As the UK arts industry fears for its future and how to work in new ways, disabled artists push back to not be made invisible or forgotten. Consider how the expertise of D/deaf and disabled artists could be more vital than ever in a COVID/post COVID world.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: how to attend to the care and safety of our audiences. We have taken responsibility for this for years and paid attention to it long before COVID.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: about attention to space and place and how to navigate it. Especially when that space(ing) was not designed for how you need to move (now). Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: how to ask for what they need and how to communicate that, (and how to communicate when people are afraid of you). How do we support everyone now in knowing how to navigate touch and feeling safe? Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: how to deal with change and instability. it is an inherent part of our lives. Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: how to function outside/alongside normative time structures. Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: that clear information about what to expect is part of feeling safe, of feeling welcome, of joining. Likewise, information about what isn’t there and won’t happen is just as important. Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: about working in ways that empower people to say if they feel safe and to say no, with consent. Ask the experts.
Crip/Disabled/D/deaf artists know: the falsehood of independence. The lived reality of interdependence. that your safety and potential in life depends on me. Ask the experts… PS Black Lives Matter
Obviously lots of other folx do this 2 (esp the queers??) so I’m not saying it’s just crips, and not all of us do all these things, but there’s vital wisdom in many communities – especially folx living with change/instability and at odds with normativity and capitalism. – Claire
#WeShallNotBeRemoved
#EndAbleism
#BlackLivesMatter
#BlackDisabledLivesMatter