2023 Disability Justice Virtual Resource series

Recorded On: 03/02/2023

image About these videos

The 2023 Disability Justice Virtual Resource series is part of an ongoing effort by Americans for the Arts (AFTA) and Mid Atlantic Arts to provide resources to support individuals and organizations in the mid-Atlantic region with engaging in the essential work of accessibility and disability justice in their communities.

For the current series, AFTA and Mid Atlantic Arts engaged the Mid Atlantic Accessibility Resource Committee (MAARC), a group of six experts in the field of accessibility and disability justice, to inform the curriculum and structure of the series. The series will include short pre-recorded conversations on the following topics, followed by informal virtual gatherings on each topic:

  • Accountability with Dominic Bradley (they/them) and Lily Lipman (she/they)
  • Intersectionality with Joselia Hughes and Kayla Hamilton
  • Budgeting with Vanessa Cruz (she/her/ella) and Beth Prevor (she/her) 


On this ArtsU activity you can view all three of the pre-recorded videos. To register for the live conversations please click on the links below. These live conversations do have capped registration and will not be recorded. We ask that attendees watch the pre-recorded videos before attending the live conversations. 

If you have any questions please reach out to Artsu@artsusa.org

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Dominic Cinnamon Bradley

Dominic Cinnamon Bradley (The Johns Hopkins University BA | Columbia University MSW) is a Brooklyn-based Black, disabled, non-binary artist reared in the crunk-era “Dirty South.” Currently, Dominic is a co-editor for an upcoming book project on disability artistry. 

Beth Prevor

Executive Director, Hands On

Beth Prevor is a co-founder and Executive Director of Hands On, an arts service organization that advocates for access to the cultural arts for the Deaf community and audiences with disabilities. For the last 30+ years, Hands On has been providing access for the Deaf and hard of hearing communities of NYC through sign language interpreted theater at some of NYC’s most prestigious theaters including The Roundabout Theater Company, The New York Shakespeare Festival/Public Theater and The New Victory Theater.

As Executive Director, Beth works with arts organizations to ensure inclusion for all by providing marketing, community engagement and audience development strategies. As a disabled advocate, Beth is active as an advisory member to many groups including, The Shubert Accessibility Committee, The New Jersey Theatre Alliance, and the Museum, Arts and Culture Access Consortium (MAC).  She has led workshops on accessibility and the arts for organizations around the country including the Kennedy Center’s LEAD (Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disability) Conference, Americans for the Arts, The National Arts Marketing Project, the Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York (ART/NY) and Theater Communications Group (TCG). She currently works as a Disability Consultant with ART/NY.

She is the 2015 recipient of the John F. Kennedy Center’s Excellence in Accessibility Leadership Lifetime Achievement award.

Website: Handson.org

Twitter: @HandsOnSign  

Kayla Hamilton

Artistic Director

K. Hamilton projects

Kayla Hamilton is a Texas born, Bronx based performance maker, dancer, educator, cultural consultant, and the artistic director of K. Hamilton projects. 

Kayla is a 2023-2025 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow. Her past performance work has been presented at the Whitney Museum, Gibney, Performance Space New York, New York Live Arts, Abrons Arts Center, and the Bronx Academy of Arts and Dance (BAAD).  

Kayla has co developed ‘Crip Movement Lab’ with fellow Disabled Artist, Elisabeth Motley- a pedagogical framework centering cross-Disability accessible movement practices that are open to every-body. She has taught dance at Sarah Lawrence College, Amherst College, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Utah, and Texas Improv Festivals. 

As a consultant,  Kayla has developed and implemented programming for Disabled artist for the Mellon Foundation, ArtSpeak, Dance USA, Movement Research and The Shed. 

As a dancer, Kayla was part of the Bessie award winning skeleton architecture, she has also danced for Maria Bauman,  Sydnie L. Mosley and Gesel Mason.

Kayla is currently in the process of creating a future organization centering the work of BIPOC Disabled creatives, while co-leading the 10th anniversary season of Angela’s Pulse/Dancing While Black, and developing a new evening length performance set to premier in NY at The Shed in 2024.

[Image Description: this is a headshot of Kayla Hamilton, who is a dark-skinned black woman. She has her medium length dreads down. She is wearing light makeup and has a soft gaze. She has her dark-rimmed glasses on and she is wearing a yellow blouse. Photo by: Travis Magee]

Lily Lipman

Director of Accessibility

Emit Theatre

Lily Lipman (she/they) is a disabled freelance access consultant, educator, and actor. Lily is the Director of Accessibility for Emit Theatre where she makes their immersive productions for children more accessible for everyone participating. Lily also works at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts where she runs the Lincoln Center Moments program for folks with Dementia and their caregivers. She’s worked throughout NYC as an access consultant for cultural institutions including the Leslie Lohman Museum and New York City Children’s Theatre. Lily is an educator for the Museum Access Consortium where she teaches a course through CUNY to disabled students about careers in cultural institutions. She believes in creating spaces for disabled and d/Deaf people to find community and advocate for more accessible systems. They love talking with other disabled creatives and workers about advocating for change. If you’d like to chat with them feel free to reach out at LilyALipman@gmail.com or visit their website at www.LilyLipman.com

Vanessa Hernández Cruz

Vanessa Hernández Cruz (she, her, ella) is an interdependent Chicana Disabled dance artist, filmmaker, visual artist, poet & an Intersectional Disability Justice activist. She was born and raised in the unceded land of the Tongva & Kizh lands colonially known as Los Angeles, California. She received her Associates Degree in Dance from Santa Monica College. She recently graduated from California State University Long Beach with her Bachelor of Arts in Dance Science.  Vanessa recently premiered two solos: “Nycto-Eternity” & “Timeless Hourglass” at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles as a guest artist with the international dance company LuxBit Art Company based in Seoul, Korea. In the summer of 2022, she was commissioned through the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs to produce the dance film “Los Portales del Corazón” for the ‘Dance in the Districts’ program.

Vanessa has been implementing the Disability Justice framework (Sins Invalid) through her activism & dance work. She is currently working with DANC (Dance Artists’ National Collective) as their Communications & Social Media Co-Coordinator. She also serves as a consultant in their BIPOC & Disabled Circle. She is also working as an Accessibility Advisor for HomeLA. In the past, she guided Cal State Long Beach Department of Dance to adopt Disability Justice elements into their dance productions and curriculum with the support of CSULB Affinity AIDE (Advocates for Inclusion & Dancer Equity). She has developed two workshops: Dismantling Ableism in Dance & Accessibility at the Forefront of Dance Making Series. In addition she offers accessibility consulting to individuals & a variety of arts organizations.

 Vanessa is committed to generating substantial changes in the dance field and making the dance field an equitable  space for our multi-marginalized disabled communities.

 

Follow & Learn More:

https://www.galaxiesdance.info

https://www.instagram.com/galaxiesdance/

 

Headshot & Image Description:

[Image Description 1: a headshot of Vanessa in a long sleeve lace undershirt with a textured abstract skeleton black dress with a silver metallic corset. She is leaning against Pluto (her purple walker) she is spiraling her torso as one arm is reaching up. She is in front of a dark grey textured background. ]


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Intersectionality and Disability Justice
Listen to Joselia Hughes and Kayla Hamilton discuss deeply how disability justice is uniquely positioned to break down systematic oppressions. Disability justice as an ethos and a practice - gives shape to a day and how you perceive an experience. How can your local art agency or organization bring forward a consciousness of changing siloed or monolithic perceptions to inclusive ideology. And then join for a live conversation with Joselia and Kayla on March 14th 2023 at 2 PM ET! You must register to access.
Accountability and Disability Justice
Listen to Dominic Bradley and Lily Lipman discuss the complexity of accountability within Disability Justice as a topic area that is still being discovered. Dominic and Lily work to inspire the audience to dig deeper in their 30 minutes pre-recorded conversation. After watching the video join for a live conversation with Dominic and Lily on April 14th 2023 at 2 PM ET! You must register to access.
Budgeting and Disability Justice
Listen to Vanessa Cruz and Beth Prevor discuss how organizations can be proactive in addressing accessibility and disability justice in their budgets. Vanessa and Beth push the audience to see how local art agencies can make things accessible that look like art in their 30 minutes pre-recorded conversation. After watching the video join for a live conversation with Vanessa and Beth on May 19th 2023 at 2 PM ET! You must register to access.