rip Cheryl Marie Wade: Disability Performance Artist & Activist

[jesse_the_k]

Cheryl Marie Wade blew my mind back in the 1980s: she was fat, she was obviously disabled, she had really snazzy red shoes on, and she was slamming some great poetry. Such as I Am Not One of The:

begin quote I am not one of the physically challenged-
I'm a sock in the eye with gnarled fist
I'm a French kiss with cleft tongue
I'm orthopedic shoes sewn on a last of your fears
I am not one of the differently abled-
I'm an epitaph for a million imperfect babies left untreated
I'm an ikon carved from bones in a mass grave at Tiergarten, Germany
I'm withered legs hidden with a blanket
I am not one of the able disabled-
I'm a black panther with green eyes and scars like a picket fence
I'm pink lace panties teasing a stub of milk white thigh
I'm the Evil Eye
I'm the first cell divided
I'm mud that talks
I'm Eve I'm Kali
I'm The Mountain That Never Moves
I've been forever I'll be here forever
I'm the Gimp
I'm the Cripple
I'm the Crazy Lady
I'm The Woman With Juice quote ends

From a curriculum of "education in gender equity":
a photo and a brief background

A 1997 essay "Thoughts on the 'Right to Die with Dignity' archived at the (still awesome!) Ragged Edge Online

begin quote I have to admit I feel inadequate to express in a rational, reasoned way what I understand in the deepest cell of my marrow to be a movement toward genocide. But no matter how awkward or inarticulate we feel, no matter how difficult it is to peel away the layers to get deep inside the truth of this movement, we must do it. It is our obligation as the ancestors of this country's future victims of the right to die. quote ends

Forwarding the following from Corbett O'Toole on the SDS discussion list:

---

Cheryl Marie Wade, the ultimate "gnarly" performer, died this week. A groundbreaking writer and performer, Cheryl pushed literary, political, sexual and performance limits at a time when there were no role models.

Here are links to some of the work she left behind:

Cheryl's narration holds "Disability Culture Rap" together
http://youtu.be/j75aRfLsH2Y
open captions

Cheryl's Disability History video:
http://disabilityhistorywiki.com/leadership/presentationpage.asp?presentation=9
no captions

Cheryl's oral history
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/collections/drilm/collection/items/wade.html
uses frames (wow); scroll down for CMW's contribution. no caption on video

ETA: Better link to Disability Culture Rap, thanks to wild_irises

Comments

[trouble]

Wow.

[wild_irises]

I saw her in the late 1990s, on a disability panel organized by laurieopal at a gay/lesbian conference in Oakland. She blew my mind and I've never forgotten her presence, and her hands.

Thanks for letting us know about this.

[wild_irises]

I just blogged this at Body Impolitic. Sadly enough, there's no decent remembrance of her anywhere.

[jesse_the_k]

thanks for the signal boost. But ...that's so hard to accept. She was a firebrand: visible even at a distance vibrating light, dancing heat up close.

OTOH, disabled people's "generations" are shorter, so collective memory less strongly woven.

(Also props for a better link to "Disability Culture Rap part 1").