Celebrating Future Leaders of the Disability Community: The Youth in Action Award Ceremony

            This year’s Youth Leadership Award Ceremony, presented by the Oakland Mayor’s Commission on Persons with Disabilities (MCPD), took place in Oakland on Wednesday, October 24^th. Speakers at the ceremony included Oakland Mayor Jean Quan; Chairperson of the MCPD Stephen Beard; keynote speaker from the Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program (BORP) and Power Soccer coach Chris Finn; and the Vice-Chair of MCPD, Denise Jacobson, who provided closing remarks.

 

            The highlights of the evening were the honorees: Alison Boswell, Charlly Bun, Atasha Clay, Jessica Cruz, Emanuel Essell Jr., Kie Fugii, Giovanna “Gigi” Gisom, Christy Levine, Aaron Lo, Ana Revolorio Crespo, and Bria Swenson. I had the opportunity to speak with them and have included summaries of the interviews that I conducted:

 

            Alison Boswell (California Children’s Services) is an energetic community leader who was referred to the Youth Leadership Program by her California Children’s Services therapist. For two years, she’s been participating in monthly meetings of the Youth Leadership Program. Alison has also developed a power point presentation about how to go about hiring in-home support staff, and her advice includes asking applicants if they care about the job for which they’re applying. Another tip that Alison has is to make sure workers have a reliable means of transportation. With all the activism that Alison is involved with, she credits her organizational skills to the use of e-mail; developing a task list; and maintaining a calendar. She is also grateful for the family support she receives. Alison’s ambition is to become a disability activist.

            Charlly Bun (Community Immersion Program) has been volunteering with a variety of community organizations since high school. Charlly has learned from his volunteer experience how to follow directions and to work with others as a team. He’s learned to cope with challenging situations by taking each task one step at a time and being patient.

            Atasha Clay (Holy Names High School) got involved with LINK as a freshman in high school. Through LINK, an on-campus organization, she has volunteered at St. Anthony’s and currently visits middle schools as a mentor. When asked how she supports these students, Atasha says she helps them with study techniques and how to ask the teachers for help. She also stresses that it’s important for them to keep their grades up and to maintain a positive attitude.

            Christy Levine (Bay Area Outreach and Recreation Program, BORP) is an amazing young woman who was able to push her chair up to the top of Vernal Falls. She said that the trek was tiring and slippery. Christy believes that there is opportunity to be found in even the direst circumstances, and that taking advantage of [the occasion] can make [life] worth while. When discussing her sports endeavors, she says that her fellow basketball players all work together and push each other to succeed.

            The Youth in Action Conference is a celebration of the drive and determination of today’s youth to make a difference within the disability community. The conference was well-attended and truly served to honor these young leaders of tomorrow. Award ceremonies like the Youth in Action Conference are necessary to recognize the achievements of a community that is often overlooked. This conference helps to improve the activism and morale of youth with disabilities, both increasing their visibility and demonstrating that their struggles can effect change.

On October 3rd, I attended a performance of Sins Invalid at the Brava Theater. I first heard about the show in 2006 from various members of the disabled community. Everyone I discussed this performance with had praised and hailed it for a raw view of sexuality and disability, and I was eager to see what all the fuss was about.

The variety of performances and acceptance of myriad artistic expressions can make it hard to pinpoint a particular focus for any theatrical production; however, this variety makes Sins that much richer and doesn’t take away from the power of the performances. Multimedia, spoken word, dance and episodic plays all contributed to the richness of this dynamic evening. Antoine-DeVinci Hunter utilized the entire stage to show the audience how he moves through the world, incorporating deaf culture and experience into his modern dance performances. The introduction to Sins Invalid was a kickboxing piece performed by Mat Fraser, who is brutalized by an invisible opponent. Fraser’s taunters are a continuous loop of fighting sounds and insults focused on his ability to be perceived as a sexually attractive being due to his disability. One particularly evocative piece, involving cofounder Leroy Moore and contributor Seely Quest, dealt with the medical perception of disability and its intersection with erotic fantasies.

An African American male patient in street clothes enters the scene of what appears to be a doctor’s office for his yearly exam, followed by a person dressed in a donkey suit carrying a video camera that remains focused on the patient throughout the performance. A Caucasian female doctor, dressed in a white lab coat, orders the patient to take a seat and undress, watching with increasing interest as the patient slowly removes his clothes to reveal a leather sadomasochism harness. An examination takes place with the doctor using medical tools to stimulate the patient’s erogenous zones, opening up questions of the medical community’s perception of disability as novelty.

Who has control in the scene is ambiguous—that the patient is wearing a harness implies a certain level of consent and subservience, with the dialogue reaffirming this dynamic. Throughout the piece the patient is heard to respond, “Yes doctor,” with what can be perceived as lust or longing. Among other questions, the doctor asks how many sexual encounters the patient has had in the last year and whether the patient’s disability lends him advantages during sex, reframing disability as a normative and potentially preferred sexual attribute. At one point the doctor puts a horse’s bit in the patient’s mouth, referencing the common practice during slavery of forcing men to wear bridles and move loads like animals. The S&M harness that the patient wears also further illustrates the perception that he is property rather than a full person.

The piece is brilliant—it comments on the audience as an animal of lust and opens the conversation to sadomasochism and questions of power and control. I would watch it again, but I understand that the performance would be difficult for some to watch. I respect this act for being a nuanced commentary on our society’s aversions to disability, race, and gender expressions outside of the accepted norm.

The variety of different performances encompassed in this one evening allowed Sins Invalid to cover a broad spectrum of disability. Sins Invalid succeeded in exposing the audience to the fact that there is more to disability than just doctors and diagnoses, stressing that it is possible and vital for this community to have sexuality fully incorporated into everyday life.

Approaches to Blogging

In the Summer of 2001, I took a Fables and Tales class. The professor showed us a film about an African prince who was destined to rule his kingdom. However, he had been born with weak legs, which meant that he had to use a wooden cane to get around. According to the tale, he would not be able to become King if he did not teach himself to walk without his cane. As the movie progresses, by sheer will he makes himself able to walk, and therefore is able to take his rightful place as King. Viewing this film made me feel very angry and upset, particularly because the instructor of the class never once raised the issue that this film could be viewed as discriminatory against a certain group. I was feeling so appalled about this film that I couldn't even formulate a good argument or response as to why this film portrayed a degrading view of disability. After exiting from his class, I took the anger and sadness I was feeling, went to the San Francisco State Library, and checked out at least three books on the portrayal of disability in film. Thus began my awareness that images like what I had seen in this film were not common.

Fast forward to 2002. I enrolled in my second broadcasting class. where my semester-long project was to write a paper on any subject related to media. My first thought was to organize a research paper about the portrayal of disability in television. This topic pulled at my heartstring, because for me it was a continuation of what I had started on when I checked out books on the portrayal of people with disabilities in film. 

Now I have created blogs based on one central purpose, which is to assess the continuum of positive to negative characterizations of people with disabilities on television. I hope you enjoy what I've written on the next few pages.

Thank you for supporting The Revolution 2008

10/5/08

Dear friends and family,

Thank you for all of your generous donations to BORP Revolution 2008. Your help assisted me in reaching my goal of having the entry money needed to ride in the 10k.

I purchased a brand spankin' new bike this year and rode that in the Revolution. As you may or may not know I have been spending most of this year researching bicycles and finally came across Bay Trail Trikes, a bike vendor. Bay Trail Trikes is owned by Steve Schwartz. I tried several models before deciding oon a recumbent trike which has 2 wheels in the front and one wheel in the back. My new bike is about 50 lbs. lighter than my old one. It weights about 25 lbs.

How The Ride Went

On the Friday before the Revolution my parents and I piled the trike, a bike, and a scooter into the van and left for Sonoma at about 7 pm. The next morning over breakfast my mom discussed the lengths of the rides and suggested that it would be best if I ride in the 10k route instead of the 25 mile route. She pointed out that I was still getting used to my trike and hadn't done enough hill training before the race.

Mom rode the scooter with me on the 10k. On the way back we ran into Steve from Bay Trail Trikes. He and I rode together and discussed bikes. Steve helped me navigate and took photos of me along the way! He taught me about shifting gears: which gear to shift when. He was very patient with me. He told me that he had meet with the enge\ineer of my trike and was interested in collaborating with him on a trike designed for those with less leg strength. 

The Revolution organizers wanted everyone to finish by noon so we could all eat together. My dad joined us for lunch after he had finished the 25 mile ride. It was interesting to look at all the participants in the dining hall. I reflected on the fact the people there belonged to a totally different typical "ambassadors" of the disabled community. The participants in the Revolution belong to the community that is completely active. They were in shape and obviously worked out.

I got to talk to my power soccer coach whom I hadn't seen for over 15 years. I wanted to give her the link to my web page but didn't get the chance. 

I just put this web page up and would like all of you to check it out and give me some feedback about it.

Well, until next year!

Thank you, 

Edana