HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ADA!
Tomorrow, on July 26th, the Americans with Disabilities Act turns 32. Each year, this anniversary is an occasion to celebrate the successes of the Disability Rights Movement, especially the power of direct action protest that led to the passage of the broad anti-discrimination bill. This week, we recognize that legislation is a powerful tool - literally reshaping our environment - to create widely-understood baselines for self-determination and inclusion.
For many activists, the ADA anniversary is complicated and difficult to celebrate. When so many basic survival needs of disabled people continue to go unmet, how do we make sense of the legacy of this law? The ADA has established complaints and compliance as the most legible public senses of disability integration. It hasn’t been the legal tool that saves mask mandates from being dropped seemingly everywhere. We need much more guidance on how its enforcement should apply to things like web accessibility. And the bill’s success has been predicated on the ideology of independence at the expense of interdependence.
We return again to holding hope and agitation together. As Disability Pride Month - and BIPOC Mental Health and Mad Pride month - draws to a close, I’m thinking about how we “sing ourselves necessary,” described in a poem by Eli Clare recently published on his Patreon:
Let us praise
our broken hearts.Sing ourselves cherished.
NEWS
Rest in Power, Thomas the Goose
The blind, bisexual, polyamorous goose has died at the age of 40.
New Works
In Quezon City in the Philippines, the collage works of 90 young disabled artists aged 8-20 are on view as part of “Arts and Disability 20/20: Artful Connections in the Time of Pandemic.”
Two recent disability arts festivals in London featured wide-ranging works. The Liberty Festival, presented by the Mayor of London, included Yinka Shonibare CBE, Touretteshero, Raymond Antrobus and Selina Thompson. And the CRIPtic x Lewisham Micro-Festival in London featured workshops, performances, and readings from “the explosive talent of deaf and disabled people in the borough.”
Corsicana, starring disabled actress Jamie Brewer, recently closed at Playwright Horizons in Manhattan.
In a personal essay for New Mobility, Ian Ruder offers some stories from the frontline of the caregiving crisis.
Cover art: Bill Jacobson, Song of Sentient Beings #1114 (detail), 1994. Variance: Making, Unmaking, and Remaking Disability, curated by Conor Moynihan, is on view at the RISD Museum through October 9, 2022. Manual 17: Variance, the text companion to the show, features writing by many disabled artists: Emily Banas, Sky Cubacub and Ellen Samuels, Joey Terrill and Cynthia Wu, Maureen C. O’Brien and Carmen Papalia, Robert McRuer and Jaklin Romine, Joan Giroux, Riva Lehrer, Alexandra Courtois de Viçose, Leon J. Hilton, Bianca Frohne, Anand Prahlad, Indira Allegra, and K. MacNeil.
Denver’s “disability-affirmative” Phamaly Theatre Company will present The Rocky Horror Show from August 12th to September 4th.
Kayla Hamilton’s residency at Jacob’s Pillow is featured in the Inside the Pillow Lab series, with collaborators Nicole McClam, Joselia Hughes, Jerron Herman, Christopher Unpezverde Núñez, and Brandon Kazen-Maddox.
The Resting Up Collective has published postcards from their vacation in Flaresville, “a happening beach resort with all the painkillers you desire in the brightest of colours, mobility aids at every turn, heat pads and ice packs, wheelchair friendly paths to the seafront, and, best of all, no one to ask if you’ve tried yoga yet.”
Travel Access
The U.S. Dept. of Transportation has released what it calls a “bill of rights” for disabled airline passengers. The document summarizes existing laws to make them more easily to reference when interacting with airlines.
Uber has settled a U.S. Dept. of Justice lawsuit over charges for the time is takes disabled riders to safely enter their cars. I addition to the $2.2 million the company will pay to those affected, there will new waiver for riders who certify their disability with the app.
“Asylum Chic”
Disability historians Aparna Nair & Kylie M. Smith write about the horror of discovering the market for patient records on eBay. These records document personal and medicalized information about those who resided in residential facilities in mid-20th century New York. “These institutions and those who lived within them,” they write for Slate, “now are the focus of a stigmatizing subculture around madness and disability, intended to evoke prurient curiosity, fear, and disgust.”
CALLS
Project LETS is looking for BIPOC participants for its oral history project.
The Met is accepting applications for its Civic Practice Partnership, a 2-year artist-in-residence program for “socially engaged artists and art collectives.” Applications are due Sept. 6th.
Stanford University researchers are recruiting ME/CFS, Chronic Lyme, and Long COVID patients for a study to better understand symptom flares such as post-exertional malaise (PEM), or “crashes”.
The Fireweed Collective and People’s Hub have released Part 2 of their Internalized Ableism Survey.
Museum, Arts, and Culture (MAC) Access Consortium’s Supporting Transitions Project is seeking applications for the second cohort of its paid Self-Advocate Corps, who train disabled self-advocates, specifically those who identify as autistic, neurodivergent, or intellectually disabled, to use their experiences and skills to consult with cultural organizations to increase accessibility and representation. Information session on July 29th 12:45-1:15pm ET on Zoom. You can RSVP for the zoom link for the event by clicking here. A flyer with more information is available by clicking here.
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.
Leslie-Lohman Böttner Programs
It is the final 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.” On Friday, July 29th from 6-8pm ET, there will be a roundtable on Disability and Joy with Chella Man, Judith Heumann and Jezz Chung. Join in-person or online. Masks are required. RSVP and Access Info here. On Saturday July 30th and Sunday, July 31st, a Fashion Pop-Up featuring original clothes for sale and giveaway by Rebirth Garments, Chella Man, Melodie Stancato, Vincetta, Malcom-x Betts, B. Anele, and Telfar Tival. 1- 5 pm ET both days. In person at the museum only. RSVP and Access for Saturday, July 30th. On Sunday July 31st at 6pm ET, an in-person only Roundtable on Trans Fashion in partnership with Viscose Journal, with Tourmaline, Tracey Norman, Connie Fleming, Cruz Valdez, and Dara Allen. RSVP and Access for Sunday 31st.
I Didn’t See You There at Rooftop Films (NYC)
Reid Davenport’s documentary will have its NYC premiere at the Brooklyn Army Terminal on Saturday, July 30th at 8pm ET, with a performance by Molly Joyce before the screening. Free tickets and more info here.
Black Healing: Unapologetically Black-n-Bipolar
The Fireweed Collective is offering a workshop for Black folx who identify along the bipolar spectrum, facilitated by Kelly ‘Kel’ George, on Thursday, July 28th @ 12-1:30pm PT / 3-4:30pm ET. Tickets here.
Verbal Description and Touch Tour with Lisa Alvarado (NYC)
The Whitney Museum presents an in-person Verbal Description and Touch Tour, followed by a sound performance by 2022 Biennial artist Lisa Alvarado and her band, Natural Information Society on Saturday, July 30th from 6:30-7:30pm ET. More info here.
Deaf Broadway's Sweeney Todd in American Sign Language (NYC)
Lincoln Center presents the show as part of its Summer for the City Festival on Sunday, July 31st at 7:30pm ET. Free advanced reservations and more info here.