Lecture with

Dr. Marion Rana

(University of Bremen)

“From the Inside Out: Crip Poetry‘s (Re-)Claiming of Identity and Agency”

June 14, 2016; 4 pm (16 Uhr c.t.)
Fakultätssaal, Philosophicum
Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz

“[There’s] a new definition of disability and it includes power,” crip poet Chery Marie Wade proclaims in “Disability Culture Rap.” The political stance of crip poetry clearly reverberates in her call for disability artists to take the stage as “proud freedom fighters” and to talk abut disability “from the inside out.” As Rosemary Garland-Thompson has argued, disability is a specular moment. Spinning around the medical and social gaze that claims to identify disability, crip poetry successfully gives voice to a new disability identity and renegotiates the terms under which individuals with a disability are viewed. Placing crip poetry into its political and literary context, this talk will give an introduction into the genesis of the genre and its roots within the disability rights movement; it will further discuss how two of its main representatives, Cheryl Marie Wade and Jim Ferris, negotiate the community’s strife for identity and agency.

Download the poster here