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disability_fest_manual

Hi, everybody.

Hi, everybody.

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This is actor advocate Andy Arias.

This is Andy Arias, I am an actor and advocate.

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Happy ADA 30.

So happy to celebrate with you 30 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (the ADA) became a law.

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I want to take a quick second to give a shout out to disabilityunite.org.

I want to say thank you to disabilityunite.org.

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Thank you for putting on such an amazing event.

Thank you for this amazing event.

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Thank you to Corey and Elizabeth for inviting me to do this.

Thank you to Corey and Elizabeth for inviting me to talk to you.

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You guys, it is almost November. What does that mean? It is time to go out and vote.

You know, it is almost November. That means it is almost time to go vote.

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Now, more than ever, your choices and your voices matter.

Now, more than ever, your choices (and your votes) can make a difference.

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So whether you are on the right or the left side, your voice needs to be heard in November.

No matter whom you want to vote for, it is important that you vote in November.

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Know where your polling place are.

You should know where you could go to vote.

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Know that there are absentee ballot options available, and there may be other options available depending on what situation we find ourselves in.

You should know if you could vote from home. You should check if there are other ways of voting this year because of covid-19.

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We are the largest population, and any minority or majority on the planet-- it is time that we are equal in our voices and in our choices.

We are more than any other group in the whole world. We should be equal and have choices like everybody else.

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Please do not forget to go out and vote in November.

To make sure we have choices please do not forget to go out and vote in November.

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If I didn't speak up, would you notice me?

If I didn't speak out loud, would you pay attention to me?

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4 Wheel City presents The Movement.

The 4 Wheel City group presents The Movement.

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This is a refreshers course.

In the next work, the artists want to remind us of something important.

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We all travel in separate vehicles, right?

They remind us that we all move in different ways.

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Cars, trucks, bicycles, wheelchairs, motorized wheelchairs, canes, crutches.

We walk and drive cars and bicycles but we also use wheelchairs and crutches.

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Be aware, and kindly make an adjustment so that we can all get to where we're going.

So, we need to make sure we all pay attention to each other, we need to make sure everything is accessible so we can all get to where we want to go.

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As I said in the beginning, this is a very unique time and space.

Like I said in the begining, we leave in a very special time.

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So 4 Wheel City takes a moment to say thank you.

So 4 Wheel City group wants to to say thank you to the people who help us in covid-19 times.

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4 Wheel City.

4 Wheel City.

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Thank you so much for taking the time out to spend the evening with us.

Thank you so much for being with us tonight.

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My name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin, as I told you before.

My name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin, as I told you before.

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And I am an ally of disabled people.

I am a friend and supporter of disabled people.

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We all breathe the same air.

We all breathe the same air.

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We all share the same space.

We all share the same space.

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And as Maya Angelou said, we have more in common than we realize.

And as Maya Angelou said, we have more thing that are the same then things that are different..

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Have a wonderful summer.

Have a wonderful summer.

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Stay safe.

Stay safe.

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We love you.

We love you.

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Thank you again for joining us.

Thank you again for being with us.

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See you next time.

See you next time.

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Good evening, everybody, and welcome to the Disability Unite Festival.

Good evening, everybody. Welcome to the Disability Unite Festival.

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My name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin.

My name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin.

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I'm so happy to be here with you this evening.

I am so happy to be here with you this evening.

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This is a moment that we've all been anticipating.

This is a moment that everybody was waiting for.

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It's a moment that's powerfully titled, "It Just Had to be Said".

It is a moment that we can call, "It just had to be said".

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And all of the artists, including myself, in this next segment pretty much just let you know what needs to be said in protest of 2020, the us, the we, the they, the fear, the outrage, the defiance, all of us, you and I, redefining our identities.

The artists in the next part of the festival, including me, just say what we think. We just say what is wrong now, in 2020, what we need to change. How people just want to be with people they think are just like them and do not want to be with other people. We talk about being afraid, being angry, trying to say no, trying to know who we are.

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These next few artist bring it to you and tell you just like it is.

The next artists tell you exactly what they think about all these things.

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I finally get a chance to tell you a little bit about myself.

Now I can to tell you a little bit about myself.

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Again, my name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin, performance spoken-word artist.

My name is Gha'il Rhodes Benjamin, I am an artist who performs with words.

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This piece, written and performed by me, is titled Global Libations.

The piece that I will perform for you now is a piece that I wrote. I call this work Global Libations.

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It's a memorial for the gone but not forgotten, the heroes and the sheroes that are no longer with us, gone from our dinner tables, from our neighborhoods, from our lives, leaving behind husbands, wives children, grandparents, elders, gone.

I wrote this in memory of the people who died and are no longer with us but we do not forget them. It is in memory of brave men and women who passed away. Who are not with us anymore. They are gone. They are not with us at dinner, and they are not with us in the neighborhood. They are not in our lives anymore. They had husbands and wifes, they had children and grandparents, and now they are gone.

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Global Libations.

Global Libations.

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Zazel O'Garra, founder and artistic director of ZCO Dance Project, is a force to be reckoned with.

Zazel O'Garra is the founder and artistic director of ZCO Dance Project. She is a very strong and important woman.

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She's a powerful force in the artistic industry.

She is a powerful artist.

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Nothing can slow her down. Nothing can pull her back.

Nothing can slow her down.

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Nothing can hold Zazel down.

Nothing can slow her down. Nothing can stop her.

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She is dynamite.

She has so much energy.

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Her dancers defy gravity.

Her dancers jump so high (in the air).

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They move through space and time effortlessly.

When they move it looks so easy.

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It's as if they can never stop.

It looks like they can never stop.

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Their sheer determination defies all odds.

They just keep on moving even when it looks impossible.

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In this new piece, titled "We the People", choreographed by Wendy Powell, you'll get a chance to see what I'm talking about.

The name of their new dance is "We the People" the person who created the dance is Wendy Powell. Now you will see them.

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Put your hands in the air.

Put your hands in the air.

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Get ready.

Get ready.

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ZCO Dance Project is coming to you right now.

ZCO Dance Project is starting right now.

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Go, ZCO.

Go, ZCO.

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Hi, Andrea.

Hi Andrea.

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Welcome to Disability Night platform.

Welcome to Disability Night.

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Thank you so much for coming today.

Thank you very much for coming.

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We're very honored to have you.

We’re glad you are here.

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You're known as the seated nurse.

You are called “the seated nurse”.

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Could you give us a little bit of a back story about yourself and about your disability?

Can you tell us about yourself? And why they call you the seated nurse?

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Yes, I'm the seated nurse.

Yes, I am called the seated nurse.

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I'm the first registered nurse here in New York City to graduate out of nursing school and be a wheelchair user at the same time. And my little backstory is that I also have transverse myelitis.

I am the first person in New York City to become a nurse also use a wheelchair. I am using a wheelchair because I have a desease.

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I was diagnosed at the age of five and completely stopped walking when I was 12 years old.

It started when I was five years old. I stopped walking when I was 12 years old.

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- Wow.

Wow.

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You're a very gifted, talented person.

You are a very talented person.

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I've known you for a long time.

I have known you for a long time.

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You've also been Miss Wheelchair New York.

You won the Ms. Wheelchair New York contest.

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What made you want to become a nurse?

Why did you want to be a nurse?

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- I actually didn't always want to be a nurse.

I did not always want to be a nurse.

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I think a long time ago, we had spoken about representation and what that meant to us, right?

We talked about different jobs a long time ago.

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And I didn't see people that look like nurses that look like me as a nurse-- not as a woman, not as a woman of color, but as a woman that had a disability.

I did not see any nurses with disabilities, who looked like me. There were women, and women of color, but not with disabilities, so I did not think about being a nurse.

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I wanted to be a doctor.

I wanted to be a doctor.

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I actually wanted to be a lawyer before that.

I also wanted to be a lawyer.

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And in trying to get towards where I really wanted to be in life, I really thought about giving back and being of service to someone else.

I thought about what I really wanted to do. I wanted to help other people.

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Medical school teaches you that you're treating a disease process, you're treating how a disease process works throughout someone's body.

In medical school, you learn how to treat a sickness in someone’s body.

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I didn't want to treat someone like they were a disease process.

You treat the sickness and not the person.

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I wanted to treat them as a person, so nursing fit right in there.

I wanted to help take care of the person and not the sickness. So I became a nurse.

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So do you think then as a nurse that's in a chair, did you— do you think that there was any perks or beneficial aspects of being able to be relatable to people when you meet them in the patient setting?

Do you think that being in a wheelchair helps you in your job? Does it make it easier for your patients to talk to you?

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- Oh, 100%.

Yes it does.

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Being in the seated position or any disability at all, you are bringing a perspective that somebody might not have, right?

People see my disability and learn something new. They see things in a different way.

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We know that disability is often deemed "the death sentence," quote unquote, right?

People sometimes think that if you have a disability, your life is over.

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But when you come into nursing and you have your disability already and now you're at the bedside, that person knows that life goes on outside of the four walls of a hospital or outside the four walls of a clinic.

But when they see someone with a disability taking care of them, they understand that life goes on. They know they will not always be in the hospital.

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You're giving them that new lease on life, a hope that probably doesn't come from a doctor or nurse that doesn't have a disability.

When they see me, it gives them hope that other doctors and nurses cannot give them.

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It's definitely a different perspective.

It makes them understand things in a different way.

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And we're innovators, so, of course, there's a perk there.

Also, we are doing something new.

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We already know how to think 20 steps ahead.

We know how to plan ahead.

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Exactly, exactly.

Exactly.

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You recently were on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis.

You helped take care of a lot of COVID-19 patients.

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Could you tell us a little bit about that and your experiences?

Can you tell us about that?

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- Yeah. COVID in New York, you guys all know, hit like a tornado came through.

You know that a lot of people in New York got COVID. It was very hard.

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The amount of lives lost, the amount of those who are sick, the amount of those who are recovering is something that's going to be an endless journey from here on out.

A lot of people died. A lot of people got sick, and a lot of people are just starting to get better. It is going to take a very long time.

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It's the new normal, they say, right?

People are saying that we have to get used to this.

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This is not a normal that I want.

But I don’t want to get used to this.

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We don't want to be on lock-down.

I don’t want to have to stay home.

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We don't want to have our loved ones being sick or having to go through what COVID is doing to our bodies.

I don’t want so many people we love get sick and suffer from COVID.