Wrestler Buff Bagwell and his wheelchair action figure with new Wheelchair Playset.Every once and awhile I search for wheelchair action figures. This week I found WrestlingFigures.com’s Wheelchair Playset. You can get the wheelchair in any one of six colors. I happened to get the color “wood.” It goes well with my Buff Bagwell action figure […]
In the summer of 1972 I spent weeks in Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley. I had managed to get third degree burns on my foot, which got infected. After IV antibiotics, a skin graft and months of elevating my leg it healed. During my stay friends from Sonoma County came to visit a couple of […]
Over the past four years I have had the incredible opportunity to produce lectures on disability in the fine arts at San Francisco’s de Young Museum. The museum is housed in a new lavish, cutting edge building. In my typical fashion I had forgotten to document them until a couple of months ago. So, this […]
We have another hero. Hugh Gallagher gave us FDR. The world knew FDR was disabled, but until Gallagher none of us knew that FDR’s disability experience had a profound effect on his life and world view. After polio, FDR began to root for the poor. I know, hero is so overused when it is applied […]
It’s happening again! I’m giving an updated, improved, higher quality presentation on disability art and art by disabled people. I’ll be showing examples and discussing the various ways works created by disabled people are created and displayed. And, I’ll guide you through my disability art project with disability art shows. […]
Sunday, July 28, 4:00 pm and Wednesday, August 28, 4:00 pmPetaluma Art Center$5.00 donation suggestedA presentation examining the differences between disability art and art that is made by disabled people, and its implications for disabled artists and community based programs. A six year project gauging the level of acceptance of art with disability subject matter […]
Just last May, in Chicago, the Bodies of Work Festival rocked me. I was there for 8 days to swim in disability culture, see my arty-type friends, and, oh yeah, visit my niece who I hadn’t seen in years. The Festival was a marvel. It was engrossing, confounding, fun, exhausting, inspiring, and ultimately so satisfying. […]
John Hockenberry, the wheelchair-using journalist and author of Moving Violations, is now heard every day from noon to 1:00 of KQED, FM 88.5. Welcome back John!The show Takeaway has been running for awhile in other markets. […]
There’s been a flurry of 1970s and 80s albums from Christian disabled singers. I think it’s part of the weird album cover fad, rather than any particular interest in disability. […]
I have a rather checkered relationship with tequila. We parted company about 30 years ago, but I still clearly remember how sick I would feel the morning after the night before. […]