On this show, we’ve been reflecting on the last year of the Trump regime’s attacks on immigrants. Today, we’re focusing on how activists are protecting their communities and taking care of themselves. Host Ali Muldrow is joined by two disability activists, Dr. Sami Schalk and Martha Siravo, who discuss how they balance art with activism and how they maintain joy as we’re bombarded with tremendous tragedy around the country.

Siravo talks about her experiences in the adaptive arts space where she uses her wheelchair for adaptive ballet. Last fall, her aerial dance performance of “Defying Gravity” went viral on Tik Tok.

Dr. Schalk says that she’s approaching activism differently since the police violently assaulted her while she was supporting UW Madison students protesting the genocide in Gaza. She says there are many ways she can use her resources and visibility without putting her body on the line. Right now is the time to prepare and care and bedazzle gifts for friends, she says.

They also talk about how to challenge assumptions about disabled peoples’ sexuality, how to create accessible spaces, and how they negotiate wanting to be joyous and find pleasure while also feeling overwhelmed by the injustice in the world. Dr. Schalk says that pleasure is a daily practice that happens alongside resistance and activism.

Dr. Sami Schalk is a full professor in the Department of Gender & Women’s Studies at UW-Madison. She is the author of many books, and her research focuses on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She is also a working artist and has had her art displayed at the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York City and at Art + Literature Laboratory in Madison.

Martha Siravo is a disability rights advocate and founder of Madtown Mamas and Disability Advocates. She’s a single mother, whose daughter is in the sixth grade.

Featured image of a bedazzled rose via Rawpixel.

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