Creating Collective Access 2 is at the 2011 Allied Media Conference!

Hey AMC family!

Can you please spread the word to any sick and disabled folks you know
who are coming to the Allied Media Conference, and in your AMC
networks? If you're sick and disabled, hit us up- we got each other,
and if you've already got that tight feeling in your neck about "how
am I gonna survive this conference?", we got you! Come through, also,
if you're sick or disabled and/or just wanna kick it with the funnest
party in Detroit.  CCA last year was a life-changing experience for
everyone who was there- for real. It was a beautiful, hot space lead
by queer and trans disabled and sick folks of color, and so much good
in my life has come from that place.

If you're new to thinking about disability justice, check out these
writings by my sister Mia Mingus:

http://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/02/12/changing-the-framework-disability-justice/

http://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/

With fierce fibro femme of color love,
Leah Lakshmi

Creating Collective Access at the 2011 Allied Media Conference! This
shit is for real!

Are you disabled and/or chronically ill and going to Detroit for the
2011 Allied Media Conference? We got each other!  For the second year
in a row, Creating Collective Access, a sick and crip/disabled crew of
folks centered by sick and disabled women and gender non conforming
people of color, will be having an amazing time creating the
collective access we need, building with each other and (maybe)
watching Battlestar Galactica and/or having a crip sex party in the
dorms.   Check out the post below; our blog is here:
http://creatingcollectiveaccess.wordpress.com/, and you can email
creatingcollectiveaccess@gmail.com to get plugged in.

Please also check out the Healing Justice Practice Space at the AMC,
with over 25, all free, healers practicing from a liberatory
framework, and the Disability Justice Track:
http://alliedmedia.org/amc2011/program/browse

Creating Collective Access is at the Allied Media Conference again
this year! This is our second year and we are growing! We are getting
big and juicy! This shit is for real!!!

Are you a crip and/or someone with a chronic illness that is going to
be in Detroit this summer for the Allied Media Conference?

We know that for many of us, access is on our minds when it comes to
traveling, navigating the city, movement spaces, buildings, sidewalks,
public transportation, rides, the air, the bathrooms, the places to
stay, the pace, the language,the cost, the crowds, the doors, the
people who will be there and so so so much more.
Would you like to be connected to a network of crips and our
allies/comrades who are working together to create collective access?
What is collective access?  Collective Access is access that we
intentionally create collectively, instead of individually.

Most of the time, access is placed on the individual who needs it.  It
is up to you to figure out your own access, or sometimes, up to you
and your care giver, personal attendant (PA) or random friend.  Access
is rarely weaved into a collective commitment and way of being; it is
isolated and relegated to an after thought (much like disabled
people).

Access is complex.  It is more than just having a ramp or getting
disabled folks/crips into the meeting.  Access is a constant process
that doesn't stop.  It is hard and even when you have help, it can be
impossible to figure out alone.

We are working to create mutual aid between crips and beyond!  We try
and work from an anti-capitalist framework. This framework is a big
part of what holds us together. Last year, we shared food and
resources, we found last-minute housing for each other, some of us
fronted money for food and some of us who had long-distance phone
plans made phone calls.

Things we are thinking about as possibilities for collective access in Detroit:

collective eating and food gathering. having a central accessible
place where we eat together.  This space could also be kid friendly to
help provide mutual aid for parents and their children.  We may go on
joint food runs to the grocery store or to pick up food and bring it
back.
collectivizing rides–pooling transportation for those who need it.
helping to coordinate rides to and from places.
sharing information/communication. helping us be in touch to share
information (about access, ableism that is happening, workshops,
resources, etc.), connect and provide a working network of crips
through out the AMC.

The Network: We imagine that there will be pockets of planned access
happening.  We cannot anticipate or meet everyone's medical or access
needs and we are sure that for a lot of you, you have your PAs
(personal care attendants), folks who you feel comfortable with and
trust already lined up.  Our hope is to create a network that can
connect these access pockets together. We hope we can help each other
and share resources:  you can't walk long distance, but i can speed in
my chair down to the end of the block and get food; i can't read, but
you can, so you help me find my workshop in the schedule; you can help
make calls to organize the food gathering and eating, while i carry
the food up into the room.  We hope that together we can create a
culture of collective access.

A Note on "Pods"…
We figure that most disabled folk who are coming to Detroit will have
some kind of access plan in place, whether it's with a PA, friend(s),
care-giver, etc. Most folks will be coming to Detroit with/in a pod.
So, our work will be to try and connect these pods together, since we
totally acknowledge that most access is done through relationships and
it is really important for folks to feel comfortable with the folks
who are helping them with access AND because we can't possibly
anticipate nor do we have the capacity to meet everyone's access and
medical needs.

If you're coming alone and not in a pod, but still want to be part of
this – don't worry!  Email us and let us know your needs and what you
can offer!  Let's work together!

We are still working on this process and trying different things out!
Would you like to join us in practicing what this could look like?  Do
you have ideas?  Are you an ally/comrade who wants to help out or be
on call?

Please email creatingcollectiveaccess[at]gmail[dot]com with the
following info so we can get you on a contact list!

1. Your name (and your pod members' names, if you are in a pod)
2. Your contact info, including e-mail addresses and cell phone
numbers (and of course, your pod members' as well)
3. Access needs. What kinds of things might you need with regards to
access? What things can you offer? For example, "there are three of
us: I am disabled, my PA and my friend are also disabled. We will have
one van and one disabled parking permit. I have access to a credit
card that I can front. I am great at coordinating folks. My PA is an
ASL interpreter. We will definitely need help getting to and from our
community housing to the building where the workshops are. We all need
help lifting/carrying heavy things."
4. A pod name, if you have one!

CRIP LOVE!

The CCA crew

--
writer, performer, co-director, Mangos With Chili queer and trans
people of color roadshow, co-editor, The Revolution Starts At Home:
Confronting Intimate Violence In Activist Communities (South End,
2011)

www.brownstargirl.org
revolutionathome.tumblr.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com
"If you are free, you are not predictable and you are not
controllable."- June Jordan

"It was really more like 2002 that for me the break happened... It's a
Legba moment. You literally break open and you have a Divine
opportunity to make a choice about how you're going to move forward
with your work. And so you can either do what you know or you can go
into the unknown which is more scary, more rigorous, and more
dangerous in many ways and of course that's where you get your chops -
when you take that road. Luckily I took that road."
-Sharon Bridgforth

"Humility is not the ability to front, it's when you willingly work
for what you want." - Blue Scholars.

--
writer, performer, co-director, Mangos With Chili queer and trans
people of color roadshow, co-editor, The Revolution Starts At Home:
Confronting Intimate Violence In Activist Communities (South End,
2011)

www.brownstargirl.org
revolutionathome.tumblr.com
mangoswithchili.wordpress.com
"If you are free, you are not predictable and you are not
controllable."- June Jordan

"It was really more like 2002 that for me the break happened... It's a
Legba moment. You literally break open and you have a Divine
opportunity to make a choice about how you're going to move forward
with your work. And so you can either do what you know or you can go
into the unknown which is more scary, more rigorous, and more
dangerous in many ways and of course that's where you get your chops -
when you take that road. Luckily I took that road."
-Sharon Bridgforth

"Humility is not the ability to front, it's when you willingly work
for what you want." - Blue Scholars.