Webinars

AWN offers live panels, performances, and other programming featuring disability justice and neurodiversity movement leaders through our #LiberatingWebinars programming. In this series, we aim to center the voices, leadership, and perspectives of disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, and mad people at the margins of the margins.

Access Information: We provide American Sign Language interpretation (often with a Certified Deaf Interpreter) and live CART captioning for all events. At each webinar, participants can join by video or phone. After each event, a recording and transcript will become available on our website. Please direct access questions to Nancy Yang at [email protected] or Lydia X. Z. Brown at [email protected].

Upcoming Webinars


#LiberatingWebinars: Radically Revealing Truth: Accountable Disability Journalism

Wednesday 13 April 2022 at 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific

Please join AWN in conversation with Cara Reedy, Finn Gardiner, Alaina Leary, and s.e. smith on accountable disability journalism.

RSVP for accountable disability journalism

Banner shows a blue gradient background with a strip of a photo of buildings with TV screens. There is Cara, a black curly haired, light brown skin, smiling African American woman wearing a black v-neck shirt. Then there is Finn, a Black person wearing glasses and a blue shirt. Last is Alaina, a white person with short dark brown and lavender hair, standing outside in front of a wall of flowers, holding a bouquet of dried flowers. s.e. is not pictured. Text says, Radically Revealing Truth: Accountable Disability Journalism, 13 Apr 2022 at 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific, with Cara Reedy, Finn Gardiner, Alaina Leary, and s.e. smith. The corner shows the AWN logo - a large "a" with a dragonfly on it, and the words awnnetwork.org.

Journalism is a way through which we view and learn about the world around us. Especially because we cannot be everywhere at once, journalism is the way in which we connect with community-it is where we begin to learn of each other’s lives and how we can support one another. Because community care relies on the reports that journalists make, it is vital that journalism be accurate and accountable to our communities. Accountable journalism is justice. And accountable disability journalism is disability justice. Join us as we explore what this means.

Speakers

Cara Reedy is a journalist and producer who worked at CNN producing documentaries as well as writing for Eatocracy and CNN Business. She’s freelanced at NPR. In 2019, she co-produced a short doc for The Guardian entitled Dwarfism and Me, which was an exploration into the treatment of Dwarfs in American society. She is now the Director of the Disabled Journalists Association at Storyline Partners.

Finn Gardiner is a disability rights advocate with interests in educational equity, intersectional justice, comparative policy, and inclusive technology. He holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Tufts University. He is currently the Communications Specialist at the Lurie Institute for Disability Policy at Brandeis University, where he combines disability advocacy, policy analysis and research, and written and visual communications through policy briefs, original reports and white papers, and contributions to research projects. His research and advocacy interests include education and employment for autistic adults, comparative disability policy, inclusive technology, LGBTQ cultural competency, and policy that addresses the intersections between disability, race, LGBTQ identities, class, and other experiences.

Alaina Leary is a program manager at We Need Diverse Books, a book reviewer for Booklist, a journalist, and an affiliated faculty member at Emerson College. Her work has focused on increasing equity and access for marginalized people and has been published in outlets like Good Housekeeping, The New York Times, Refinery29, The Boston Globe Magazine, Teen Vogue, and Healthline. She lives outside of Boston with her wife, three literary cats, and a rainbow bookshelf.

s.e. smith is a Northern California-based journalist, essayist, and editor. smith’s work on disability, culture, and social attitudes has appeared in publications such as the Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and Vice, in addition to anthologies, most recently Disability Disability. They received a National Magazine Award in 2020 for their work in Catapult.

ModeratorLydia X. Z. Brown, AWN Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs

RSVP for accountable disability journalism


#LiberatingWebinars: Cultural Work, Visual Art, and Disability Justice

Sunday 24 April 2022 at 4pm Eastern / 1pm Pacific

Please join AWN in conversation with Ashanti Fortson and Micah Bazant as we explore the world of visual art and cultural work as it intersects with disability justice.

RSVP for visual art and disability justice

Banner shows colored pencils and a paintbrush on top of a paint palette. There is Ashanti, a light-skinned Afro-Latine non-binary person with dark, jaw-length curly hair and dark circle-frame glasses. They're wearing a coral-colored sweatshirt with a floral pattern in white, yellow, blue, and black. Then there is Micah, a white trans person with short brown hair, wearing a blue t-shirt. They are smiling playfully and holding a large leaf over half their face. Text says, Cultural Work, Visual Art, and Disability Justice, 24 Apr 2022 at 4pm Eastern / 1pm Pacific. The corner shows the AWN logo - a large "a" with a dragonfly on it, and the words awnnetwork.org.

Speakers

Ashanti Fortson is an award-winning cartoonist, illustrator, editor, and professor with a deep interest in difficult emotions, quiet moments, and the rifts and connections between human beings. Their work explores transience and reflection through a tenderhearted lens, and depicting the vastness and variety of human experience is one of their foundational principles. Ashanti lives in Baltimore with their spouse, their cat Miss Cheese, and at least three pet rats at all times.

Micah Bazant (they) is a visual artist and cultural strategist who works with liberation movements to reimagine the world. For over a decade they have created collaborative art inspired by struggles to decolonize ourselves from white supremacy, patriarchy, ableism, and the gender binary. They are a settler on Ohlone land (so-called Berkeley, CA) and love growing food, reading speculative fiction, and admiring caterpillars. Learn more about their work at @micahbazant on instagram.

RSVP for visual art and disability justice


#LiberatingWebinars: Crip Cultural Work: Disabled and Writing Literature

Wednesday 18 May 2022 at 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific

Please join AWN with Cyrée Jarelle Johnson, The Cyborg Jillian Weise, and T. S. Banks for a talk on being disabled and writing literature.

RSVP for Crip Cultural Work: Disabled and Writing Literature

Event banner shows paper with cursive writing on them. There are three people. First is Cyree, a black trans person with locs pushed to the side under a black hat smiling at the camera in a multicolored leopard print shirt. Second is Cy, a white cyborg wearing a vest with lots of gold zippers. Cy's hand is raised to one side. Cy's back is not straight. Third is T, a dark skinned Black QT Disabled & fat poet. He has on a gold sweater and a dark green button up, glasses, and locs with gold tips. Text says, Crip Cultural Work: Disabled and Writing Literature, 18 May 2022 at 7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific. The corner shows the AWN logo - a large "a" with a dragonfly on it, and the words awnnetwork.org.

Speakers

Cyrée Jarelle Johnson (he/him) is a poet and writer from Piscataway, NJ. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Boston Review, Vice, and ArtNews among other publications. He earned an MFA in Creative Writing from Columbia University. SLINGSHOT, his first collection of poetry, won a 2020 Lambda Literary Award in Gay Poetry, and is available now from Nightboat Books. He was a 2020 Ruth Lilly & Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellow and the inaugural Brooklyn Public Library Poet-In-Residence.

The Cyborg Jillian Weise‘s books include The Amputee’s Guide to Sex (2007, 2017); the novel The Colony (2010); The Book of Goodbyes (2013); Cyborg Detective (2019) and the chapbook Give It to Alfie Tonight (2020). Cy started Borg4Borg Productions and directed A Kim Deal Party. It is inaccessible and unavailable to nondisabled audiences. Cy’s memoir is forthcoming from Ecco in 2023.

T. S. Banks (he/they/ze) is a Black & QTDisabled, non-binary teaching artist, poet, and playwright from Madison, WI. He is the founder of Loud ‘N UnChained Theater Co and co-founder of Sweet Water Liberation Lab. Their work addresses visioning for Black Liberation, a critique of the medical system, radical care + access, madness, QT Liberation, disability justice, abolition and cross-movement solidarity.

Moderator: Lydia X. Z. Brown, AWN Director of Policy, Advocacy, and External Affairs

RSVP for Crip Cultural Work: Disabled and Writing Literature


Past Webinars

You can find our webinar archive here. Many webinar recordings are also available as videos on our Facebook page.

We are grateful for all of our past #LiberatingWebinars series guests and in deep respect of the work that they do:

Aimi Hamraie, AJ Link, Allilsa Fernandez, Andrea James, Angela Lemus-Mogrovejo, Azza A. Altiraifi, Britney Wilson, Cal Montgomery, Crystal Lee, Damien Patrick Williams, Day al-Mohamed, Deanna Parvin Yadollahi, Dom Chatterjee, Dominick M. Evans, Dustin P. Gibson, Emily M. Lund, Elayne R. Otstot, Finn Gardiner, Gabriel Arkles, Jamelia N. Morgan, Jen Deerinwater, Jennifer Natalya Fink, Jess L. Cowing, Jilisa R. Milton, Kanav Kathuria, Kayley Whalen, Kelsey Smoot, Kenna M. Chic, Khairani Barokka, Kristen Lopez, Lateef H. McLeod, Lexie Holden, Lo Smith, Mahlet Meshesha, Mariam Banahi, Mimi Khúc, Naomi Ortiz, Nassira D. Nicola, Natalia M. Rivera Morales, Noor Pervez, Paulina Abustan, Prianka Nair, Priya Penner, Ría Thompson-Washington, Saili S. Kulkarni, Sarmistha Rahim Talukdar, Shain A. M. Neumeier, Shayda Kafai, Subini Ancy Annamma, Sunu P. Chandy, Taylar Nuevelle, Tony Alexander, Travis Chi Wing Lau, Victoria M. Rodríguez-Roldán, Y-Bình Nguyễn


With gratitude for our generous sponsors

Our community outreach and educational programming is supported by the following sponsors:

Logos for Ford Foundation, Urgent Action Fnd for Women's Human Rights, Borealis Philanthropy Disability Inclusion Fund, and Collective Future Fund: Joining Together to Heal, Resource & Mobilize

Ford Foundation, Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights, Borealis Philanthropy’s Disability Inclusion Fund, and The Collective Future Fund

We also offer thanks to the many comrades, colleagues, and community members who have made our webinar programming possible, including, among others, Anna McLain, Anthony Alexander, Ashley Cohen, Cathy Renna, Chante Frazier, Cheryl M. Henderson, Desiree Kane, Gino Gouby, JaRon Gilchrist, Jayne Tubergen, Jeremy L. Brunson, Jennifer Natalya Fink, Jess L. Cowing, Jessy Zapanta, Joshua Edwards, Kayley Whalen, Kyle Duarte, Lexie Holden, Shaina Ghuraya, Sharon Ploeger, Steven Nugent, Victoria Tejada, and Wendy Baquerizo.