By Liam O'Dell — 2021
On her debut album The Cycle, the Shropshire singer-songwriter takes on a ‘broken system’ that underestimates the vibrancy of disabled lives.
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CLEAR ALL
We’ve been taught to refer to people with disabilities using person-first language, but that might be doing more harm than good.
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In the beginning, it was difficult to let myself rest, even with the ultimate doctor’s note. I felt like I still had to push past my (extremely limited) capabilities. I had to practice slowing down and allowing my frailties to become visible even when I had the choice to hide them.
This is not about meeting criteria and ticking boxes, it’s about finally creating the generous, plural and radical art world that many of us want and need.
The ongoing dialogue I have with my own perspective and emotions is the biggest job I’ve ever undertaken. Exploring this internal give-and-take forces me to grow in surprising ways.
Often, disabled people have their disability treated, but they don’t have their emotional or spiritual needs addressed.
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Depression and suicidal ideation are more likely among people with disabilities due to factors like abuse, isolation, and stressors related to poverty, among others.
Adults with disabilities report experiencing frequent mental distress almost 5 times as often as adults without disabilities.
Society prefers I talk about how I overcame my obstacles rather than the injustices I face within a world that is not built around the needs of the disabled community.
It is no doubt that NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are changing the way we view, buy and sell art, but are they also having a hand in the way that we define Disability? The medium has opened up doors for artists who have previously been marginalized and restricted from getting rich off their own art.
At Documenta 14, the 2017 edition of the touted art festival that takes place once every five years in Kassel, it was an artist heretofore unknown to much of the art world who stole the show: Lorenza Böttner, a German painter, dancer, and performance artist who, in the ’80s and ’90s, began...