cripchick's blog

a friend once told me that disability often rejects and transcends what is considered “correct” body language. maybe we are stimming. maybe we are using an interpreter. maybe we are interacting with physical pain, depression, assistive technology.  maybe we are sitting when we are supposed to be standing (or vice versa).  to try and deny ourselves these needs are either exhausting or impossible. that’s just who we are.

i have been thinking about what it means to listen deeply. at the allied media conference, the media makers i surrounded myself with looked at communication as more than trying to get one’s message across. (loved what my girl little light said about media—”media is what we grow when we are trying to communicate with each other.”) at the amc, i would open up about something really personal and the people around me would use their whole bodies to hear me. sitting still. quiet. ears attentive. eye contact. not thinking about other things. reaching out and holding me if i needed it. being listened to like this was the most beautiful thing i have ever experienced. who knew listening could be so transformative.

but knowing that what my friend said is truth (’cause it is!), now i am thinking about where disabled people fit into this. for example, how much is the way i perceive that you are listening to me shaped by ideas of neurotypicality? (love the tshirt that says “eye contact is overrated”). how do we deal with a situation where my communication style is legitimized and yours is not? what do i do if my communication needs don’t mesh with yours? what are all the ways we can show each other that we are listening? is it just a matter of saying holla if you hear me? & i got you, i hear you, yes

so much listening to be done. . .

From ADAPT, our brave warriors who, on their third day of protest, faced massive storms and accessible restrooms being taken away:

ADAPT activists begin third day of protest at Democratic National Headquarters

Washington, DC – As dawn breaks in the nation’s capitol, approximately 30 disability rights activists, most with disabilities, from ADAPT continue their vigil on the sidewalk surrounding the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).

On Tuesday, July 21, 2009, in 25 cities across the nation, ADAPT groups took their message to Democratic Party offices and its leaders. Forty ADAPT members in Washington, DC protested in the DNC headquarters, and were physically removed by law enforcement from the building at approximately 6:00 PM, although no arrests were made.

The protesters were demanding that the Democratic National Committee:

1. Apologize for creating Medicaid’s institutional bias which has forced millions of seniors and individuals with disabilities needlessly into nursing facilities and other institutions;
2. Issue a public statement calling for elimination of the institutional bias in 2009 either as part of healthcare reform or as separate legislation, known as the Community Choice Act (S 683/HR1670); and
3. Facilitate a meeting between ADAPT and Democratic leaders, including Representative Henry Waxman, Senator Max Baucus, and Valerie Jarrett of the White House to develop a plan to pass the Community Choice Act.

In most cities, the Democratic committees agreed to relay ADAPT’s demands to the DNC. In some cities, the staff committed to working with ADAPT to influence the leadership of the DNC to support ADAPT’s goals. “Our state party leaders really worked with us to identify how they could help us influence the national leadership,” said Nadina LaSpina, an ADAPT organizer in New York City.

However, in our nation’s capital, the DNC still refuses to meet any of ADAPT’s demands. During the vigil’s second day, ADAPTers chanted and distributed informational materials. “We even were able to meet with Members of Congress right here on the street who expressed interest in becoming co-sponsors of the Community Choice Act,” said Cassie James, an ADAPT organizer from Philadelphia.

As darkness fell, the vigil continued and many of the protesters went to sleep in reclining lawn chairs and sleeping bags, some in tents and others under a lean-to constructed from PVC pipe and plastic tarps in front of the DNC. Several large banners throughout their sidewalk encampment show the group’s support for the Community Choice Act.

The ADAPT members in Washington, DC are committed to maintaining their presence in front of the DNC offices in an attempt to pressure Democratic leaders to work with ADAPT to discuss plans to pass the Community Choice Act.

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Follow them on twitter or check out more about their action at www.adapt.org/takeaction to stay in the know and support CCA. Free our people!!

a transcript of the poem speak! radical women of color media justice collective read in the dark at the allied media conference opening. the theme of the conference was “we are ready now”:

Noemi: poetry? hmmm…do you want me to write poetry

( spoken through out auditorium by anybody and everybody we can get as
a murmur. after two lines are said, all say I speak I speak)

Elle:
with what
with whom
but how
who says
who said
how come
how long
which words
which way
my tone my tongue
my soul it lives
I speak

all: I SPEAK

Adele cracks silence to ask:

Adele: Why do you SPEAK?

Maegan:
hablo porque no me queda de otra
even though my tongue tangles spanglish mixed blood palabras
somehow they always translate into
love y lucha

Adele:
Speaking -my voice- is my faith

Faith that there are others like me
Faith that my voice has been heard
Faith that grows with me and never holds me back

I speak for protection
For love
For grounding
To remember I – we exist

Noemi:
feed writing, starve poetry

Little Light:
I speak because underneath my tongue and lips, my hips and hands,
behind my eyes and down my back is a skeleton: as mute and hard and
insistent as the bones of my ancestors. It demands that I give my
voice so they may speak.
They ask where the bones are buried, and remind me where my ghosts
are. They ask me from the ink in my marrow,
Who lies beneath your living feet as you walk?
and who has gone before while you go forward?
and who is silent when you are speaking?
and who is outside your Inside, and inside your guts?
and who do you belong to,
and who taught you beauty,
and on what do you stand, holding you steady from beneath, raising you high?
My skull clicks its teeth and asks me to listen. Through all my warm
and bloody flesh, where are the bones buried?
I speak
because underneath my eyes, my tongue and lips, my hips and hands, is
a skeleton:
as hard, and mute, and insistent as the bones of my ancestors, and the
bones in you.
It demands that I give my voice so the ghosts are heard, because
further under still, between my clutching ribs and fountain-pen spine,
I have a beating heart.
And so
I am ready.
Now.

cripchick:
revelations dance together in the caves of our mouths
webs of spit holding together poems not yet ready
tongue acting as transmitters
for every secret
you attempted to hide in the back of your throat
baby don’t you know?
…we are ready now.

Blackamazon:
One me many tongues
crossed tossed not mixed not muddled
run de
Shakespeare
iambic my creolese
hip hop overtures
Cr’est seulment pour une chose my voice
It is always better to speak.

Alexis:
brokenbeautifulbrownsweet
our half-baked edges
fused with coconut and sugarlust
hot filling my mouth with
yes
yes
yes
yes
possible
now

by Deep Foundation. Check it out. (captioned!).