Tag: Woolwich Library

Disabled & Proud Festival: A celebration of our culture, community and solidarity

As a disabled performance artist, it was a privilege to have participated in the second half of the festival in Greenwich Library. The festival was a great platform to showcase my art to the disabled community and for me to be exposed to other disabled artists, of whom I may not have met and experienced their work had it not been for the festival.

– Sorena, performing artist

This festival was partly to celebrate Disability History Month ( Disability History Month runs from 22 November to 22 December every year ) and also the UN International Day of Disabled People (3rd December. The theme for this 2019 IDPD is ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’ ).

  • seated audience in a semi circle, 3 in wheelchairs
    the audience performance in the evening
  • Man with hoover in front of the audience
    Norman Mine with hoover
  • Black woman with red cap with a sign 'I ama strong black women'
    ‘I am a strong black woman’
  • East Asian woman seated, hands up in air
    Lucy Sheen at workshop
  • 2 wheelchair users, one white with long green hair, the other a black woman. they are both smiling.
    Dennis and Jacqui
  • part of the evening performers, 2 wheelchair users with guitars
    evening performers
  • audience with camera man
    The evening performances were filmed
  • black woman, wheelchair user, with microphonewith
    Miss Jacqui belting out a number
  • white woman, wheelchair user, with a microphone
    Naomi telling her story

The day started at the library with the exhibitions and information stalls, there is much footfall at Woolwich Centre Library on a Saturday afternoon with disabled and non disabled visitors.

The information stalls and exhibitions
  • library lobby in the morning as stalls were set up
    setting up stall
  • 2 women of colour sitting at a stall smiling
    from the Her Centre
  • wheelchair woman at an information stall
    Sue at an information stall
  • Flipboard with sign 'Disabled Women's Digital Quilt'
    Exhibition ‘Disabled Women’s Digital Quilt’
  • wheelchair user watching presentation
    Presentation : ‘Disabled Women’s Digital Quilt’
  • discussion and 2 people watching a presentation
    Exhibition: *Neurodiversions*

In *Neurodiversions* ​Annabel Crowley and Shura Joseph-Gruner present their creative responses to their day-to-day neurodiversions.

Exhibition : Digital Quiltof Disabled Women (pilot by Eleanor Lisney and Natasha Hirst and others) will be presented. This project was one of those joint shortlisted in the Royal Borough of Greenwich bid to be the borough of culture.

This pilot series of photos and videos was organised and co produced with the disabled women featured, by Natasha Hirst and Eleanor Lisney. They were all taken on the same one day at the Jetty cafe, Greenwich Peninsula. The photos were taken to highlight the lives, work and diversity of some disabled women in London, to be a pilot of a Digital Quilt of Disabled women.
Workshops

Workshops lead by Lucy Sheen and Annabel Crowley (drama ), Mx Dennis Queen and Miss Jacqui(music) and Richard Hering and Eleanor Lisney(smartphone video).

Some of the videos are here (captions to follow)

Short abstract of Lucy Sheen’s with Annabel Crowley’s workshop on drama making
Short abstract of Richard Herring’s and Eleanor Lisney’s workshop on smartphone videoing
Performance with workshop participants in the evening
see for the workshop video/version https://youtu.be/9hPfhHeUvzA

More to come soon!

Disabled & Proud Festival Performance Evening 30th Nov

This festival is partly to celebrate Disability History Month ( Disability History Month runs from 22 November to 22 December every year ) and also the UN International Day of Disabled People (3rd December. The theme for this 2019 IDPD is ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’).

****Access directions and details are here .***

Performances 6pm to 8 pm at Woolwich Central Library, SE18 6HQ

Compere : The lovely Joanna Abeyie

young woman of colour with long brown hair smiling

Joanna  is an award-winning, agenda-setting Diversity champion and recruiter, social campaigner, TV executive, broadcaster and journalist. As a campaigner for diversity within the publishing, TV, Radio, Digital and Creative Industries, Joanna is regularly at the centre of the diversity agenda, leading conversations around inclusion and representation.

~~Drum roll~~~

the Performers

Sorena Francis : Sorena is a performance artist, writer and activist. She engages in activities around disability rights and justice, and ways to shape and improve services for sick and disabled people. She’s is a Thrive London Champion, an initiative that seeks to improve the mental wellbeing of all Londoners.

White seated woman holding a book

Naomi Jacobs : Naomi will be telling a personal story of moments on the margins as an autistic person, reflecting on stories as tools for stepping more boldly into who we are, as activists and as people.

White man, in whirt shirt and dark trousers, dancing to an audience of seated audience

Norman Mine : Norman is a Neapolitan artist based in London who practices is exploring aspects of ordinary personal experiences and how the modern obsession of the self is merging into and shifting between narratives of both fiction and paranoia.

woman bathed in red light, shes knelt with hands folded

Erika Leadbeater : Erika is a multidisciplinary Artist, activist and ambassador of The Survivors Trust. Her work is a sensory celebration of feminist and social issues.

Black woman in a wheelchair

Miss Jacqui : Miss Jacqui is a poet, songwriter, artist and truthteller.

close up black and white photo of a white bearded man

Richard Downes : Richared is a poet and writes for Disability Arts Online. “I always wanted to write. I practiced for years. I played guitar and sang. I took photographs. ”

white person with glasses on wheelchair and with guitar

Dennis Queen : Dennis is a grassroots activist and musician who has been performing in the disabled people’s movement since the turn of the century.

East Asian woman in a white shift. She has concentric circles behind her and the word 'Hiroshima'

Chisato Minamimura : Chisato will be there with her
Scored in Silence – Dance Documentary
Film screening of excerpt from “Scored in Silence” (12 mins) followed by a Q&A from Chisato Minamimura and producer Amy Zamarripa Solis (8 mins)

Eventbrite for evening performances

Exhibitions at the Disabled&Proud Festival

This festival is partly to celebrate Disability History Month ( Disability History Month runs from 22 November to 22 December every year ) and also the UN International Day of Disabled People (3rd December. The theme for this 2019 IDPD is ‘Promoting the participation of persons with disabilities and their leadership: taking action on the 2030 Development Agenda’ ).

30th Nov 2019 Saturday at Woolwich Centre Library.

Exhibitions

In *Neurodiversions* ​Annabel Crowley and Shura Joseph-Gruner present their creative responses to their day-to-day neurodiversions.

standing South East Asian woman is colourful jumber and a squatting man of mixed heritage putting pictures up on a black board.
Annabel and Shura putting some of their pictures up at Woolwich Centre Library

“everyday wandering; going off topic; (de-)stimming; trying to enjoy the ride”
In this joint exhibition, Annabel Crowley and Shura Joseph-Gruner present their creative responses to their day-to-day neurodiversions.
Ask Annabel or Shura if you would like a talking tour of the works! Includes: photography, video and print.
Bios:
Annabel Crowley is an artist and MA researcher into cultures of neurodivergence at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London (UAL). She has worked in and around disability since 2008, currently as an access and inclusion specialist (+ visiting lecturer) at UAL and a co-director of Culture Access. 
Shura Joseph-Gruner is an artist and teacher whose practice includes photography and curation. He works between the Brit School and UAL, helping to facilitate the creative practices of disabled students from Key Stage 4 to postgraduate studies.

Exhibition : Digital Quiltof Disabled Women (pilot by Eleanor Lisney and Natasha Hirst and others) will be presented. This project is one of those joint shortlisted in the Royal Borough of Greenwich bid to be the borough of culture.

This pilot series of photos and videos was organised and co produced with the disabled women featured, by Natasha Hirst and Eleanor Lisney. They were all taken on the same one day at the Jetty cafe, Greenwich Peninsula.

The photos were taken to highlight the lives, work and diversity of some disabled women in London, to be a pilot of a Digital Quilt of Disabled women.

Videos will be shown at the library.

photo of standing white woman showing photos on a camera to East Asian woman with cap in a wheelchair. She is wearing a red scarf.
Photo of Natasha (with camera) and Eleanor (in wheelchair) by Emma
photos(top to bottom) of Christiane, (white woman smiling with short hair, glasses and a black top), Ciara (white woman with long hair pink top and purple waistcoat), Natasha, (white smailing woman with purple short sleeve top), Joanna, (light skinned smiling black with long brown tinged hair, woman )Emma (smiling white butch woman with glasses and patterned short), Sarifa (smiling Asian Muslim woman in white, head covered) and Eleanor (East Asian woman, smiling with glasses, cap and red scarf, hand on wheelchair controls.)
photos (top to bottom) of Christiane, Ciara, Natasha, Joanna, Emma, Sarifa and Eleanor

Chisato Minamimura will be joining us at the Disabled & Proud Festival 30th November

Scored In Silence at Disabled & Proud Festival

Photos credit to Mark Pickthall

Scored in SIlence – Dance Documentary
Film screening of excerpt from “Scored in Silence” (12 mins) followed by a Q&A from Chisato Minamimura and producer Amy Zamarripa Solis (8 mins). There will be sound, music, sign mime and voiceover in the film, as well as a live BSL interpreter. 

“Scored in Silence” is Chisato’s new solo digital artwork that unpacks the untold tales of deaf hibakusha – survivors of the A-Bombs that fell in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 and their experiences at the time and afterwards. 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki Bombings and it is also the year that Tokyo will also host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

“Scored in Silence” was developed alongside partners VibraFusionLab in Ontario, Canada and showcased at Brighton Digital Festival and Manchester Science Festival in 2018. It was selected for the British Council Edinburgh Fringe Festival Showcase in August 2019.
It will be part of Disabled & Proud Festival evening performances 6-8pm. 
Woolwich Centre Library
35 Wellington Street,
Woolwich SE18 6HQ

Full programme: http://cultureaccess.co.uk/culture-access-invites-you-to-to-disabled-proud-festival/

Chisato Minamimura is a dance artist and art presenter born in Japan, now based in London. She has created, promoted, performed & taught dance across 20 countries, including 3 years (2003-6) as a company member of internationally-renowned CandoCo Dance. She was involved in Aerial Performances with Graeae Theatre Company, London Paralympic Opening Ceremony 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Cultural Olympiad. She approaches choreography from her unique perspectives as a Deaf artist, creating what she calls ‘visual sound/ music’.

see Festival page for more details