One Year of Crip News (v.53)
Thank you for being here.
One year ago, this newsletter had 38 subscribers. Today, there are 1,372 of us.
One year ago, I was putting the finishing touches on the very first email. Today, the issues have been opened 81,540 times across our inboxes (88,430 views in total, including page views from browser visits).
One year ago, I wasn’t sure what I needed from this space and I was less sure what others might need. Today, I know the time I spend creating these issues grounds my work as an organizer and artist - and I’m moved that readers find something useful here.
Each week, I learn from disabled artists and organizers who share their ideas about how to be in a world that is so deeply fucked up and also so deeply beautiful. (There is really no other way I can explain how I haven’t missed a week: the thrill of remote connection to others’ work saves and energizes me.)
This year marks 10 years that I have been in disability community. I aim to use the relationships I’ve tended - by organizing what courses across my screens - to support the expansion of whatever is or is not already called disability arts and politics.
In the year to come, I want to find ways to expand the expansion. To do this work with others, to build collective power through it, to offer its service to the movement.
So let’s party!
REGISTER HERE + more info about the birthday party access ecology.
TOMORROW: Tuesday, October 11th
10-11am PT / 11am-12pm MT / 12-1pm CT / 1-2pm ET / 6-7pm BST / 7-8pm CET
Add to Google Calendar or download .ics file (Outlook, iCal)
❤️🔥
NEWS
Indigenous People’s Day
From Crip News v.1:
“It’s Indigenous People’s Day on Turtle Island. What a perfect moment to check out this list of disabled, Deaf, ill, mad, & Indigenous writers assembled by Jen Deerinwater. Or push your land acknowledgment practice further and go deeper on the connections between body and land sovereignty. Or be with new vibes.
If today you are resting, tomorrow. And tomorrow’s tomorrow.”
Cripping the Vote
Lies about voter fraud are threatening voting access in the weeks leading up to the U.S. midterm elections. In Wisconsin, disabled voters won back their right to use ballot drop boxes with assistance. The ableist suspicion about voting assistance has meant jail time for Olivia Coley-Pearson, a Georgia organizer who has helped people navigate the racist literacy test that is voting in the South. In South Dakota, long travel times to polling sites prevent Native and disabled people from voting. Addressing the structural ableism that prevents disabled people from pursuing political office could be a start to enduring change.
New Works
The newest print issue of Art in America is dedicated to disability culture. Organized by Associate Editor Emily Watlington, who writes an introductory essay, it features a 40-year timeline of disability art, writing by Sara Hendren, danilo machado, Jasbir K. Puar, Aimi Hamraie, Elizabeth Guffey, a roundtable with blind and low-vision artists Rodney Evans, Kayla Hamilton, Emilie L. Gossiaux, and Bojana Coklyat, moderated by Andrew Leland, and more.
In her radio essay for KQED, organizer Alice Wong reflect on communication access through text to speech technology. “Right now,” she asks, “can you feel what I’m saying?”
Cordially Invited, an exhibition featuring the disabled artists of Baltimore’s Make Studio and others, is open in-person and online at the Hampden Schwing Art Center through Nov. 5th.
Vanessa Cruz’s new dance film Los Portales del Corazón recently premiered at Stomping Ground LA. In a preview on Instagram, Vanessa is in a grey room against a wall. She is moving in spirals while there are glitching effects sprinkled. Towards the end a human heart appears as the title fades in.
Melissa Hung writes about the interplay of pleasure and pain in playing the drums for Catapult.
Christian O’Reilly’s play about disability activism, No Magic Pill, just closed at Civic Theatre in Tallaght, Ireland.
And in other news…
The FCC finally ordered that incarcerated people with communication disabilities must have access to all forms of telecommunications relay services. See HEARD’s announcement.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month in the U.S.
Thursday, Oct. 13th is International Plain Language Day.
CALLS
Leah Piepzna-Samarasinha is working to creating the the Stacey Park Milbern Liberation Arts Center in 2023-2024. This survey asks disabled, Deaf/HOH/ DeafBlind/Blind, chronically ill/sick and/or Mad or neurodivergent writers and creative people who identify as queer, trans, 2 Spirit and Black, Indigenous and/or People of Color, inclusive of mixed race people, what we would want in an accessible writing residency space by and for us.
The Critical Design Lab seeks participants in the creation of a free, public digital archive documenting disabled peoples’ uses of technology before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Remote Access Archive will include oral histories, recordings, and digital materials for use by historians and disability studies scholars. You can read more about this project (plain language and ASL) and how to submit at: https://www.mapping-access.com/the-remote-access-archive. In an Instagram post, there is a graphic of three rectangles with a line connecting them. In the background, a blue blob against a white background and graphics of squiggly lines with arrows on each end.
An Instagram post from UC Berkeley’s Rad Mad Disability Lab says: “Covid Ableism Narrative Archive, Swipe through to learn more about our project that will collect, archive, and share first-hand stories about ableism in the medical system during COVID.”
The Autistic People of Color Fund wants to learn more about the employment experiences of autistic people of color. Submit here.
Leonardo is inviting submission to a peer-reviewed special issue of the journal titled “CripTech and the Art of Access.” The next deadline is Nov. 15th. More here.
EVENTS
NYC in-person: The Barnard Center for Research on Women will present the inaugural Grace Lee Boggs ‘35 Lecture, "The Only Way To Survive Is By Taking Care of One Another: Reflections on Care Work," given by keynote speaker Ai-jen Poo, President of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, followed by a conversation with Premilla Nadasen, Professor of History and co-Director of the Barnard Center for Research On Women. Wednesday, Oct. 12th from 4:30-5:30pm ET followed by a reception. Register here.
Listen to Dis’ Annual General Meeting, featuring Ammanda Zelinski, Jason Yuen, Nathan Coppens, and Carla Harris, will take place online on
Oct. 13th at 6pm CST Saskatchewan Time. Register here.
NYC in-person: On Oct. 11th from 6:30-7:30pm ET for one night only, The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center will present “Music for the Eyes, Flamboyan Theater in collaboration with Seña y Verbo: Teatro de Sordos from Mexico City. But tickets here.