disabled & revolutionary
“Disabled people have always existed, whether the word disability is used or not. To me, disability is not a monolith, nor is it a clear-cut binary of disabled and nondisabled. Disability is mutable and ever-evolving. Disability is both apparent and nonapparent. Disability is pain, struggle, brilliance, abundance, and joy. Disability is sociopolitical, cultural, and biological. Being visible and claiming a disabled identity brings risks as much as it brings pride.”
Alice Wong, American disability rights activist
In this episode of Radicals for Good, we're discussing organizing with disabilities (visible and invisible) and how we can embody Disabled revolutionaries in our work with Tameka Citchen-Spruce, a disability justice advocate, independent media producer, author and national speaker who uses storytelling to amplify voices and challenge systems of exclusion.
We prefer you didn’t but if you must, listen on:
Who’s in this episode?
tameka citchen-spruce
Founder & CEO of Living Unapologetically Media
Tameka Citchen-Spruce is a disability justice advocate, independent media producer, author and national speaker who uses storytelling to amplify marginalized voices and challenge systems of exclusion.
Paralyzed from the mid-chest down after a car accident at six months old, Tameka grew up navigating life as a Black disabled woman in a world not built for her—but she refused to be defined by barriers.
She studied broadcast television and journalism at Oakland University and has spent over 15 years advancing disability advocacy across media, policy, and community spaces. Her work includes producing My Girl Story, Justifiable Homicide, and The Nightmare, as well as contributing to the award-winning PBS American Masters’ The Renegades: Blind Tom Wiggins, the digital series Divas in the City and upcoming documentary, #AutisticOutLoud.
Through her company, Living Unapologetically Media, Tameka merges activism and storytelling to advocate, educate, and create media that unapologetically centers Black, Brown, and disabled women and girls.
Shayla Zimmerman
Founder, Host, & Producer of Radicals for Good
Shayla is a Detroit-based community organizer, storyteller, and activist whose work centers community power, collective care, and everyday acts of resistance. She currently leads for good co., a consulting firm for values-aligned organizations. She started community organizing at 15 years old, since then she’s led local and national climate resilience and water justice initiatives and built grassroots emergency response efforts on Detroit’s East Side. Previously, she was producer and co-host of Michigan-focused conversations on United Way’s Virtual Town Halls.
Get out of your comfort zone & take action
Donate to #AutisticOutLoud documentary
Get involved with Detroit Disability Power
Get involved with Warriors on Wheels of Metro-Detroit
Further Learning
Learn about the 10 principles of disability justice
Learn more about #AutisticOutLoud film and watch the teaser: https://linktr.ee/autisticoutlouddocumentary
Living Unapologetically Media: www.tamekacitchenspruce.com
Read Tameka's book: Women in Leadership: From No to Yes, A Black Disabled Woman's Leadership Journey
Sources
Land Acknowledgement: https://geezmagazine.org/magazine/article/waawiyatanong-land-acknowledgement
Disability Visibility by Alice Wong: Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution: https://cripcamp.com/
Fannie Lou Hamer: https://19thnews.org/2023/07/fannie-lou-hamer-disability-voting-rights-activism/
Harriett Tubman: https://rootedinrights.org/why-dont-more-people-know-harriet-tubman-was-disabled/
Elias Hills: https://www.knowitall.org/video/former-slave-elias-hills-untold-story-palmetto-scene
Elias Hills testimony: https://www.scribd.com/doc/170718992/1-Testimony-Before-Congress-on-the-Activities-of-the-Ku-Klux-Klan
Fidel Castro source confirmed at Castro Center in Havana, Cuba
Revolution will be from my bed: https://diagnosisbedamned.com/2020/04/25/so-i-start-a-revolution-from-my-bed/
Intersectional disability justice: https://www.intersectional-disability-justice.org/en/intersectional-disability-justice-english/
Michigan disability rights resources: https://www.michigan.gov/disabilityresources
Trump admins war on disability: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administrations-war-on-disability/
in office work: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2023/10/02/return-office-work-mandates-accommodate-ada-people-disabilities/70963365007/
