Musicking in Disabled Community: Access Intimacy and Cultural Activism.
Chair(s): Rena Roussin (Western University), Sarah Miller (UC Davis), Tekla Babyak (Disabled Independent Scholar), Andrew Dell'Antonio (Round Rock, TX)
Organized by the AMS Music and Disability Study Group.
The Music and Disability Study Group of the AMS hosts three presentations and a conversation on the theme “Musicking in Disabled Community: Access Intimacy and Cultural Activism.”
We have chosen three presentations that:
- Are driven by the interests and priorities of disabled people;
- Involve people collaborating across disability identities, prestige categories, and professional affiliations;
- Engage with co-creating disability culture (see Brown, “What is Disability Culture,” Disability Studies Quarterly 22:2 (2022) and/or access intimacy (See Mingus, “Access Intimacy: The Missing Link”, 2011; https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/ ) as a form of resistance to structural ableism.
The presentations will be followed by general conversation on the themes above. All are welcome!
Presentations of the Symposium
Access Culture at the Cedar
Elizabeth McLain
Virginia Tech
My presentation will focus on my recent work with the Cedar Cultural Center in Minneapolis, which bills itself as "Minnesota's premiere venue for global music and dance" and "The only all-ages venue of its kind in the Midwest." The Cedar states that its "mission is to promote intercultural appreciation and understanding through the presentation of global music and dance," and that it is "committed to artistic excellence and integrity, diversity of programming, support for emerging artists, and community outreach".
I have been collaborating with the Cedar on systematic approaches to access and accessibility that move beyond mere legal compliance into cultural praxis. I will summarize our work so far and reflect on what I've learned from this public musicology (community musicology?) collaboration.
ArtsAbly and Disability Culture
Diane Kolin
York University, Toronto, Canada
In his article “What Is Disability Culture?” (2002), Steve Brown explores the different representations and possible definitions of this concept, driven by the diversity of intersectionalities of the field of Disability Studies with other underrepresented communities. Brown reminds that public education is the key to a better understanding of Disability Culture.
How to educate society to show the strengths of Disability as a diversity culture? I believe in the power of educating and learning, for both children and adults. I also believe in storytelling and conversations. I founded ArtsAbly in February 2024, with the aim to emphasize the role of artists or arts professionals with disabilities. Through its website, free resources such as books and movies about arts and disability can be found. The workshops organized by ArtsAbly allow music schools students to engage in multiple ways of playing instruments, singing, and reading music, from sign language performances to Braille scores reading and playing instruments with different parts of the body or without touch. Its podcast, “ArtsAbly in Conversation,” highlights the life and career of artists with disabilities across the globe. Following principles of the social model of disability, ArtsAbly defends Disability Culture via these intimate conversations by and with people with disabilities working in the arts.
Crip Sonorities
Molly Joyce
University of Virginia
I will present on a forthcoming project titled Crip Sonorities, commissioned by the Manchester International Festival for 2027. This work connects Mia Mingus’s concept of “access intimacy” with acoustics and disability history—focusing on Manchester, UK.
The project highlights the resonances of spaces central to Manchester’s disability history, particularly physical and digital environments shaped by and for disabled people: hallways, ramps, elevators, Zoom hangouts, access checks, and more. While such access features are often considered visually, their sonic dimensions are rarely explored. Crip Sonorities addresses this gap by recording and composing with the acoustics of these spaces to foreground their aural textures.
This builds on earlier community-based work, such as Perspective, an ongoing interview project with disabled participants, and early sound experiments sampling ADA-compliant hallways at the University of Virginia. The final outcome will include a musical composition and a
downloadable reverb pack derived from these site-specific recordings.
Inspired by Mingus’s framing of access intimacy as “that elusive, hard-to-describe feeling when someone else ‘gets’ your access needs,” the project seeks to cultivate a kind of acoustic intimacy.By capturing the literal resonances of meaningful disability spaces, the project invites listeners to connect with access on a sonic level. The presentation will share early sound experiments, research, and conceptual framing as the project begins identifying key Manchester sites—both physical and virtual—for sonic exploration and public engagement.
