Disability Arts Online and Mind the Gap present The Disability and...Podcast

This month, Disability Arts Online founding editor Colin Hambrook chats with writer and activist Will Reynolds about audiobooks, and the importance they have in his life.

This month Paul Wilshaw chats with founders of TripleC and the Disability Artists Network Community (DANC) Cherylee Houston and Melissa Johns. He asks them about their careers as actors and how their experiences led to the formation of Triple C and DANC. This podcast contains some strong language. TripleC website

This month, artist and creative practitioner Steph Robson, aka Hello Little Lady, chats with award-winning theatre maker and equality strategist, Vici Wreford-Sinnott. Steph asks Vici about the importance of regional identity, the Northeast's role in disability arts history, and the current regional and national landscape for disabled artists. Related links: Vici's theatre company Little Cog's website. Steph's blog, Hello Little Lady.

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw, chats with theatre and TV freelance actor Rob Ewens about some of his successes on screen and stage.

This month, DAO Founding Editor Colin Hambrook chats with Disability Arts Shropshire's (DASH) recently-retired Artistic Director Mike Layward about changes within the visual arts sector that he's observed over his 25 years with DASH.

Emma Greenwood talks about the changes in food bank need since the pandemic and cost of living crisis, particularly for communities of disabled people. She expands on the kinds of impossible decisions people who walk through the doors of food banks are having to face and the support, other than emergency food, that food banks in the Trussell trust network provide to people facing financial hardship. Find out more: The Trussell Trust - Stop UK Hunger Take action: Cost of Surviving - The Trussell Trust

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw speaks to Touring Director Tamara Searle and Ensemble Member Scott Price from the award-winning Australian theatre company Back to Back Theatre, about the company and its recent UK tour of The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes.

This month writer, workshop facilitator and creative mentor, Omikemi and multidisciplinary artist, socially engaged practitioner and creative producer, Priya Mistry, aka whatsthebigmistry, chat about sustainable and caring approaches to the arts. Both are members of the Onyx Collective, a group of artists supported by Disability Arts Online who share the lived experience of disability and racism. This podcast contains some strong language.

More information about Leeds Playhouse can be found here. More information about Ramps on the Moon can be found here.

We would like to thank the Southbank Centre and their staff for their support on this podcast. However, at the time of our event we also learnt that our Associate artist whatsthebigmistry's work The Empire's Old Clothes was cancelled in light of the death of the Queen and we would like to make it clear we strongly disagree with this decision and would like to share solidarity with the artists whose work was pulled from the Unlimited Festival as a result. We have issued a public statement here. Speaker biographies: Tarik Elmoutawakil is an artist, programmer and creative producer as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director at Marlborough Productions in Brighton, the UK’s only performing arts orgnasiation dedicated to intersectional queer arts. His current public work is entitled 'Brownton Abbey', an evolving Afro-Futures Performance Party that centres disabled QTIPOC (queer, trans and intersex People of Colour). Brownton Abbey reclaims and reinterprets QTIPOC spirituality and ritual, channelling it into an out-of-this-world, accessible party. Tarik is plugged into a network of disabled qtipoc artivists across the globe, contributing to an ongoing movement to reshape access and leadership. A spirited public speaker, Tarik uses his joyous brand of activism wherever he can to transform the perception and treatment of marginalised QTIPOC. Kaite O’Reilly is a multi-award winning poet, playwright and dramaturg, who writes for radio, screen and live performance. Prizes include the Peggy Ramsay Award, Manchester Theatre Award, Theatre-Wales Award and the Ted Hughes Award for new works in Poetry for Persians (National Theatre Wales). She is a two time finalist in the International James Tait Black Prize for Innovation in Drama (2012, 2019) and The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was honoured in the 2017/18 International Eliot Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for her work in ‘Alternative dramaturgies informed by a Deaf and disability perspective.’. She works internationally, her work translated into fifteen languages worldwide, and is part of the visiting faculty teaching intercultural dramaturgy at ITI: Intercultural Theatre Institute, in Singapore. She was the resident dramaturg/playwright of The Llanarth Group for many years, collaborating with the director, performer and actor-trainer Phillip Zarrilli. Kaite’s plays Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors and The ‘d’ Monologues are published by Oberon/Methuen/ Bloomsbury. Her first feature film, The Almond and the Seahorse with Mad as Birds films, will be released in 2022, featuring Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg. www.kaiteoreilly.com Deborah Williams started as the Executive Director at Creative Diversity Network in November 2016, leading on organisational development and business planning. Deborah brings over 30 years’ experience working above and below the line in television, film and theatre, as well as policy development across the wider creative and cultural industries. She is an adviser to the UN and UNICEF on the rights of disabled people to cultural activities. She previously designed the BFI diversity standards and Arts Council England’s equality analysis process; for public sector equality duty compliance. As well as sitting on panels and steering groups for many organisations, Deborah is known in her own right as an artist provocateur having won awards and nominations nationally and internationally. Her work in theatre is acknowledged as a catalyst for challenge and change in perceptions of disability and difference. In 2019 she was awarded the Life Time Achievement award from Inclusive Companies for her body of work in the area of diversity and culture. She is a Disabled Powerlister 2018 and 2019.

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with CBeebies presenter George Webster and Coronation Street's Alex Warner, Liam Bairstow. He asks them about how they got started in acting, their careers and what their thoughts are about disability representation in television and film.

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer, Paul Wilshaw chats with Executive Director, Julia Skelton about the company and its achievements.

This month, Michael McEwan talks to Kate Adams and Esther Springett, about the innovative visual arts organisation and Turner Prize nominees, Project Artworks.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Editor Colin Hambrook speaks to Graeae's former Associate Director, Nickie Miles-Wildin about the last three years of the Disability and...Podcast. Graeae will be stepping aside from the podcast after this episode and Mind the Gap will be welcomed as new partners as of next month. Colin and Nicky talk about their experiences of podcasting for the first time, their highlights from the last three years, and the importance of the podcast for the disability arts community.

This month Sonny Nwachukwu chats with Britny Virginia, both Graeae Associate Artists, about Britny's artistic practice and career journey so far.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Assistant Editor Joe Turnbull chats with writer, singer and disability campaigner Lachi, about her current project RAMPD and her other achievements. This podcast contains strong language. Lachi's website. Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD).

This month, Graeae's Associate Artist Kate Lovell chats with Graeae's trainee producer Robyn Bowyer about art and theatre and how it can inform social change.

This month, founding Editor of Disability Arts Online, Colin Hambrook, chats with artist and writer Letty McHugh, who is currently an associate artist with Disability Arts Online. Letty talks about her Disability Arts Online project the Book of Hours, and her thinking around art as a way of creating meaningful connections.

This month, Disability Arts Online Guest Editor, Zuleika Lebow chats with artist Kyla Harris about SciFi and her wheelchair, Edna. This episode contains references to ableism and strong language.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Editor, Colin Hambrook chats to artist and climate activist, Mike Faulkner about Disability and...Neurodiversity