Hello,
Welcome to the second issue of The Zing! This is where we interrogate some ideas related to decoloniszation through poetry, literature, music, art, and films.
Our theme for this issue is disability.
Official statistics state that around 15% of the global population lives with some form of disability, and yet, our understanding of disability as society remains inadequate and frames ableist structures and systems. Ableist attitudes that reinforce the belief that disabled people need to be ‘fixed’ and thus strip them of their complex humanity are only some of the ways in which we all often contribute to the stigma and discrimination that disabled people face.
When we talk about decoloniszing disability, it is crucial to seek out narratives from marginalized groups who are left out of conversations around disability. It is important to understand the capitalist and colonial infrastructures that seek to exclude disabled people. Disabled people get very little space in mainstream culture, and we hear even less from queer disabled people and disabled people of colour. To decolonisze is to be aware of the experiences of intersectionality in disability and to recognize the multiplicity of narratives of disability. Disabled people are not a homogenous group, and we hope that this issue of our newsletter will give you a starting point to begin exploring these narratives.
What we’re watching
The film industry doesn’t get disability representation right – most films resort to using harmful stereotypes or tropes for their disabled characters, which only contributes to the stigma around disability. What makes this worse is that most disabled characters are played by able-bodied actors, which robs disabled actors of roles. This quote from the Diamond report by Creative Diversity Network illustrates the disproportionate disabled representation in British film and media:
“Representation by disabled people is very low across every genre, both on and off-screen, with particularly low proportions of on-screen contributions in drama (3.5%) and comedy (4.3%) programmes. Off-screen, disabled people are making fewer than 5% of contributions in children’s (4.9%), comedy (4.5%), drama (4.7%), entertainment (4.8%) and factual (4%) programmes, despite accounting for 17% of the working-age population.” (1)
Although finding diverse representations of disability seems like a bleak prospect in present times, there is still a glimmer of hope. Ryan Stocks on 'Emmerdale' is played by James Moore, who has cerebral palsy, while Isaac Goodwin, a character on the Netflix show ‘Sex Education’, is played by George Robinson, a wheelchair user. Another example is Steve Way who plays the character of Steve on the show 'Ramy'. However, we are yet to see disabled characters as protagonists of their shows or see this kind of representation extend beyond a few TV shows. We hope this changes soon.
Image Descriptions: A collage of seven pictures based on the recommended movies. Picture 1 shows a young-adult boy in a wheelchair, with two people dancing in the background on the left and a woman in a black dress on the right (a still from ‘Sex Education’). Picture 2 shows two people sitting in a car (a still from ‘Ramy). Steve Way can be seen sitting in the shotgun seat. The image under it is in black and white and shows a man carrying another man in his arms (a still from ‘Crip Camp’). Picture 4 is the poster for ‘The Color of Paradise’, with three children running in a field. Picture 5 is the graphic poster of ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’, with Kubo wielding a sword. Picture 6 is the French poster of ‘I, Daniel Blake’ (‘Moi, Daniel Blake’) with the characters of the film standing in an alley. The last picture is the poster of ‘The House is Black’ a black-and-white image with a woman holding a phone receiver to her ear.
Crip Camp (2020)
Directed by Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht: Down the road from Woodstock in the early 1970s, a revolution blossomed in a ramshackle summer camp for disabled teenagers, transforming their young lives and igniting a landmark movement. (Available on Netflix)
The Colour of Paradise (1999)
Directed by Majid Majidi: The story revolves around a blind boy named Mohammed who is released from his special school in Tehran for summer vacation. His father, shamed and burdened by Mohammed’s blindness, arrives late to pick him up and then tries to convince the headmaster to keep Mohammed over the summer. The headmaster refuses, so Mohammed’s father eventually takes him home.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Directed by Travis Knight: Kubo mesmerizes the people in his village with his magical gift for spinning wild tales with origami. When he accidentally summons an evil spirit seeking vengeance, Kubo is forced to go on a quest to solve the mystery of his fallen samurai father and his mystical weapons, as well as discover his own magical powers.
I, Daniel Blake (2016)
Directed by Ken Loach: A middle-aged carpenter, who requires state welfare after injuring himself, is joined by a single mother in a similar scenario. (Available on YouTube)
The House Is Black (1963)
Directed by Forugh Farrokhzad: ‘The House Is Black’ is an acclaimed Iranian documentary short film directed by Forough Farrokhzad. The film is a look at life in a leper colony, spliced with Farrokhzad's narration of quotes from the Old Testament, the Koran, and her own poetry. (Available on YouTube)
View the complete watchlist on Letterboxd.
Descriptions sourced from Letterboxd.
Our Mixtape
Sink or Swim
By Ruth Patterson: An artist and activist, Ruth Patterson is also an ambassador for ‘Attitude is Everything’, an organisation that campaigns for improving deaf and disabled people’s access to live music. Patterson has been diagnosed with severe arthritis and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
Blue
By Jason Becker: Despite being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and losing his ability to play, walk, and speak, Jason Becker continues to compose via a computer programme using head and eye movement.
Moment of Bliss
By Gaelynn Lea: Born with a genetic condition that causes complications in bone and limb development, Gaelynn Lea is an American singer, violinist, public speaker and, disability advocate.
Produced by Leonard Cheshire, a pan-disability charity, The Disability Download is a podcast sharing stories and opening up conversations about disability.
Choices and Rights
By Johnny Crescendo: Johnny Crescendo is a singer, songwriter, poet, and activist. His songs are based on issues of racism and poverty that he encountered while working in the youth and community work field as a person with polio.
You can also listen to the complete playlist on YouTube.
Fresh off the Shelf
Books
Image Description: A collage of book covers of the recommended books. Cover 1 has a woman reading a book in her room which is messy. Cover 2 has a rabbit flying in the blue sky with fluffy clouds; there is a coin in the bottom-left corner. Cece the rabbit’s hearing aids form the letters ‘El Deafo’ in the sky. Cover 3 shows a woman in her wheelchair underwater in a swimming pool. Cover 4 is white text on a blue background, with some abstract art in green, orange, and purple. Cover 5 is white text with a blue background. It also has a background image with a placard saying ‘Decolonize’.
Skin Stories: Essays On Sexuality, Disability and Gender
Edited by Shreya Ila Anasuya: An anthology of essays by disabled people, ‘Skin Stories’ features fresh new perspectives and urgent personal essays at the intersection of gender, sexuality, and disability. (Read here)
Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability
Edited by Jennifer Bartlett, Sheila Black, and Michael Northen: A ground-breaking anthology of disability poetry, essays on disability, and writings on the poetics of both, this is where poetry and disability intersect, overlap, collide, and make peace. (Buy here)
El Deafo
Written by Cece Bell: In a semi-autobiographical graphic-novel memoir about growing up hearing impaired, author/illustrator Cece Bell chronicles her hearing loss at a young age and her subsequent experiences with the Phonic Ear, a very powerful – and very awkward – hearing aid. (Buy here)
Typed Words Loud Voices
Edited by Amy Sequenzia and Elizabeth J. Grace: A collection of stories written by people with disabilities that limits their ability to speak, this book provides a new perspective on what it means to have a ‘voice’. (Buy here)
Occupying Disability: Critical Approaches to Community, Justice, and Decolonizing Disability
Edited by Pamela Block, Devva Kasnitz, Akemi Nishida, Nick Pollard: An academic work that provides a discursive space where the concepts of disability, culture, and occupation meet critical theory, activism, and the creative arts, Occupying Disability considers disability not in terms of pathology or impairment but as a range of unique social identities. (Buy here)
Instead of buying from Amazon or other corporations, we encourage you to support local bookstores and independent publishers. A lot of these stores ship abroad too!
If you’re based in North America, you can use Indiebound.org and Bookshop.org to find the closest independent bookstore near you. If you enjoy audiobooks, Libro.fm is a great alternative to Audible.
Essays / Articles
Decolonization as a Strategy for Accommodating Disabilities: Rachel Setzer explores the connections between colonialism, disability, and indigeneity, and how settler colonialism shapes ableist systems today. Challenging ableist systems requires centring decolonization, and returning land to Indigenous people (via Disability Visibility Project).
Decolonizing the Body: Indigenizing our Approach to Disability Studies: This article argues that the field of critical disability studies must centre decolonial approaches. Author Rachel Presley discusses recent developments of intersectionality within the field but also highlights the neoliberal approach that previously shaped the field (via The Activist History Review)
Accommodating Persons With Disabilities In Jobs: This article highlights the need to make spaces accessible, including the necessity of making sure that workplaces and educational institutions do not have barriers that exclude disabled people (via Countercurrents.org).
Our Capitalist Society Has Always Devalued Disabled People. Coronavirus Has Made This Clear: Focusing on the relationship between disability and capitalism, this article highlights the way that the British government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrates the way that society has devalued disabled people throughout history. Author Ellen Clifford explores the ways in which capitalist systems have historically, and continue to, exclude disabled people (via Novara Media).
Disablement, Prison, and Historical Segregation: This article navigates the connections between disability and prison in the US, situating both within systems of capitalism and mass incarceration, to highlight the need to challenge the way “work” exists under capitalism. Authors Jean Stewart and Marta Russell explore healthcare and labour in prison, and how that connects to the way disability exists in prisons (via Monthly Review).
Research Papers
Decolonising disability: Thinking and acting globally: Disability in academic circles has for the longest time been a blanket term used to universalize a specific type of disability as seen in the Global North while invisibilizing the different and unique experiences of disability in the Global South. The research paper focuses on a “southern theory” of disability while putting it in a larger context of International Relations and the subsequent impact of disability in the Global South (via Research Gate).
Disability, Economic Globalization and Privatization: A Case Study of India: Disability and economic or financial capital are often not linked together or seen as factors which influence each other but in newly independent countries like India with increasing neo-liberal forces, it becomes urgent to study that link. With economic restructuring affecting healthcare, education, employment - very soon, only the middle class and upper-middle-class of India can “afford” to be disabled while the vast majority of disabled people in India remain disenfranchised (via Disabled Studies Quarterly).
Disabling Bodies of/and Land: Reframing Disability Justice in Conversation with Indigenous Theory and Activism: Eurocentric or “settler” disability theory has marginalized and overlooked the indigenous knowledge systems about the close connection between land and the human body. The paper argues that disablement of land and body has been a historical tactic of settler colonialism and to tackle the capitalist state’s vision of a future which lacks disabled and indigenous people, natural and bodily self-determination is essential (via Disability and the Global South).
Rub Him About the Temples: Othello, Disability, and the Failures of Care: In a radically different approach to Shakespeare’s play Othello, this paper investigates the ethical differences in the models of care that is provided to Othello. A black and disabled character, his interactions with his close network (including his friend Cassio) demonstrates the pretensions and failures of his relationships (via Early Theatre).
Developing and Reflecting on a Black Disability Studies Pedagogy: Work from the National Black Disability Coalition: The National Black Disability Coalition (NBDC) has undertaken an important project whereby they focus on developing theories and studies on black disabled bodies especially within the academic circles of universities. Black Disability Studies Pedagogy recognizes and acknowledges the complex experience of being black and disabled within the larger socio-cultural, economic and historical context in the USA (via Disabled Studies Quarterly).
Our Sister Projects:
Liminal Transit Review - Liminal Transit Review is a literary journal that publishes work related to themes such as (but not limited to) diaspora, immigration, displacement, borders, and decolonization. LTR is open for submissions all year round.
Bilori Journal - Bilori Journal is a bilingual, Marathi and English journal aiming to publish academic, research, and personal essays about books that are under-marketed, lesser-known, suppressed and marginalised. Bilori is currently open for submissions.
Donate
decoloniszing our bookshelves (dob) is a completely volunteer-run organisation. If you can, please consider supporting us. If you are based outside India, you can donate through Ko-fi. If you’re based in India, you can donate via any UPI app (Google Pay, etc.)
This was very interesting and helpful! Thank you for your efforts:))