These posts are achieved posts from the Fall 2015. Older posts on bottom:
October 28 2015: KCC Diversity Film Festival
Today I was invited to show my film “Only Those Who Limp Allowed” for the Diversity Film Festival at my college, Kingsborough Community College. The person who had me do the Brain Injury Presentation earlier this month, suggested the idea of showing my work at the festival. The screening was in a large space so we got quite a large turnout. I introduced the film by mentioning that I am glad that disability is being included in the idea of diversity since I know a lot of people in the disability community would also like to see disability included in diversity. After all people of any and all races can be or become disabled. We showed the version of Only Those Who Limp Allowed that was open captioned. Then I came up front again to do a Q&A. I got some really nice feedback via the comments and questions. One person mentioned that they didn’t realize people with disabilities had so many different opinions on issues. Another person said that my film made them feel a lot of different emotions. People liked that I brought up issues with dealing with disability in regards to romantic relationships. I got the usual question of what my next project(s) would be. Then one particularly brave person asked essentially “When did you realize you were disabled? When did you realize you were different?” I told her that I was told about my disability at a very young age and made aware that I might be bullied for it and that I felt personally,in my humble opinion, the earlier the person is told about their disability the better they can adapt to their disability instead of letting their disability control their life. Of course my thoughts on this are strictly from the perspective of somebody who was born with Cerebral Palsy instead of somebody who acquired a disability later in life so I realize people’s experiences can and will be different from mine in this area. I was asked what parts of accessibility needed improvement. I feel subways need major accessibility improvements. Somebody else asked about the use of the word “Crip” and I remembered to mention that “Crip” used to have a similar meaning to “creep” and that I wanted to turn this idea on it’s head. Especially in regards to the title “Crips Not Creeps” At the very end there was the bouncing around of possible ideas for more outreach work with my films. Later on in the day I was also stopped in the hallway by people who had seen the screening and wanted to congratulate me. I met people who were beautiful inside and out today. I am forever grateful to everybody at Kingsborough Community College who put this screening and the entire festival together!!! Special thanks to KCC!!! I have full permission from KCC to write this blog post!
Charity Event and Self Advocacy
Last night I was invited to a charity event for Para Arts foundation to speak about my work. Para Arts Foundation is a Russian-American foundation that is centered around children and adults with disabilities. This particular event involved disabled people singing,dancing and reading poetry in Russian. They also showed portions of “Crips Not Creeps” in english and asked me to come on stage and speak about the films. They translated my words into Russian. They invited me to return someday and screen the entire film! Special thanks to Para Arts! I was honored to attend!
Then today I was invited to screen all 3 of my films “Drama Sighted” “Only Those Who Limp Allowed” and “Crips Not Creeps” in production order, for a class about self advocacy and independence for young adults who are physically and/or mentally disabled. A dear friend of mine named Colleen recently started working there and came up with the idea of me coming to the class and helped set everything up. She felt my story would inspire these young adults to stand up for themselves. I spoke to the class about my journey as a disabled person with Cerebral Palsy. At first I thought we would only have time to screen 1 film but we were lucky enough to screen all of them because we had extra time. The feedback from the students after each film was amazing! It sounded like the students really related to the characters and topics covered in the films. I loved the honest discussions each film brought about, especially the discussion after “Only Those Who Limp Allowed” We talked about invisible disabilities, bullying and insecurities in people. I even got offers from the students and staff to collaborate on future projects. It is my hope that I have helped these students to learn not to assume to much,learn new things, keep open minds, and make their needs known. I have never spoken to a class like this before. It was an honor and a pleasure. I hope more opportunities to do so will come around again. Super special thanks to Colleen, and the awesome students and staff!!!
I was given full permission to post this blog update by Para Arts Foundation and AHRC!
Brain Injury Presentation
Today I was asked to do a presentation on brain injury including Cerebral Palsy. I talked about what areas in the brain are commonly injured and what symptoms damage to each area can cause. I talked about how my case of Cerebral Palsy effects my balance in such a way that causes me to constantly feel like I am falling and how I have highly exaggerated reflexes. Then we talked about the fact that brain injuries are permeant and that people must learn to cope throughout their lives with the injury. We used the Crip Video Productions blog and website as a reference. Then we screened the “Crips Not Creeps” trailer as an example. I gave a postcard about my films to each member of the audience. My hope is that people understand that brain injury is a disability that should be taken seriously but that brain injury is not the end of the world and you can live a life filled with friendship and love with a brain injury. I have never used my films to give a talk mainly meant to educate on the more medical aspects of disability before so it was a learning experience for me to say the least. I am honored we were able to use my films for this presentation. Special thanks to the wonderful group of people who helped me with the presentation!! Their hard work was amazing! I am so glad that my films can be used as a teaching tool as well as to entertain! Please note!!!: I got full permission to make this post from the person who asked me to do this presentation!
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