibility, empowerment, and inclusion, advances in these fields are revolutionizing the way disabled people interact with the world, promoting a more inclusive future where barriers are minimized and potential is maximized. Please join the City University of New York School of Professional Studies’ inaugural Disability Culture Summit, which will feature individuals specializing in the arts, athletics, and technology to discuss these innovations and challenges: Performer/Director Jerron Herman, CUNY’s Director of Inclusive and Adaptive Sports Ryan Martin, Founder of Krip-Hop Nation Leroy F. Moore, Jr., and Professor Ashley Shew. The Summit poses the broad question: How do intersections in technology across disability culture successfully address ableism and increase diversity and inclusion?