Individual Stories

These are the stories of everyday people with disabilities living in the South. Join them as they share their stories of struggle, success, of fighting for rights and finding love.

Today, most people in the disability community are somewhat familiar with the story of the disability rights movement. You had Judy Heumann, Ed Roberts, some sit-ins, and people in wheelchairs climbing the front steps of the Capitol building. And then, poof! We had rights. But there’s a lot more to any civil rights movement than a couple of protests. It’s not just about getting angry — or stuffing that anger deep down inside day after day so people will take you seriously. Because in order to get angry, in order for people to want to rise above oppressive circumstances, they need to know in their hearts that they deserve better. They need to learn to take pride in what the world tells them is a flaw.

 

    The kids who later went on to become disability rights activists like Judy human learned that pride at summer camp. If you’ve seen the movie crypt camp, you know the story. A bunch of disabled kids from New York went to this camp together, a camp with very unorthodox approaches to disability. The employees treated the campers like peers, after all, most summer camp employees are teenagers themselves anyway. The camp eventually hired people with disabilities in leadership roles, and they provided a space for people with disabilities to talk openly about the things that bothered them. Because they had that outlet to be treated like and have community in the way typical people do, the campers gained that awareness that they were capable of more. Society is what was standing in their way.

 

    Not everybody has a utopian summer camp to go to. As Alabamians, we have some great options for Summer camps and recreational activities, but you can’t get away with what you could in the 60s. It’s seen as a liability to let us have a moment to ourselves, much less party like it’s Woodstock. Most events for disabled people are pretty structured, it’s easier to manage that way, but it doesn’t give us a lot of time to have any epiphanies about the state of the world. One way advocates have sought to bring people together and open their eyes is through music and art.

 

    Admittedly, a lot of what I’ll cover here is focused on the UK, though many of these artists had an international impact. The style of music that dominated the disability arts movement, as it was called, also takes inspiration from the folk and country music originated in the South. I won’t claim to be an expert on the disability arts movement. According to the National disability arts collection and archive website, it began in the 70s, and I wasn’t born until the 2000s. However, it was artists in this movement that provided a huge amount of inspiration to me as I started navigating my disabled identity in high school. 

 

    My introduction to disability arts was through Liz Carr, a comedian, actress, and activist who shares a diagnosis with me (though her type of arthrogryposis is very different). Liz uses her comedy to discuss taboo topics associated with disability, like sexuality and ableism. Through Liz, I learned of other artists in her generation who use their platform to speak out against ableism and encourage people to take pride in themselves. Musician And actor Karen Sheader told the stories of people with developmental disabilities through her songs, and provided people with intellectual and developmental disabilities a platform to create films through shoot your mouth off films. The company is still actively making content on YouTube, with disabled people in front of and behind the camera. Another musician and one of my favorites is Alan Holdsworth, stage name Johnny Crescendo, who has an album literally called pride. His folksy music tackles topics such as the right to live where you want, the right to get married and have kids, and self-love. Together with his friend and another musician I admire, Ian Stanton, Holdsworth formed the Tragic But Brave Show. Their band traveled across the UK, to the US, and to Canada, and even performed at Glastonbury! 

 

    Some people contribute to the movement for a better world through meeting with politicians or attending protests. The artists I’ve mentioned here all did their fair share of on the groundwork, from working with ADAPT in the US to leading demonstrations in the UK, they were anything but idle. Holdsworth was active with ADAPT just last month in the fight to protect Medicaid. But the fact that a lonely teenager in rural Alabama managed to find their work, was so inspired by it, that they run this website, says a lot about the role of music and art in the lives of oppressed people. From Frida Kahlo to James Baldwin, artists have been inspiring people to love themselves and fight for a better future throughout history. It’s through these seeds that we find our voices and seek out our beautiful community.

 

Karen Sheader’s music:https://soundcloud.com/user3356865

 

Shoot your mouth off films:https://www.youtube.com/@symofilms

 

Johnny Crescendo's music: Choices and Rights (Original)

 

National Disability Arts Collection and Archive: https://the-ndaca.org/the-people/