Disability Justice in This Moment in Time

A Conversation and Reading with Cyree Jarelle Johnson and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

How does disability justice guide how we continue resisting, organizing, grieving and loving in these pandemic, eugenic, fascist times?

Come witness disability justice organizers and writers Cyree Jarelle Johnson 07F (Slingshot, Sins Invalid) and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha in an intimate conversation about the current moment, disability justice thinking, strategizing and cultural work, as well as both writers reading from their work.

Hosted by the Hampshire College Community Commons, Office of Accessibility Resources and Services, and Division of Justice, Equity, and Antiracism as part of the April 6, 2023 Community Day of Learning and made possible with the support of our co-sponsors, the Office of Community Advocacy and Restorative Practices.

Bios:

Cyree Jarelle Johnson 07F is a poet from Piscataway, New Jersey. He is the author of SLINGSHOT (Nightboat Books, 2019), winner of a Lambda Literary Award for Gay Poetry. Johnson was awarded a Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation and served as the inaugural poet-in-residence at the Brooklyn Public Library. His poems have appeared in Poetry, Apogee, Foglifter, WUSSY, and Atmos among other publications. WATCHNIGHT, his forthcoming book of poetry, considers ancestry as history in the context of the Great Black Migration of the 20th century, familial estrangement, and queer family. He is a 2023 National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellow.

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (she/they) is a nonbinary femme disabled writer and disability and transformative justice movement worker of Burgher and Tamil Sri Lankan, Irish and Galician/Roma ascent. They are the author or co-editor of ten books, including The Future Is Disabled: Prophecies, Love Notes and Mourning Songs, Beyond Survival: Stories and Strategies from the Transformative Justice Movement (co-edited with Ejeris Dixon), Tonguebreaker, and Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice. A 2020-2021 Disability Futures Fellow, they are currently at work building Living Altars/ The Stacey Park Milbern Liberation Arts Center, an organization and accessible residency for disabled 2QTBIPOC writers and creators.

 
Access Notes:

Masks are required for this event, and COVID-19 testing in advance is strongly encouraged. Please do not attend the event in person if you test positive for COVID-19, have had recent close contact with someone who is testing positive for COVID-19, or have any symptoms of concern.
 
Franklin Patterson Hall has accessible bathrooms and elevator access to all floors. The Main Lecture Hall has wheelchair access on the entry level floor as well as reserved accessible seating on the stage level for this event. For mobility access requests and priority stage level access seating, please contact Teal at tvdDO@hampshire.edu. Access ushers will be available at the event to offer friendly assistance and navigation support.
 
This event is designated scent-free for access purposes, please refrain from wearing perfumes, colognes, body spray, or other fragrances.
 
ASL and CART live captioning will be available via Zoom and in-person. For remote participation via Zoom, please register at http://hamp.it/dj under the "Schedule" link.