Disability Arts Online and Graeae present The Disability and...Podcast

This month Joe Turnbull, assistant editor of Disability Arts Online chats with Robert Softley Gale, writer, actor, activist, and Artistic Director of Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, about Disability And...the Mainstream. This podcast contains strong language.

For Disability And...Film Carousel's David Parker speaks to Oska Bright Lead Programmer, Matthew Hellet about his long-running history with the festival, the exciting developments in learning-disability film and their new lockdown programme Oska Bites. There are also cameo appearances from learning-disabled filmmakers Mattie Kennedy and Hugo Carlson.

This month's episode is on Disability And....Reasons To Be Cheerful. John Kelly chats with Stephen Lloyd and Jude Mahon about Graeae's stage show Reasons To Be Cheerful. They talk about the journey they have been on over the last ten years, along with a few cheeky stories and what the show has meant to them and their audiences. You can watch Graeae's hit musical Reasons To Be Cheerful (with captions) until the 3rd August 2020. Visit graeae.org. An audio described version is also available...

On this month's podcast previous Disability Arts Online Guest Editor Alexandrina Hemsley speaks to writer, producer, digital composer and equality/diversity advocate Deborah Williams. They talk about the historic exclusion of artists of colour from both the mainstream and disability arts worlds, coping strategies and some of the artists working today who they admire.

Sandra Alland talks to Shafiq Ghafoor, Mattie Kennedy and Cate Lauder about Disability and...working-class LGBTQIA+ perspectives on the arts in Scotland. Recorded at National Theatre of Scotland's Rockvilla studios, Sandra and their guests discuss community, barriers for multiply-marginalised people in the Scottish arts scene, and the arts futures they're dreaming up. Links: The Edinburgh Samba School https://www.edinburghsambaschool.org/ LGBT Health and Wellbeing...

For episode 11 of the Disability And… Podcast, Graeae’s Associate Director Nickie Miles-Wildin chats to actress Sarah Gordy on Disability and Performing. Sarah talks about her role in Jellyfish at the National Theatre and her various TV roles including Call the Midwife and her first professional job on Peak Practice.

Episode 10 of the Disability And...Podcast features excerpts from Disability Arts Online’s Contested Spaces panel debate, which took place at The Foundry, London in January 2020. It was chaired by artist and curator, Aidan Moesby. On the panel was curator and founder of Jennifer Lauren Gallery, Jennifer Gilbert, Senior Curator of Middlesborough Institute of Modern Art, Elinor Morgan and artist Ashokkumar Mistry. It also has some reflections from the audience.

For episode 9 of the Disability And.. Podcast, Graeae’s Creative Learning Director chats to theatre maker and filmmaker, Matilda Ibini about Disability and the Stories We Tell. Matilda tells us how she got into writing, the barriers she’s faced as a writer and the most precious advice she’s ever received! This podcast contains some strong language.

For episode 8 of the Disability And...Podcast Disability Arts Online Associate Artist and freelance curator Aidan Moesby speaks to curator and founder of Jennifer Lauren Gallery, Jennifer Gilbert about Disability and...Curation. Aidan and Jennifer discuss the nature of curation, barriers to visual art for disabled artists, lack of representation and possible solutions to getting more disabled artists in mainstream visual art settings. With special thanks this month to Chapel FM in Leeds, for...

For Episode 7, Graeae’s Creative Learning Director, Jodi-Alissa Bickerton, is joined by politician, disability activist and winner of 11 gold Paralympic medals, Baroness Grey-Thompson. Also joining Jodi is Mandy Colleran, a comic, writer, actress and disability arts activist. This podcast includes the celebration of disabled women, key moments of the roles they have played in national politics and disability rights movement and the best thing about being disabled!

This month, Disability Arts Online's Editor, Colin Hambrook, chats with musician and grassroots activist, Dennis Queen on Disability and...Activism. Dennis is a veteran of the Disability Rights Movement and has long been involved with Disabled People Against the Cuts (DPAC), Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People (GMCDP) and Not Dead Yet. Dennis speaks to Colin about past campaigns and the recent controversy around an inaccessible monument installed in Manchester to commemorate the...

For episode 5, Graeae’s Associate Director Nickie Miles-Wildin speaks to Jess Thom, an artist, theatremaker and co-founder of acclaimed company Touretteshero, which celebrates and shares the creativity and humour of Tourettes in an accessible way. Jess talks about the idea behind Touretteshero, the importance of relaxed performances and the impact recent changes in policy have had on disabled people. This podcast contains strong language.

Disability Arts Online’s Assistant Editor, Joe Turnbull speaks internationally-renowned Scottish choreographer and performer, Claire Cunningham, who is currently a Factory Artist with Tanzhaus NRW in Düsseldorf, and Associate Artist at The Place, London. She talks about her rejection of contemporary dance’s traditional aesthetics and training techniques, the challenges of working internationally and the responsibility she feels as one of the UK’s most established disabled choreographers.

Graeae Associate Director Nickie Miles-Wildin talks to acclaimed playwright, comedian and performance poet Jackie Hagan. A graduate of Graeae's Write to Play programme, she is most well-known for her work Cosmic Scallies, Some People Have Too Many Legs and The Forest of Forgotten Discos. She talks about how being a disabled artist has influenced her work, and reflects on some of her past projects. This podcast contains some strong language. Edited by Ian Rattray for Clear Voice Enterprises....

Writer, visual and performance artist, gobscure talks to Disability Arts Online's Editor, Colin Hambrook about psychiatry through the lens of the social model of disability. They discuss the power of language, the languages around mental health and how gobscure's writing has been influenced by that of historical writers such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Jessie Kesson, and John Clare, in telling stories about creative resistance. This podcast contains some strong language. A transcript of this...

Writer, actor, campaigner and Graeae Patron Mat Fraser, talks to former Associate Director of Graeae (recently appointed Deputy Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre) about the visibility and representation of disability within film, television and theatre. How have things changed over the last 40 years? And how much further do we have to go? This podcast contains some strong language. A transcript of this podcast (in word format) is available to read or download at:...