KPFA - Pushing Limits

Nadina LaSpina is guest host for a lively discussion about the history of the disability rights movement in the last 50-60 years.  With Eddie Ytuarte, Jean Stewart and Adrienne Lauby.

Nadina LaSpina is a well-known activist in the disability rights movement who has been arrested countless times for civil disobedience. She’s been in the streets with Disabled In Action, ADAPT, The Disability Caucus, and other groups. After teaching Italian for many years, Nadina LaSpina created and taught courses in Disability Studies at The New School. She lives in New York City. Her book, Such a Pretty Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment. and Disability Pride has been reviewed prominently and she was featured this week in appearances at .

Jean Stewart became disabled in 1978 following pesticide exposure. This launched a life of disability rights activism and midwifed her novel, The Body’s Memory, from St. Martin’s Press. Her stories, poems, and essays have appeared in many anthologies including Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out, from Penguin.

Jean is also a naturalist with a degree in botany who currently devotes herself to environmental and climate change activism. She is a founding member of EEL, Electricity Equals Life, a disability group formed in response to PG&E’s power shutoffs. Her disability rights activism has taken her to Cuba, India, Brazil, and Mexico.   

We discuss Kim E. Nielsen’s book,A Disability History of the United States. the first analysis of disability throughout United States history.  It covers the period prior to European arrival through the present.   Dr. Nielsen is a Professor of Disability Studies, History, and Women’s & Gender Studies at the university of Toledo.  Her scholarship centers on historical debates about who is fit to participate in civic life; using gender, disability, and changing notions of competency as her tools of analysis.

Her other books include Beyond the Miracle Worker: The Remarkable Life of Anne Sullivan Macy and Her Extraordinary Friendship with Helen Keller (Beacon, 2009); Helen Keller: Selected Writings (NYUP, 2005); The Radical Lives of Helen Keller (NYUP, 2004); and Un-American Womanhood: Anti-Radicalism, Anti-Feminism, and the First Red Scare (OSUP, 2001)

Adrienne Lauby and Eddie Ytuarte are hosts at Pushing Limits and they co-produced this program.

The post Disability History: Fundraising Special appeared first on KPFA.

Thanksgiving weekend is all about the food.   At least that’s what one of our guests says.   And, many of us don’t follow our deepest desires when we are confronted by groaning tables and mounds of sugary desserts.

We talk to Kara and Bob, two participants in Overeaters Anonymous groups, about how they approach the holiday season.  Both have tips and tidbits to offer from the feast of wisdom that is a 12 step program.

Nadina LaSpina, prominent disability rights activist, educator, and author of the memoir, Such a Pretty a Girl: A Story of Struggle, Empowerment and Disability Pride will be visiting the San Francisco / East Bay Area from New York City next week. You may have heard her recent interview on our program.

Nadina will be featured at the Commonwealth Club, 110 The Embarcadero, San Francisco, on Wednesday, December 4th at 6 PM. There, she will read from her memoir, engage in discussions with her audience and answer questions.

Copies of the book, which the author will be happy to sign, will be available for sale. CART will be provided. ASL Interpreter upon 3-day prior request. Check website for ticket purchase.

On Thursday, December 5th, at 6 PM, Nadina will be hosting an informal reading, conversation, and book signing at the Ed Roberts Campus, 3075 Adeline, Suite 105, Berkeley. Light refreshments will be served and copies of her book will be on hand to purchase.

CART will be available at the event.. ASL interpreter available upon request. Please make the request at least three days before the event to [email protected]. If a request for ASL is received less than three days before the event, the presence of an interpreter cannot be guaranteed, though all efforts will be made to have one.

Nadina looks forward to meeting the members of the Bay Area disability community! Please spread the word. Shelley produced and hosts the program.

The post Freedom From Food Addiction – ThanksGluttony 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 post Pushing Limits – November 15, 2019 appeared first on KPFA.