Crip News v.64
The newsletter is open for paid subscriptions! Plus the first issue of 2023 with news, new works, calls, and events.
A Big Start to 2023
Crip News is accepting your financial support via paid subscriptions.
But! Weekly issues and the archive will always be available for free.
Since I started this project in October 2021, I’ve relished that there’s only one subscription option, the free one. I’ve dodged Substack’s many pushes to go paid. But with time for rest and reflection over the past few weeks (and with some of y’all’s loving encouragement!), I’ve realized there is a lot more we can be doing with this newsletter if it receives reader donations.
Read the full announcement: “Supporting Crip News”
In the longer post, I explain why I don’t live in the headspace of monetization. But here are some of the things that paid subscriptions will make possible: New disabled contributors, longer-form reporting, and opportunities for connection and engagement.
If you use Crip News as a professional resource, consider using organizational funds or write off your subscription on your taxes. You can also get a group subscription for your staff or collaborators. Need another way to donate? You can Venmo @Kevin-Gotkin or reply to this email for more information.
If you can’t support Crip News financially, you don’t have to do a single thing. You’ll still receive these emails every week.
Thanks for being here.
NEWS
Rest in Power
Celia Brown was a human rights organizer and disability activist. Her work was instrumental in establishing the Peer Specialist Civil Service at the New York State Office of Mental Health. She served as MindFreedom International’s chief representative to the United Nations. And she was a co-founder of International Network towards Alternatives and Recovery, now called Rights-Based Supports. Mad in America has collected statements from many people honoring her legacy. See the “New Works” section for video of what is believed to be her final public speaking engagement.
Dr. Chris Smit was a scholar of the relationship between media, art, and the body, and Co-Founder of DisArt, an organization committed to advancing a cultural understanding of disability. In 2015, the NEA profiled one of his major projects, the DisArt Festival in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Another project Chris supported, My Dearest Friends, collects stories from the disability community confronting the ongoing covid pandemic. In Letters to Chris, that project has been redesigned to accept public wishes and memories.
Not New News
We lose too many disabled people each week to properly document and remember them here. In the U.S., covid continues to take the lives of hundreds of people every day, especially as “the Kraken” variant XBB.1.5 spreads rapidly. In Canada, government officials are encouraging people to use legal euthanasia when they ask for basic access supports. Rampant ableism prevents most of these disabled deaths from being remembered for their professional endeavors. In NYC, folklorists, artists and cultural activists are embarking on a 3-year public memorial project to create space for the loss of loved ones, called the NAMING THE LOST Memorials. Everywhere, we hold these lives in our hearts even when we can’t fathom the pervasiveness of the loss.
Direct Action in Seoul
Korea Times reports that 24 members of Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination (SADD) will be prosecuted for using direct action protest to demand more government funding to protect the rights of disabled people. SADD members have boarded and disembarked subway trains during rush hour, literally and figuratively halting business as usual. Police have deployed excessive force, including 8 riot units, to quash the protests. The organization has also been the target of massive digital harassment from people posing as new members. The group has since declared a 2-week suspension of the campaign as they await Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s response to their request for a meeting.
In Other News…
The Longmore Institute on Disability at San Francisco State University has received a $1 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support emerging leaders in disability studies and scholar-activism.
Disability activist Anna Perng has been selected to be the Senior Advisor for the White House Office of Public Engagement.
The government spending bill passed in the U.S. Congress at the end of last month includes new protections for pregnant people and those who use lactation breaks at work.
As Sarah Roth writes for The Tech Policy Press, “mental fitness” self-monitoring apps like the Pretaa Fitbit create new kinds of digital policing amid widespread enclosure of those deemed “mentally ill.”
A disability-focused subgroup of the National Institutes of Health’s Working Group on Diversity has published a report with recommendations on advancing disability inclusion and anti-ableism in science and research.
New research into the health and social outcomes of combat veterans paints a complicated picture about the potential causes of the sharp increase in deaths of despair. The study also found that a major increase in disability compensation per veteran isn’t so complicated: a better claims process that trusts and informs people.
Lizzie Baily, a disabled organizer for youth disability arts, is receiving honours from the Order of the British Empire.
The Cambodian government is drafting an amendment to the country’s intellectual property laws to increase access to texts and documents for disabled people.
In The New York Times, Ilaria Parogni writes about the increase of sign language and Deaf culture experts, including Directors of Artistic Sign Language, in theater.
The war on opioids is creating more overdoses and suicides among people with chronic illness, Maia Szalavitz writes in The New York Times.
In The Washington Post, Sarah Carr reports on the disproportionately lower access to literacy tools for Black and Latinx families with children with dyslexia.
Without adequate data or support, survivors of gun violence are building networks of support among those with long-term disabilities.
New Works
Video from a panel last month on “Movement Lineages” organized by the Institute for the Development of Human Arts is now available, featuring the late Celia Brown, Sascha DuBrul, Stefanie Lyn Kaufman-Mthimkhulu, and moderated by Vesper Moore.
Volume II of Buzz-Zine is called “Taking Space / Making Space: a zine on community, disability, race, and performance.” It features work by Chanika Svetvilas, kaje jasper wildz, Jidah Correll, Jessica Stokes, Ames Loji, Michael Stokes, Gaia Thomas, Lonely_Saboteur, Shanti Collins, Molly Joyce, Lisa Alexander, Martin Sweeney, Rajah Sandor, Maria Oshodi, Alana Gracey, Naomi Ortiz, and Jose Miguel Esteban.
Reid Davenport’s film I Didn’t See You There, makes its national broadcast debut on PBS’s POV starting today. It will be available to stream at pbs.org, and the PBS Video app until Feb. 8th.
Truthout has published several amazing articles recently:
“I’m Immunocompromised. Here’s How I Feel About Masking in 2023.” by Katie Tastrom
“We Can’t Combat Inequality Without First Valuing Care Work,” by C.J. Polychroniou
“Ableism Enables All Forms of Inequity and Hampers All Liberation Efforts,” by George Yancy
“Embodied Ecologies,” a collaborative art exhibit consisting of work from 14 Utah-based artists, is on display at the Salt Lake City Public Library through Nov. 11th.
Justice in Aging has released its recommendations to the Biden administration for health policy priorities this year.
Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Worlds Away, Clam Extravaganza (2022). Photo by Laura Fiori. YOYI! Care, Repair, Heal is up through Jan. 15th at Gropius Bau in Berlin, with works and contributions by Pierre Adler, Brook Andrew, Kader Attia, Tosh Basco, Mohamed Bourouissa, Andrea Büttner, Lavkant Chaudhary, Lygia Clark, André Eugène, Artemisia Gentileschi, Johanna Hedva, Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association, Anne Duk Hee Jordan, Eva Kot’átková, Betty Muffler & Maringka Burton, Grace Ndiritu, People’s Archive of Rural India, Outi Pieski, Paula Rego, Tabita Rezaire & Amakaba, Georgia Sagri, Yhonnie Scarce, Reginald Sénatus (Redji), SERAFINE1369 and Wu Tsang.
CALLS
Urge Indianapolis and Marion County officials to drop its petition in the Talevski case before the U.S. Supreme Court that could profoundly roll back the rights of tens of millions of disabled people.
The National Park Service Mellon Humanities Postdoctoral Fellowship in Disability Representation at Historic Sites is accepting applications for a Fellowship to be hosted at the Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site in New York. The deadline to apply is Jan. 30th or until 75 applications meeting eligibility requirements have been received.
Chunky Move and Melbourne Fringe are offering a $40,000 Radical Access commission to an experienced Deaf or Disabled artist to create a new work for the 2023 Melbourne Fringe Festival. The deadline is Jan. 22nd.
EVENTS
5-7:30pm ET from Jan. 9-13th. On Zoom.
A community space co-created by Disability Justice Advocates and Artists, Kayla Hamilton and Elizabeth Motley. Together they will investigate: How can we be together with movement practices which center disability as a framework for creativity?