DVP 2018: Year in Review

Hello friends! This has been an exciting year both personally and professionally for me. I am astonished at how the Disability Visibility Project® has grown and evolved since 2014. Many of the DVP’s activities this year wouldn’t have been possible without YOU. A big thank you to all of you:

• The organizations and individuals who partnered with the DVP such as Rooted in Rights, Nicola Griffith with #CripLit, Andrew Pulrang and Gregg Beratan with #CripTheVote, and s.e. smith and Vilissa Thompson with DisabledWriters.com
• Cheryl Green, Sarika Mehta, and Geraldine Ah-Sue who co-audio produced episodes of my podcast making each episode sparkly and accessible
• Facebook group members who participated in conversations and spent time and labor writing image descriptions to some of my posts in a collective effort creating an accessible online environment, including Heather Watkins and Denise DiNoto, volunteer moderators of the DVP Facebook group*
• Listeners of the Disability Visibility podcast
• People who recorded their oral histories for the Disability Visibility Project at StoryCorps or using the StoryCorps app
• Artists such as Jee Hei Park and Megan Lynch who created art in collaboration with Mia Mingus that supports the DVP
• People who purchased Unapologetically Disabled and Believe Disabled People merch from the DVP online store  
• People who ordered and read the Resistance and Hope anthology, the first e-book published by the DVP
• People who shared stories and content from the DVP with their classes, organizations, or friends and family
• People who donated to the DVP

Below are a few highlights of what I’ve done this year as an individual and for the Disability Visibility Project. If you have the means, I hope you will consider making a donation and support my work in creating and amplifying disability media and culture via PayPal or Patreon. Together, we can build the world we want and deserve.

With gratitude,

Alice

DVP in 2018

Publications

– Published and edited Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People available on Amazon and free in multiple formats on Smashwords on October 2018 featuring 16 essays by 17 disabled activists, writers, and artists. Check out these two recent reviews by Diane R. Wiener in Wordgathering and M. Subramanian for VIDA Women in Literary Arts.

– Wrote about the California wildfires for Curbed SF, plastic straw bans and accessibility for Eater, an essay on the visibility of Senator Tammy Duckworth as a disabled mother of color for Bitch Media, an article about HR 620 and disability rights and one about representation of disabled people in entertainment for Teen Vogue.

– Published 5 oral histories of Sky Cubacub, Judith Heumann, Antoine Hunter, Jennifer Justice, and Ing Wong-Ward, in partnership with StoryCorps. 

– Published 3 guest blog posts by Ashley Kenyon-Petit, Noor Pervez, and Rosie Sachtschale.

– Published 10 Q&As with the following people for the DVP website:

• Nadia Shammas about her Corpus Comics Anthology in February

• Neera R. Jain about medical education and students with disabilities in March

• Holly Pearson, Lydia X.Z. Brown, and Sharon daVanport about the Disability & Intersectionality Summit in May

• Nicola Griffith about her latest novel, So Lucky, in May

• Gann Academy students on disability history in the US: Anna Caine, Tal Chafetz, Teddy Bennett, and Daniel Rabinovitz in June

• Arjun Singh Sethi and Dominick Evans in about Arjun’s book American Hate: Survivors Speak Out in August

• Belo Cipriani about his new anthology, Firsts: Coming of Age Stories by People with Disabilities in October

Podcast

– Produced and hosted 26 episodes of the Disability Visibility podcast (episodes 15-40) with co-audio producers Cheryl Green, Geraldine Ah-Sue, and Sarika Mehta. Check out the latest one featuring an interview with writer/journalist Keah Brown.

Media

– Appeared on United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell on CNN, Season 3, Episode 4, “The Disability Community,” on May 20, 2018.

– Featured in the Bitch 50, a list recognizing the most impactful creators, artists, and activists in pop culture influential feminists by Bitch Media and Colorline’s 20 X 20, a group of transformative leaders reimagining what it means to advance racial justice.

Presentations and Talks

– Gave the 2018 Longmore lecture at the Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability in April: “Storytelling as Activism: The Politics of Disability Visibility”

– Co-presented a workshop with Dominick Evans, s.e. smith, and Vilissa Thompson in July on reproductive justice and disabled people for Planned Parenthood’s Power of Pink Convening in Detroit, Michigan [Workshop presentation slides and syllabus]

Twitter Chats

– Co-hosted 5 #CripLit Twitter chats with Nicola Griffith and guest hosts on a number of subjects for disabled writers on disability in literature and publishing  

– Co-hosted 14 #CripTheVote Twitter chats with Gregg Beratan, Andrew Pulrang, and guest hosts on political participation and the disability community

– Co-hosted 3 #DOnetwork chats with the Disability Organizing Network, a program of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers on advocacy for Californians with disabilities

– Co-hosted #CareChat discussion with Caring Across Generations on care work, families, and interdependence in November

– Co-hosted #FundDisAdvocacy chat with Ingrid Tischer, Ryan Easterly, Irma D. Herrera, and Noorain F. Khan on philanthropy and disability advocacy in October

– Co-hosted #DisabledMamas chat with Rooted in Rights celebrating Mother’s Day in May

– Co-hosted #BlackDisabilityHistory chat with Vilissa Thompson, Imani Barbarin, and Neal Carter in February

– Co-hosted #MeToo and the Disability Community chat with Rooted in Rights in February

For more about the DVP in 2018: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/in-the-news/

*After four years I decided to shut down and archive the DVP Facebook group on December 17. It was a good run while it lasted!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!