the ADA is 21 today

friends, i'm sick. and i'm really sad to be sick today, too, because i had grand hopes of writing a big, fat, juicy blog today about the anniversary of the americans w disabilities act, and instead, i am full of snot and just want to go to sleep. instead, i will make a partial list of why the ADA is important to me:

1. because the people i work with at ILRCSF are wonderful folks, most of whom have disabilities, and if it weren't for reasonable accommodations legislation, i probably wouldn't have them as co-workers.
2. because in the last year, my sister has been diagnosed w rheumatoid arthritis and, having been previously immersed in the independent living movement thru my work at ILRCSF, her diagnosis took on a different feel, i believe, in both of our lives - one more hopeful than would've previously likely been the case.
3. because i like being able to go all over the bay with my friend, amber, on her little scooter. i like the curb cuts and ramps and elevators that keep us moving, together.
4. because i am an activist and i love civil rights legislation of every stripe.
5. because i live in a human body, and will most likely be disabled at some point in my life, as will most of you reading this.
6. because we needed to start somewhere.
7. because we have lots and lots of places to go.

happy anniversary, ADA!

i'm reading the new critical edition of the narrative of the life of frederick douglass, including angela davis' lectures on liberation as well as juliana spahr's well then there now, which came in the mail today. just finished james baldwin's the fire next time and am put on motion , , have been spinning. rainbow arc, fish-fin, tail. circled orb/electrons: in greece. 15. this is how you do it. (self)

for instance: "the slave is actually conscious of the fact that freedom is not a fact, it is not a given, but rather something to be fought for; it can exist only through a process of struggle. the slavemaster, on the other hand, experiences his freedom as inalienable and thus a fact: he is not aware that he too has been enslaved by his own system." -angela davis

and: "togetherness of the lesson and the splitting" or "when my mother was saying we were middle class she was saying something less about our house and more about our location on the block and about our location on the globe at the same time. i was trying to think about what was right about what she said." -juliana spahr

these women are talking about some holes. are talking from parts of oakland, from female lips.

these women. these women.

the 26th of july will mark the 21st anniversary of the americans with disabilities act. i work for an independent living center which is a disability rights organization that functions on the basic premise that people with disabilities deserve to live in the larger community and to not be pathologized to death or lonesome all the time - another nod to freedom, split, touchingness.

i am going to call 2 hours worth of wisconsin voters tomorrow in an effort to help recall their republicans. i live across the street from a motel and the government wants me to pay them $313 a month for my $93,000 poetry degrees which i never intend to pay (entirely) off. i deserved those years reading and writing, god damn it - everyone truly does. this world is better off that i did that for my self and for my mind and it should never have cost that much, besides.

wine or orchids

crinkled iridescent foil

in my comments section, please humor me with answers to these questions:
1. tell me about where you're from, who your people are.
2. talk about language, as it was experienced by you, growing up where you did, in relation to family, place, being a worker, your mom teaching you how to work--etc.
3. breifly/ your perspective (divinatory/psychic) on where we are at, as a society in capitalism - we writers who use the art of invocation, as all language must be said to do.
4. a sentence on liberation.

***

ILRCSF (the organization i work for) is hosting a commemorative reading for the anniversary of the ADA at the san francisco public library (100 larkin), in which i will be a featured reader. you should come. 7/26 - starts at 6pm in the koret auditorium. it's accessible and you're welcome there.