Claudia Alick: Year in Review, 2025
2025 was a year of growth, stabilization, and expansive creativity. Calling Up Justice focused deeply on long-term sustainability, successfully fundraising to secure housing, digital platforms, and access services for 2026 and 2027. Our ecosystem strengthened as more independent artists stepped into empowered roles—creating a surge of productivity and collaborative joy. Programs like the Quarantine Residency, Accessible Virtual Pride, and Virtual Protests expanded our networks and deepened personal relationships across the practice.
I actively participated in the funding ecosystem—supporting community members in securing grants, applying for resources, and successfully receiving funding myself. A major personal milestone was completing three years of back taxes and applying for Medicaid, building a stronger foundation for my long-term health and stability.
Creatively, this was one of my most prolific years. I published a collection of short stories and completed a rough draft of a novella. I created 25 original paintings, 7 augmented reality artworks, produced an artificial intelligence dance project, a VR dance project, three original AI videos, wrote a new play that was produced, directed another play, and delivered a poetry feature. I also deepened collaborations with the Black Arts Movement House, advanced accessible practices in the dance field, and continued to grow our digital placemaking practice.
Groups I advise—NET, HowlRound, and the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center—all continued to flourish, and it has been meaningful to support their evolution. The two labs with the cripTech incubator developed disabled artists and cool technology in haptics and AI. I had the opportunity to present on my unique vision in my artificial intelligence art work with the Leonardo CripTech Incubator, lecture at Emerson University on disability justice in theater, and be interviewed by Abilities Dance Boston. I also took a class at CUNY on Cooperative management and learned about federated organizing, unions, and other ways to share and build power.
Social media shifted significantly for me this year. TikTok’s increasing suppression meant most posts reached only a few hundred viewers compared to the thousands I reached in 2023. In response, I opened a Bluesky account, where I now have 6.8K followers, and I’ve chosen to reduce content output on platforms that actively suppress disabled, queer, and racial justice creators. Even so, I livestreamed 362 times, receiving 3.4 million likes, 51K views, and connecting with viewers from 178 countries. My top livestream reached 1,391 views. These numbers reflect a powerful community—but also a platform that no longer connects me reliably to my audience. In 2026, it’s time to find a new home for that energy.
Energy invested into Followers Forever was time well spent. I have a continued desire to grow the user base for both Followers Forever and Early Words. We were able to grow participants and activities in the our Digital Encampment gathertown space, One Free Community Discord, and zoom meeting spaces. I won’t be trying to migrate the 47k followers from tiktok but I’ll continue to grow the user bases for our digital apps and platforms.
One of the most grounding practices this year was continuing the Liberation Meditations, which nurtured deeper relationships, more complex ideas, and a richer sense of shared purpose. I was published in a collection of poetry. I performed a poetry feature at Garden. I also had a great time doing karaoke and open mic online for fun.
Physically, this year was challenging. I was sicker than I have been in a long time, and navigating disability without stable health care was difficult. But applying for Medicaid has already created a sense of relief, and I believe 2026 will bring real improvements. Even with the challenges, I feel profoundly grateful—I am happy with my life. It was a full year. It was a good year.