Celebration in San Francisco, 1977; from the SF Examiner Archive, The Bancroft Library, UC Berkeley. Dennis Billups joins Eddie Ytuarte with a first person account of the historic disability occupation of the federal HEW building in 1977. This protest of the delay of 504 regulations became a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Billups’ history, as well as that of other disability activists, will be on display in the multi-media exhibit, “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Se...
Jun 02, 2017•4 min
Fund Drive Special Laura Bock is an extraordinary blind white woman whose new memoir, Red Diaper Daughter tells an extraordinary story of three generations of rebels and revolutionaries. She talks about her communist and anarchist family… and her own journey though a life lived in struggle, self growth and organizing. Laura Bock’s begins her story with that of her famous “red” grandparents who sought to overthrow the Russian Czar and were devoted organizers in the U.S. Communist Party. Her paren...
May 19, 2017•9 min
Cheryl Green of StoryMinders (For a transcript of the first 15 minutes of this half hour program, click here.) Capitalism is about money. Capitalism is about the 80% of disabled people who don’t have full time employment. Capitalism is also about how we think. Capitalism tells us it’s okay the majority of people in jails have learning disabilities, mental disabilities, brain injuries and physical disabilities. Capitalism affects us in ways we don’t always see. In this program disability activist...
May 05, 2017•4 min
ADAPT Protesters. Photo courtesy of David Sachs / SEIU ADAPT is a dynamic direct action group that blocks streets, sits in at the offices of D.C. politicos, and raises hell about the rights of disabled people. They bring hundreds of people with disabilities to their national actions. We talk with ADAPT organizer Bruce Darling about how they do it and how you can work with disabled people for your protests too. Disabled people and the disability rights movement have been protesting for a long tim...
Apr 21, 2017•4 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. Pushing Limits advances the voices of people who live with disabilities. It is produced by a collective of media makers and activists who themselves live with disability. The post Pushing Limits – April 7, 2017 appeared first on KPFA.
Apr 07, 2017•4 min
South Africa Tour Poster Josh Elwood talks with Mitch Jeserich about President Trump’s attitude toward disability. Then, we seek out disabled and deaf artists in South Africa with Leroy F. Moore Jr. and Simon Manda. Leroy F. Moore Jr is the founder of Krip Hop Nation. He recently visited seven South African cities with Simon Manda, the cofounder of THISABILITY, a South African newspaper covering the disabled community. Mitch Jeserich is host of KPFA’s Letters and Politics. We also discuss HB 610...
Mar 31, 2017•4 min
There is a growing nexus between the autism spectrum and trans identity which we’ll explore as we take an in-depth look at the lives of Autistic people in the Bay Area. Host Mark Romoser and guest Tracy Garza are both Autistic. Tracy will outline an initiative to make San Francisco, with its large trans population, into an Autistic-friendly city. Tracy also will give us a glimpse into a new coping technique for Autistic people. Finally, the two will talk about the lives of Autistic people taken ...
Mar 17, 2017•4 min
Eli Clare. Portrait by Riva Lehrer White, disabled, and genderqueer, Eli Clare’s new book, Brilliant Imperfection: Grappling with Cure, questions the typical hostility of the disability movement toward the mythology of The Cure. He explores his rage at the many ways the ‘search for the cure’ has ostracized and limited people with disabilities. But, then he dives deeper. Based in his own experiences with severe mental disability, numerous conversations, research and his chosen surgery to support ...
Mar 03, 2017•9 min
Thanks to: http://www.millenaire3.com/dossiers/ville-et-handicap-s Almost a month into our long national nightmare, we ask ‘how will the Trump administration affect the lives of people with disabilities?’ Trump’s campaign started with his mocking of a reporter’s disability. Now we’ve moved on to an education secretary who had to be told what the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is, and an attorney general who thinks that students with disabilities are “disruptive.” Coming soon:...
Feb 17, 2017•4 min
A.J. Withers The Independent Living Movement got people out of institutions and inspired many of us to believe we could live without doctors, parents and others defining our lives. But, no one is completely independent and, while it might feel good to talk about independence, as a final life goal, it leaves much to be desired. Join A.J. Withers of the blog, “If I Can’t Dance, Is It Still My Revolution?” for a discussion of how interdependence is a more accurate description of our lives — and how...
Feb 03, 2017•4 min
This program was produced by Education Today. The post Education Today – January 27, 2017 appeared first on KPFA.
Jan 27, 2017•4 min
Suzanne Stoltz Suzanne Stoltz, a many-year participant at a MDA camp, charts the political underbelly of the disability summer camp experience. Summer camp for kids is usually perceived as a fun time where participants socialize, play, run, and swim. This includes summer camps dedicated to serving kids with the same or similar disabilities, like those sponsored by the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). But, there is more going on than camp songs and meal time hi jinks. We look at the ways dis...
Jan 20, 2017•4 min
Donna Williams, aka Polly Samuel In the 1960s ‘autism’ was deemed ‘childhood psychosis’ and the incidence of autism was thought to be around 4 in 10,000 children. Today, up to 1 in 88 children are diagnosed on the autism spectrum. Polly Samuel, aka Donna Williams, was central to these changes and became a beacon to many in the autism community. Her brilliant early books, Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere were among the first to talk about life from the perspective of someone living with auti...
Jan 06, 2017•4 min
The Whistle is Ready to Blow. (Euroleague tournament -Wikipedia) The New Year is upon us and 2017 does not look all charming and bright. Like other people of good will, the disability community is scrambling to adjust to the new president. We’re applying advice from former Congressional staffers (and that guy we know down the street.) We’re talking about organizing ourselves more tightly like local senior groups have done. We’re looking for better ways to make alliances with other groups. We’re ...
Dec 30, 2016•4 min
Modern genetics offers parents the dream of choosing the characteristics of their children and aborting those who don’t fit their ideal. As scientists move in this direction, disabled people are understandably critical. They cite, for instance, the strong historical link between genetics and eugenics. In this program, Oakland writer Anne Finger explores these issues with Eddie Ytuarte through the lens of eugenics in the Soviet Union. Ms. Finger tells stories of a variety of unusual characters se...
Dec 02, 2016•4 min
Marta Russell and Steve Weiss. A discussion in memory of the late activist author Marta Russell with Steve Weiss and Ravi Malhotra. Russell is especially noted for her book Beyond Ramps: Disability at the End of the Social Contract, which offered a leftist analysis on how disability intersects with capitalism and includes topics like the Americans With Disability Act, health care, and the prison industrial complex. Weiss, an activist now living in Portland, Oregon, was the long-time companion of...
Nov 18, 2016•4 min
Maytte Bustillos Maytte Bustillios was given two years to live after the discovery of a cancerous tumor in her brain (Oligodendroglioma). Now, seven years and three craniotomies later, she talks to Shelley Berman about her fitness routine, mothering a child with a heart problem and dealing with the daily limitations of disability. With an analysis of California ballot measures by Shelley Berman. Produced and hosted by Shelley Berman. The post Maytte Bustillos: Living with Brain Cancer appeared f...
Nov 04, 2016•4 min
We talk with Ross Turnbull, the creator of the movie Terminal Device, an autobiographical essay and an inquiry into cinematic representation. Refracted through pop cultural images, the director tells his story as a man with a hook watching movie images of others with this particular prosthesis. He’s in the studio with Alex Locust, also an amputee and one of the organizers of Superfest, the bay area’s premier disability film fest. SUPER FEST Saturday, Oct 22 and Sunday Oct 23. Details here Produc...
Oct 21, 2016•4 min
Alice Wong of #Cripthevote. Discussion of current election issues with Eddie Ytuarte, Mark Romoser, Edie Halburg of the Peace and Freedom Party and Community Callers. The post Election 2016: Disability Issues appeared first on KPFA.
Oct 07, 2016•4 min
At age 14 Fable was diagnosed with anxiety, stage two bipolar, and depression. His home life was abusive and, as he says, “everything else was very, very, very hard to deal with.” Today he works with Mental Health America, traveling to different parts of the country to start a conversation about these issues, to talk to youth and to show them that they’re not alone – that these feelings and situations are some of the things that happen to people. Hear some of Fable’s life story, listen to his po...
Sep 30, 2016•4 min
We talk to S. Brian Willson who put his body in front of a train carrying illegal weapons to the Nicaraguan Contras — and the train ran over him. It all went down in the California bay area, at the Concord Naval Weapons Station, in the fall of 1987. When the train deliberately ran Brian down, he lost the right fontal lobe of his brain and both his legs. Three days later, ten thousand people showed up and munition shipments were delayed for a loooonnnnng time. There’s a new movie about Brian Will...
Sep 16, 2016•9 min
Guest: Vilissa Thompson of Ramp Your Voice The Movement For Black Lives posted their incredible Vision 4 Black Lives Platform in late July. As one could expect, it is most thorough in issues related to police violence and incarceration in the black community, including demilitarization of the police and an end to the bail system. But, it draws a much wider net to encompass many of the core issues that make Black lives difficult including reparations, investment and divestment, economic justice, ...
Sep 02, 2016•4 min
Dr. Karen Nakamura Pushing Limits is pleased to present an interview with cultural and visual anthropologist Karen Nakamura who recently accepted the position as Haas Distinguished Chair of Disability Studies at UC Berkeley. She is a highly-educated, skilled woman who is deeply immersed in the disability community. Dr. Nakamura, who formerly taught at Yale, will be working on projects using robotics and prosthesis to address questions of aging and disability in Japan and the US. She is building ...
Aug 19, 2016•4 min
Catherine Kudlick A hour-long fund drive episode in which we dissect the fascinating intersection of fundraising and disability with Catherine Kudlick, editor of Telethons: Spectacle, Disability and the Business of Charity by Paul Longmore. From Jerry Lewis – to the cancer survivor runs – to the many disability non-profits desperately hoping for support, money raising is part of our community. We laugh, poke fun at ourselves and other people, and shed some tears for the complex and often exploit...
Jul 29, 2016•9 min
Alice Wong A spirited discussion of #CripTheVote, (an online non-partisan campaign about voting and disability issues), the Disability Visibility Project and media for disabled people. We talk to disability mover and shaker, Alice Wong. Alice Wong is the founder and Project Coordinator of the Disability Visibility Project, a project collecting oral histories of people with disabilities in the United States that is being run in coordination with StoryCorps. Alice Wong also serves as an advisory b...
Jul 15, 2016•4 min
How do sports effect you as a disabled person? Disability-inclusive sports program, Vanuatu 2010. Photo: AusAID? Are you a player/doer? Spectator? Do sports and things about them encourage/discourage you? Do you feel that you can’t participate? Do you wish you could? How do the images around sports reflect on ablism? It’s interesting to notice all the sports-related language in our culture. Don’t give a damn? Is this all just a bunch of hooplah that means nothing? We tackle how sports effect peo...
Jul 01, 2016•4 min
Mary Lambert “Self Love” Who is Mary Lambert and what does she have in common with Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, Rosemary Clooney, Karen Carpenter, and Renata Tabaldi? All these popular women singers and/or composers have experienced major disabilities in their lives; disabilities which posed barriers to their art, often spurred or directed their musical careers–or even led to a premature death. Renata Tabaldi photo possibly by C.D. Kansi Pushing Limits, the creative voice of disability radio, aga...
Jun 17, 2016•4 min
Vilissa Thompkins of “Ramp Your Voice” Vilissa Thompson of Ramp Your Voice joins us to talk about the twitter storm she raised with her hashtag #DisabilityTooWhite. Many people of color with disabilities tweeted about the barriers they find in the movement. White people joined the conversation too. Is the Disability Movement Too White? And, more importantly, if it is, what can be done about it? We’ve got a few other topics today as well: –The current boycott of the movie “Me Before You” which hi...
Jun 03, 2016•4 min
We’re high on poetry this week… stories of disabled people told to the beat of the heart. Leroy F. Moore Jr. And, we’re focusing on black and brown people with disabilities because we’re hosting Leroy F. Moore Jr., and his new book, Black Kripple Delivers Poetry and Lyrics. Listen in as we follow the founder of Krip Hop Nation into a discussion of history, police brutality and the life of a black activist with a disability. Leroy Moore is the co-founder of Sins Invalid, a disability performance ...
May 20, 2016•9 min
Catherine Kudlick Catherine Kudlick visits Pushing Limits to discuss “Telethons,” a book by the late Paul K. Longmore. There have been several disability-related, day long fund-raisng extravaganzas in the latter part of the 2oth century; but these faded away from the pop philanthropy/pop culture scene, to the relief to some and the disappointment of others. What was the essence of these telethons? What was their message? And, why was there such strong opposition to them, especially the one spons...
Apr 29, 2016•4 min
