Alice Wong - Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People

Crip Wisdom for the People

Copyright 2018 Alice Wong

All rights reserved.

Distributed by Smashwords

All rights reserved. Each story is owned bythe original author and has been included in this anthology withtheir express permission. This book or any portion thereof may notbe reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the expresswritten permission of the original author and the editor.

Alice Wong, Editor and Publisher

Robin M. Eames, Editorial Assistant andHerder of Cats

Book cover by Micah Bazant

Ebook formatting by www.ebooklaunch.com

"Get this book right now! Resistance and Hope is the disability justiceBible you've been waiting for. If you want to read a book chockfull of disabled Black, brown, queer, trans genius, real talk andvision, if you want to understand that six million dollar questionWhat is disability justice?, if you're a sick or disabled or Mador neurodivergent or Deaf person figuring out how to survivefascism and create the world we want and deserve (or an abled orneurotypical person trying to catch up with us), this book willgive you comrades reassurances that we are brilliantrevolutionaries and a plethora of tools and visions for how we makethe road by limping, crutching, rolling, signing and stimming. I amso grateful for Alice Wong for doing the cultural work of puttingthis together and for every single writer in this book."

LeahPiepzna-Samarasinha , performer, community organizer, andauthor of Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice( Arsenal PulpPress , October 1, 2018)

Until our movements are fully intersectional,we will not make the progress necessary to build the equitablesociety we all deserve. Resistance andHope is a necessary manual for all of us as we learn howto build movements that are as inclusive as the world we hope tosee.

Brittany Packnett ,activist, educator, writer, Co-Founder of Campaign Zero andCo-Host of Pod Save the People

"There have been many conversations about whichstories deserve to be told and which do not. However, the essays in Resistance and Hope: Essays by DisabledPeople not only deserve to be told but heard and seen bypeople who want to see themselves and people who want a strongerand more important view of the world and the fight ahead ofus.

Keah Brown , journalistand author of ThePretty One (Atria Books, Spring 2019)

Resistance and Hope:Essays by Disabled People is a timely and must-readcollection of essays by some of the most cutting edge leaders inthe Disability Rights Movement. If you are interested in learningmore about disability rights and justice, activism, and currenttimes we are living in today take the time to read and may thesepieces evoke discussions in your communities as we fight forjustice and equity.

Judy Heumann ,Disability Activist

It is so necessary for people who have beenhistorically marginalized to tell their own stories. I am proud toknow Alice Wong, who is someone dedicated to telling these storieswith authenticity and integrity.

Blair Imani, Author of ModernHERstory and Founder of Equality forHER

A rare and powerful collection thatdemonstrates hopeful resistance. If you want to know how to fightand survive when Trump cuts try to destroy people you love, thenread this book. These 17 authors outline strategies for successfulresistance that emerge from communities committed to race, age,language, queer and disability diversity, equality and justice. AsAnita Cameron writes, To resist, one must have hope. Without it,we are lost. This book is a much-needed guide for resistance inthese despairing times.

Corbett OToole ,Co-Founder and Publisher of Reclamation Press and author of FadingScars: My Queer Disability History

We cannot talk about true democracy and truediversity in America if the voices and ideas and work of disabledpeople are not given space at the welcome table. Alice Wong, long atireless leader and visionary advocate for the disabled community,has assembled a powerful new anthology, Resistance and Hope: Essays by Disabled People, featuring 17 brilliant and bold disabled activists and artists. Inthe age of Trump this collection is a revelation, bringing from themargins fresh new ways to look at America, and fresh new ways tolook at ourselves."

Kevin Powell , authorof The Education of KevinPowell: A Boys Journey into Manhood

In Resistance andHope , activist, advocate, and scholar Alice Wong bringstogether new voices and perspectives on living with disabilitiesthat come from an inclusive array of multiply marginalized disabledpeople. In the spirit of nothing about us without us, Resistance and Hope offers us anurgent and needed collection of crip wisdom on belonging,community, and self-care that goes far toward showing us how tobuild the kind of just world we want to live in together.

Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, disabilitybioethicist and educator at Emory University and UCLA and author ofExtraordinary Bodies: Figuring Physical Disability in AmericanCulture and Literature

"An instructive and empowering anthology on thelived struggles of persons with disabilities. You will finish thisbook hopeful, optimistic, and ready to rebuild our nation for allto shine."

Arjun Singh Sethi ,activist and author of American Hate: Survivors Speak Out(The New Press, August 7, 2018)

Table of Contents

As the results of the Presidential electionrolled in the evening of Election Day 2016, my heart raced. I feltunsafe and a sense of urgency to do something. In my moments offear and panic towards what I knew would happen, I was strangelycomforted by the fact that disabled people have been surviving andresisting for millennia.

Resistance and Hope: Essays by DisabledPeople is a powerful collection of essays by disabled writers,artists, activists, and dreamers. What is the relationship betweenresistance and hope? What can disabled people share with the worldduring this time of uncertainty and unrest? You will learn from awide range of perspectives from multiply marginalized disabledpeople on where we are right now, where weve been, and where weregoing. Share this anthology with everyone everywhereon socialmedia, in the classroom, at the kitchen table, with your friendsand neighbors.

The idea for the Resistance and Hopeanthology developed that evening in November as I wondered whatcould I do to fight back and create something of value for all ofus. I reflected on Sins Invalids show in October2016, Birthing, Dying, Becoming Crip Wisdom, and realized wewerent entering into a new moment; every moment is cyclical andtied to living, resisting, dying, and rebirth. We are all linked toone another for survival. On a related note, thank you to artistMicah Bazant for the beautiful book cover. Mushrooms are my symbolof resilience and interdependence for this publication.

It is my intention for you, dear reader, to soakup crip wisdom from these writers and our ancestors. Think aboutyour privilege, get angry, and become involved in your variouscommunities.

With gratitude and solidarity,

Alice Wong, Editor and Publisher

Founder and Director, Disability VisibilityProject

Content notes: abuse in activist communities,activist praxis, accountability, intracommunity harm, complianceculture, conflicting access needs, cure rhetoric, respectabilitypolitics, multimodality

As a writer, thinker, educator, and organizer, Icannot stop thinking about the innumerable ways the world we livein is so violent, and how I desperately long for a better world,what that world might look like, and how we might get there. Thatis the work of social justice, or what could be described aslaboring for liberation.