What I Was Doing February 2023

This is an archived version of a past Now page. For up-to-date info about my current doings please see my current Now Page.

Updated Sunday February 19, 2023

celebratory update to Life section, February 27, 2023

Organizing & Inclusion

Mixed Blood 12x12 People with Disabilities are invited to gather to tell stories, to connect and to make a short theater piece exploring our experiences during the pandemic, lockdown, uprising and beyond. People who live in or are connected to the Powderhorn neighborhood are particularly invited to participate. During the gatherings in February and March we will explore our stories, explore connections between different experiences, add in movement, musicality, play, rhythm, props and other technical elements as the community desires. The Feb/March gatherings may be attended in-person at Mixed Blood’s theater remotely via Zoom or via telephone. sign up here,
Curation and Disability Justice, In-person presentation
I gave a presentation with a focus on practical steps for arts administrators to better accommodate artists with disabilities - in addition to helpful mindset shifts. This talk will be available on video, stay tuned for details on how to access it.
With Springboard for the Arts, and authors from Unrestricted Interest, our online panel With Us on Joy attracted quite a lot of folks and was a joy to present. Chris Martin, Mark and Max Eati, Adam Wolford, and Sid Gosh and I explored disabled joy.
Stay tuned for another With Us panel in late April, with some amazing guest panelists.

for creatives classes/WoA Gaps.
With the rest of the Work of Art facilitation team I'm continuing in facilitating Work of Art classes through Springboard for the Arts at Hennepin County library this winter. See this schedule, which shows all Work of Art classes. Work of Art+ classes are listed separately..
I've presented on artists statements several times lately, and had some great questions that feel central to my work arise. I look forward to exploring them a bit more soon.
Step right up and get your consults! I meet with artists to strategize on the business side of their careers. Recent consults have focused on funding models, on grantwriting, on messaging for artists who are up to a lot, seeking press coverage and concerns specific to artists with disabilities. Visit the Springboard for the Arts Artist Career Consult page to book time with me (consults are free or low-cost for Minnesota artists.)

I have launched a Patreon featuring my stories about the Craigslist personals that also includes some art and a wider context into what the personals did and where they came from.
From the research I've been doing as a 2022 Legacy Research Fellow at the Minnesota Historical Society I'm still developing a podcast exploring mental health treatment in an historical context. I also will be giving a talk on this research as part of my fellowship on April 11, 2023.
I've been writing and writing, stay tuned for new essays.
My zines are available at Fresh Eye Gallery in Minneapolis. Stop in their south Minneapolis location to buy your own copy.
You also can find my zines for sale in my online shop.
I have a new series of prints. Recreations pay homage to other artists, evoke color schemes of pools and lakes of the 1980s, and explore the ways one work of art can be editioned into some other thing. Series of prints that are extensions of recent collages are available.

Update: My need was met. I'm so grateful to the many people who shared this effort, who encouraged me, and who gave. I will leave the GoFundMe open for a bit, and I will pass on any additional contribution to folks I know who are also in need. Original: I've started a GoFundMe to get caught up on rent, dental and medical bills. Due to flares of my migraines and ptsd when I wasn't able to work as much as I needed to through much of the pandemic. The good news is I'm currently doing much better, and have a lot happening. I'm doing this fundraiser to get caught back up, to maintain my housing, and to have the kind of stability that will allow me to continue making an impact as an artist organizer. If you are able ot donate in the next few days this will make a huge impact for me.
I've completed the 14-week support group I started this fall and just started the alumni group last week. I'm really grateful this resource was available. It's helped enormously.
Migraine update: Days of disability per month are one or two. If you see me out and about you'll see my migraine glasses, a hat to further block light, and I'm following a ton of dietary restrictions that have helped enormously.
It's a Minneapolis heatwave! It was in the forties last the weekend, and in the high twenties, early thirties this week. Break out your shorts, and if you have time, pay a visit to Lake Chipotle.
I'm up to a lot of really cool things, many of which are updated elsewhere on this page.

Rihanna visited the Super Bowl.
Murder in Miami, is one of the strangest podcasts I've listened to in a long time. Lots on cocaine smuggling, the CIA, and journalism ethics. It's really well done.
I've been following a podcast about a double murder - and three other unusual deaths - in South Carolina since summer 2021. The trial is on now. I've been following it. This is an awfully sad story. However, Mandy Matney and co-host Liz Farrell were the intrepid journalists on this case who kept reporting against all odds. Check out the Murdaugh Murder Podcast. For me, the silver lining in this story is that so many, many people care about these crimes.
My friend JoDee Schumer's art is up now, and her daughter JoyGenea made a video about JoDee's art emphasizing neurodivergence. I'm really excited for JoDee's work, and thrilled at this framing. JoDee's art is up in Minneapolis until February 25.

I was inspired by this Now page to make my own. I also like Milos Stanic's, and Marva Jackson Lord's. Learn more about Now pages here, and, maybe even make your own.

For my most recently past Now page, see November 1, 2022.