In-person discussion in a NEW location, same building but new room: 208 Terrell Hall, Portland Community College Cascade Campus, 6:00-8:00pm.

If you would like to participate in real time from your home, by phone or computer, go to http://DisRepresentation.com/ for information on how to access the conversation online!

Also join us at DisRepresentation.com for online discussion of the readings anytime!

EVERYONE IS WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE.

Whether you read everything, one of these pieces, or none of these reading selections, WE WANT YOU HERE!

READINGS FOR JUNE 27 GROUP:

FICTION/POETRY:

Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden is widely available in libraries and bookstores. The text is also available for free on Project Gutenberg. You can also read a copy for free in several accessible formats at the Internet Archive.And there is a free audiobook available on Librivox, read by a human.

Chris Hewitt, Four Poems in Bent:

http://www.bentvoices.org/bentvoices/hewitt_fourpoems.htm

NONFICTION:

Cal Montgomery, “Harry Potter and Separatism” from A Ragged Edge Online: http://www.raggededgemagazine.com/focus/potter0604.html

Renee Martin at Womanist Musings, “You’re cured now right” http://www.womanist-musings.com/2012/02/youre-cured-now-right.html

Garland-Thomson, “Staring at the other,” Disability Studies Quarterly 2005 v. 25 no. 4, http://dsq-sds.org/article/view/610/787

Hel, Black Broken & Bent, “What’s apparent?” http://blackbrokenandbent.wordpress.com/2012/11/01/whats-apparent/

Building Radical Accessible Communities Everywhere, “Inspiration Porn” http://buildingradicalaccessiblecommunities.blogspot.com/2012/02/inspiration-porn.html?zx=39542697836e416b

In the next week we’ll put up concept maps/summaries in accessible language.

To participate in real time online, see http://www.disrepresentation.com/reading-group/

And watch this space for the link to the Blackboard Collaborate session.

Dis/Representation is a program of Disability Art & Culture Project (https://dacphome.org/), Portland Community College Disability Services, Gimp Girl (http://www.gimpgirl.com/) and other community partners!

Portland Community College is an Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity Institution.

This program was made possible in part by grant from Oregon Humanities (OH), a statewide nonprofit organization and independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, which funds OH’s grant programs.

ACCESS:

Contact disabilityartculture@gmail.com with access questions or requests.

Wheelchair accessible

Natural light and (optional) low-flicker fluorescent lighting.

There will be a live captioning stream available through the website to online participants and projected on a screen during the program.

ASL interpreting available by request (please let us know at disabilityartculture@gmail.com).

Accessible by transit (72 bus, within a mile of yellow line Max Killingsworth stop).

Please refrain from wearing scented products.

Gender neutral restrooms available in two accessible adjacent campus buildings.

Armless chairs available.

There is an elevator to the second floor of Terrell Hall and power buttons on the building’s outer doors and restrooms.

Go check it out! http://www.DisRepresentation.com

Find reading lists, access information, and both ongoing online discussion and information on how to join a real-time reading group conversation! Our first in-person reading group is Thursday, May 30, from 6:30-8:30pm in PCC Cascade Campus’s 112 Terrell Hall. Join us in person or online, or start talking over at the DisRepresentation website discussion forum!

Or find our facebook group and join the facebook event for in-person or real-time online reading group discussions!

And tell your friends!

This program was made possible with generous support from Oregon Humanities, and contributions from community partners Portland Community College Disability Services and Gimp Girl, as well as consultation and ongoing support from community experts on everything from reading groups to disability literature.

We are seeking models of any/all body sizes and shapes, genders, disabilities, races, ethnicities, and art or modeling backgrounds. Mobility devices of all kinds are welcome, as are assistive technology, service animals, and personal assistants. If you are interested in becoming a DACP model, please email Stefanie at DACPVisualArt@gmail.com or call Kathy at (503) 238-0723 (voice). You can also contact Stefanie at the open art sessions for more information.

This is a volunteer position. We would eventually like to be able to pay our models a little bit of money for each hour they pose for us. This will be possible if we receive donations from open art session participants. For the time being, however, we cannot guarantee any payment for models. Please let us know if you are interested. We could use someone for Friday, March 8, if you’re ready now!

Thank you for being part of our most successful year yet! You can help us jump-start our work for 2013 by making a tax-deductible gift to DACP before 11:59pm on December 31!

2012 was fantastic for DACP!

We had our second annual Sex, Love, and Disability fundraiser and the fifth Disability Pride Art and Culture Festival since our founding in 2005. The Festival’s theme was the power of art to cultivate social change. We had live performance, panel discussion and a Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop with The-TREE Institute. We are proud to have worked with incredible writers and performers in our community, and with Antoine Hunter, the Oakland-based African American Deaf and Hard of Hearing Choreographer, Dancer, and founder of the Urban Jazz Dance Company. Hunter performed solo dances and worked with local dancers to choreograph and premiere a collaborative piece at the Festival.

In 2012, Aireen Joven was hired as our first ever organizer. She built relationships with individuals and organizations, developed and recruited volunteers, and helped DACP set the stage to run more smoothly. She brought an invaluable artistic and racial justice perspective to her work. Your donation will help us develop new leaders and continue our racial justice work!

Since 2008, Inclusive Arts Vibe has had dance classes at Lynch View Elementary School. This year, Rachel Esteve, IAV Dance Company member, is interning there as an Assistant Dance Teacher. IAV also added dance classes at Alder Creek Middle School, perfomed in the Festival, and were featured performers at the disability-themed Colored Pencils in August. IAVDC welcomed three new dancers this fall, and the company is in rehearsal for their upcoming May performance.

This summer, we organized an online community survey and Community Listening Session at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus. DACP wanted—wants!—to hear from our community. We used what we learned to determine the direction of DACP—regular arts programming, opportunities for cross-cultural listening, continued work on anti-racism, more space for disability art and culture, education within our various diverse communities on racial justice and disability justice and their intersections. We have had rich discussions about art and social justice. The Community Listening Session also featured a presentation by artist Rupert Kinnard on race, disability, sexuality, gender, and art.

In the fall, DACP analyzed survey data, applied for and received partial funding to continue the IAV dance classes, and in November partnered with Story Minders to host Disability Comedy Movie Night. Cheryl Green premiered her film “Friending with Brain Injury!” We had an incredible conversation about disability culture, dark humor, insider/outsider dynamics, and the role of comedy in social justice work. Over fifty people got together for food, conversation, and fun!

We have a lot to look forward to in 2013:

Starting on January 11, 2013, DACP will host an accessible, low-cost life drawing group  every second Friday of the month, at Project Grow. We will break down barriers to disability art and culture making one art session at a time!

In the spring, DACP will partner with GimpGirl, In Other Words, and local and national humanities experts and Disability Studies scholars to launch a Disability Studies reading group! Expect to read academic and non-academic, fiction and nonfiction, works on intersectional disability justice and diverse disability cultures. We’ll have lectures by local and national Disability Studies scholars, and both in-person and online discussions.

We’ve started to plan a springtime art-auction fundraiser for the Inclusive Arts Vibe Dance Company performance with youth art classes facilitated by local artist Lavaun Heaster. And, of course, IAVDC’s recital will be in May!

We’re also tentatively planning a symposium on the intersections of race and disability in visual culture, and a book launch/poetry reading with local poet William Alton. With every event, we further the artistic expression of people with both non-apparent and apparent disabilities, support our communities in understanding disability culture and pride, and help the wider culture reimagine the definition of disability, art, and culture.

We would like to ask you to consider making a personally significant year-end gift to Disability Art and Culture Project to kick off a spectacular new year. To those of you who have given your time and resources, thank you. We accomplished so much this year with volunteer time, donations, and the determination and creative flair that our disability arts community is famous for. We couldn’t have done it without you. All of us at the Disability Art and Culture Project want to thank you for a fantastic 2012, and we look forward to building vibrant disability art and culture with you in 2013 and beyond!

Sincerely,

Kathy Coleman, Artistic Director
Sarah Doherty and Cheryl Green, DACP planning committee

Please come join us to make your own art! We will provide the models, you provide your own art supplies. You can bring anything you’d like. We will have tables and chairs – feel free to bring easels or other supports if you’d like.

This is an opportunity for anyone in the wider Portland community to make art in a social justice-oriented communal space. No teachers or critique provided; open to artists of all levels: beginners, intermediate, advanced; please no photography. The space is physically accessible with two single stall gender neutral bathrooms and sinks available for use. Please refrain from wearing scented products to the open art sessions.

Sliding scale $1-$10, pay what you can, NO ONE TURNED AWAY FOR LACK OF FUNDS. Money goes to support DACP and its events. Interested in being a model for an hour? Have any questions? Contact our volunteer organizer, Stefanie Snider, at DACPVisualArt@gmail.com or at the art session. Or call Kathy at (503) 238-0723. We hope to see you there!

Download and distribute our flier (which has text-based information and an image of art supplies) here: DACP art sessions flier