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Here's some info about the new book Black Kripple Delivers Poetry and Lyrics, by Leroy Moore, aka Black Kripple and found of Krip Hop.
Brief interview with Leroy about the book as part of a (successful) Indiegogo fundraiser for the book:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/black-kripple-delivers-poetry-and-lyrics-the-book#/
Website for his project Krip Hop Nation:
While there are many threads that weave into a complex tapestry for our discussion this week, there's one particular thread I'm seeing interwoven in many of these readings: that of shame. Disability, especially intellectual and mental disability more generally, is something that far too many cultures regard as shameful. This we see in Esther's work, and in too many other places. It's all too common a practice to "hide away your defectives"--in institutions in the modern day, for instance, but all across Western history. Our readings for today somewhat show that this is present in other cultures, too, but the influence of Western conceptions of disability are ever-present.
The piece I selected for the intersection of race and diability is the trailer for the movie The Soloist, based on the novel by Steve Lopez, starring Jamie Foxx and RDJ. Based on a true story (how much of the movie plotline is accurate I do not know), the movie seems to boil down to a neurotypical white male trying to "save" a neurodivergent black male. In an interview with NPR, Lopez states ""I hoped that in humanizing Nathaniel, that it'd be a step toward beginning to de-stigmatize mental illness." For me, this brought up our discussions of well-intentioned mis-representation of those with disabilities.
