KPFA - Pushing Limits

Our governor is racing through the legislature with a bill that will bring huge changes in how homeless people are treated in California.  The so-called Care Court bill is quickly moving through the committees in both senate and assembly without a single “no” vote.  The people who are saying “no” are disability and homeless advocates who are united in calling this an unacceptable racist and classist plan that will harm the very people it claims it will help.

In this program, two of the people who best understand the perils of the Care Court Bill will tell us why it has caused such fury.  Both have lived expertise in mental health and the criminal justice system and one of them was homeless for almost a decade.

Vanessa Ramos serves on Disability Rights California’s Public Policy team.  She is the Co-Founder of The Healing Heart Project. She brings her experience navigating both the justice and public mental health system as a person living with disabilities to her work.  She shapes policies and create positive outcomes rooted in self-advocacy for people with disabilities. Inspired by her peer mentor, Tina Wooton, Vanessa is focused on implementing wellness strategies within California’s peer mental health workforce and the prison system.  She is a harm reductionist.

Malini Olono lives with complex PTSD, spent nearly a decade in homelessness, and jailed for the non-crime of being human without a home.  Before and during the Reagan years, she worked as a psych tech with people living with psychosis.  She has seen both sides of this issue.

Join the campaign to stop this bill.  Tell your state senators and assembly members about your opposition and ask every organization you support to join the opposition coalition.  Contact Vanessa Ramos at Disability Rights California to sign on: [email protected]

Western Regional Advocacy Project’s Statement on the CARECourt.

Produced by Adrienne Lauby and Jacob Lesner-Buxton.

The post CARE Court Equals Oppression – Pushing Limits – July 1, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

Disability Activists in Berkeley made history in 1972 when they opened the first Independent Living Center in the country.  All U.S. states and territories now have multiple Independent Living Centers.

Numerous people have served as Executive Directors of the Berkeley Center as the organization weathered ups and downs, grown and survived.  In April of this year Ted Jackson was appointed the new Executive Director.

Ted Jackson is a disability advocate, LGBTQ activist, accessibility consultant, and former political operative with three decades of experience working in grassroots social justice, electoral and nonprofit communities.  Listen to hear his vision is for the future for this half century old institution.

Eddie Ytuarte hosts.

Mr. Jackson has served as the Senior Advisor-Disability at the Democratic National Committee. His consulting work has provided accessibility services and disability-focused diversity, equity, and inclusion training for non-profit organizations. Previously, Ted was the Statewide Community Organizing Director for California Foundation for Independent Living Centers, organizing systems change advocacy with the Disability Organizing Network (DOnet).

His disability advocacy achievements include successful campaigns to increase access in voting rights, healthcare, and transportation, including the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART). His work has led him to work with Equality California, the American Association for People with Disabilities, The Women’s March, Inc., and the Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies. He is also an adjunct professor at American University, teaching a historical and political disability curriculum.

He volunteers on the LGBTQ Victory Fund Campaign Board and has personal passions for Shakespearean plays and baking sourdough bread.

The post Ted Jackson – E.D. of Berkeley Independent Living Center – Pushing Limits – June 17, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

Today we celebrate the life of actor and playwright, Neil Marcus who died last November.  Born with dystonia, a neurological disorder that causes involuntary muscle contractions and affects speech.  Marcus thought of his disability as an art.

Neil Marcus is best known for his play “Storm Reading”, a piece that deals with his day-to-day experiences as a person with a disability. Originally booked as a weekend engagement in Santa Barbara, the play toured the U.S, Canada, and England for eight years and was profiled by major media outlets. The play also was the catalyst for new accessible venues given that each venue of the tour had to accommodate Neil and his wheelchair.

We talk to Rob Lathim, the director of the play, “Storm Reading” and another performer in the show, Katie Voice.

We will also talk to those Neil collaborated with on pieces after “Storm Reading”:  Eric Kupers who founded the integrated dance program at Cal State East Bay and Neil’s former partner, professor of disability culture, Petra Kuppers.

New York Times Obituary

Report on a Marcus Presentation

“Disabled Country,” piece for the Natural Museum of American History

Jacob Lesner-Buxton was the lead producer and interviewer for this program.  Mark Romoser, Sheela Gunn-Cushman, Denny Daughters and Adrienne Lauby provided audio editing and narration support.

The post Neil Marcus Memorial – Pushing Limits – June 3, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

White disabled activists combating racism against the non-white disabled community is the topic of this edition of Pushing Limits radio program.  Producer/host Eddie Ytuarte will interview Micah Peace, a co-coordinator of Disability SURJ, a chapter of the national organization Showing Up For Racial Justice.

SURJ is  “a national network of groups and individuals organizing white people for racial and economic justice.”

Micah Peace is an Autistic, multiply Disabled organizer, educator, and researcher from Louisville, KY.  Alongside their colleague Amanda Stahl, they are a lead Co-Organizer of Disability SURJ, which works to connect the dots between racist and ableist violence, and bring more white Disabled people into the movement for Racial Justice.

Jacob Lesner-Buxton helped produce this program.

The post Anti-Racist Disability Activists – Pushing Limits – May 6, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – April 22, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – April 8, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

Many nursing homes, transportation agencies, senior services, housing authorities and other groups that heavily impact people with disabilities have Advisory Committees. And, low income and disabled people are often asked to serve on them.

Are these committees just window dressing? Is a committee member like a wedding planner who’s only allowed to plan the reception centerpieces?

How can a disabled committee member make their committee more useful? Does committee work teach skills to influence governmental decisions? Do the people who sit on these committee end up doing staff work without getting paid for it?

Today, we talk to four veteran Advisory Committee members with disabilities about their work on these committees. And, we air excerpts from Jacob Lesnor-Buxton’s article on this topic, “So The State of California Is Requiring Me to Listen to You People.”

Our guests are:

Amanda Stahl from Kentucky’s Advisory Board for People with Developmental Disabilities and its Protection and Advocacy Board;

Christine Fitzgerald and Mr. Aaron Morrow from Advisory Committees for VTA, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority;

Bonnie Elliott from the Access Advisory Committee of the City of Santa Barbara; and

Dani Anderson from the board of the State-wide California Independent Living Council.

Production Team for this program:

The post Advisory Committees – What Are They Good For? – Pushing Limits – March 25, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – February 25, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

On February 11, Pushing Limits radio program will present an interview with Cara Reedy who is the Director of Disability Media Alliance Project (DMAP) at DREDF where she is working to change the way media represents little  people, and the general disability community. Ms. Reedy has previously worked is a journalist and producer for CNN producing documentaries; as well as writing for Eatocracy and CNN Business. In 2019, she produced her most recent short documentary for The Guardian entitled Dwarfism and Me, which was an exploration into the treatment of Dwarfs in American society. DREDF is the Disabilty Rights and Education Defense Fund headquartered in Berkeley.

The post Pushing Limits – February 11, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.

Riva Lehrer is an artist, writer and curator who focuses on the socially challenged body.  She is best known for representations of people whose physical embodiment, sexuality, or gender identity have long been stigmatized.  Part of a vibrant Chicago disability activist community, her portraits include Carrie Sandahl, Alice Wong, Lennard Davis, Nadina LaSpina, and many other bright lights of the disability community.

Her memoir and audio book, Golem Girl, is a complex story of growing up with a visible disability, undergoing surgeries, finding a path to her artistic self despite a traditional art school, boyfriends, girlfriends, physical struggle, and the connection with a disability culture group that changed this Golem Girl forever.

Golem Girl is filled with the awareness of the political nature of disability.  It’s intensely personal observations and memories are illustrated with the bright colors of Riva Lehrer’s paintings.

Ms. Lehrer’s work has been seen in venues including the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian, Yale University, the United Nations, the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, the Arnot Museum, the DeCordova Museum, the Frye Museum, the Chicago Cultural Center, and the State of Illinois Museum.

Awards include the 2017 3Arts MacDowell Fellowship for writing, 2015 3Arts Residency Fellowship at the University of Illinois; the 2014 Carnegie Mellon Fellowship at Haverford and Bryn Mawr Colleges; the 2009 Prairie Fellowship at the Ragdale Foundation. Grants include the 2009 Critical Fierceness Grant, the 2008 3Arts Foundation Grant, and the 2006 Wynn Newhouse Award for Excellence, (NYC), as well as grants from the Illinois Arts Council, the University of Illinois, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Her memoir, Golem Girl, is published by the One World imprint of Penguin/Random House in October 2020. Ms. Lehrer is represented by Regal Hoffman & Associates literary agency, NYC.

Ms. Lehrer is on faculty at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and instructor in the Medical Humanities Departments of Northwestern University.

​Adrienne Lauby produced and hosts the program.

The post “Golem Girl” with Riva Lehrer – Pushing Limits – January 28, 2022 appeared first on KPFA.