Disability Arts Online and Graeae present The Disability and...Podcast

This month, Colin Hambrook, Founding Editor of Disability Arts Online, and Paul Wilshaw, Engagement and Advocacy Worker at Mind the Gap, look back at the last three years of the Disability and… podcast.Going forward, Disability and… will be produced solely by Disability Arts Online, while Mind the Gap will launch their own bi-monthly podcast.Colin and Paul talk about their favourite interviews and what producing the podcast has meant to them.

In this episode Steph Robson is joined by academic and author Erin Pritchard to talk about Erin's latest book 'Dwarfism, Arts and Advocacy: Creating Our Own Positive Identity'.  

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with writer Lucy Bell and Producer Naomi Turner of Documental Theatre. They look at the importance of the role of a Creative Producer, their latest project, ‘Mary and the Matrons' and the opportunities for learning disabled people in the Southwest.

This month Disability Arts Online's Founding Editor Colin Hambrook speaks to poet, performer and theatre maker Ellen Renton.Ellen talks about Archive Stories, a project she is working on as part of a collective, creating work in response to both the Paralympic Heritage Trust archive and the National Disability Arts Collection Archive (NDACA).

On this months podcast, Mind The Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with Ella and Tim Curtis. Ella is a Special Olympics cycling gold medallist and she is coached by her father Tim. They talk about Ella's cycling journey and the differences between the Special Olympics and Paralympics. 

This month DAO journalist Will Reynolds spoke to Irish author Caimh CK McDonnell and his wife Elaine Ofori. Together, they talk about their independent publishing company, its output, disability, political correctness and the reasons why Caimh has given up stand up comedy for dog walking.

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with student actor Toby Ross and tutor in dance Karen Bartholomew about Mind the Gap's Performance Academy accredited course.

This month founder and senior editor of Disability Arts Online, Colin Hambrook, chats with artist and activist Tony Heaton, about the Shape Disability Arts Movement in Venice exhibition, Crip Arte Spazio. They discuss how disability arts impacted on the social and political landscape of the 90s.

Paul Wilshaw, Assistant Producer at Mind the Gap talks to Emily Blackwell and Charlotte Jones about Mind the Gap's touring outdoor show Birdie and access when working with artists with neurodivergent or learning disabled artists. 

This month Disability Arts Online's Founding Editor Colin Hambrook chats with actor Arthur Hughes about his leading role in the newly released Disney+ Tudor spy thriller Shardlake. This podcast is in memory of Shardlake's creator C.J. Sansom who sadly passed away shortly after this podcast episode was recorded.  

This month Paul Wilshaw, Associate producer at Mind the Gap talks to Cutting Edge Theatre's Artistic Director Suzanne Lofthus and Associate Artist Abigail Brydon about the work they do in Scotland.

This month on the Disability And... podcast, Disability Arts Online's Founding Editor Colin Hambrook talks to writer and Chief Executive of CRIPtic Arts, Jamie Hale, about how the CRIPtic came into existence and their thoughts and approaches when working with disabled collaborators. 

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with artist and activist James Leadbitter, a.k.a. the Vacuum Cleaner, about his work around the topic of mental health, his work abroad, and how the arts help support people's mental health. This podcast contains some strong language. James Leadbitter's website.

This month Disability Arts Online have been taken over by audio visual artist, curator and producer AlanJames Burns. As part of their content takeover, AlanJames talks with Professor Julia Watts Belser who is a professor of Jewish Studies and Disability Studies at Georgetown University. They discuss their experiences as creative practitioners, members of the disability community, and as climate activists.

This month Mind The Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with writer and actor Chris Hannon about the representation of disability in pantomimes and how Chris makes pantos more inclusive. Chris has acted in Coronation Street and Doctors and for the past 13 years has been the Dame in the Wakefield Theatres panto.

This month Eleanor Lisney and Eric Wu are in conversation. Eleanor Lisney is a Disability Arts Online board member, she's also a co-founder of disabled women's collective Sisters of Frida and of Culture Access CIC. Eric Wu is a nutrition and dietetics student and mental health community organiser at King's College, London. Eleanor and Eric discuss cultural identities within the East and Southeast Asian communities.

This month, Mind the Gap Associate Artist Daniel Foulds chats with playwright and activist Leanna Benjamin about her experiences of being on the Graeae ‘Introduction to Playwrighting' course, being ‘Artist for Change' at Leeds Playhouse, and the barriers she faces in the theatre industry.

This month on the Disability And...podcast, founding editor of Disability Arts Online Colin Hambrook chats with Baluji and Linda Shrivastav about the Inner Vision Orchestra, Jazz Orient, and Dot Aware: a wearable braille device to assist visually impaired musicians in the working environment. 

On the 50th Disability and...Podcast, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer Paul Wilshaw chats to learning-disabled writer and researcher Daniel Foulds about Disability Pride Month, identity politics and finding solidarity through the difficulties of managing multiple impairments. 

This month on the Disability and...Podcast, founding editor of Disability Arts Online, Colin Hambrook, chats with actor, writer, poet and comedian Jasmin Thien. Jasmin reflects on her intersectional experience of the performing arts as a disabled migrant to the UK, of Chinese heritage. They also discuss how Jasmin got into the arts and her recent debut as an actor with Extant Theatre's Super Power Panto.

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with Professor of Theatre at York St John's University, Matthew Reason and Mind the Gap's Head of Learning & Support Melissa Conyers about University education and how the two organisations have come together to create an accredited course in theatre for people with learning disabilities and autism.

This month, Disability Arts Online founding editor Colin Hambrook chats with writer and activist Will Reynolds about audiobooks, and the importance they have in his life.

This month Paul Wilshaw chats with founders of TripleC and the Disability Artists Network Community (DANC) Cherylee Houston and Melissa Johns. He asks them about their careers as actors and how their experiences led to the formation of Triple C and DANC. This podcast contains some strong language.TripleC website

This month, artist and creative practitioner Steph Robson, aka Hello Little Lady, chats with award-winning theatre maker and equality strategist, Vici Wreford-Sinnott. Steph asks Vici about the importance of regional identity, the Northeast's role in disability arts history, and the current regional and national landscape for disabled artists.Related links:Vici's theatre company Little Cog's website.Steph's blog, Hello Little Lady.

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw, chats with theatre and TV freelance actor Rob Ewens about some of his successes on screen and stage. 

This month, DAO Founding Editor Colin Hambrook chats with Disability Arts Shropshire's (DASH) recently-retired Artistic Director Mike Layward about changes within the visual arts sector that he's observed over his 25 years with DASH. 

This month, Mind the Gap's Associate Producer Paul Wilshaw speaks to Touring Director Tamara Searle and Ensemble Member Scott Price from the award-winning Australian theatre company Back to Back Theatre, about the company and its recent UK tour of The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes.

This month writer, workshop facilitator and creative mentor, Omikemi and multidisciplinary artist, socially engaged practitioner and creative producer, Priya Mistry, aka whatsthebigmistry, chat about sustainable and caring approaches to the arts. Both are members of the Onyx Collective, a group of artists supported by Disability Arts Online who share the lived experience of disability and racism. This podcast contains some strong language.

More information about Leeds Playhouse can be found here.More information about Ramps on the Moon can be found here.

We would like to thank the Southbank Centre and their staff for their support on this podcast. However, at the time of our event we also learnt that our Associate artist whatsthebigmistry's work The Empire's Old Clothes was cancelled in light of the death of the Queen and we would like to make it clear we strongly disagree with this decision and would like to share solidarity with the artists whose work was pulled from the Unlimited Festival as a result. We have issued a public statement here.Speaker biographies:Tarik Elmoutawakil is an artist, programmer and creative producer as well as Founder and Co-Artistic Director at Marlborough Productions in Brighton, the UK's only performing arts orgnasiation dedicated to intersectional queer arts. His current public work is entitled 'Brownton Abbey', an evolving Afro-Futures Performance Party that centres disabled QTIPOC (queer, trans and intersex People of Colour).  Brownton Abbey reclaims and reinterprets QTIPOC spirituality and ritual, channelling it into an out-of-this-world, accessible party. Tarik is plugged into a network of disabled qtipoc artivists across the globe, contributing to an ongoing movement to reshape access  and leadership. A spirited public speaker, Tarik uses his joyous brand of activism wherever he can to transform the perception and treatment of marginalised QTIPOC.Kaite O'Reilly is a multi-award winning poet, playwright and dramaturg, who writes for radio, screen and live performance. Prizes include the Peggy Ramsay Award, Manchester Theatre Award, Theatre-Wales Award and the Ted Hughes Award for new works in Poetry for Persians (National Theatre Wales). She is a two time finalist in the International James Tait  Black Prize for Innovation in Drama (2012, 2019) and The Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. She was honoured in the 2017/18 International Eliot Hayes Award for Outstanding Achievement in Dramaturgy for her work in ‘Alternative dramaturgies informed by a Deaf and disability perspective.'. She works internationally, her work translated into fifteen languages worldwide, and is part of the visiting faculty teaching intercultural dramaturgy at ITI: Intercultural Theatre Institute, in Singapore. She was the resident dramaturg/playwright of The Llanarth Group for many years, collaborating with the director, performer and actor-trainer Phillip Zarrilli. Kaite's plays Atypical Plays for Atypical Actors  and The ‘d' Monologues are published by Oberon/Methuen/ Bloomsbury. Her first feature film, The Almond and the Seahorse with Mad as Birds films, will be released in 2022, featuring Rebel Wilson and Charlotte Gainsbourg. www.kaiteoreilly.comDeborah Williams started as the Executive Director at Creative Diversity Network in November 2016, leading on organisational development and business planning. Deborah brings over 30 years' experience working above and below the line in television, film and theatre, as well as policy development across the wider creative and cultural industries. She is an adviser to the UN and UNICEF on the rights of disabled people to cultural activities. She previously designed the BFI diversity standards and Arts Council England's equality analysis process; for public sector equality duty compliance. As well as sitting on panels and steering groups for many organisations, Deborah is known in her own right as an artist provocateur having won awards and nominations nationally and internationally. Her work in theatre is acknowledged as a catalyst for challenge and change in perceptions of disability and difference. In 2019 she was awarded the Life Time Achievement award from Inclusive Companies for her body of work in the area of diversity and culture. She is a Disabled Powerlister 2018 and 2019.

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer Paul Wilshaw chats with CBeebies presenter George Webster and Coronation Street's Alex Warner, Liam Bairstow. He asks them about how they got started in acting, their careers and what their thoughts are about disability representation in television and film.

Emma Greenwood talks about the changes in food bank need since the pandemic and cost of living crisis, particularly for communities of disabled people. She expands on the kinds of impossible decisions people who walk through the doors of food banks are having to face and the support, other than emergency food, that food banks in the Trussell trust network provide to people facing financial hardship. Charlotte tells her story and shares a poem: A Glimpse Into My Secret World, as well as talking about how anyone can end up in the situation she found herself in of having to use a food bank. Find out more: The Trussell Trust - Stop UK HungerTake action: Cost of Surviving - The Trussell TrustCharlotte's poem: Acceptable | #HungerFreeFuture - YouTube

This month, Mind the Gap's Assistant Producer, Paul Wilshaw chats with Executive Director, Julia Skelton about the company and its achievements.

This month, Michael McEwan talks to Kate Adams and Esther Springett, about the innovative visual arts organisation and Turner Prize nominees, Project Artworks.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Editor Colin Hambrook speaks to Graeae's former Associate Director, Nickie Miles-Wildin about the last three years of the Disability and...Podcast. Graeae will be stepping aside from the podcast after this episode and Mind the Gap will be welcomed as new partners as of next month. Colin and Nicky talk about their experiences of podcasting for the first time, their highlights from the last three years, and the importance of the podcast for the disability arts community.

This month Sonny Nwachukwu chats with Britny Virginia, both Graeae Associate Artists, about Britny's artistic practice and career journey so far.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Assistant Editor Joe Turnbull chats with writer, singer and disability campaigner Lachi, about her current project RAMPD and her other achievements. This podcast contains strong language. Lachi's website.Recording Artists and Music Professionals with Disabilities (RAMPD).

This month, Graeae's Associate Artist Kate Lovell chats with Graeae's trainee producer Robyn Bowyer about art and theatre and how it can inform social change.

This month, founding Editor of Disability Arts Online, Colin Hambrook, chats with artist and writer Letty McHugh, who is currently an associate artist with Disability Arts Online. Letty talks about her Disability Arts Online project the Book of Hours, and her thinking around art as a way of creating meaningful connections.

This month, Disability Arts Online Guest Editor, Zuleika Lebow chats with artist Kyla Harris about SciFi and her wheelchair, Edna. This episode contains references to ableism and strong language.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Editor, Colin Hambrook chats to artist and climate activist, Mike Faulkner about Disability and...Neurodiversity

This month, Graeae's associate director Nickie Miles-Wildin chats with paratriathlete, paracyclist, physiotherapist, percussionist and two times world paraclimbing champion, Fran Brown. Fran tells us all about her sporting career ahead of competing for GB in the paratriathlon at the Tokyo Paralympic Games this summer.

This month, Natasha Sutton Williams and EJ Scott chat about different voices, a research project initiated by the Ditchling Museum of Arts and Craft in partnership with Disability Arts Online. They explore the careers of women artists of the 20th century's Art and Crafts movement, who were associated with this small but significant museum in rural Sussex.

This month Graeae's young associate Ayzah Ahmed chats to Graeae's current Artistic Director Jenny Sealey and past Graeae Artistic Director Ewan Marshall (1991-1997) about their memories of the company and their experiences of directing.

This month, Disability Arts Online's Assistant Editor Joe Turnbull chats with writer/filmmaker, Jessica Secmezsoy-Urquhart about their PhD research into the Royal Courts of the Renaissance Period and the role that disability played during the era.Jessica's video's for BBC Scotland's The Social: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07l3ldnFollow Jessica on Twitter: @JessicasuAKAInstagram: @jessicaaka 

On this month's podcast Graeae's Creative Learning Director, Jodi-Alissa Bickerton, chats to Ensemble Graduates about their experience on Graeae's Ensemble theatre makers training programme which will be be running again this September 2021. 

This month Colin Hambrook, editor of Disability Arts Online, chats with writer and performance poet, Allan Sutherland, about the launch of 'Electric Bodies' - a collection of poems based on the lives of eight disabled artists. This podcast contains some strong language.

This month to celebrate Graeae turning 40, Associate Director Nickie Miles-Wildin chats to co-founder of Graeae Theatre Nabil Shaban about his ambition of being an actor and a writer and what led him to set up Graeae. This podcast contains some strong language.

This month, Colin Hambrook chats with actor and producer Mat Fraser, about Crip Tales, a series of six disability-led monologues curated by Mat and recently broadcast on the BBC. This podcast contains strong language.

To celebrate Disability History Month, Nickie Miles-Wildin chats to actor, writer and disability activist, Ruth Madeley about Disability And... Access Into. Ruth tells us her story into acting, how she found out about being nominated for a BAFTA and what she's been working on during lockdown. 

This month Graeae's Associate Director, Nickie Miles-Wildin chats with playwright, screenwriter and Graeae Patron Jack Thorne. Jack tells us about what he's been up to during lockdown, including working with Graeae on Crips without Constraints. He discusses his love for writing, his journey into writing for Theatre and TV and his on going relationship with Graeae.