“Music By Prudence” & Moments in Disability History

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen: May 4, 2-3 pm PST KPFA

And the Oscar for Best Documentary Short goes to…..  “Music by Prudence!”   

We begin this program with the story of an incredible singer from a school for disabled people in Zimbabwe and her marimba band, Liyana.  The musicians of Liyana are also all people with disabilities.   It’s been chronicled in the Oscar-winning independent film “Music by Prudence” produced by Roger Ross Williams.

Then, we take you to important moments in the history of the disability rights movement.  Jerry Lewis talks about why he doesn’t care that people with disabilities object to his telethons; students at Gallaudet University strike for a deaf university president;

Student Protest, photo by NY Times

 

 

people with disabilities advocate for the teaching of disability history; and the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) is debated in the U.S. Congress. 

Finally, “The Amputee Rap” by Josh Sundquist… for a moment of disability cool.   Leah Gardner and Adrienne Lauby host.

All this, to encourage you to become a member of KPFA.  We’ll send you a DVD of “Music by Prudence,”  a CD of this historic audio or a box of chocolate Braille fortune cookies if you will become a member of our KPFA subscriber community at the $45 level.

The Cookies have been donated by The Lucky Touch Fortune Cookie Company, a student-operated business at the California School for the Blind.

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Posted in Activism, Adrienne Lauby, Americans with Disabilities Act, Deaf, Film, Leah Gardner, Music, Politics, Protest, Story Telling - Disability | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Tricky Terrain for International Students with Disabilities

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Adrienne

LISTEN (28 min)

How do two disabled international post-secondary students feel about their experiences navigating the tricky terrain of life inside and out of the university? Encouraged or discouraged? 

"Study Session" Drawing from Department of Disability and Human Development College of Applied Health Sciences UIC-Chicago

Irina Anisimova and Cpt. Bobby Quamar bring their stories and personal observations.

The ADA applies to all individuals with disabilities in America, but some fine lines exist that make it more difficult for international students to attain the tools and financial aid that are available to U.S. citizens.

photo from U.S. Department of State Official Blog

What does  living and studying in the U.S. mean for them?
Join host Leah Gardner for this unique dialog.

Original air date: April 20, 2012
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Posted in Americans with Disabilities Act, Community, Education, Leah Gardner | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Adrienne Rich Dies at Age 82

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen 29 min  (This segment begins half way through)

Feminist poet, Adrienne Rich died on March 27, 2012 and we are the worse for it.   Robert McRuer talks about how Rich and other lesbian feminists made strides toward a more free, more accessible world.  Although she did not find a political identity in her disability, Adrienne Rich’s essay  “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence” has influenced a generation of disability scholars.


Rich lived with rheumatoid arthritis. 

 

Adrienne Rich 2009


Here is a video expression of her poem Diving In the Wreck

Robert McRuer is an English professor at George Washington University, the author of Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability and, his most recent book, an anthology called, Sex and Disability.

 

 

 

 

Photo courtesy of http-formstracedbylight.blogspot.com

Original air date: 4-6-12
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Posted in Adrienne Lauby, Community, Poetry & Prose, Politics | 4 Comments

Living on the Edge of Death

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Adrienne

A Conversation Between Shanti Soule and Stephanie Sugars

Listen (29 min)  Part 1

Listen (29 min) Part 2  (The program begins with this 16 min segment)

We listen in on the ultimate discussion.  Two women, Shanti Soule and Stephanie Sugars, maneuvering the threshold of death. 

Stephanie Sugars (left) and Shanti Soule

Shanti Soule was a working class Buddhist teacher, cook and fierce defender of rights for all oppressed peoples.  She was instrumental in beginning the East Bay Meditation Center, and, until the end, fighting for diversity in the dharma. 

 

Stephanie Sugars is an esoteric Christian with a Buddhist meditation practice and a long time cancer survivor.  She facilitates an on-line group of 200-350 people who live with Peutz-Jeghers Syndrome, a rare genetic disease.

Both women are lesbians.  They share a love of meditation and nature.

Shanti Soule (left) and Stephanie Sugars

 

Stephanie and Shanti are skating together right there — along the threshold, living on the edge of death, understanding each other and taking time to explain to us — mere disabled folks not dealing with imminent death — so we can understand too.   In this densely packed program, philosophy and death intertwine.

Produced, hosted and photographed by Shelley Berman.

Both our guests have been interviewed on Pushing Limits previously.  For details and listening links:  

Stephanie Sugars on Pushing Limits (scroll down article)   Stephanie’s blog (you’ll have to register to see it; Stephanie’s writing is well worth the effort).

Shanti Soule on Pushing Limits

Shanti’s memorial website  (again, you may need to register)


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Posted in Cancer, Community, Death, Shelley Berman | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Disabled Musicians Ring in the New Year!

Posted on January 5, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen (29 min)

Today we ring in the new year with a program featuring some of the many musicians who live with disabilities.  More musicians and music videos.

Staff Benda Bilili from staffbendabilili.com

Staff Benda Bilili hales from Kinshasa, Congo. 

Bradford Cox, lead singer for Deerhunter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Deerhunter’s lead singer, 6’4″ Bradford Cox, lives with the genetic connective tissue disorder, Marfan Syndrome.

 

John Lennon & Yoko Ono, in bed for peace

 

 

 

In 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono stayed in bed twice for seven days to talk about peace.

 

 

 

 

Gilbert Hernandez‘s cover art for Kristen Hersh‘s memoir, Rat Girl. Design by Jaya Miceli at Penguin Books.

Kirsten Hersh has been public about her troubles with mental illness, both her difficulty with diagnosis and how her mental processes relate to her music.

Also featuring Nina Simone and Joni Mitchell.

 

With a commentary by Adrienne Lauby, “The California Budget Cut Parade.”

 

Hosted & produced by Shelley Berman.

For much more about musicians living with disabilities, and a plethora of other disability topics go to The Gimp Parade.  It’s amazing and fun.

Original air date: January 6, 2012
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Posted in Adrienne Lauby, Arts, California Budget, Community, IHSS, Mental Disability, Music, Shelley Berman | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Musicians of Liyana

Posted on May 4, 2012 by Adrienne

Energy Maburutse
first marimba, back-up vocalist

Energy Maburutse

Energy Maburutse was first marimba player and back-up vocalist and the band’s resident jokester. He has osteogenesis imperfecta, brittle bone syndrome. He now studies at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida.

Marvelous Mbulo
back-up singer and songwriter, Marvelous Mbulo was the main back-up singer at the band. He has muscular dystrophy. He and Prudence have been friends since they were twelve. Nowadays, he’s a playwright and a sit down comedian.

Marvelous Mbulo

 

Read more about the Musicians of Liyana

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Rights for Foreclosed Renters & Domestic Workers Bill

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Adrienne
Listen (28 min)

Pushing Limits welcomes Brendan Darrow to talk about legal rights for people with disabilities who are renting homes that are being foreclosed.

from The Ability Center of Greater Toledo

 

We will discuss how local and state laws, as well as the Americans With Disabilities Act, affect tenants in rental situations.

 

from The Advocacy Center of New Orleans

Brendan Darrow is an Equal Justice Works Fellow at the East Bay Community Law Center in  Berkeley.


 

Also, an update on the Workers Bill of Rights, which is now in the state senate.

 

Eddie Ytuarte hosts.

 

Original Air date: March 16, 2012
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Posted in Americans with Disabilities Act, Eddie Ytuarte, Housing, resources | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

“Going for Gold” and Other Athletics

Posted on March 2, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen (28 min)

Going For Gold: This is Kamilla Ryding’s quest.  In 2008, she and her Danish goalball team fell just shy of this goal at the Paralympics in Beijing.

Kamilla Ryding. Photo courtesy of www.dhif.dk

 

Ryding and Team Denmark are back on the court at the Paralympic Games in London this August.  We’ll talk to Kamilla about what goalball means to her and how athletics integrate with the rest of her life.

 

There’s many opportunities for athletic endeavors for people with disabilities in the Bay. 

Sled Hockey in Jan. 2011 at the Jordan Kocian Memorial Hockey Tournament. Photo courtesy BORP.

 

 

 

We talk to Greg Milano, cycling director at Bay Area Outreach and Recreational Program (BORP) who says, you don’t have to be chasing a gold medal to participate in accessible sports and recreation.  

Leah Gardner hosts.

BORP:  510-849-4663

Original Air Date: March 1, 2012
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Posted in Blind, Community, Recreation, resources, Sports | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Budgets, Budgets and more Budgets

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen (60 min Special)  Part One, Part Two

IHSS Consumers Union Interview  (5:41)

To contact the IHSS Consumers Union: call 562-435-4236 or email ihss.consumers.union@gmail.com<

What’s in the Way of Winning the Budget Fight. Commentary by Jacob Lesner-Buxton (3:11)

When the Bear Comes to My Garden by Martha Courtot, read by Adrienne Lauby 2:17

Super Mega-Watt Grover sez Join KPFA

photo courtesy Sins Invalid http://www.sinsinvalid.org/

Join Eddie Ytuarte, Adrienne Lauby, and Shelley Berman for an hour-long special look across the budgetary landscape.  We’ll talk to Marty Omoto, director of the California Disability Community Action Network (CDCAN), Kathie Kates, an IHSS worker caring for her 86 year old mother, and Nancy Becker Kennedy of the new IHSS Consumers Union.  We have a commentary by Jacob Lesner-Buxton.   And we’ll be talking to you. . . about joining KPFA as a member.

KPFA’s budget supports our program and we need to keep it healthy.  We’re asking you to remember to support Pushing Limits and KPFA by renewing or joining as a member.  Since we’re discussing the budget, and we’re all on a fixed budget, we’re asking poor people and people on fixed incomes in particular to help us build a strong foundation at KPFA.  The low-income membership is only $25, and we’ve gone all out to get a thank you gift for a membership at any level.

 

CUIDO, Communities United in Defense of Olmstead, Die-In at State of Calif. Office Building, SF. 2011 Budget Season.

We’ll send you Martha Courtot’s beautiful retrospective book, “The Bird Escapes,” 170 pages of working class, feminist and disability poetry, when you pledge at any level during the program.Please call in your pledge of support to KPFA during our show at: 510-848-5732 or toll free: 1-800-439-5732 and keep disability issues alive and on the air.  You can also listen and pledge on-line at www.kpfa.org, orMail a check to: DevelopmentIn Support of Pushing LimitsKPFA Radio1929 MLK Jr. Way

Berkeley, CA 94704

 

Original Air date: 2-3-12
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Posted in Activism, Adrienne Lauby, California Budget, Community, Eddie Ytuarte, IHSS, Protest, Shelley Berman, Story Telling - Disability | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

Bug or a Bump? Living with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Posted on January 17, 2012 by Adrienne

Listen 28 min

Howie Mandel, Roseanne Barr, Justine Timberlake and . . .  our guest  Naomi  have something  in  common; they  live  with  obsessive-compulsive disorder. 

This mental disability is becoming better known, offering less stigma and more hope to those learning to negotiate the anxiety and compulsions of O.C.D.  Naomi trains a humorous eye on overcoming the fear of raccoons in her closet, cockroaches and the touch of dirty laundry.

Hosted and produced by Shelley Berman.

http://www.zazzle.com/ocdshirts

Check out these resources:

OCD Foundation 617.973.5801 and The Obsessive Compulsive Foundation of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Support Group: Third Saturday of each month 1:30 pm – 3:30 pm,  Seton Medical Center Hospital Conference room (by the Cafeteria) on the second floor, 1900 Sullivan Avenue, Daly City, CA.  For more information please contact us at 415-273-7273  PO Box 3313  Redwood City, CA, 94604or ocdsfbayarea@yahoo.com

Avatar for Naomi, Raccoony Raccoon. Image c 2001 by Donald L Brown

 

For Santa Clara meeting, contact Judy at 650-254-1298
or email: ocdsouthbay@yahoo.com

Evidence of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder by Michael Showalter

Is Michael demonstrating his own OCD, or the OCD shared by humans who build such cities?  Hmm…

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Posted in Community, Mental Disability, Shelley Berman, Story Telling - Disability | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

More, Musicians with Disabilities

Posted on January 6, 2012 by Adrienne

We found so many interesting entertainers on Kay Olson’s blog The Gimp Parade that we couldn’t fit them all into the radio program.  Here’s a few more highlights. 

Sia, an Australian pop singer perhaps best known for her song “Breathe Me” which played during the closing sequence of the Six Feet Under TV series finale, has released a music video which features American Sign Language throughout.  Watch it here.

Sia at http://siamusic.net

 

 

 

 

Boys On Wheels, Jesper Odelberg, Center

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lead singer of Boys On Wheels is Jesper Odelberg.  He is a guy with cerebral palsy, part of a Norwegian comedy show and a pop singer.  

Boys on Wheels sing parodies of various pop songs– with fervor.  We liked, I’m Not Gay, My Balls are Okay, and Girls On Wheels Dragshow.  While you’re on wheels, check out Punks on Wheels.  (Not for teetotalers.)

David Armand & Natalie Imbruglia

 

Deaf Karaoke Live.  This is a performance of the song “Torn” by comedian David Armand of The Hollow Men with singer Natalie Imbrugliaat the 2006 Secret Policemen’s Ball for Amnesty International.  

Direct link to YouTube video here.

 

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Posted in Arts, Music, Shelley Berman | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments