cripchick's blog

this month i am spending a third of my days travelling and sleeping in hotels. all of this is taking a toll on my body and i find myself stepping back and wondering why movements i could do the day before are not possible. on monday, i was in raleigh going down a hill i’ve been down a million times before. the possibility of losing my balance and tumbling out of my chair was such a real danger that i had to call a friend nearby to come walk with me. (and it’s a good thing i called him, not only was my body draining but my chair died and he had to push me back to the hotel.)

i am thinking constantly about the contradiction and the space between wanting to live a disability justice lifestyle — desperately wanting to dismantle capitalist rules of productivity that leave out many of us and force us to give up our bodies and our labor for nothing that frees our communities— but also finding my life very rooted in a disability rights assimilationist model— i can do anything this other person can do, just need the right accomodations, just need more opportunities/laws/connections, just need to work harder… it took me 7 days of working in my first job to realize that no, i am not miraculously more productive than other disabled people in the organization, things were getting done because i had put in 80+ hours the first week to prove i was of value… funny thing is the only one in the org i ever needed to prove this to was myself.

and i have found that when i am at home, working part of the day from bed is the only thing that doesn’t tear apart my body. but feeling well is hard to exchange for the fact that i type much slower in bed, that it takes me twice as long to do what i can do sitting up. i hate how that feels but i am trying to challenge myself to not just to talk about disability justice but live it— self care, interdependent relationships, questioning a system that asks me to give up my body/labor and otherizes me if i cannot. but it is hard.

this tied in with a few other things also has me thinking about what i know intellectually, what i know with my heart, what i know with my body. where those 3 things meet and what they look like. where desire, safety, intimacy fits in. it is all really confusing and i get lost easily.

here is to us finding wellness and joy in 2010. here is to listening to your body.

hi all!

putting my need out into the internet since it has been working lately! (love to you all)

do any of yall have information on liberation schools organized by the black panthers, community-led classes, popular education programs, organizing schools, or anything of that nature?

i am in the process of organizing a “campus” locally for the school of our lorde. where i live, this will mean people of color coming together every saturday to study the poetry, pedagogy [study of teaching], and politics of audre lorde

and the youth crew i am is also sketching out the framework we want to use for the event we are holding this summer for disabled youth to come together for a week and return home as revolutionaries

if you have access to online libraries, books you can rec, stories you know, stuff you’ve seen in your communities, models you’ve used, please let me know. told a friend today i was excited to learn that things in my head and in the collective are not new— being accessible is called “popular education”, events where youth come together to learn power analysis, activism, poetry is called “liberation schools”… just have to do the homework!

excited for 2010!!!

cripchick

below are tools that i use in workshops that have proven to be really helpful. i use these because they shaped the way i view things. most of these deal with how to talk about ableism, access, the kind of activists we want to be, and the importance of making our movements relevant to people. i am posting this in the spirit of sharing— really hope you will send me stuff (zines, poems, activities, icebreakers, songs) you use either for yourself or others, too. here’s to a new year.

in community,
cripchick

#1 “I want to help the handicapped!” Barbie doll explanation of Models of Disability

created by: ju gosling

how i use this: to explain different models of disability and why they are messed up. also great way to talk about “charity.”

who i use this with: because of the sarcastic tone, this can seriously be a hit or miss if not used right… i would use this with people with a social justice consciousness, disabled people who aren’t familiar with disability rights and justice but will identify with the situation, and many marginalized people. i do not use this with parents of disabled kids who aren’t social justice-y, any kind of social service/provider person, or in any presentations i am doing to government/medical/university people. there are other ways to reach them.

note: this is really cool to use with youth and disabled people because it’s accessible to different kinds of learners. this can also been acted out, either by splitting up into groups and giving barbie dolls or by role playing. (and actually dyp crew has some awesome scenarios written out that we used in public schools so let me know if you want them..)

#2 chart (.doc) about the relationships between different forms of oppression

created by southerners on new ground

how i use this: i just found out about this resource at the SONG organizing school last month. great way to show how issues around access, gentrification, criminalization affect all communities. can be used to talk about the difference between community-building and coalition-building by pointing out that we are all affected by most of the things on this chart (aka intersectionality).

who i use this with: people who are intimately familiar with one or two forms of oppression but not the way their liberation is tied up with others’. (examples: queer people understanding disability justice, disabled folks understanding racism, disabled people of color coming into an intersectional analysis.)

note: access wise, words are pretty understandable and nice that this is in a chart. still, a little text heavy so good for supplemental reading or as a fellow disability organizer wrote on the song website, splitting up into groups to address each issue and reporting back. dyp did that activity last year (see this comment) and it was a great way to lead into a conversation about our values.

#3 accessible language guide and Event accessibility check-list

created by the national youth leadership network and kids as self advocates

how i use this: these are some concrete “how-to”s for writing documents and holding events that are more accessible (e.g. how to use microsoft word to check reading level) but i like to use them to create larger conversations about access… also like to use this with this accessibility check list that was created collaboratively (see comments below the post)

i use this: with everyone, in every aspect of my life.

note: this is written by disabled youth for disabled youth but a guide for everyone. one way to use this document in a workshop is by splitting people up into groups, handing out a document that isn’t accessible, and having people practice making it easier to use. this is best done if you have a few computers available so people can check the reading level on microsoft word. also cool if people are from organizations and you encourage them to bring their own documents to accessibilize. it becomes more real.

#4 Otro Guerrillero Mixtape

created by rebel diaz

how i use this: I have used this cd in workshops to talk about what people want to stand for (track one: Which Side Are You On?), what kind of movements/world we want to live in (If I Can’t Dance…) and what kind of organizers/people we want to be (Halfway).

who i use this with: youth and people that want to be activists, especially hip hop fans. especially as @divalutionary said, people who believe hip hop is the voice of the youth struggle.

note: i’ve organized whole workshops around a song or two on this cd. access wise, it’s important to have a copy of the lyrics to pass around or post up on powerpoint.  messed this up by not checking tech stuff (e.g. are speakers working?) beforehand and then taking too much time trying to fix the tech problem because it’s such a cool activity and i didn’t want to let it go. if you don’t have the money to buy the cd, you can stream the songs i use off their myspace website

#5 ransom notes campaign:

created by: ads created by nyu child study center, response created by autistic self advocacy network, and ableism remixed by me and friends into a workshop

how i use this: to have a dialogue about ableism in a concrete way that people can see it in front of them. i print out the ransom notes, split people into groups, and have people talk about why these are so messed up. afterwards, people come back into a larger group to talk about their responses and personal experiences. important to finish by reading the talking points written by the autistic self advocacy network.

who i use this with: any one i am wanting to do an ableism workshop with.

note: access wise this is super cool because it is visual and can be done interactively. this activity should be done with caution as it can be triggering. there needs to be a way that people can channel or analyze the rage they may feel so don’t do this activity if you don’t have time to fully process. this probably can be substituted or used with other oppressive media narratives, i’ve just found it to be the clearest way to talk about ableism (and to introduce people to neurodiversity!).

in 2009 i got to be involved in some really awesome skill shares organized by the cyberquilting crew, a group of genderqueer and women of color who are using technology to thread movements together. i fell in love with both cyberquilters and skills shares.

["skill shares" or "skill sharing" is when people teach other people things that they know. they do it for free or in a trade for being taught a skill. to me this is more than just telling someone how to do something because it is like a transfer of power or knowledge. think superheroes joining forces.]

photo taken at the cyberquilting skills share in detroit at the allied media conference. credit to quirky black girls photography.

every day we are told that a.) we do not have skills and b.) that the things we know are not valuable. this lie exists so that we will try to hoard our skills from others and so that the the system can dangle our need for skill development over our head and sell it back to us.

there are a lot of things i am interested in learning in 2010. i have skills that i can exchange, too, mostly in the area of organizing and media making. i can teach these via webcam, email, or conference call. if you are interested in skill sharing w/ me and others, leave a comment with what you’d like to learn and what you could teach.

things i can teach:

how activists and organizations can use google wave to make the work they have to do together much easier. (some examples: how to use google wave to work with others to host an event, throw a party, write a document, create a plan, etc.)

how to make your event, blog, organization, or space more accessible in terms of disability.

basic html skills or how to create and maintain a website.

basic video editing

how to do mass mailings, webinars, web meetings or conference calls on the cheap/free

how to make your writing 8th grade level

graphic design (photoshop)

how to make your workshop interactive

tshirt reconstruction (cutting up a tee and making a new outfit out of it)

(will add to this list as i think of more)

things i would like to learn:

a vegan dish or two that is easy to cook, cheap, and can be done without special food stores. okay… better eating in general. not only for myself but in hosting events on the cheap. (e.g. there has to be healthier (again, cheap!) food option than beanies and weanies at our youth events)

mediation/energy work techniques that are accessible to me as someone with a physical disability and chronic lung issues. (most ones i see people doing don’t do anything for me).

zine layouts. i’ve worked on 3 zines now but have a hard time wrapping my head around the layout part.

general facilitation skill development

more popular education techniques

how to mix music with opensource technology

budget stuff. i do okay with organizational budgets (aka money that ain’t mine) but don’t have personal budgeting down. see myself drowning in debt if things don’t change soon.

let’s see if we can do some skill sharing with each other.

xo,
cripchick