Join Crip Kinship (https://bluestockings.com/item/6nvBPLOyqFgsSQ2CQsyE4w) author Shayda Kafai (she/her) as she is joined conversation with poet, writer, facilitator, and visual artist Naomi Ortiz (they/she) as they discuss disability justice, disabled, queer of color artmaking, and ways to queer and crip our collective futures.

Shayda Kafai (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in the Ethnic and Women’s Studies department at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. As a queer, disabled, Mad femme of color, she commits to practicing the many ways we can reclaim our bodyminds from systems of oppression. To support this work as an educator-scholar, Shayda applies disability justice and collective care practices in the spaces she cultivates.

Shayda’s writing and speaking presentations focus on intersectional body politics—how bodies are constructed and how bodies rebel. From discussions of madness and disability to femme politics and crip art, Shayda works to reframe our most disempowered bodyminds as vehicles of change-making. In honour of self-care and her communities, Shayda is also an artmaker and co-founder of CripFemmeCrafts with her wife, Amy. They make art that empowers all our bodyminds, particularly centering the magic and joy-making that comes from the wisdom and beauty of disabled, Fat bodyminds of color.

Naomi Ortiz is a Poet, Writer, Facilitator, and Visual Artist whose intersectional work focuses on self-care for activists, disability justice, eco-justice, and relationship with place. Ortiz is the author of Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice (Reclamation Press), a book for diverse communities on dealing with the risks of burnout. Their leadership style emphasizes facilitation, inclusion, and spiritual growth. Ortiz is a 2021-2022 Border Narrative Grant Awardee for her multidisciplinary project, Complicating Conversations. Numerous publications and anthologies have featured Ortiz’s writing and poetry, and their artwork has been presented through a variety of formats. Ortiz is a disabled mestiza living in the Arizona U.S./Mexico borderlands.

Website: www.NaomiOrtiz.com