Voice of APLI: Arts Equity for Disabled Students
Image Description: A family of five stand in a sunflower field. There are trees behind them. The family consists of a white woman in a light blue, ruffled top, short dark hair, and dangling earrings; a white man with close-cropped dark hair and a light blue polo; a young girl in with short dark hair, an American flag-inspired dress, and a headband with white and red flowers; a boy who is sitting in a wheelchair and wearing a red and white striped t-shirt, with buzzed dark hair; and a young boy in a grey t-shirt with a Tommy Hilfiger logo, navy blue shorts, and with short dark hair swept to the side. Text on the image says One Story: My Story. There is a Zoom menu bar at the bottom of the image.
Image Description: A visual workshop flow that details what the participants just experienced (a performance by Marvin Griffin Sr.) and what they are experiencing now (Welcoming and Grounding with Samantha and Michelle). The visual workshop flow includes photos of music notes to indicate a musical performance, as well as the images of Samantha and Michelle. Samantha is a white woman with blonde, chin-length hair and light gray-blue eyes. She is wearing eye glasses and is smiling. She is in a navy blue sleeveless top. Michelle is a white woman with long, chestnut colored hair with streaks of gray. She has brown eyes and eye glasses.
When doors are made wider, everyone benefits. When plans are laid out clearer, everyone benefits. When we lift up artists, students, and folx with disabilities, everyone benefits.
Those are some of the principles of the Universal Design for Learning, principles that were made abundantly clear throughout our third APLI workshop which focused on Arts Equity for Disabled Students.
We opened the day with an outline of our goals, intentions, community agreements, and the event flow. This simple moment taken to describe every part of our day is a strategy that helps Disabled folx in the classroom as well -- by setting clear objectives and outlining every agenda item, we create a map that enhances learning. While I do not identify as a Disabled person, I benefited from this practice as well.
As presenter Susan Coll-Guedes mentioned, the curb cut was originally designed to help wheelchair users, but helps people of all backgrounds every day, from the elderly and small children to folx with strollers, carts, walkers, and other items to schlep. In the same way, the Universal Design for Learning includes teaching strategies that benefit all by aiming for those who are the hardest to reach.
The a-ha moment for many of us was a video played by Susan that showed an animated bowling alley. Most of the time, your average player will hurl their ball straight down the lane, knocking down several pins but often leaving two pins -- the 7 and 10, the furthest pins on each side, left standing. While everyone has a second ball, the likelihood of knocking both of the remaining pins down in one try is pretty low -- you're lucky to get even one!
In the same way, children with Disabilities are the 7 and 10 pins -- the hardest to reach. To be able to impact them, we need to adjust our aim -- in a bowling alley, that means curving or spinning the ball in such a way that every pin can be knocked down. In the classroom, this means aiming to reach our Disabled kids first.
This philosophy is in line with the Social Model of Disability, which does not view the Disabled community as people with flaws that need to adapt to society, but instead views society as flawed in its inability to accommodate everyone who needs access to connection, education and freedom.
Susan shared some key special education history lessons with us as well as resources and strategies that we could directly apply to our teaching. She also shared her own personal story in her battle for her son to have access to FAPE -- a free, appropriate public education.
While all of these lessons were game-changing, the most powerful part of our days were our learning labs -- Textured Listening with Anna Gichan, Telling Our Story with Song with Elizabeth Elle, Discovering Inclusive Practice Through Hip-Hop with Mark Wong, and Discovering the Power of Spoken Word with Jeanetta Price.
I had the privilege of being the room host and access doula for Jeanetta's learning lab. Jeanetta is the founder of Blind Girl Magic, an arts organization that uplifts blind girls and women, as well as a powerful spoken word artist. As soon as Jeanetta stepped onto the digital stage, her energy electrified everyone on the call. It happened during her live performance in the main Zoom room, and was amplified in her learning lab.
Image Description: The image is of a screenshot of a Zoom meeting. Participants are along the right-hand side of the image in their individual Zoom boxes. A large portion of the screen is taken up by the Session Outline for Janetta Price’s workshop on Spoken Word. The agendaincludes leading questions such as “Have you ever felt discriminated against? How did it make you feel? What tools did you use to overcome those feelings?” and more.
She shared the Three C's of Life -- challenges, choices, and consequences -- and encouraged us to always respond positively to our challenges to reap positive consequences. She then shared two poems, "My Black is Beautifully Painful," inspired by #BlackLivesMatter headlines as well as more intimately known losses, and an “I Am From…” poem that absolutely rocked our world!
We then got a turn to write our own and then share our works, with Jeanetta right behind us ("The mic is hot!" she'd beam.) Here is mine, with a slight addition reflecting on the day overall.
I am from staying up way too late
Moving every month or year from place to place
Born Louisiana, then North Carolina
From Colorad-o to New Jersey the two oh
-one thing I never had, Was a place to call home
Though I had my mom, I was still all alone
Flash forward to today, free from abuse
Looking for ways, to uplift others, be of some use
Making my art, writing some plays
Letting others' voices be heard in so many ways
I am from loving language, always learning more
From puns and word play and never settling for
Anything that would make my expression lesser
They try to silence me, they say, Let's test her
I'll make them listen, they'll hear what I'll say
My name may be a season, but I'm winning alwaysI am from learning and loving, and learning some more
Seeing how the kids I teach all need my support
I'm ready to grow as an artist and teacher
If someone struggles, I've got to reach her
I'll do this by incorporating more universal design
No waiting for later, now is the time!
About the 2021 Voice of APLI: Summer Dawn Reyes
Photo credit: Acid Test Photo
Summer Dawn Reyes is a playwright, director, production manager, teaching artist and actor. Her work has been highlighted in numerous festivals including the Downtown Urban Theater Festival, the New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival, FringeNYC and more. She is also the founder and director of Thinking In Full Color, an organization that empowers women of color through education and the arts. TIFC has received two commendations from the New Jersey State Assembly and the inaugural Jersey City Arts Council's Performing Arts Award. Summer is also the co-founder of 68 Productions and the winner of the Permanent Career Award in Literature from the Society of Arts and Letters-NJ and the N.J. Governor's Award in Arts Education. Summer loves karaoke, rubber duckies and crosswords. She's also a big fan of modern dance and genetics. She is married to a very tall Greg and the proud stepmom of a slightly smaller one. For more information, visit ThinkingInFullColor.com or follow her @thinkinginfullcolor
Summer will be sharing her experiences throughout the APLI program year.
The Arts Professional Learning Institute is a co-sponsored project of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and Young Audiences Arts for Learning NJ & Eastern PA. It is generously supported by the Grunin Foundation and Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation.
