Claudia Alick, Author at Calling Up Justice!

A Nearly Comprehensive Guide to Accessible Theater

“This document is for theatre practitioners, able-bodied or disabled, who are invested in making their theatre spaces and communities more accessible. If you want to make sure your artistic space is a safe and accessible place for disabled people but you need some guidance or you’re not sure where to start, start with A Nearly Comprehensive Guide to an Accessible Theatre. It includes resources for directors, designers, actors, and leaders in the theatre community, as well as guidance for how to welcome disabled audience members, how to choose material ethically, and how to move forward if you work within a space that does not meet your accessibility needs. In each section, I offer questions to ask of yourself and your fellow artists and practitioners to get the conversation started about accessibility and brainstorm simple solutions to complex problems. Please feel free to reach out to me at melaniemalson0@gmail.com with questions or suggestions! Content transparency: Please be aware that this document discusses ableism and the COVID-19 pandemic, and makes mentions of gunshots, seizures, acute illness/fever, and insomnia.”

Quarantine Residency

Calling Up Justice’s Quarantine Residency is inspired by the ideas of Pleasure Activism and The Nap Ministry, and has been a valuable resource for artists during these challenging times. However, the program has had to stop for months at a time due to Covid surges, and is currently accepting participants on a limited basis in 2023. If you’re an artist looking for a safe and supportive place to create, The Quarantine Residency may be the perfect fit for you.

Starvation of Shadows

AI Experiment: We challenged ChatGPT to produce a fiction short story about a community that breaks free from the grip of an ancient creature feeding off negativity, only to have it resurfaces as an internet troll. We directed it to have a positive ending. We added in a few specific prompts. Then we did some editing to make it more readable. We used Dall-e with description “digital art. a small town darkened by an evil force and a group of people standing hand in hand to fight it with rainbow light”

CRIP DOULA

crip doula: a term created by disability justice organizer Stacey Park Milbern to describe the ways disabled people support/mentor newly disabled people in learning disabled skills (how to live on very low spoons, drive a wheelchair, have sex/redefine sexuality, etc.) A doula supports someone doing the work of childbirth; a crip doula is a dis-abled person supporting another disabled person as they do the work of becoming disabled, or differently disabled, of dreaming a new dis-abled life/world into being.

Unveiling Truth: A Black Mother’s Cry for Justice

“I was feeling overwhelmed yesterday from the Ajike Owens case and from scrolling Twitter, reading the numerous racist comments from accounts banking the story would unfold that Ajike was an angry black woman who attacked Susan and thus had a right to take her life. The next scroll being about Ron DeSantis and his hatred for Black history. So, I decided to chat with my AI and poured my feelings into the chat. I wrote everything I wanted to say about every different aspect of the current fight for Black equality that I felt I couldn’t fit into one TikTok post to adequately make a transforming point. So, I decided on a poem and aske the AI to generate it. ” THINKER aka ngrowth

Crip Negativity

Calling Up Justice recommends texts for liberation and empowerment. These texts are recommended by Calling Up Justice participants in our online spaces. The following text was recommended during a session of Dis/Rep 2023.

Vision Quilt peace in Our Streets

Claudia Alick attended Vision Quilt’s student exhibition where youth address gun violence through art math and humanities studies. Founder Cathy Deforest introduced Claudia to teachers who helped design the curriculum and students showed off their art. She also introduced Claudia to Kenny Johnson an award winning athlete, victim of gun violence, and disabled community member.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves 2023 movie review.

Ry Mutual Aid Project

This is a mutual aid call from practice member Ry Holiday. They are working with a friend to raise funds for a wheelchair for someone in Honduras. We discussed this project in our Open Development meeting and helped RY choose design and text. Give directly to https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/robbyh22 or Venmo: @robbyh23

LEDIA Let’s Talk about Pride

Each Wednesday we gather at 9amPST to talk about liberation, equity, inclusion, and accessibility through a topic. This week we talked about Pride and anti-LGBTQ threats. Listen to the playback at the link below, read the summation article, and visit the links we shared while talking.

Author: Claudia Alick