Deaf-accessibility for spoonies: lessons from touring Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee while chronically ill

ABSTRACT

This article presents lessons from touring a show on pain with limited resources and in chronic pain. In 2014, I toured solo deaf-accessible poetry/art show Eve and Mary Are Having Coffee in various forms in the UK, Austria, and India. As an Indonesian woman with then-extreme chronic pain and fatigue, herein are lessons learned from harsh difficulties and successes in making a show accessible to some disability cultures, whilst struggling with one’s own. Examined are intersections of accessibility, and framing of disabled performers from non-Western backgrounds in Western contexts. Audiovisual media from the tour is included.

KEYWORDS:

• Poetry performance
• performance art
• disability
• intersectionality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Khairani Barokka is a writer and artist, working internationally; author-illustrator of Indigenous Species, author of forthcoming Rope, co-editor of HEAT, co-editor of Stairs and Whispers: D/deaf and Disabled Poets Write Back, and PhD researcher at Goldsmiths in Visual Cultures. http://khairanibarokka.com

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the HIVOS; International Federation for Theatre Research.