Pajama Party Politics: There is no justice without access

Pillow and blanket on a black couch with a laptop on a coffee table

An Online Event

Pajama Party Politics: There is no justice without access

An Online Event from Listen to Dis’ & the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance

Tuesday, May 31, 2022, 10am – 12pm

There are two ways to register. Email info@artsalliance.sk.ca or register online here: https://form.jotform.com/221284370562251

Disability is often perceived through the lens of those observing and exploiting disabled people. The art sector is no exception. The barriers to exist and the injustice within our arts spaces are insidious in Saskatchewan, “the fly over province” as we are viewed in the national and international disability cultural community. Together, we can shift that reality.

Listen to Dis’ (LTD’) and the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance (SAA) invite you to take part in a cultural conversation on May 31 about why it’s important we all, as artists and cultural workers, both independently and as part of organizations, do the work to catch up and keep up with the current understanding of access and accommodation with and for the Deaf/disabled community.

Everyone is welcome and we invite you to come as you are – just as you are – whether in pajamas on the couch, or comfy in your office.

Within this conversation, LTD’ will explain why we can’t do this without you, and why you can’t do this without us. We need both local disabled and non-disabled folks to understand the current climate of disability art internationally versus provincially. We need the community to understand us as a non-dominant culture who requires equitable action to move our voice forward. And finally, we need everyone on board to ensure that the work that has been and is being done is sustained.

The event will feature three local crip cultural leaders who have taken their broken heart and made art as a way of belonging.

  • Carla Harris will present Investing in the Arts: Process over Production – successes and failures of our funding streams
  • John Loeppky will present A Personal Essay on Being a Disabled Artist – leaving the sector as a survival strategy
  • Traci Foster will present A Starting Point – preferencing pleasure over pleasing as political statement

The event will also feature Guest Artist interruptions by:

  • Lindsay Scott
  • Fatima Nafisa – unconfirmed
  • Vuyo Ginindza

ASL interpretation will be provided by Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services