"According to the last census, one in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some are visible, some are hidden--but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Now, just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, activist Alice Wong brings together an urgent, galvanizing collection of personal essays by contemporary disabled writers. There is Harriet McBryde Johnson's ""Unspeakable Conversations,"" which describes her famous debate with Princeton philosopher Peter Singer over her own personhood. There is columnist s. e. smith's celebratory review of a work of theater by disabled performers. There are original pieces by up-and-coming authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma. There are blog posts, manifestos, eulogies, and testimonies to Congress. Taken together, this anthology gives a glimpse of the vast richness and complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own assumptions and understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and past with hope and love.
""Disability rights activist Alice Wong brings tough conversations to the forefront of society with this anthology. It sheds light on the experience of life as an individual with disabilities, as told by none other than authors with these life experiences. It's an eye-opening collection that readers will revisit time and time again.""-Chicago Tribune
One in five people in the United States lives with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, others less apparent-but all are underrepresented in media and popular culture. Activist Alice Wong brings together this urgent, galvanizing collection of contemporary essays by disabled people,just in time for the thirtieth anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
From Harriet McBryde Johnson's account of her debate with Peter Singer over her own personhood to original pieces by authors like Keah Brown and Haben Girma; from blog posts, manifestos, and eulogies to Congressional testimonies, and beyond- this anthology gives a glimpse into the rich complexity of the disabled experience, highlighting the passions, talents, and everyday lives of this community. It invites readers to question their own understandings. It celebrates and documents disability culture in the now. It looks to the future and the past with hope and love."
Edited by:
Alice Wong
Imprint: Vintage U S
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 203mm,
Width: 132mm,
ISBN: 9781984899422
ISBN 10: 1984899422
Pages: 240
Publication Date: 25 September 2020
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Introduction by Alice Wong PART 1: BEING Unspeakable Conversations Harriet McBryde Johnson For Ki’tay D. Davidson, Who Loves Us Talila A. Lewis If You Can’t Fast, Give Maysoon Zayid There’s a Mathematical Equation That Proves I’m Ugly—Or So I Learned in My Seventh-Grade Art Class Ariel Henley The Erasure of Indigenous People in Chronic Illness Jen Deerinwater When You Are Waiting to Be Healed June Eric-Udorie The Isolation of Being Deaf in Prison Jeremy Woody, as told to Christie Thompson Common Cyborg Jillian Weise I’m Tired of Chasing a Cure Liz Moore PART 2: BECOMING We Can’t Go Back Ricardo T. Thornton Sr. Radical Visibility: A Disabled Queer Clothing Reform Movement Manifesto Sky Cubacub Guide Dogs Don’t Lead Blind People. We Wander as One. Haben Girma Taking Charge of My Story as a Cancer Patient at the Hospital Where I Work Diana Cejas Canfei to Canji: The Freedom of Being Loud Sandy Ho Nurturing Black Disabled Joy Keah Brown Last but Not Least — Embracing Asexuality Keshia Scott Imposter Syndrome and Parenting with a Disability Jessica Slice How to Make a Paper Crane from Rage Elsa Sjunneson Selma Blair Became a Disabled Icon Overnight. Here’s Why We Need More Stories Like Hers. Zipporah Arielle PART 3: DOING Why My Novel Is Dedicated to My Disabled Friend Maddy A. H. Reaume The Antiabortion Bill You Aren’t Hearing About Rebecca Cokley So. Not. Broken. Alice Sheppard How a Blind Astronomer Found a Way to Hear the Stars Wanda Díaz-Merced Incontinence Is a Public Health Issue—And We Need to Talk About It Mari Ramsawakh Falling/Burning: Hannah Gadsby, Nanette, and Being a Bipolar Creator Shoshana Kessock Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time Ellen Samuels Lost Cause Reyma McCoy McDeid On NYC’s Paratransit, Fighting for Safety, Respect, and Human Dignity Britney Wilson Gaining Power through Communication Access Lateef McLeod PART 4: CONNECTING The Fearless Benjamin Lay: Activist, Abolitionist, Dwarf Person Eugene Grant To Survive Climate Catastrophe, Look to Queer and Disabled Folks Patty Berne, as told to and edited by Vanessa Raditz Disability Solidarity: Completing the “Vision for Black Lives” Harriet Tubman Collective Time’s Up for Me, Too Karolyn Gehrig Still Dreaming Wild Disability Justice Dreams at the End of the World Leah Lakshmi Piepzna- Samarasinha Love Means Never Having to Say . . . Anything Jamison Hill On the Ancestral Plane: Crip Hand- Me Downs and the Legacy of Our Movements Stacey Milbern The Beauty of Spaces Created for and by Disabled People s.e. smith About the Editor About the Contributors Further Reading
Alice Wong is a disabled activist, media maker, and research consultant based in San Francisco, California. She is the founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, an online community dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Alice is also the host and co-producer of the Disability Visibility podcast and co-partner in a number of collaborations such as #CripTheVote and Access Is Love. She has been published or featured in The New York Times, Eater, Teen Vogue, the CNN original series United Shades of America, Transom, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, Vice, and BuzzFeed. From 2013 to 2015, Alice served as a member of the National Council on Disability, an appointment by President Barack Obama. You can follow her on Twitter- @SFdirewolf. For more- disabilityvisibilityproject.com.
Reviews for Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century
Alice Wong should be in charge of editing all books. Even better, Alice Wong should be in charge of everything! To Alice, words like 'diversity' and 'intersectionality' aren't just buzzwords. They are marching orders. In this book, she has collected a staggering array of stories from writers who experience disability in vastly different ways. This isn't meant to be THE DEFINITIVE BOOK on disability. It is a doorway, and Alice is inviting us all to go through the doorway and continue our learning process. She even ends the collection with a bibliography that extends far beyond your standard reading list. Whether you currently consider yourself part of the disability community or not, you're gonna want to take in the wisdom woven throughout this book. Now more than ever, our society desperately needs to listen to and take action on the changes disabled artists and activists have been demanding for so long. I am lucky she is my friend. --W. Kamau Bell, host of United Shades of America These essays are the heart, the bones, and the blood of Disability Rights. They honestly bare the joys, pleasures, sorrows, anger, frustrations, fears, and hope of real-life, complete human beings. Disability Visibility offers its readers the chance to open their minds, re-train their hearts, and raise their expectations of society. It is one grounding stone on the path to true liberation and acceptance for human beings in all their glorious variations. Alice Wong delicately arranges these gems--the brilliant hues, the unique contours, and the sharp edges--to create a beautiful mosaic of disability. --Gaelynn Lea, musician and activist As a Deaf Asian American, it wasn't until recent years that I started considering myself disabled. These stories validated many complicated experiences I had while growing up and felt fully relatable. When did I realize I deserved a better future? When did I stop feeling the need to assimilate? When did I become radicalized by ableism? There are many ways to be disabled and even though we aren't offered many platforms to present ourselves, we exist and we want to write our own history. This is a very informed starting point for anyone who, like myself, would like to get a better understanding of disability as a massive and beautifully nuanced spectrum. --Christine Sun Kim, artist If we're going to talk about diversity in earnest then we must acknowledge the contributors in Alice Wong's anthology and how their essays encapsulate intersectional dialogue, intellectual thought, and intimate details. Disability Visibility is the perfect name for this collection because the authors words resound loudly and deserve to be heard. Books like this showcase why change is needed, what needs to be part of the larger political consciousness, and who is often left out of the conversation. This book is a celebration and a source of deep education for many to bear witness (and feel seen by) the vastness of disabled stories, voices, and backgrounds. --Jennifer Baker, editor of Everyday People: The Color of Life--A Short Story Anthology Wong's discerning selections, bolstered by the activism that shines through, will educate and inspire readers. --Kirkus Reviews
