NYC: Kinetic Light’s Wired at The Shed
Tickets are now available for the NYC premiere of Kinetic Light’s newest work, Wired, at The Shed in Manhattan August 25-27. The piece is a meditation in sound, light, and movement on the gendered, racial, and disability stories of barbed wire in the United States, showing how this material shapes common understandings of who belongs. The show is an astounding model of disability aesthetics, interdisciplinary collaborations, and access artistry. You can learn more about the work on The Shed’s website.
If you are in NYC, please join us! All tickets for the show are free and they will go very quickly when they are released on July 21st. But you can reserve your spot early with the link and code below.
If tickets sell out, a day-of line will be available at The Shed 15 minutes before the show starts. If you are experiencing access issues or would like direct support for any reason, email accessibility@theshed.org or call 646-455-3494 (phones are staffed Wed- Sun, 11am - 6pm ET).
NEWS
Deep Space Access
…The bright central star has eight diffraction spikes. Behind the gaseous teal layers are deeper orange layers that are arranged like threads in a complex weaving. The red layers, which are wavy overall, look like they have very thin straight lines A piercing through them, which are holes where light from a central star is traveling…
That’s an excerpt from the alt-text of one of the images in the first images from the Webb Space Telescope. The whole site uses access as a framework for explaining the complexity of these images to the world, a fitting but rare approach to releasing scientific knowledge generated by public funding. And as we discovered on Twitter last week, the descriptions were a collaborative project among many different teams the the Space Telescope Science Institute.
More Pride Content
It’s still Disability Pride Month in the U.S.! If you’re looking for some video content for the occasion, Yahoo’s The Truth Is: In the Know series with Aaron Rose Philip and Chella Man features a lineup of guests talking about the relationships between disability, queerness, and trans experience. The Queens Theatre launched its Theatre For All acting program. And #DisabilityPrideMonth is a great trove for whenever you have some quiet moments with your screens.
And a special thank you to everyone who participated in An Evening of Access Magic at Lincoln Center last weekend. It was a special night and I’m looking forward to a period of study and debrief so I can generate documentation about what we learned and how we can conjure more access next time.
Other News
A symposium organized by Margaret Fink & Javin D'Souza at the University of Illinois Chicago gathered experts to discuss the growth of university-based disability cultural centers.
In her new role as Creative Director of Guide Beauty, disabled artist Selma Blair will work on expanding access in makeup artistry.
The “Middle Class Tax Refund” that will offer 23 million Californians between $200 and $1050 will leave out low-income adults, seniors, and disabled people because the program is based on tax returns.
New York Times disability reporting fellow Amanda Morris reports on the confluence of legal pressure for web access and A.I.-powered access tools, resulting in a stark divergence between compliance-minded corporate practices and meaningful access for blind users.
Disability at Home, a new project led by Dr. Laura Mauldin, “documents the ingenuity and creativity that caregivers and disabled people, including those with chronic illnesses, use every day to make home accessible.”
In a tweet meant to encourage mask-wearing, medical pundit Ebony Jade Hilton referred to AIDS as “long HIV,” prompting experts and activists to point out that this is not a thing and the comparison unnecessarily stigmatizes HIV+ people while undercutting the work that stopped an HIV diagnosis from becoming a uniformly lethal.
CALLS
MAC, the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium, is conducting a survey to highlight the experiences and preferences of the disability community surrounding virtual access. They will use this information to promote best practices to cultural spaces and deepen inclusion in the arts. If you are a disabled user of any virtual programming, they'd love to hear from you by July 29. You may access the survey here.
University of Atypical for Arts and Disability is recruiting inspiring artists and innovators to lead ‘Digital Horizon’ – a 3 year professional development programme that aims to support the disability arts sector to pursue new ambitions with the use of digital technology. The first of 4 deadlines is August 3rd. More here.
An Instagram post from @BodiesInTranslation is mostly text on a purple background. CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS. Study title: “Fatness and/as disability: Ableism and anti-fatness as barriers to public participation for people of marginalized genders in Ontario.” To participate in this study or inquire about accessibility please contact Allison Taylor at ataylo60@uoguelph.ca.
EVENTS
Disabled Artist Support Programs: Budgeting
Kinetic Light is offering 2 events to support disabled artists' know-how in U.S. arts worlds:
Budgeting Strategies for Disabled Artists with April Biggs & Vanessa Cruz. Saturday, July 30th, 4-5:30pm ET. Register here.
Organizational Strategies for Supporting Disabled Artists with Dom Chatterjee. Wednesday, August 3rd, 5:30-7pm ET. Register here.
Lorenza Böttner at Leslie-Lohman (NYC)
Join the Leslie-Lohman Museum this weekend for its second weekend of public programming informed by Lorenza Böttner’s description of her own artistic development, “It isn’t enough to think an idea or just believe in an idea, one must live it.” The weekend will start off on Saturday, July 23rd with a Day-Long Gathering in conversation with Lorenza Böttner In partnership with NYU Center for Disability Studies, focusing on Böttner’s oeuvre, diving into the possibilities of queer kinship, and the embodied experiences of transgender identity, disability, and migration, which Böttner’s work illustrates. Speakers include Exhibition Curator Paul B. Preciado, Adrian Jones–Adjunct Professor, Fashion Institute Technology, Alice Sheppard & Laurel Lawson of Kinetic Light, Artist Mary Duffy, Author McKenzie Wark, Simi Linton of Proclaiming Disability Arts, Jules Gill-Peterson, author of Histories of the Transgender Child, and more. More information, access information and RSVP here.
On Sunday, July 24th from 12:30 - 3:30 pm the museum will host a hybrid Rotations Worksop in partnership with Brooklyn Arts Exchange, organized by Yo-Yo Lin, Kayla Hamilton and Perel. More information, access information and RSVP here.
Also on Sunday, July 24th, following the Rotations workshop, there will be a hybrid Open Conversation from 3:30 pm - 4:30pm on the relationships between disability, allyship, and cultural institutions, which is open to all. More information, access information and RSVP here.
Beyond Butterflies
Increasing Confidence and Creating Performance Poetry with Danica Lorer. An interactive workshop with tips and tricks for improving confidence and reducing anxious thoughts approaching live and online audiences followed by an opportunity to practice creating performance poems in a variety of ways. There will be plenty of practical ideas with time to discover, work, play, and share. July 21st, 6pm–8pm CST. Register here.
Disability Arts Week from Thatz Showbiz Theatre Project
Disability Arts Week is a celebration of artists with disabilities and their important and unique contributions to the art world. All workshops are specifically designed to be accessible to neurodivergent folks and folks with intellectual disabilities. More info here.