| Young, disabled and LGBT+ | |||
| UK Disability History Month 2017 Postscript | |||
| 23.11.17 | ‘Disorder’s Avatar’? Literature, Culture, and the Politics of Disability Representation | Oxford University | 17:00 |
| 24.11.17 | Friday 24th November London Metropolitan Archives | London Metropolitan Archives | |
| 28.11.17 | Blindness, Art and Disability Gain: exploring ways of seeing and not seeing in the art gallery | Oxford Brookes | 18:00 |
| 29.11.17 | Disability History, Bleeding Hearts and Parasite People’ a Distinguished Visitor Lecture with Mike Oliver, Thursday 29 November 2017 | University of Kent, Canterbury | 18:00 |
| Until 8.12.17 | Disabled photographer, Kev Howard’s exhibition d-FORMED | Teesside University, Middlesbrough | 8am–6pm |
Events and Displays
UK Disability History Month 2017 Postscript
This years theme of Visual Art and Disability has been a great success.
We produced and distributed 2,300 copies of the 12 page Broadsheet. http://ukdhm.org/2017-broadsheet/
We had a 2 page article in Septembers issue of the Teacher that goes to 375,000 teachers
We held a successful day conference on 21st October with 55 participants from all over the country with Tony Heaton, Tanya Raabe
-Webber, Barbara Lisciki, Richard Rieser and Sarah Dormer of NDACA and a film from Alison Lapper-all on the website http://ukdhm.org/2017-day-conference
We worked with Shape and NDACA to produce 4 animations about the Disability Arts Movement and activities and resource sheets on these animations http://ukdhm.org/disability-arts-movement-in-uk/
We produced a timeline and 50 visual essays of artists who were disabled or featured disabled subjects or both http://ukdhm.org/2017-timeline/
We delivered and filmed a KS3 and 4 assembly http://ukdhm.org/disability-and-art-secondary-assembly-presentation/
We delivered a KS 1 and KS 2 assembly with power points http://ukdhm.org/disability-visual-arts-ks1-ks2-assemblies/
We held a launch event in THE UK PARLIAMENT on 21st November with Marc Quinn and John McDonnell MP
with Tony Heaton, Tanya Raabe-Webber, Barbara Lisciki, Richard Rieser http://ukdhm.org/launch-event-2017
The National Union of Students distributed our material and the of their own postcards of strong disabled women leaders to many colleges. This was backed up by many colleges holding events with members of UCU-The college Lecturers Union
Some schools held art competitions
Events were held at Kent University, The Metropolitan Archive, Brighton, Bedford, Leeds, Manchester, Wakefield . Unite the Union and the TUC and many others.
Our theme for 2018 will be Disability and Music. Start thinking and planning now. We will cover disabled musicians and composers, Music that has featured disability story lines and librettos. How the social model of disability in music leads to reasonable adjustmemnts and Music and the Disability Arts Movement.
Contact the Coordinator, Richard Rieser with ideas and information rlrieser@gmail.com 0207 359 2855 or Mobile 07715420727
Young, disabled and LGBT+
Young, disabled and LGBT+
Based on new research by British Academy award holder Alex Toft and colleagues at Coventry University, we look at the challenges young disabled LGBT+ people face growing up in Britain today. Join for an evening of talks, workshops and discussions.
Speakers include:
Dr Alex Toft Senior Research Assistant, Centre for Technology Enabled Health Research. Coventry University
Part of LGBT History Month.
Date/time: Wed 28 Feb, 6.30-8.30pm
Venue: British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, SW1Y 5AH
Price: FREE, booking required https://www.britac.ac.uk/events/young-disabled-and-lgbt 
Disabled photographer, Kev Howard’s exhibition d-FORMED
Saltburn-based Kev Howard’s social documentary and observational photography has reached global audiences for more than a decade. He’s photographed hundreds of bands, poets, artists and demonstrations in that time – with a photo of Benjamin Zephaniah appearing in The Independent, and his photo of Saltburn-based writer Carmen Marcus gracing the cover of her critically acclaimed debut novel How Saints Dieearlier this summer.
Howard is also an accomplished musician, and has travelled the world as a didgeridoo player, appearing in an Australian Rock Opera plus festivals in Holland, Germany, Belgium and America.
Howard’s latest solo exhibition d-FORMED, help attract nearly 30,000 visitors to Middlesbrough’s Dorman Museum at the beginning of 2017. Following the positive response, Teesside University’s Constantine Gallery will be exhibited the work.
The exhibition sees Howard turn the camera on himself, exploring his lived experience of Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC) – a term used to describe over 300 conditions that cause multiple curved joints in areas of the body at birth. Howard has had 55 major operations as a result of AMC. With each new operation shifting his centre of balance, it’s meant that Howard has had to learn to walk 22 times.
What inspired you to put this exhibition together?
“A whole range of things really, everything from growing up in a generation where, in my opinion, disability rights are often just given lip service. So I decided to chart my own history, found that my body has its own story to tell, and the exhibition is based around that.
The reaction to the exhibition earlier this year was incredibly positive and, amidst all the uplifting feedback, it’s inspired Louise Logan to work with me on this Teesside University display. Louise is a PhD student whose work explores the varying different perceptions of disability, and she is inviting members of the public to join a focus group to help aid her research.
In doing so, she’s helped transform the exhibition into a project that may, somewhere along the line, help make a difference to the way that millions of disabled people are treated in future generations. She has already established focus groups with some students, but is keen to attract people from the wider community to get as broad a mix of opinions and perceptions as possible.”
Talk us through some of the exhibition, and the inspiration behind the photos.
The Mask
“This was the last thing I always saw before being anaesthetised for surgery. It instilled great fear and panic, which intensified up to the age of 8. The anaesthetic gas smelled ferrous and toxic. I knew the next stage was like the sound of a billion bees buzzing inside my head, and then a kaleidoscope of colours which came from nowhere. Then I remember a deep blackness, which fell into a pinpoint of circular light. At 8 years old my mindset changed, and the fear was replaced by a sense of ‘adventure,’ a coping mechanism that stayed with me right the way through to the very last surgery.”
- Kev Howard Scarification in Abstract. Photo by Kev Howard. Assistant Clare Hansford.
- Kev Howard. Thin Red Line. Photo by Kev Howard. Assistant Clare Hansford.
Scarification in Abstract:
“This image highlights the scarification of multiple surgeries in the same area. This part of the foot has areas of hypersensitivity and extreme nerve damage.I really wanted to show the sensual curvature of the foot, but also the extremes within one scar. Where the scar finishes it is light, hardly noticeable. But, just a couple of inches away, it is heavy, gnarly and extreme, with an almost reptilian-like texture.”
Thin Red Line:
“This a very simple image that represents one of the most severe surgeries that I’ve had. The area was operated on 22 times over a nine-year period, and turned the bottom part of my left leg from facing backwards to facing forwards.A complex set of procedures involved the breaking and resetting of individual bones within the foot and leg, and completely removing the fibula, allowing the limb to be gradually rotated over a period of years. This image obviously downplays the severity of the procedure. And by this point, aged 8, I had adopted a coping strategy of ‘adventure’ instead of fear when it came to surgery.”
Abstract d-FORMED:
“Here, I’ve hidden the flesh with various coloured latex and photographed it against a plain coloured backdrop, basically showing the limbs in coloured sculptural forms. I’m also expressing that, although we all have this basic form, some of us are very different in terms of our body shape – and asks people to think about why we often see beauty as skin deep or not.
“Basically, we live in an age when what is perceived as ‘normal’ is, by and large, unobtainable by the majority of people. We are constantly being fed images of a particular body shape and size, which is having a major effect in society in terms of self-esteem, well-being and acceptance. Thankfully, more and more people in the public eye are fighting back against this body-shaming and having to be ‘perfect’ all the time. We need to accept who and what we are in terms of how we look, and celebrate our own individual self.”
Blood on Their…
“It was great to see Prince Harry and Barack Obama at the Invictus Games and, like the Paralympics, to see disabled people and their athletic achievements shining out on the world stage. But it would be even better to have the same level of equality and social inclusion that everybody else can take for granted on a day-to-day basis.
This image is my own response to both this and the previous Government’s lambasting of people with impairments, ill health and mental health issues – something that cuts across all the main parties. Successive policies and cuts in funding, particularly the loss of the Independent Living Fund and mental health budgets, have created an ongoing crisis for people in need of support.
“This is not only causing needless stress and anxiety to some of the most vulnerable people in our society, but people are actually dying as a result! Due to changes in the welfare system and the cruel use of sanctions, over 2,800 vulnerable people died within six weeks of a Work Capability Assessment from January 2011 to February 2014. And in the same period, around 10,600 people died within six months of being found ‘fit for work.’ Those figures had to be dragged out of the Government and, if anything, the situation is getting much worse.
“In fact, earlier this summer the UN described the Government’s welfare cuts as creating a ‘human catastrophe’ for disabled people in the UK. The thing is, everyone can see this if they look closely enough so, if Prince Harry and Barack Obama would fancy banging a few politician’s heads together and actually making a real difference, I’d be very happy to sit down with them and have a chat about this. Anyone got their number? No?”
Kev Howard’s d-FORMED is on at Constantine Gallery, ground floor of Middlesbrough Tower at Teesside University, Middlesbrough. Wednesday 15 November until Friday 8 December. 8am-6pm. Free admission.
From Disability Arts on line 14th November 2017
‘Disorder’s Avatar’? Literature, Culture, and the Politics of Disability Representation
‘Disorder’s Avatar’? Literature, Culture, and the Politics of Disability Representation
23 November 17:00
Lecture Theatre 2, English Faculty, St Cross Building, Oxford
Dr Clare Barker (University of Leeds)
The English Faculty is pleased to host a special lecture to mark UK Disability History Month.
The event will be followed by a drinks reception in the Faculty foyer. All are welcome.
Blindness, Art and Disability Gain: exploring ways of seeing and not seeing in the art gallery
Blindness, Art and Disability Gain:
exploring ways of seeing and not seeing in the art gallery
Tuesday 28 November at 6pm in Chakrabarti Room (JHB 208), Headington Campus
Oxford Brookes celebrates Disability History Month with a talk by Dr Hannah Thompson of Royal Holloway, University of London.
For this interactive talk Hannah will draw on her research, activism and personal experience to explore and question what it means to see and not see in the art gallery.
What does a non-visual experience of art feel like?
What happens when visitors are encouraged to smell, touch and listen to visual art?
What can blindness teach the sighted world about art appreciation?
The event is being organised by the Staff Disability Network and Equality Diversity and Inclusion team to mark national Disability History Month.
Booking here: WHAT’S ON
https://goo.gl/forms/k47j9K2FN
Dr Hannah Thompson is a Reader in French prose and a critical disability studies specialist at Royal Holloway, University of London. She has published widely on nineteenth and twentieth-century French literature and alongside disability, she is particularly interested in issues of gender, sexuality and the body.
Hannah’s blog Blindspot is based on her experience as a partially blind academic.
http://hannah-thompson.blogspo
Friday 24th November London Metropolitan Archives
Friday 24th November
London Metropolitan Archives 40 Northampton Road London EC1R 0HB
Tel: 020 7332 3851
An exciting programme of presentations and workshops will open up our understanding and perceptions of impairment, disability and the lived experience of people from the past. What are our sources and how do they get created? What do they tell us? What don’t they tell us? Could they be misleading us? Come and join the big debate.
Teas and coffees will be served. Please note there are no food catering facilities on-site. You are welcome to bring a picnic.
Taking Stock: The Third LMA Disability History Conference
24 November 11:00-15:30
London Metropolitan Archives 40 Northampton Road, London, EC1R 0HB
Speakers
Geoff Pick Director London Metropolitan Archives
Impairment, Disability and Archives. Looking to the future.
Louise Bell First World War Diverse Histories Researcher The National Archives
“Maimed and not fit for manual labour?” Employment opportunities and prostheses for those disabled in the war
Stephanie Evelyn-Wright PHD Candidate University of Southampton
Grave Afflictions Stories of Disability from Skeletons
Sally Bevan Senior Archivist London Metropolitan Archives
Introducing the Heart n Soul’s Big 30 Project Collection
The Rt Hon. the Lord Blunkett
The importance of archives for uncovering and preserving the history of disability
Stephanie Evelyn-Wright PHD Candidate University of Southampton
Grave Afflictions Stories of Disability from Skeletons
Amy Oulton, Graphic Designer, Campaigner and Traveller
Amy is a wheelchair user who spent three months backpacking across Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Japan with her friend Steph. Find out what she experienced and discovered on this amazing journey
Workshops. Choose A or B:
- Project Building. How can good heritage ideas get turned into an effective and engaging project which contributes to our histories
- The Ethical Dilemma Cafe. A chance to discuss some of the ethical concerns around creating collections, offering access and public engagement
Disability History, Bleeding Hearts and Parasite People’ a Distinguished Visitor Lecture with Mike Oliver, Thursday 29 November 2017
The lecture will be taking place on Wednesday 29 November 2017 in the Darwin Conference Suite at the University of Kent, Canterbury at 18.00.
There will also be a drinks reception in the Conference Suite at 17.30 with a buffet to follow on from the lecture. Please find attached your official invitation to attend this lecture, drinks reception and buffet.
The lecture will conclude with a Q&A session. If you would ask a question beforehand please email events@kent.ac.uk
Professor Mike Oliver is an academic, author and disability rights activist, having undertaken research in this area since the 1970s as one of the key figures in developing researchers’ and society’s perception of disability. He is Emeritus Professor of Disability Studies at the University of Greenwich with focus on advocating the social model of disability and the rights of people with impairments.
I would be grateful if you could RSVP to Klair Robinson, Corporate Events Office by phone: 01227 823098 or email: events@kent.ac.uk including any special dietary/mobility requirements you may have by Wednesday 22 November 2017.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any enquiries about this event.
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