I-CREATE YOUTH is curating monthly exhibitions to celebrate disabled individuals. In commemoration of National Poetry Month in April, we showcase disabled poets who have used their unapologetic voices to uplift the disabled community. Our community is one of the most diverse and largest ones in the world, and we hope that you will find unity and inspiration in learning about disabled poets.
Click the respective headings or images to learn more about disabled poets who have done and are doing revolutionary work. If you require accessibility features such as alt text, transcript, or audio, please let us know at icreateyouth[at]gmail.com
POETRY & DISABILITY JUSTICE
“The future lives in our bodies: Poetry & Disability Justice” is the theme designated to the year 2022 by The Poetry Coalition, a national alliance of more than 25 independent organizations. The alliance aims to use poetry to “positively provoke questions in their communities about disability justice and spark increased engagement with this urgent topic.”
The line “The future lives in our bodies” is from the poem “Femme Futures” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha. Learn more about Leah in our exhibition below.
Past themes: “It is burning/ It is dreaming/ It is waking up: Poetry & Environmental Justice” in 2021; “I am deliberate/ and afraid/ of nothing: Poetry & Protest” in March 2020; “What Is It, Then, Between Us?: Poetry & Democracy” in March 2019; “Where My Dreaming and My Loving Live: Poetry & the Body” in March 2018; and “Because We Come From Everything: Poetry & Migration” in 2017.
Participating organizations include the Academy of American Poets, Beyond Baroque, CantoMundo, Cave Canem, Indigenous Nations' Poets, Kundiman, Lambda Literary, Letras Latinas, GrubStreet, the Poetry Foundation, the Poetry Project, Poems on Wheels, the Poetry Society of America, Urban Word, the National Youth Poet Laureate Program, Wick Poetry Center, Youth Speaks, and more.
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (she/they) is of Burgher/Tamil Sri Lankan and Irish/Roma ascent. They are a queer disabled nonbinary femme writer, educator and disability/transformative justice worker.
Saleem Hue Penny (he/him/friend) is a Black “rural hip-hop blues'' poet and arts educator. He is a mutual aid advocate with Lowcountry roots, single-sided deafness, and Ramsay Hunt Syndrome.
Meg Day is a Deaf, genderqueer poet from Pennsylvania. Day is a an assistant professor of creative writing, author of several poetry collections, and has received numerous fellowships and awards.
Kay Ulanday Barrett (they/them) is a disabled Filipinx-amerikan transgender queer in the U.S. with struggle, resistance, and laughter. They are a poet, performer, educator, food writer, cultural strategist, and disability advocate, and have been recognized nationally and internationally.
I-CREATE YOUTH is dedicated to empowering disabled youth through education, activism, and connection.
Image Citations
Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha: https://ideasonfire.net/62-leah-lakshmi-piepzna-samarasinha-part-2
Saleem Hue Penny: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/saleem-hue-penny
Meg Day: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/meg-day
Kay Ulanday Barrett: https://www.fieldsmagazine.com/fields/2019/7/22/interview-kay-ulanday-barrett