The funeral.
Friday, June 23, 2023 from 1:00-2:30pm PST.
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On Zoom.
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ASL & CART provided.
You are cordially invited to celebrate the launch of J. Logan Smilges's Crip Negativity.
At a funeral.
For good crip feelings.
Book Launch
June 23, 2023.
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1-2:30pm PST.
Crip Negativity.
Crip negativity refers to the bad feelings felt by disabled, debilitated, and otherwise non-normatively embodyminded folks while we're living in a world structured by ableism. The phrase comes from the eponymous book (University of Minnesota Press, 2023) written by J. Logan Smilges, who is a queer, trans, and disabled scholar at the University of British Columbia.
Crip Negativity was written for a wide variety of audiences--from academic to activist to casual readers--with the intention of bringing attention to bad crip feelings and asking how they can serve an anti-ableist political project.
What's the use of bad crip feelings?
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Bad feelings, crip or otherwise, aren't always useful. And that's okay.
Among the central arguments in Crip Negativity is that all people are entitled to feel badly, even if their bad feelings are inconvenient or undesirable to others. Too often are disabled people expected to be happy or grateful when the bare minimum effort is expended to make our lives livable. Crip negativity insists that we're allowed to refuse those good feelings and to dwell in the negativity that comes with knowing just how much more we deserve.
Black and white headshot of Maneo Mohale, a Black person with their hair in puffs, grins and looks off camera. They are wearing a black shirt and earrings.
Erin Soros, a white woman with brown hair, leans forward, grinning, in a blue, sleeveless dress and wide-brimmed white hat. She is surrounding by trees and flowers.
A black and white image of a light skin person with a beard and glasses. They are wearing a leather jacket and sitting in a chair.
Black and white headshot of Maneo Mohale, a Black person with their hair in puffs, grins and looks off camera. They are wearing a black shirt and earrings.
This event.
This funereal book launch is intended to gather disabled folks and the people who love us together, so we might collectively relish our bad crip feelings and grieve the good feelings of which ableism often deprives us.
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In the spirit of collectivity, three esteemed disabled poets will each read a poem on one or more of their bad crip feelings. Then everyone in attendance will be invited to embark on a brief activity to write a poem about a bad crip feeling of their own.
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The guest readers include Maneo Mohale, Erin Soros, and Valois Vera.
How to Prepare
Step 1
RSVP. If you don't let us know you're coming, we won't be able to send you the Zoom link. ASL and CART will be provided.
Step 2
Read the book. A little or a lot. Maybe just the title. But if you don't already have it, check it out!
Step 3
Pick your outfit. The only rule is that you must wear black. This is a funeral, so please be respectful.
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If you'd like, you can support reproductive justice by purchasing some Crip Negativity merch. 100% of proceeds go to MAADCo, and yes, it's all in black.
