Getting Down to Changes
Podcast and life updates from Qudsiya
Hello dear DTTS community!
Thanks for your patience as I took a break last month to juggle some personal and professional responsibilities, with gratitude to our fabulous team member, Avery, for curating the May newsletter.
I hope you’ve been enjoying season 10, including our latest conversation with Dagny Brown and Mika Weissbuch of the San Francisco Disability Cultural Center. If you haven’t yet, definitely check it out, as well as all of the other amazing guests that have joined us this season.
Life and podcast updates
It has been a season of change in my life and here at Down to the Struts. I’m thrilled to share that I will be joining the faculty at the University of the District of Columbia’s David A. Clark School of Law, where I’ll be teaching family law and disability law. The transition to academia has been a long time coming, and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned from all of you about disability, design, and intersectionality with my students.
Rest assured, Down to the Struts isn’t going anywhere for now, and I am excited for new possibilities to explore the relationship between media, culture, and the law. Watch this space, because there’s a lot more in store!
On a more bittersweet note, this podcast season will be the last for our website and social media manager, Avery Anapol. Down to the Struts would not exist without Avery. She was the mastermind behind our website, chief curator of our social media presence, my thought partner for this newsletter, and always a fount of great ideas and insights that have shaped the show from its inception.
But everything has a season, and in keeping with the disability justice principle of sustainability, I’m so happy that Avery will take some time to step away from this work. Please join me in wishing her nothing but joy as she enters this new season. Thank you, Avery!
You can find Avery over at The Conversation UK, where she serves as Commissioning Editor for politics and society.
I am also hugely grateful for our phenomenal audio producer, Ilana Nevins, who will continue on the team. If you’re interested in joining us to support website and social media management, please contact me at downtothestruts@gmail.com. I am able to provide compensation for team members.
Wishing you peace and gentleness for whatever changes you may be navigating right now.
Community shout-outs
There’s a lot going on in the disability community. Here’s a snapshot of accomplishments and resources to check out.
Our friends over at Detroit Disability Power (DDP) have released their 2024 polling place audit report. DDP audited 294 polling places in 21 jurisdictions across metro Detroit, finding that only 13% of polling places were fully accessible, despite the reality that one in three voting-eligible Michiganders has a disability. For more on polling place audits and why they matter for democracy, check out my interview with DDP’s Dessa Cosma and Kenia Flores from season 9.
I was thrilled to rejoin team Unseen in Los Angeles this month for “Disability and Immigration: Building Partnerships for a Just Future,” a cross-disciplinary conference hosted by Katherine Perez and the Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation at Loyola Law School. I had the honor of being in conversation with Unseen’s director, Set Hernandez, and David Conrad of American University about the conception and creation of Unseen to shine a light on the experiences of undocumented immigrants with disabilities, and the ground-breaking analysis of the film’s impact campaign, which will reveal the strong connections between cultural work and community power. Stay tuned for the impact report, coming soon!
Shout out to Day Al-Mohamed, Lachi, and the Renegades team for taking home a Webby award for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Series and Channels. Renegades, featured on PBS American Masters, is a series of short films featuring five bad-ass disabled figures from history. Be sure to check it out, if you haven’t already!
I highly recommend a new book by Jessica Slice, Unfit Parent, about what we all can learn from the experiences—joyous and challenging, of disabled parents. Hats-off to Andrew Pulrang for the fantastic recommendation.
Thanks for reading our newsletter this month. We’ll be back next month with more!
In solidarity,
Qudsiya