Retreat for Disability Activists and Allies!!
February 25, 2008
Located at the Leaven Retreat Center in Lyons, MI (May 16-18):
Stories in Community: 8th Annual Retreat for Disability Activists and Allies
As disability activists and allies, which stories do we tell about our embodied experiences of disability, race, violence, class, gender identity, and sexuality? What words, ideas, and images emerge from our experiences of community and isolation, pride and shame, joy and activism? How do these stories shift, settle, or become tangled over time as our bodies change? Drawing upon disability culture, conversation, journal writing, music, and movement, we’ll spend the weekend telling stories and exploring these questions.
We will create space for telling stories of who we are, telling stories of oppression and privilege. We will examine the ways our stories not only repeat, but also contradict, each other. We will explore the power of story to reach across chasms of power, to struggle against willful ignorance, and to insist upon wholeness. In addition to storytelling, we’ll have time to rest, relax, and hang out.
Jo Kadi and Eli Clare are long-time friends and co-conspirators, committed to joy, social justice, and the importance of being allies to each other across multiple differences and identities, all the while telling stories and celebrating the many ways of finding voice in community.
Event is gender inclusive
Leaders: Eli Clare and Jo Kadi
Time: Friday, 7 pm - Sunday, 1 pm
Cost: $185 ($50 deposit + $135 balance due)
Poet, essayist, and rabble-rouser Eli Clare has long known the power of story. He is the author of two books: the newly released The Marrow’’s Telling: Word in Motion and Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation. Among other pursuits, he has walked across the United States for peace, coordinated a rape prevention program, and helped organize the first ever Queerness and Disability Conference. He has spoken across the country at conferences, community events, and colleges about disability, trans and queer identities, and social justice. Eli lives in Vermont.
Jo Kadi is a musician, writer, and teacher. Kadi, an able-bodied, Arab-Canadian, working-class queer, edited Food for Our Grandmothers: Writings by Arab-American and Arab-Canadian Feminists and Thinking Class: Sketches from a Cultural Worker, both from South End Press.
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Just your everyday queer disabled Corean girl living in the South... I admit to being a 
1.
Aaminah | February 26, 2008 at 8:53 am
Are you planning to attend? I would love to attend as an ally but I will have to see if I can arrange it. It’s only about 1 hour away from me!
2.
cripchick | February 26, 2008 at 10:02 am
i’m going to definitely try my hardest!! i hope you can come aaminah or if not that we can at least meet up!
3.
Rachel | February 26, 2008 at 12:14 pm
argh.
I knew that weekend looked familiar.
I’ll be traveling back from London. (Going to visit my best friend from college, whom I haven’t seen in five years - and it has to conflict with this conference!)
4.
Anyone Local Attending Th&hellip | February 26, 2008 at 12:17 pm
[...] Anyone Local Attending This? 26 02 2008 Retreat for Disability Activists & Allies in Lyon, Michigan in May. [...]
5.
the ff | February 26, 2008 at 3:05 pm
I found Food From Our Grandmothers when I needed to know there were “women like me.” I will always be thankful to Jo Kadi. If you see her, please give her a kiss and give her my thanks. the ff
6.
nosnowhere | February 26, 2008 at 5:21 pm
i want to come and meet up with ya’ll! that would be so awesome!!!!!! plus i am a kadi fan as well. i don’t think i can afford it tho, but i need to seek out more info.
7.
cripchick | February 26, 2008 at 8:34 pm
nadia— it’s been rumored that if you contact the leaven center they have partial scholarships available. i didn’t include it on the announcement because it’s only something i’ve heard, not seen on their website and such..
rachel— NOOOO. You’d choose a visit to Europe with one of your best friends over this? *wink*
theff—thanks for recommending Food From Our Grandmothers. will check it out and pass on kisses if i can!!
8.
Aaminah | February 27, 2008 at 9:01 am
Nadia,
Please let me know what you find out, k? I would walk there if it means I get to meet up with you!
9.
Aaminah | February 27, 2008 at 9:02 am
Good golly, that is terribly ableist thinking, innit?
10.
shiva | February 28, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Once again, this sounds beyond awesome, and i’m pissed off that i’m on the wrong side of the Atlantic for it…
I do wonder how many disability activists have a spare $185 tho…
11.
cripchick | March 2, 2008 at 3:52 pm
it looks like i’m in! i found a PA to go w/ me, scholarship money, and will dip into my AMC piggy bank to go : )
12.
post-retreat « crip&hellip | May 22, 2008 at 5:50 pm
[...] past weekend I had the opportunity to attend a disability activist retreat with friends at the Leaven Center. The retreat was facilitated by Eli Clare and Jo Kadi, two [...]