We will be visible

On Monday August 24th at 8pm at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, my company 'a jay stewart project' presents Hard & Able: celebrating queer disability. It is by far my proudest artistic accomplishment project thus far. I had the idea about a year ago to put on a cabaret event featuring artists that identify as both queer and disabled. Why? Cuz I'm queer and disabled and wanted to meet other similar artists.

First, I did my research to see if anybody else was doing similar events. I really dislike creating something from scratch if somebody else was doing it. Research demonstrated that others HAD been doing similar events, but no longer. I applied for a grant from Community One and was the lucky recipient back in April.

This put into motion a call out to the community to locate artists that were queer and disabled. Which proved to not be so easy. I discovered that the word 'disabled' is a word that many of us choose not to subscribe to. It's you know...for those...that are really disabled. If you wear glasses, suffer from depression or have a heart murmur...that's shitty, but not enough to be disabled. WRONG-O in my books!!! That stuff all qualifies as a disability and I wanted individuals like this to be a part of the night. It's an evening for all those that exist on the disability spectrum to come together and say that a) we are visible and b) we're immensely talented!

As someone who suffers physical pain daily and wears hearing aids, you may or may not have ever classified me as disabled. Why?  Cuz my disabilities are not all that visible. I've been like this since birth and my Mom has always prided me on celebrating my differences. Who I am today is owed very much to having such a supportive individual in my life. I was brought up to acknowledge my disability, but to never let it stand in the way of accomplishing any of my goals.

I invite you to come out to Hard & Able: celebrating queer disability and support artists that identify as both queer and disabled. It's going to be an exciting evening filled with artists doing drag, spoken word, songs, skits with videos and photography too.

If you're not in Toronto, you can still be a part of the event by paying for access to the live feed. E-mail me at jay@ajaystewartproject.com for more information.  Check out the facebook event for those in the GTA

I hope that you will come and bare witness to a small step towards making each of these artists a visible part of the artistic community.

In an effort to make this event accessible, the venue is wheelchair accessible and there will be ASL interpretation provided.